Peak Performance Wisdom - EP47

July 18, 2022

In today's episode, we'll be discussing a little Peak Performance Wisdom. How can some people, regardless of their field of specialization, be so good all the time? I've got 4 books we're going to dive into and extract some of the best quotes from each of the titles. If one resonates with you by the end of the show, I highly encourage you to get a copy of your own and read it in its entirety. I've included the links below. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the episode! With Winning in Mind The Mental Management System By Larry Bassham https://www.amazon.com/With-Winning-Mind-3rd-Ed/dp/1934324264?tag=entheos06-20 Peak Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool https://www.amazon.com/Peak-Secrets-New-Science-Expertise/dp/0544456238/?tag=entheos06-20 Legacy What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life By James Kerr https://www.amazon.com/Legacy-James-Kerr/dp/147210353X/?tag=entheos06-20 Overachievement The New Model for Exceptional Performance By John Eliot, Ph.D https://www.amazon.com/Overachievement-Science-Working-Less-Accomplish/dp/1591841313?tag=entheos06-20

Episode Transcript

Hi Everyone and welcome back to the Hockey Journey Podcast, episode number 47,
Peak Performance Wisdom, presented to you by Online Hockey Training.com. I'm your host Coach Lance Pitlick. If you're new here, please make sure you subscribe, so you won't miss out on any future episodes.

Before I put the cookies in the oven and start this segment, if you want to learn more about me, my hockey experiences, what I know, and most importantly, how I've been helping hockey players get really good with a stick and puck, just head on over to onlinehockeytraining.com and gain instant access to my 10 part video series where I'll show you everything. Consider it my gift to you.

As I was trying to make the final decision on what the next topic I wanted to cover, I found myself having a hard time making the final choice, as I have so many ideas bouncing around in my head. But then, I finally figured it out the last time I was working out. I was warming up, walking on the treadmill, and the ESPN top 10 plays of the day started playing on the tv directly in front of me. I workout most days at the same time, so I see the show segment pretty much everytime I'm at the gym.

I watch play after play each morning in utter amazement, as we all are, when we see these clips of greatness. But if you watch the top 10 on a semi-regular basis, what I've noticed at least, is that there's a small group of athletes, regardless of the sport, that seem to be able to make extraordinary plays consistently week after week throughout the season and are regularly highlighted.

Some call it flow, or being in the zone, but the bottom line is these athletes somehow can enter peak performance on a more regular basis than the masses. So how do they do it?

Dictionary dot apa dot org defines Peak Performance as follows -
Peak Performance
Performance of a task at the optimum level of an individual's physical abilities, mental capabilities or both.

The people over at the Peak Performance Center dot com
Defines Peak Performance as follows -
Peak Performance is a level of exceptional functioning in which a person effortlessly performs an activity to the maximum of their ability while fully focused and immersed in feelings of confidence. engagement and enjoyment.

Well, I'm not an expert in the field of Peak Performance, but there are a number of people in this world who have made this quality or characteristic their life's work, and we're going to see what they have to say on the topic.

For the following books I'm going to reference, know that I'm only scratching the surface of all the learning nuggets in each of the titles. If something resonates with you from a certain book, by the end of this episode, I highly encourage you to pick up a copy of your own and read it in its entirety. I'll put the links to each of the titles in the description. With that being said, let's begin.

Book Number 1
With Winning in Mind
The Mental Management System
By Larry Bassham

Quote #1
“I am well aware that there are many fine self-improvement books available. Psychologists, motivational speakers, religious leaders and business professionals write them. A competitor writes this one. The Mental Management® System is not based on psychology; instead, it is 100% based on competition. I did my apprenticeship in the arena of Olympic pressure. My credibility is not based on the course I took in college; it’s in my gold medals and the medals of my students. It’s not theory; it’s simply what works. My goal in this book is to share with you the mental techniques that I have discovered and used to win.” (End Quote)

Quote #2
PROCESS IS PRIMARY
“I suggested that instead of setting a goal to win Ben should goal set to make the process of playing well his primary focus. “Process is Primary” became a theme for the year. Ben’s job while playing was to think about executing his mental and technical systems and not to think about winning. Scoring is a function of great execution, and winning is the result, but thinking about winning can pull your focus off of proper execution in a competition. Thinking about process is the answer. In the fourth tournament of the year at San Diego’s Torrey Pines course, Crane found himself just 30” from the cup on 18. The crowd knew Ben needed to make the putt for the win, but Crane had no idea. When the ball rolled in, his playing partner Ryuji Imada offered his hand in congratulations. Thinking this was just the customary handshake after the round, Ben did not realize he had won until Heather [his wife] ran on to the green.
“Did I win?” Crane said. This was proof that a player can cause his mind to think about process instead of outcome even with the possibility of winning pulling at him. Crane’s third career victory earned him $954,000 sending him on to his best year in goal at that point.” (End Quote)

Quote #3
iT’S 90% MENTAL “What’s your game? Golf? Sales? Shooting? Singing? Parenting? Managing? Coaching? Teaching? What percentage of what you do is mental? I have asked that question to hundreds of Olympic athletes and PGA Tour pros. They have all answered that their game is at least 90 percent mental. The top five percent agree that elite performance is 90 percent mental. Then I ask them the second question. What percentage of your time and money do you spend on training the mental game? The answers are always similar: very little or less than ten percent. Now that just doesn’t make sense. All say the mental game is 90 percent of their sport but they almost ignore training this vital area.” (End Quote)

Quote #4
WHAT IS MENTAL MANAGEMENT®?
““Mental Management® is the process of improving the probability of having a consistent mental performance, under pressure, on demand.” I wanted a system that would work all the time, in competition, under pressure. This is such a system.” (End Quote)

Bonus Quote #5
PRESSURE
“Recognize that pressure is positive and something that you can control. ... pressure is not in your imagination. It is real, a good thing and you can use it to your advantage. You must accept that it is normal to feel something in a pressure situation. This is your body saying, “This is important. Pay attention.”” (End Quote)

Bonus Quote #6
TALK ABOUT YOUR GOOD SHOTS
“In presenting a seminar to Olympic shooters, I was asked, “Mr. Bassham, in the 1978 World Championships, you shot 598/600 to win a medal. What happened on those two nines?” I answered, “Do you really want to know? Do you want to know how I got nines? That will nothelp you. You don’t want to know how I got two nines. What you should be asking is how I got fifty-eight tens. Besides, I can’t remember how I got the nines. I do not reinforce bad shots by remembering them.” You should talk about your good shots. By doing that you improve the probability that you will have more good shots in the future.” (End Quote)

Book Number 2
Peak
Secrets from the New Science of Expertise
by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

Quote #1
“Why are some people so amazingly good at what they do? Anywhere you look, from competitive sports and musical performance to science, medicine, and business, there always seem to be a few exceptional sorts who dazzle us with what they can do and how well they do it. And when we are confronted with such an exceptional person, we naturally tend to conclude that this person was born withsomething a little extra. ‘He is so gifted,’ we say, or, ‘She has a real gift.’ But is that really so? For more than thirty years I have studied these people, the special ones who stand out as experts in their fields—athletes, musicians, chess players, doctors, salespeople, teachers, and more. I have delved into the nuts of bolts of what they do and how they do it. I have observed, interviewed, and tested them. I have explored the psychology, the physiology, and the neuroanatomy of these extraordinary people. And over time I’ve come to understand that, yes, these people do have an extraordinary gift, which lies at the heart of their capabilities. But it is not the gift that people usually assume it to be, and it is even more powerful than we imagine. Most importantly, it is a gift that every one of us is born with and can, with the right approach, take advantage of.” (End Quote)

Quote #2
YOU HAVE THE GIFT (WE ALL DO!)
“With this truth in mind, let’s return to the question that I asked at the beginning: Why are some people so amazingly good at what they do? Over my years of studying experts in various fields, I have found that they all develop their abilities ... through dedicated training that drives changes in the brain (and sometimes, depending on the ability, in the body) that make it possible for them to do things that they otherwise could not. Yes, in some cases genetic endowment makes a difference, particularly in areas where height or other physical factors are important. A man with genes for being five feet five will find it tough to become a professional basketball player, just as a six-foot woman will find it virtually impossible to succeed as an artistic gymnast at the international level. And, as we will discuss later in the book, there are other ways in which genes may influence one’s achievements, particularly those genes that influence how likely a person is to practice diligently and correctly. But the clear message from decades of research is that no matter what role innate genetic endowment may play in the achievements of ‘gifted’ people, the main gift that these people have is the same one we all have—the adaptability of the human brainand body, which they have taken advantage of more than the rest of us.” (End Quote)

Quote #3
PRACTICE: NAIVE, PURPOSEFUL, DELIBERATE
“Purposeful practice has several characteristics that set it apart from what we might call ‘naive practice,’ which is essentially just doing something repeatedly, and expecting that repetition alone will improve one’s performance.”

“Purposeful practice has well-defined, specific goals.”
“Purposeful practice is focused.”
Purposeful practice involves feedback.”
“Purposeful practice requires getting out of one’s comfort zone.”
“So here we have purposeful practice in a nutshell: Get outside your comfort zone but do it in a focused way, with clear goals, a plan for reaching those goals, and a way to monitor your progress. Oh, and figure out a way to maintain your motivation.” (End Quote)

Quote #4
USING HOMEOSTASIS + ADAPTABILITY TO OUR ADVANTAGE
“The fact that the human brain and body respond to challenges by developing new abilities underlies the effectiveness of purposeful and deliberate practice. The training of a London taxi driver or an Olympic gymnast or a violinist at a music academy is, in essence, a method ofharnessing the adaptability of the brain and body to develop abilities that would otherwise be out of reach.”

“This is the general pattern for how physical activity creates changes in the body: when a body system—certain muscles, the cardiovascular system, or something else—is stressed to the point that homeostasis can no longer be maintained, the body responds with changes that are intended to reestablish homeostasis.”

: “With deliberate practice, however, the goal is not just to reach your potential but to build it, to make things possible that were not possible before. This requires challenging homeostasis—getting out of your comfort zone—and forcing your brain or your body to adapt. But once you do this, learning is no longer just a way of fulfilling some genetic destiny; it becomes a way of taking control of your destiny and shaping your potential in ways that you choose.” (End Quote)

Bonus Quote #5
BUILDING MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS
“So here is a major part of the answer to the question we asked at the end of the last chapter: What exactly is being changed in the brain with deliberate practice? The main thing that sets experts apart from the rest of us is that their years of practice have changed the neural circuitry in their brains to produce highly specialized mental representations, which in turn make possible the incredible memory, pattern recognition, problem solving, and other sorts of advanced abilities needed to excel in their particular specialties.”

“The more you study a subject, the more detailed your mental representations of it become, and the better you get at assimilating new information.” (End Quote)

Bonus Quote #6
10,000 HOUR RULE? NOT SO MUCH.
“By now it is safe to conclude from many studies on a wide variety of disciplines that nobody develops extraordinary abilities without putting in tremendous amounts of practice. I do not know of any serious scientists who doubts that conclusion. No matter which area youstudy, music, dance, sports, competitive games, or anything else with objective measures of performance—you find that the top performers have devoted a tremendous amount of time to developing their abilities.”

“This is the basic blueprint for getting better in any pursuit: get as close to deliberate practice as you can. If you’re in a field where deliberate practice is an option, you should take that option. If not, apply the principles of deliberate practice as much as possible. In practice this often boils down to purposeful practice with a few extra steps: first, identify the expert performers, then figure out what makes them so good, then come up with training techniques that allow you to do it, too.”
(End Quote)

Bonus Quote #7
HOMO EXERCENS
“And I would argue that we humans are most human when we’re improving ourselves. We, unlike any other animal, can consciously change ourselves, to improve ourselves in ways we choose. This distinguishes us from every other species alive today and, as far as we know, fromevery other species that has ever lived. The classic conception of human nature is captured in the name we gave ourselves as a species,Homo sapiens. Our distant ancestors included Homo erectus, or ‘upright man,’ because the species could walk upright, and Homo habilis, the ‘handy man,’ so named because the species was at one time thought to be the earliest humans to have made and used stone tools. We call ourselves ‘knowing man’ because we see ourselves as distinguished from our ancestors by our vast amount of knowledge. But perhaps a better way to see ourselves would be as Homo exercens, or ‘practicing man,’ the species that takes control of its life through practice and makes of itself what it will.” (End Quote)

Book Number 3
Legacy
What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life
By James Kerr

Quote #1
“The All Blacks are the most successful rugby team in history. They have been called the most successful sports team, in any code, ever. In the professional era, they have an extraordinary win rate of over 86 per cent and are the current World Champions. How do the All Blacks do it? What’s the secret of their success? What is their competitive advantage? And what can we learn from it?” (End Quote)

Quote #2
LEGACY STARTS WITH CHARACTER
“This [after celebrating a big win] is when something happens you might not expect. Two of the senior players—one an international player of the year, twice—each pick up a longhandled broom and begin to sweep the sheds. They brush the mud and the gauze into small piles in the corner. While the country is still watching replays and school kids lie in bed dreaming of All Blacks’ glory, the All Blacks themselves are tidying up after themselves. Sweeping the sheds. Doing it properly. So no one else has to. Because no one looks after the All Blacks. The All Blacks look after themselves.” (End Quote)

Quote #3
BETTER PEOPLE MAKE BETTER ALL BLACKS
“Better People Make Better All Blacks That is, by developing the individual players and giving them the tools, skills and character that they needed to contribute beyond the rugby field, they would also, in theory, develop the tools, skills and character to contribute more effectively on it. This ‘Kiwi kaizen’ was a focus on personal development, both as human beings and as professional sportsmen, so that they had the character, composure, and people skills to be leaders, both on and off the field.” (End Quote)

Quote #4
KIWI KAIZEN = IMPROVING 100 THINGS BY 1%
“Human beings are motivated by purpose, autonomy and a drive towards mastery. Accomplished leaders create an environment in which their people can develop their skills, their knowledge and their character. This leads to a learning environment and a culture of curiosity,innovation and continuous improvement. By finding the 100 things that can be done just 1 per cent better, leaders create incremental and cumulative advantage, and organizations see an upswing in performance and results. In creating a coherent learning environment, it pays toboth eliminate unhelpful elements—clearing out the furniture—and to introduce insightful and inspiring influences.” (End Quote)

Bonus Quote #5
NO PRESSURE, NO DIAMONDS + EMBRACE EXPECTATIONS
“In Nobel-Prize winner Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking Fast and Slow, he writes about the benefits of a fear of failure in what he calls ‘Loss Aversion.’ Citing research by Devon Pope and Maurice Schweitzer at the University of Pennsylvania, he discusses the ‘relative strength of two motives’ in the statistics of professional golfers: ‘Whether the putt was easy or hard, at every distance from the hole, the players were more successful when putting for par than for a birdie.’ The difference in the rate of success was 3.6 per cent. We don’t play to win, it seems, we play not to lose. ‘The history of All Blacks rugby has been so successful that the expectation in New Zealand is that we win every test,’ says Graham Henry, ‘and I think that is good for the team. If you didn’t have that expectation, I’m sure we wouldn’t reach the standards we do.’” (End Quote)

Bonus Quote #6
HITTING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL GYM
“‘The work we do is all about the control of attention,’ says Brosnahan. In pressure situations, he says, it is very easy for our consciousness to ‘divert from a resourceful state to an unresourceful one,’ from a position of mental calm, clarity, and inner strength into what he calls ‘Defensive Thinking.’ ... Performance under pressure is known as A.C.T. In Brosnahan’s words, ‘allowing yourself to win by following process rather than being caught up in outcomes.’ ‘The skill to handle pressure was critical,’ says Henry. ‘Pressure is a privilege,’ says Gilbert Enoka— it means you’re playing at the highest level. ‘If an organization is really going to be worldclass,’ Brosnahan elaborates, ‘that’s going to mean an awful lot of pressure—pressure is a good thing.’ ... ‘It’s crazy,’ Gilbert Enoka tells [us], ‘because if you want to build up strength, you go to the gym and you work three times a week on your core strength. It just seems that if you want to develop your ability to concentrate and focus and be flexible in what you do from a mental perspective, wouldn’t you apply the same approach.” (End Quote)

Bonus Quote #7
WHAT LEGACY ARE YOU CREATING?
“Stephen Covey encouraged us to begin at the end, imagining ourselves at our own funeral. Who would be there? What would they say about us once we’re gone? What would our life mean to them? Would they cry? This isn’t morbid, but the opposite. It means putting something at stake—our life. It means a sense of urgency and immediacy, and it is good to have a bit of urgency and immediacy in life. If we’re going to lead a life, if we’re going to lead anything, we should surely know where we are going, and why. Champions do extra. They find something that they are prepared to die for. Then they give their life to it.” (End Quote)

Book Number 4
Overachievement
The New Model for Exceptional Performance
By John Eliot, Ph.D

Quote #1
“Overachievement is aimed at people who want to maximize their potential. And to do that, I insist you throw caution at the wind, ignore the pleas of parents, coaches, spouses, and bosses to be ‘realistic.’ Realistic people do not accomplish extraordinary things because the odds of success stymie them. The best performers ignore the odds. I will show that instead of limiting themselves to what’s probable, the best will pursue the heart-pounding, exciting, really big, difference-making dreams—so long as catching them might be possible.” (End Quote)

Quote #2
THE TRUSTING MINDSET
“To be sure, great performers are well trained, experienced, smart, and in some cases, divinely talented. But the way their brains work during a performance is a lot more like a squirrel’s than like Einstein’s. Like squirrels, the best in every business do what they have learned to dowithout questioning their abilities—they flat out trust their skills, which is why we call this high performance state of mind the ‘Trusting Mindset.’ Routine access to the Trusting Mindset is what separates great performers from the rest of the pack.”
“Selling is very different from trying to be a salesman. That A you got at Business School in ‘Sales & Marketing’ isn’t what’s going to close the deal. In fact, if all you’re doing is thinking about what you should do, you’re going to look like a self-conscious goof and do anything but close. When you’re in the middle of a deal, you’ve got to turn that part of your brain off and trust yourself.” (End Quote)

Quote #3
EAT STRESS LIKE AN ENERGY BAR
“Working on techniques to manage stress is a bit like trying to win the Indy 500 by putting a governor on the engine of your race car or swapping out a powerful V-12 for a V-4 because it offers a ‘quieter ride.’ You wouldn’t do that. Not if you were after the checkered flag. Not if you were racing star Jeff Gordon. No superstar is about to give his opponents an edge. Nor should you be trying to relax when the pressure’s on.” (End Quote)

Quote #4
The remaining Quotes from Dr. Eliot are quick hits, so I'll read them to you now, and then we can wrap it up.

BILL RUSSELL & BARFING
“Bill Russell is one of the great names in basketball, an all-American… the only athlete to ever win an NCAA Championship, an Olympic Gold Medal, and a professional championship all in the same year—1956… But Bill Russell had this one problem: He threw up before every game.” (End Quote)

PRESSURE & ANXIETY
“The physical symptoms of fight-or-flight are what the human body has learned over thousands of years to operate more efficiently and at the highest level. Anxiety is a cognitive interpretation of that physical response.”
1. “Everything that your body does to you when the pressure is on is good for performance…
2. Pressure is different from anxiety; nervousness is different from worry.” (End Quote)

ULTIMATE KNOWING
“Confidence is a resolute state of mind by which you believe nothing is impossible.” (End Quote)

POSITIVE THINKING VS. POSITIVE ACTION
“Exceptional thinkers learn to trust their consciousness. They teach themselves the power of positive action. They don’t stop to think about how great the act is going to be. Instead, they act.” (End Quote)

PUT YOURSELF ON SUPER PILOT
“The true exceptional performer is on super pilot. Every single sense, every fiber of his body is brought together in what he is doing.” (End Quote)

LET IT HAPPEN
“Great performers focus on what they are doing, and nothing else… They are able to engage in a task so completely that there is no room left for self-criticism, judgment, or doubt; to stay loose and supremely, even irrationally, self-confident… They let it happen, let it go. They couldn’t care less about the results.”
“… stay loose and supremely, even irrationally, self-confident… let it happen…”!! (End Quote)

NUTS & GENIUSES
“History, though, shows us that the people who end up changing the world—the great political, social, scientific, technological, artistic, even sports revolutionaries—are always nuts, until they’re right, and then they’re geniuses.” (End Quote)

INCREDIBLE DREAMS & BEING UNREALISTIC
“You will not do incredible things without an incredible dream.”
“as soon as anyone starts telling you to be ‘realistic,’ cross that person off your invitation list.” (End Quote)

That's Overachievement by John Eliot, Ph.d. Did any of the titles hit home with you? Did you pick up one thing that you think might make your life a little better or more fulfilling? I hope so, because I had several.

Well that concludes another episode of the hockey journey podcast. I can’t thank you enough for stopping by and listening. I hope you enjoyed this segment on Peak Performance Wisdom, and If you think there’s someone in your circle of family and friends that might like this episode as well, please share it with just one person, it will really help me in growing this hockey community.

Again, I appreciate you being here, don’t forget to subscribe, rate or submit a review, I hope to see you back here soon, and do me a favor, make someone close to you smile today. All the best my friends!!

Peak Performance Wisdom - EP47

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