November 17, 2021
REDLEG STATE OF MIND #8–21
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 current events in the Cincinnati Reds MSP and highlight the opportunity that the offseason brings for players and staff to continue to develop their mental game.
NEW HIRE ALERT!
As of November 1, 2021, the Reds have welcomed Oscar Gutierrez into the organization as the MSP’s newest mental skills coach. In this role, Oscar will provide mental skill education to minor league players and staff, aid with the integration and application of mental skills into daily training routines for players, and provide additional mental toughness and psychological support with players and staff at all PD levels. Oscar has five years of experience with the Cleveland Indians in the mental skills space, covering multiple PD levels including the Dominican Republic. Along with his bilingual capabilities, Oscar has formal training in mental skills as well as mental health counseling, giving the potential for expanded comprehensive psychological support for the Reds minor league system. Please join us in congratulating him and getting his feet wet as he hits the ground this offseason and prepares for a great 2022 spring.
What we’re listening to:
Make It Stick by Peter C. Brown. Our job as mental skill coaches is to help facilitate lasting change in someone’s thoughts, behaviors, and emotions that enhance their performance. We essentially want everyone to have the capability to be their own mental skills coach. This means we better be extremely effective and efficient when teaching different knowledge, skills, and abilities. Make It Stick is a great resource for understanding how we learn, thus how we should teach and create an environment that makes learning a consistent process. The book covers tactics like spaced repetition, recall versus recognition, scaffolding, effortful learning, and much more. It will be a staple in how we continue to develop our process of learning and development within the MSP.
The Opportunity:
The offseason. Similar to our last newsletter speaking of offseason goal setting, we want to double down on the opportunity that the offseason presents. Similar to strength and conditioning for the body, we believe mental skills are strength and conditioning for the brain and as such, requires periodization. The National Strength and Conditioning Association defines periodization as “the logical and systematic process of sequencing and integrating training interventions in order to achieve peak performance at appropriate time points.” We apply this principle by noting that anytime you have a decrease in physical training and expenditure, you should increase your mental training and expenditure. The offseason is the perfect opportunity for us to take advantage of more time, more energy, and more resources that can be used to comprehensively develop our abilities.
What can you do during the offseason to gain mastery?
- Practice systematic goal setting to target efficient growth and track progress
- Develop a visualization and imagery program for yourself
- Build greater mental self-awareness by completing a daily thought and emotion log
- Build optimism and gratitude by hunting the wins daily
- Begin writing your own code and exploring your core values that motivate you to act
- Train doing the hard things and approaching adversity instead of avoiding it
- Practice not letting your emotions push you around by practicing defusion techniques
- Incorporate present moment focus (PMF) or mindfulness into your daily routine
- Train your breath with deliberate breathing (rhythmic breathing, box breathing, etc.)
Reach out to us for help, guidance, and materials for any of these options. Everyone performs, why not bring your best and meet your demands with an even better version of you?
4. Quote of the week:
“The only way for this team to succeed is for you to individually succeed. For you to prepare, for you to build a routine, to be steady with it, to do anything it takes within the rules to make sure you are at your very best.”- Joey Votto
#Trainyourbrain and #Upyourgame
- Tyler and Oscar
Be sure to follow us on the following Social media platforms:
Slack: #mentalfitness (#trainyourbrain for pitchers)
Instagram: @redsmentalskills
Twitter: @Redsbrain
Youtube: Redsmentalskills