August 18, 2021

3 min readAug 18, 2021

August 18, 2021

REDLEG STATE OF MIND #5–21

Monthly newsletter of the Cincinnati Reds Mental Skills Program (MSP). What we’re pondering and promoting to optimize your mental performance.

Theme: This month we want to highlight the newly published volume one of the RedsWay Mental Skills Field Manual. This initial iteration is a great compass for mental conditioning moving forward within the Cincinnati Reds organization.

1. What we’re listening to: New podcasts from Finding Mastery. One in particular, Jordyn Wieber on Resilience and Managing Pressure is a deep listen. Parts of this conversation speaks to our concepts of PMTT Preparation. This stands for physical, mental, technical, and tactical preparation that gives you parameters for being comprehensively prepared to compete at your fullest potential on a consistent basis. Jordyn speaks about how much she worked in preparation (@ 47:40) and she speaks to thinking of a performance, even an Olympic performance, as just another training routine, another pre-programmed repetition.

2. What we’re watching: Masterclass: Wayne Gretzky Teaches the Athlete’s Mindset

“You don’t make 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Gretzky talks about how he approached some of the biggest moments in hockey history and how an intentional approach can change the trajectory of your career. Two of the best lines from the sessions include: “Don’t be afraid to take your shots”, and “Having a belief in yourself is three-quarters the battle.” Wayne also speaks to the emotion of fear. Fear can be a good thing if you use it functionally to motivate you and you learn to approach fears instead of avoiding them. Not extremely detailed but there are gems scattered in this one!

3. What we’re reading: A liberated mind: How to pivot toward what matters by Dr. Steven C. Hayes. Dr. Hayes is attributed with developing and popularizing acceptance and commitment training (ACT), a set of mental skills to help you develop psychological flexibility. This framework and the practices within it are a large part of our philosophy in the MSP. Sections within the field manual that relate directly to ACT include topics such as Present Moment Focus, Values & Purpose, Emotional Mastery, Motivation, Perspective, and Comfort Zones. The six ‘pivots’ of psychological flexibility include defusion, perspective-taking, acceptance, presence, values, and committing to change. Below are some pages from the field manual that are highly influenced by ACT.