Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #58: Gill1918 Presents Katie Follett “Silence Self-Doubt” Powered by Coach O

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#58: Gill1918 Presents Katie Follett “Silence Self-Doubt” Powered by Coach O · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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  coaches for coaches, powered by Gill Athletics.
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  Think of it as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
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  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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  you grow as a coach. This episode is part of the
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  Youth and Beginner Series, brought to you by Coach O.
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  In this series, we focus on topics relating to coaching
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  youth athletes, coaching beginner athletes of any age,
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  and supporting brand new coaches as they find their way.
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  With that in mind, let's grow. Hi, my name is Katie Follett and
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  today I'm going to dive a little deeper into the topic that I
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  introduced during the last podcast, which was on
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  resilience. And so if you haven't caught
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  that, feel free to go back and listen.
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  But this can also totally stand alone.
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  Mindset skills, I believe are a really important part of
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  resilience. And one of the mindset skills
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  that's really near and dear to my heart is self talk.
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  And how do you silence the voice of self doubt?
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  If you're an athlete, you've probably experienced this where
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  you get into a certain situation and then all of a sudden it
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  feels like your confidence is gone.
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  Or maybe you're believing or thinking something that isn't
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  necessarily true, but it feels true in that moment and it's
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  really hard to get unstuck from it.
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  And if you're a coach, maybe you're supporting athletes who
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  run into certain situations and they just can't seem to get
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  their mind back on track. And so the self talk was a huge
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  part of my journey because I got stuck in this a lot.
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  I had to learn to see where I was caught in old faulty
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  patterns and beliefs and create a more balanced view of reality
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  moving forward. So I'll just start with the
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  story because pretty much all of these turning points in the road
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  for me came from personal failures that turned into
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  springboards to success where I learned to solve a problem in a
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  new way and got a new skill. And this one was one that led
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  from me really lacking confidence in big situations
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  where there was a lot of pressure or there was a lot on
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  the line and not believing in myself to feeling really
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  confident and prepared for those high pressure situations and
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  actually being able to overcome some of myself doubt and
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  actually go on to make a World Team.
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  So I my story kind of began back in high school, in high school
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  cross country, I went into my senior year with an undefeated
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  cross country season and a lot of expectations and a lot of
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  pressure on myself about how things needed to play out if I
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  wanted to continue to run in college or ever continue to race
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  again. And maybe you can relate to that
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  if you're working with some seniors.
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  So I went into this race and everything was going exactly as
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  I had planned. I got into the last 400 meters
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  of the race and I started to kick it into that next year.
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  And then all of a sudden I started to feel like I was going
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  to pass out and everything like there was I was seeing stars.
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  And I went from being in the lead pack to finishing fourth
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  from last way back in 159th. And I was scared and confused
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  and upset. And I got back to the tent and a
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  coach made a comment, well, I guess that you're just not
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  mentally tough and you can't perform under pressure.
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  And so in that moment, I started to agree with that.
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  And I started to think, well, gosh, there's no other
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  explanation. Maybe I am an athlete that's
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  just not mentally tough and cracks under pressure, but I
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  actually don't think mentally tough exists.
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  I think mentally prepared does. And I just didn't have the tools
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  that I needed in that moment to solve the problem in front of
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  me. And the immediate problem was
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  that I was actually anemic. And so Fast forward a few years
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  and I found out that I had low ferritin levels.
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  And basically the dumbed down version of that, if you don't
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  know what I'm talking about, is that it affects how your red
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  blood cells can carry oxygen. And so I needed to take an iron
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  supplement. And so once I started taking an
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  iron supplement, even though I didn't pass out anymore, I still
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  had this voice of self doubt that would come up from time to
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  time. And it would turn into a self
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  fulfilling prophecy where I would get into the last 200
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  meters of a big race and I'd think, Oh no, this is where it
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  all falls apart for me. I'm an athlete that cracks under
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  pressure. And then my body would follow my
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  mind. So I think there's a big overlap
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  there. And so these are I'm just going
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  to really briefly go into three quick steps that an awesome
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  coach and mentor, Dan Paff. If you listen to me talk about
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  anything that has to do with mindset skills, his name will
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  come up because I learned so much from him.
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  But he walked me through some of these steps.
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  And these were really where I started to dig in and practice
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  and learn how to rewire my self talk.
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  So my this will be my my Cliff notes version.
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  So what is self talk? I think it's kind of like
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  goggles. You need to be able to identify
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  the problem and have awareness of where you might not be seeing
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  things really in the way that aligns with reality most
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  accurately. And I like to think of this, if
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  anybody's ever skied or snowboarded, or maybe you just
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  have sunglasses with different lenses.
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  If you put them on and you wear them for long enough, when you
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  take them off, the world looks a little distorted.
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  The colors look a little bit different.
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  And so you you're not, you're not seeing things exactly as
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  they really are. And so that's a little bit like
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  what self caught can do. And so you might find yourself
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  making things really black and white or you might find yourself
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  catastrophizing things or you might be disqualifying the
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  positive. That's what I was doing in my
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  story. I was saying, oh, hey, like I I
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  don't compete while under pressure because I haven't been
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  able to win a state title or win an NCAA title or make a World
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  Team. So the first thing is like,
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  which do you notice which lenses and distorted ways of thinking
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  might you actually be putting on?
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  And I'll include a free PDF with this that has some more.
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  So if you want to reference that, you totally can.
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  And then so then how do you take those goggles off?
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  You can't just replace the negative thought with a +1.
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  You need to actually address what you can't see.
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  And so what's going on underneath the surface because
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  what you see is like the behaviors or the actions or the
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  consequences on top. But there's actually, you know,
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  your beliefs and your values and your feelings, your attitudes,
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  things that you're afraid of. All of these false evidence
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  appearing real. I love that acronym for fear.
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  That's all what's going on underneath.
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  And so you want to be able to notice with compassion and
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  curiosity, what are you saying to yourself in the heat of the
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  moment? This is a clue as to what you're
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  believing. And then what happens when this
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  occurs? How's that working out for you?
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  That's the consequence of those beliefs.
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  That's what you're probably seeing that you don't like.
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  And so a way to kind of dig in is to try to understand, OK,
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  what situations when I get into them, trigger this belief or
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  this negative self talk or this negative thought.
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  And that kind of helps you understand where it comes from
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  'cause that's why you can't just replace a negative thought with
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  a +1. You actually have to get in
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  there and understand well, why do I believe this, 'cause
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  there's probably something that happened, which is a reason why
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  you're believing that. And so you need to be able to
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  challenge that. You need to be able to ask, is
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  this always true? And you could probably think of
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  some instances when that wasn't true.
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  And you could probably think of some instances when that was
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  true. So what are the specific factors
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  that contributed to the outcome when it was true?
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  And what can you do to try differently next time and beef
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  up your storyline of the times when that wasn't true?
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  Remind yourself, hey, this isn't always true.
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  For me, I needed to remind myself, no, I have performed
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  well under pressure and I can perform well under pressure.
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  And these are times when I've done it.
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  And there's some really specific things that I've done since
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  those races that caused this belief, like taking an iron
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  supplement and what this very skill that we're doing right
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  now, digging into self talk and then getting hope like for a
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  different outcome because you're focusing on what you can try
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  differently next time. This is what helps us remove the
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  Thinking trap goggles. And then how do we get the
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  negative self talk or our self doubt to go away and stay away?
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  Prepare, prepare, prepare. I think prepared equals
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  competent. So I like to think of this as
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  the boogeyman. So this is this came from coach
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  Dan Paff and he said, all right, that boogeyman's going to be
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  standing there for you with 200 meters to go.
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  And it's going to be giving you all, all, you know, all of
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  yourself doubt and like, hey, this is when it falls apart.
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  This is where you go perform. So what are you going to say to
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  silence it? So the benefit of going through
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  some of those questions to see what's going on underneath is
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  that it can really help you come up with something that's a
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  mantra that you can use in the moment to combat that, right?
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  You can use it in the heat of the moment.
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  So this isn't always true. I've done XYZ to prepare for a
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  different outcome and refocusing on what's in your control.
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  So for me, I'm a Christian and Bible verses always worked
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  really, really well as mantras for me.
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  So mine was, hey, like this isn't always true.
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  I have performed well under pressure.
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  I've done it before, I can do it again and I can do all things
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  through Christ who strengthens me and I can give 100% Today's
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  data point. Those those were some of my my
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  mantras. And so yeah, I would just think
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  that that would be my homework for self talk.
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  Gonna go back through some of those questions, pause, write
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  them down and then reinforce them.
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  Reinforce your mantra general. One small win each day.
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  Continue to write down examples of when this wasn't true,
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  evidence to the contrary of that negative belief.
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  Bring in some of your support, talk about it with coach or
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  teammate. Think about the things that
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  you're grateful for and make a list of things that you're doing
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  differently to work towards a different outcome.
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  So that is my Cliff Nuts version on self talk.
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  If you would like to go through some of these exercises more in
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  depth or in person with me, I'm in the process of creating a
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  course and I also meet one-on-one with athletes and
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  coaches to walk through these exercises.
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  So reach out, grab a hold of my free resource that is going to
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  be included and also hold of me by e-mail or follow me on
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  Instagram. I'd love to hear from you.
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  This is something that I'm so passionate about and I love
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  doing, so I really would love to hear from you.
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  So thank you to Gil Athletics Coaching Network for just
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  allowing me this opportunity to speak on something that I'm so
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  passionate about. And I hope that there's
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  something that was helpful in here for you.
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  And my final encouragement is just practice these things when
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  you get into the end of a workout, practice, practice,
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  practice. That's the closest that you get
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  to how it feels at the end of a race.
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  You want to feel confident. You want to feel prepared.
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  Use your mantras. If it doesn't work, just try
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  again differently next time. So if I can do it, you can do
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  it. I believe in you.
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  Thank you very much. Have a great day.
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  Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Thanks for joining us for this
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