A necessary shift she’s seen while working with coaches is an understanding that staff needs to model the same mental skills they want to see in their athletes. If they want their athletes to be highly coachable and receptive to feedback, coaches must understand the necessity of the staff also displaying those characteristics and a willingness to learn and grow.
“That’s part of making an entire organization really successful as a whole group,” Anderson said.
Athletes have long been taught to control their emotions, but Anderson said that’s not actually something humans are capable of, citing grief as an example of when an emotion controls us. She encourages the staff and athletes she works with to move the focus away from trying to change emotions and instead think through the instinctual reactions they have and whether or not the actions and choices they make in those instances actually align with their goals and who they want to be.
“We as humans don’t always have control over what happens, but we do have some control over the way we interpret actions and the meanings we assign to them,” Anderson said. “When we’re young, if we are sad, we cry. But as adults, we learn a set of skills to respond differently to those emotions and situations, not because it feels good, but because it’s more effective to what our goals are, and to maybe how we want to be reflected in our character and our values.”
A player that might have instinctively slammed their stick, shut down and sulked on the bench can learn better ways to react to frustrating, difficult or upsetting situations. The things occurring are out of a player’s control, but their reaction is not. In putting the focus on the reaction, it takes something that feels intangible and out of the player’s control and puts it back in their hands.
Anderson encourages athletes to think about how they feel when they’re performing their best and contrast that with how they feel when they aren’t performing well and learning to recognize the differences.
She uses the analogy of palm trees versus oak trees. Many athletes, she said, focus on being mentally tough and physically strong. They think they need to be oak trees. But she tries to show them the benefits of being like a palm tree, which can withstand hurricane-force winds and survive by bending and flexing through the difficulties.
“We try to teach how to be pliable, adaptable, be able to make adjustments, be able to work with whatever the situation is in front of you — the controllables — and focus on those versus the uncontrollables and try to take pride in how well you can adapt,” Anderson said. That’s going to make you more successful in those moments under pressure, or when the stakes are high.”
The national team only gathers throughout the year for Rivalry Series games, camps and major tournaments. Every time the team hits the ice together, the stakes are high. Anderson said that’s why mental resiliency, pliability and adaptability are such important traits for the women on the team to learn and practice.
Athletes need to harness behavioral reactions and choices and then model those behaviors at every opportunity so that when the players do experience adversity, they’re in a planned kind of response mode, said Anderson. Rehearsing ensures that correct responses show up when the player is under pressure or exhausted at the end of a tournament.
It’s not always easy work, but Anderson said she’s found that when athletes hear that something could have an impact on performance, they’re usually very game to work on it if they are shown how. Anderson’s job is to support them through the process.
“They’re already at the highest levels of emotional intelligence, of work ethic, of introspection and reflection and wanting to be in the growth mindset. They crush it on all of that,” she said. “I really see our role as their sports psychologist to be encouragers, to be supporters, to be additional folks that can join them in their journey, to help them be the best versions of. I truly feel humbled and honored that I get to do that.”
Most of what Anderson teaches players on the national team is easily transferable to players at a younger age — particularly support and encouragement. National team players experience the same heartbreak at the same things that younger players do. Anderson helps them to see the value in the work they did and the chances they took instead of viewing anything as failure. Everything is an opportunity to improve and get better.
That is something Anderson wishes parents and coaches of young athletes emphasized more.
“Look at the value,” she said. “Emphasize and take pride in the stretch that the kid did. They put themselves out there in a vulnerable position. They went for it, they took a risk, they gave their best effort. That’s really all we can control. We can’t guarantee outcomes in life.”
Tying outcomes and results together creates a fear of failure where someone is scared to put themselves out there, scared to take risks and puts a focus on unattainable perfectionism. That’s not the recipe for success or peak performance, Anderson pointed out.
“We really need to base our self-worth on the things that we have control over, like our effort, like our fortitude, like our resourcefulness, like our creativity, like our risk taking, like our bravery, like our courage,” she said.
“Whether an athlete makes a team or doesn’t make a team, we should be praising and reinforcing and highlighting what they put in, not so much the outcome. Sports are an opportunity to learn and grow, regardless of what happens in our journey or how long it lasts.”
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
