2015 National Endurance Sport Summit

Presenting at the National Endurance Sports Summit,
Princeton, University, 10/2015 (L-R: Kat Longshore, Me)

In October I was fortunate to be invited as part of a panel at the National Endurance Sport Summit hosted at Princeton University. My panel companions were colleagues from the Department of Sport and Exercise Psychology at Temple University, and we presented on the use of mindfulness methods to enhance the running experience. Attendees and fellow presenters were a hardy lot of adventure racers and ultramarathoners. It was very moving to be with such an inspired and deeply passionate, spiritual, and giving group of athletes. As my part of the panel I led a progressive relaxation meditation, complete with Tibetan singing bowl. I closed the meditation with guiding the participants through memories both happy and peaceful. I enjoy awakening in myself and others the calm that can be found in all of us.

How to Develop Powerful Coach Language

What to Say in 6 Scenarios 

to Empower Your Athletes

A sports coach is in a unique position to help reprogram an athlete's entrenched thought-patterns that limit performance...

...sometimes that requires a SHIFT in the athlete’s BELIEFS and INNER DIALOGUE.  

Getting them INVOLVED in the solutions is IMPACTFUL. 

HOW you language it is SIGNIFICANT.

Going over "business as usual" with Coach Mark Wetmore.

         As a strong young age-group runner, my coach started putting me in races with post-collegiate women to find suitable competition. At the slender age of 15, I had lungs and legs and not much else. Amazonians effortlessly cruised down the track lanes warming-up, then towered over me as we toed the line. Needless to say, I was nervous and intimidated every time. What my coach said to me in those moments really helped my head, and I still use this phrase with the young athletes I coach today. He would say, "The work is done. Go out there and take care of business as usual." In this brief phrase he made the day feel like any other, and it helped me relax and focus. 

          Coach language—what we say to athletes and how we say it—is one of the most powerful coaching tools you can develop. Although there is a lot of information out there about how to train athletes, there is very little on specific communication. Remember that how you talk to them also models how they can talk to themselves—that inner voice that makes or breaks an athlete. Words need to send the right message, leave openings for possibility, and spark non-judgmental curiosity in athletes, not break them down. The following scenarios and what to say can help you communicate with your athletes in ways that serve their emotional development and self-worth, which, of course, fuels grit, resiliency, and performance.

1. Beginning of the season:

•  I expect great things from you, and I’m here to help you find that out.

•  Mistakes are expected, and we’re going to learn from them.

•  I’m glad you made that mistake because you learned (how to better pace yourself, how to not let up at the finish).

•  I have high standards, and I know you can meet them.

2. Preface hard conversations with:

•  What I want to say is a little critical, but hopefully helpful. 

•  I wouldn’t go to the trouble of giving you feedback if I couldn't see your potential.

•  Based on what I’ve seen in you so far, you’re capable of a lot more than I saw today.

3. At the start of a workout/race:

•  I know you can do this, so we’re setting the bar high.

•  You haven’t even scratched the surface of what you can do as a runner. Let’s see what you’ve got in you today.

•  I’m going to push you today, because I know that when you’re pushed, you do amazing work.

•  I’m going to ask a lot of you today, because I know that when you push yourself, you do amazing work. 

•  Whatever happens today is not good or bad news about you. It’s just information. And we’re going to look at that.

•  Stay relaxed and go out there and take care of business as usual.

4. When athletes perform well through hard work:

•  I’m proud of the effort you put in to improve your time(s).

•  Great job! You used some smart strategies to get through that (workout, race, issue with your teammate).

•  Looks like you worked really hard to get through that workout/race.

•  I can tell you really pushed yourself out there today.

5. When athletes face disappointment, failure, or injury:

•  OK, so you didn’t run what you wanted. Let’s look at what we learned.

•  Let’s focus on this. What parts of the workout/race did you do well in? What was hard for you today?

•  What did you do on your own to prepare for this? What can you add/get rid of for next time?

•  Is there anything you could have done differently?

•  You’re just not where you want to be YET, but it will come.

•  You didn’t do as well as you had hoped, AND we know some things we didn’t know before.

•  There are a lot of things you can’t do right now. Let’s focus on what you can.
•  Everyday gets you closer to your goals.

•  You can still work hard. We just need to recalibrate your goals.

6. When athletes perform well with little effort:

•  It looks like you weren’t really challenged today. Based on your strengths, how can you push yourself more?

•  It looks like you have that workout/pace/strategy down. How can we add to this to get more out of you?

•  The good news is that looked pretty easy for you today. Let’s tighten the screws a little bit next time to get you to the next level.

•  This workout shows you’re ready for the next level. We’re going to step it up next time.

This is a video I made 5 years ago about my youth empowerment running club called, You Go Girls. In 2015 we've now had 100s of girls go through the program, have expanded with 3 programs and a summer camp, and have accumulated over 4000 miles run!

Hey Sole Sister

This is a video I made for a presentation about my life as a runner and where this journey has brought me.


My Running Life

The Secrets of a Win-Win Mindset

Have you ever wondered what's the best approach to psyching yourself up to stay the course of your athletic goals? One important formula to remember is that beliefs lead to thoughts that lead to actions/decisions that lead to results. So, it goes to show that positive results are rooted in our beliefs. Our belief system is something we can train along with our bodies. Long-time elite running coach Frank Gagliano of the NY/NJ Track club likes to say, "the mind is 70% of the athlete". How we think and feel about who we are and what we do goes a long way compared to our genetic predisposition.

Many people use positive affirmation phrases, but this doesn't work for everyone. One young runner I coached liked to silently repeat, "I am a champion," and it really worked. Another client wanted to try positive affirmations, but when we came up with some together, like "I can do this," the opposite effect occurred. She felt sabotaged by her own beliefs that she couldn't. So what was happening?

The Voices in Your Head

That brings us to the work of Carol Dweck and her research on Growth Mindset. How we language our inner dialogue is key. If the phrase is assigned directly to who we are, such as, "I am unstoppable," it's harder to rebound psychologically when we are stopped. Also, many people like my client live with some deep underlying negative personal beliefs that feel very true. What can you do? 

Dweck believes that rather than try to build self-esteem with positive affirmations, start by not over-personalizing things. Phrases such as, "whatever happens today will be useful information," are hard to refute. The phrase, "I'm not where I want to be, YET," leaves an opening for discovery and possibility. We tried these with my client, and there was a definite shift. We also did some inventory and got rid of old conditioned phrases such as, "I just have to keep trying." Obviously, keeping trying was way too unspecific and untrue or it would've worked.

Be Specific

As a long time distance runner and coach, I am a big fan of the concept of specificity--that the training should not only be relevant, but appropriate, begin broadly, and become more refined as the program develops. Eventually, as my understanding of my client deepened, as well as her self-knowledge, she was able to shift her beliefs to take on stronger, more specific phrases such as, "I embrace challenge," or ask herself, "what strategies or people can support me right now?" Asking yourself questions allows you to stay curious, opens the boundaries of fixed thinking to bring in more solutions, and empowers you to tap into your own wisdom. This exercise helped my client move away from the perfectionism/failure cycles that had plagued her past attempts and towards a feeling of unconditional win-win. That shift in language, shifted beliefs, which shifted thoughts, which shifted actions, which shifted results. Bam!

Get Strategies & Support

Developing strategies and people to support your goals are key aspects of Growth Mindset thinking. Specificity plays an important role here, too, since winning strategies are very personal. The athlete and coach who take this on learn to thrive through setbacks and challenges. One athlete I worked with had solid training and workout performances but choked whenever she ran in higher caliber races. The language I used with her was that whatever happened today was just information. We co-created a mental rehearsal routine that helped her visualize being assured at a big race, as well as a symbol she wrote on the base of her thumb--an "&"--that reminded her to stay away from limiting thoughts AND be open to discovery. Other helpful strategies are learning from peers who are practiced in the mental game, praising your effort over outcome, (it took a lot of hard work to get here), and objectively writing down what was learned with each experience.