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What Are You Teaching Your Brain? Rewire Your Inner Coach · The Nadia Chapman Show

• 0:03
  Hi, this is Nadia Chapman, and today I want to start with a question that might
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  change the way you train, the way you speak to yourself, even the way you are
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  coaching if you are a coach or parenting if you are a parent.
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  What are you teaching your brain every single day?
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  Because whether you realize it or not, your brain is always,
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  always, always listening. not just when you're focused and you know on task
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  not just when you're trying not just when you're working on mindset.
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  It's listening all the time. So it's listening in the car after practice,
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  on the ice after a mistake, in the quiet moments before competition, it's listening.
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  And here's the part most people don't fully understand. Your brain is not just
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  filtering what's helpful and what's not.
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  It's wiring what you repeat constantly again and again.
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  So if you keep saying, I always miss this jump, or I'm just not consistent,
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  or I get too nervous at competition.
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  Your brain goes, ah, got it.
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  That's the program. And then it works really hard to prove you right.
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  So today we're going to be talking about what you're actually teaching your
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  brain and how to start training in a way that support your skating instead of holding you back.
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  All right, let's get into it. Let's start with something quite simple, but powerful.
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  Your brain learns through repetition, not through intention and effort.
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  It learns through repetition.
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  So it doesn't matter how badly you want something, how badly you want to be
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  confident. If what you're repeating is doubt, you will not feel confident.
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  It doesn't matter how much you hope to land a specific jump.
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  For instance, if what you keep thinking is, ah, don't mess this up,
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  don't mess this up, because your brain wires what you give it most often.
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  Now, think about a typical training day, all right?
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  Typical practice, typical lesson. You miss a jump. What is the first thing you
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  tell yourself and be honest. All right.
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  Is it, okay, I'm close. Let's do this again. Or is it, oh my God, I always do that.
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  Because that one little sentence that you tell yourself, that's not just frustration, that's instruction.
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  So you're telling your brain what to expect, what to look for, what to repeat.
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  And this is where it becomes really important for skaters, for parents and coaches,
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  because it's not just what the skater says, it's also what they hear.
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  It's everything that gets repeated around them.
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  So be careful, don't fall, or you always struggle with that one,
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  or be careful, that's a difficult jump that you pop all the time.
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  Even when it's said with good intention, words shape patterns.
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  So they create focus, they create expectation, and over time,
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  they become, drum roll, a belief, That's right. So let's flip this.
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  All right. If your brain is always listening, what do you want it to learn?
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  Huh? Do you want your brain to learn hesitation or commitment?
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  Do you want your brain to learn fear or trust? Or do you want your brain to
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  expect mistakes or to expect execution?
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  Because you are teaching it all the time either way.
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  Now, this doesn't mean that you have to ignore mistakes. Of course not.
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  We're not pretending that everything is perfect because it's not.
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  We're training smarter.
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  So instead of saying, I always mess this up, try what needs to change here.
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  And instead of like, don't fall, try telling yourself things like,
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  all right, strong takeoff, whatever your coach is telling you,
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  whatever is technical, not don't fall.
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  Just step into the jump with confidence, trusting your training and working
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  on whatever you've been correcting with your coach. So instead of focusing on
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  what you're avoiding, you're training your brain on what to do.
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  That's how athletes need to think. And that's how high level performers train.
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  And here's another layer.
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  A lot of people are missing. Your brain doesn't just learn from words.
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  It learns from what you constantly replay.
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  So if you keep replaying an old story in your mind or mistakes in your head
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  over and over again, you're actually practicing them mentally,
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  reinforcing the timing, the feeling and the expectation.
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  So it's not just what are you saying?
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  It's what are you rehearsing? Because every time you mentally go over something,
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  your brain is straightening a pathway.
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  So if you want to improve faster, here's the shift I'm going to give you.
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  After a mistake, yes, notice, notice the mistake, but then replay it the way you want it.
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  So see the correct timing in your mind, feel the strong landing, feel the control.
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  All right, that's how your brain will retrain. And this is where confidence actually comes from.
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  Not from wishing and hoping, not from telling yourself, oh, just believe,
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  but from actually building evidence.
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  Evidence. Again and again, repeatedly, your brain starts to go,
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  oh, this is what we do now. Okay, that is familiar.
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  That is safe. This is who we are.
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  So for skaters listening, pay attention to your inner voice because it's not
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  just a little background voice, a commentary, it's coaching.
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  And you are with yourself, you are with your brain more than any coach ever will be.
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  So what kind of coach are you being to yourself?
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  Hmm, great question. And for parents, your words matter more than you think.
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  Not just what you say before and after a competition, but what you repeat constantly.
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  Are you reinforcing pressure or are you reinforcing progress? Are you,
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  Are you highlighting mistakes all the time or are you highlighting effort and growth?
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  Because your voice becomes their inner voice. Trust me.
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  For coaches, you have a very powerful role in shaping how athletes think.
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  So one sentence can shift a belief.
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  One repeated phrase can either build confidence or create self-doubt.
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  So it's not just about correction all the time. It's also about direction.
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  What are you teaching their brain to focus on?
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  And I'm going to tell you, at the end of the day, every skater is training two
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  things, their body and their mind.
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  And one will always follow the other. So here's what I want you to take today
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  after this episode. I want you to notice.
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  Notice what you say to yourself. Notice what you repeat.
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  Notice what you replay in your mind without judgment. Never.
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  Just a lot of awareness because awareness is where change starts.
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  Trust me. And then ask yourself one stupid little silly question.
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  Is this helping me or training me in the wrong direction?
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  That's it. Is this thought helping me or training me in the wrong direction?
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  And if it's not helping, change the instruction because small shift repeated
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  constantly create huge result.
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  I say, if you know me and you know my coaching, one of my favorite quotes is
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  small hinges swing big doors.
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  If this episode resonated with you, please share with a skater,
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  a parent, a coach who might need this reminder, because this is the work that
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  changes everything, not just how you skate, but how you think.
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  If you want to truly train your mind and build that confidence and understand
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  how to work with your brain instead of against it, that's exactly what I do.
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  You can go visit the mentaledgeacademy.com.
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  Until next time, be intentional with your thoughts, be powerful with your words, okay?
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  Because your brain is always listening. So make sure you're teaching it something
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  that moves you forward. Until next time, thanks for listening.