Episode #6 - Mental Toughness and Dealing with Pressure

In this episode we discuss tips and tricks on how to stay present in stressful situations, how to reset after errors, and how to deal with nerves. We also discuss the power of gratitude and the role that willpower plays in performance.

Click here to begin your journey to more aces and pain free spiking: https://coach.everfit.io/package/UT100315

Transcript

Oog 0:00

I think that's also mentally tough, like sit through it and just be, like you said, stoic.

Jesse 0:05

I, I don't know if I've said this on the podcast before.

Mathias 0:08

this AMCC is not only responsible for building willpower and the ability to push back on hard tasks, but it's actually related to the will to live

0:18

Hello and welcome to the Pit the Pro podcast. Jesse, Matthias, and Aaron Elson. This podcast is meant to guide young athletes on their journey to high performance. Join us as we share our first hand experiences in an effort to help you reach your own valuable goals.

Mathias 0:34

All right. Welcome back to the Pit to Pro podcast, episode number six. Today, we're going to be talking about mental toughness and dealing with pressure, so some concepts, uh, around mental toughness and the science of becoming tougher and, uh, some of the ways that we've applied that to our careers and what we're still learning and working on. So I guess to kick this off. I'm going to ask you guys, what is mental toughness to you? I

Jesse 1:10

think it's kind of like a cliche answer, but like the idea of how willing you are to push yourself and to do certain things when no one's looking and when no one's watching, because it's really easy to push yourself when you're surrounded by the team, when you're doing a team lift, when you all go out to eat dinner and the guy beside you orders a salad. So you order a salad, but like when you're on your own or you're in the off season or whatever. Be doing those things when no one's watching. I think it was really hard and something. I'm really bad at

Oog 1:47

yeah I think for me It's like doing the things that no one else wants to do without complaining and I'm bad at that Like when it comes to even just work or like schoolwork, like actually just sitting down and doing the project or doing the assignment and not complaining and just getting it done because it's what you're there to do. Or in, in, in like volleyball, you sit, you get there, you get to the gym, you do your work, you don't complain. I feel like if you, Or in a mentally tough state, there's no, like, complaining. I don't know. Does that make sense?

Mathias 2:26

Yeah, it's interesting. Kind of what you guys both just said is, like, getting yourself to do what you're supposed to do. Like, it's you versus you. Yeah. And those things, like, it can be synonymous with discipline almost, too. Um, I've come up with this idea where I think that there's kind of two different styles of mental toughness or two different ways in which you can apply it. And the first one is kind of what you guys were saying, like it's tense and gritty and like resilient and it's your attitude towards like getting things done. So if you're like hitting a lift to failure or you're playing through pain, that's when you like bear down and you. You get it done. the first type is like, there's a strong force in one direction. Usually it's telling you to quit or to do something that's not in your best interest and then like, you use your mind as a counterbalance in the opposing direction to kind of hold you in that uncomfortable state or, or force yourself to do that thing you know you need to do, but then the other style, call this type two, is more like a calm Stoic kind of unbothered state and I think that in this, with this style, it's more like your response to adverse situations. So example like when you make an error or you lose a set or you get injured, getting tense and gritty and forcing your way through those things, I feel like is maybe not ideal. So in this style, it's more about just letting it go. So I've kind of summarized this by saying, like, if you're in a state that sucks and you want to stay there, you use type one, but if you're in a state that sucks and you don't want to stay there, you use type two to let it go.

Oog 4:14

And you can use those like interchangeably, that you could be a type one and a type two. It's not like someone is a type one. For sure. I think it's, it's like the response using the right type as a response to the situation that you're in. Like the environment dictates what type of. Mentally tough you need to be

Mathias 4:32

right there. If it's difficult and you want to stay there you get you bear down you get gritty But if it's maybe a thought that you don't like getting tense is not the response It's letting it go which is also mental mentally tough.

Oog 4:48

Yeah, I feel like that's also a good application to life, too Like in like type one might be more on the sports side of things Whereas like your, your life outside of volleyball, you could be more type two, like you're going to have so much stuff thrown at you as an athlete, like breakups or financial things or school and just being able to sit there and not freak out. I think that's also mentally tough, like sit through it and just be, like you said, stoic. I

Jesse 5:22

think there's, well, I want to add, I think there's still, there should still be a, uh, Space for like emotion, like if you're like, I think it's important to recognize how things make you feel like you can't just like stoically be like, Oh, I'm beast. I'm not going to be affected by the breakup and by all the school I have to do and I have a money in my bank account, but I'm a beast and I'm going to just stand here and like, take it off the chest, you know, like, yeah, I think like something should. Frustrate you and something should make you sad, but you're saying it's the response. Yeah, it's, it's not

Oog 5:56

freaking, it's not freaking out and losing your noodle on someone or losing your noodle on yourself it's, it's the, the reaction to how you feel, I think, is what Tia's trying to say. Yeah,

Mathias 6:07

yeah. I wrote down like type one is like your attitude. So when you're approaching a game, you're going in to win. And you're, you're putting everything you have towards that goal and nothing's taking you off that, but then when things happen that do take you off that track, then the type two calm stoic is your response because you can't let those things push you so far down, like a rabbit hole of emotion that you can't, you can't stay the course, right? So allowing, allowing those thoughts to come up, those feelings to come up and then taking a breath and letting them go. I think that's true mental strength.

Jesse 6:43

Right, it's like the cool, calm, collected response. Yeah, something like that. So,

Mathias 6:48

I have an example here that might clear things up of when I use the wrong type of toughness. And it's in the national final in 2022 when we lost to the Bears. So I felt a lot of pressure coming into that game because it was my first national final. There was lots of media attention on us that year, Ben Jo's last game, lots of fans. I was the youngest guy on the floor for our team. And I don't remember exactly how like I approached that game, but things just went so poorly, so quickly, like right from the start, I was having maybe one of the worst games that I've had in my whole life. And I started thinking like, oh, I'm letting my team down. I'm not ready for this. You're going to be the reason we lose. Everyone here is noticing how bad you're playing. And none of those thoughts are bad intrinsically, I think, because I feel like things just like, things like that just pop up. It's hard to control those thoughts, them coming up, but you can control your response. And the way I responded was almost with like a type one kind of mindset. So I started pushing back against those thoughts. I was telling myself like, no, we're the best. I'm the best. I'm going to show everyone in this gym how good I am. So I got all tense and try to like counterbalance. Those thoughts and force them out of my brain. But the problem was that there was, there was nothing to actually push back on because everything that I was dealing with, I had created in my own mind. They were imaginary constructs, all these thoughts I was trying to, I was thinking what other people were thinking of me, you know, so there was actually no, it wasn't real and so it was me versus me. And that's not a, that's not a battle you can win. And imagine all of this, like. This tornado of thoughts, one, one side versus the other going on in my mind. Imagine how far. Removed my attention was from the game. Like I'm trying to win this battle in my head before I can even focus on winning the battle on the court. So instead of trying to like override my natural thoughts with this type one gritty mentality and force fake thoughts in there to make myself feel good, to be able to play, imagine if I just let them go. Imagine if those thoughts came up, I just took a, took a breath, got back to the present moment and let it go. Would have been so much easier. And

Oog 9:18

I,

Jesse 9:19

and I throw

Oog 9:20

like, Not science at that, but just like a little bit more substance. Um, so this year we did, we have like a team sports psych, his name's Derek Thiessen, he, he was saying in one of our sports psych meetings that there's 12 common stories that everybody tells themselves and they're like, you're not enough. Um, you'll never be loved or something, and there's, whatever, there's 12 of them. And everyone in our, on our team had one that was the same as someone else. So it's like, everyone pick your top three that you tell yourself. And then we all put them on sticky notes on our chests. And then we walked around and we saw what everyone was telling themselves. And in those big moments, the stories that you tell yourselves, Are what dictate how you're going to react or how you're going to act. Like for a guy like me, I always tell myself, like, you're not good enough. Like you will never be good enough. And I think, like you said, like you, you can't push back on that. You just have to realize what it's a story that you're making up in your mind. And then take it for what it is and just push it. But if you think that it's real, if you think that a story is real, then that's when you get into like, so the deep weeds of, malperformance or struggle.

Mathias 10:54

That's awesome. And I think those are the kind of thoughts or stories that will reveal themselves in those big high pressure moments, because that's when you kind of get stripped down to like the raw inner workings of your mind, because there's so much pressure and stress going on in those moments. Um, and it's a

Jesse 11:16

really good. Well, I was just going to

Mathias 11:19

say, similar to what you're saying, I think it's near impossible to convince yourself of something that you don't have evidence for. in that moment, like when I was playing bad, I can't just flip the switch and pretend I'm playing good. And I don't think that's how your mind works. But I do think That you can think of nothing and that's why letting go is so powerful that it is possible to let those thoughts Just dissipate from your mind. I think it's really difficult to override them.

Jesse 11:51

I think Thinking of nothing or letting go really really hard and like much harder Said than done or No. Much harder done than said. Yeah, right. Yeah. Easier

Mathias 12:05

said than done

Jesse 12:07

Thank you. but I think attaching your thoughts to something else gives you that space to think of nothing. So like that's where anchors come into play, right? You have like a repetitive. Um, action or thought or something that happens after every play, good or bad that you anchor yourself to or that you attach yourself to so that you can't go down that rabbit hole or so that you can free your mind of these fictitious stories. Do you have an example of one? Like do you have one that you use? Yeah. My anchor was always, ask a question or give a compliment. And for me, that was like, it connects me with my teammates. Because even if I already knew the answer, me physically going to the act of asking a question, like, externalizes the thoughts and externalizes my inner monologue, usually, or inner dialogue, I guess, my inner negative dialogue, because I'm asking, I'm getting outside my body, or I'm giving a compliment, so I'm lifting someone else up, which kind of relates back to the teammate episode where our job is to make those around us better, and I'm complimenting guys, I'm getting out of my own head. And, and I'm letting go of the error because I'm attaching my focus to a teammate as opposed to the past error or play or past two errors or whatever that just happened.

Oog 13:37

I think Something that I have been trying to do this year. You said you can't override them. Like I agree. You can't override your thoughts, but I think you can drown them out. And it, it's kind of like an anchor, like for me, whenever I was having negative thoughts or just like really getting internal about actions or. Or points or what people thought of me. I always tried to just be the guy would talk about things like front load. We'd call it front loading. be the guy that's going to front load more than the guy next to you. Cause one it's benefiting the team, but it also doesn't give me the time of day to think about bad things. When the only thing I can think about is talking about the seam. So it's like, if I can use the time more constructively and externalize, not my thoughts, but something else, then it doesn't allow your brain enough time to make those negative comments or those negative thoughts or stories.

Mathias 14:43

Yeah.'cause it, it is kind of like,

Jesse 14:46

I, I would still say overriding, I still think that's an anchor. I agree. You're, you're attaching your focus to something outside of the past.'cause you're frontloading, you're preparing for the future. You're not focusing on the past. That's the whole point of front loading, is sharing information before the rally so that after the rally you're not like, I wish I said, yeah, hey, that guy's a lefty. Or, Hey, you got this seam, or whatever.

Oog 15:09

I think that, that my way is more for people that don't want to, like, upright go to someone and say hey, I'm like, I, this is what I'm thinking right now,

Jesse 15:19

Yeah.

Oog 15:21

Yeah. That's a

Jesse 15:21

good, uh, good point.

Mathias 15:24

Okay. Well, we've got a question from a listener here. and it says, what do you do to work on your mental game? And what is your mental game prep routine? And well, I, I don't think we need to answer this directly, but this next section, we're going to talk about all the different ways that you can build mental toughness and some of the ways that you can apply it to your game, how we've done it in our game. So hopefully these next, next few minutes, we'll answer this question for you. So you guys know Andrew Huberman from the Huberman lab podcast? So he's like American neuroscientist and he is a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology At the Stanford University School of Medicine. He has a really popular podcast.

Jesse 16:13

What's ophthalmology?

Mathias 16:15

I don't know. I have no idea. Some, some smart profession, I think. Um, but I, this blew my mind, actually. So there's, there's a part of your brain called the anterior mid cingulate cortex. Okay? AMCC for short. And this is, this is a tiny little part of your brain. And studies were done that if they stimulate this part of your brain, then you immediately feel that there's a challenge that you're facing, and also that you have the ability to meet that challenge. So it's like a forward response to challenge, and Like as opposed to fight or flight? Or as opposed to flight, basically? Yeah, it's more like Is it the

Jesse 17:00

fight?

Mathias 17:01

Yeah, essentially, essentially, it's like the willpower part of your brain.

Jesse 17:06

And

Mathias 17:07

so what that indicates is that you have the power to turn on and off willpower and you can train this part of your brain to be more active more often. Um, and so I need this. Yeah, dude, it's super interesting. So if people were given a task, sorry, if people were given an easy task, then the AMCC is not activated. But if they were given a hard task, That they didn't want to do. Then there was super high levels of activation in the AMCC. So the reason that this is important is because peoples who's. People whose AMCC maintains or increases in size into their later years, so like 70s, 80s, 90s, they maintain healthy cognitive function similar to people in their 20s and 30s. So it's almost like anti aging by stimulating this part of your brain. And you do that by doing things you don't want to do? Yeah, exactly. So studies found that people ages 60 to 80, when you give them difficult Cardiovascular tasks a couple times a week. They could offset the normal shrinkage and aging of the AMCC. So this led to the theory that this AMCC is not only responsible for building willpower and the ability to push back on hard tasks, but it's actually related to the will to live. So by doing hard things, by building this part of your brain, You stay younger for longer. So this is that blew my mind, but for, for volleyball athletes and for people who are not so worried about the aging process yet, um, this is like the center of willpower for your brain and you build it by doing things that you. Do not want to do. So it's like if you go for a really hard lift and you're pushing the failure every time, or you go for a really long run, you're pushing your limits, but you enjoy it. then this part of the brain is not activated. So you have to, you have to find those things within your day that you don't want to do. Usually simple tasks, things that are usually probably good for you. And that's how you can build up this part of the brain and build up your, your willpower and your mental toughness. So it's things like, do you have examples? Yeah. Yeah. I wrote down a few things that I thought would be good here. And it's like, so the filter for this that I've come up with is anytime you feel yourself. Negotiating with yourself, you know, like you walk past the past the sink and there's some dirty dishes in there. You're like, Oh, I should probably do this, but I don't know. I'll do them later. You don't want to do it. You do those dishes, simple activation of the MCC and you building up your willpower could be answering an email that you've been avoiding. Could be you live in an apartment building. You come home from a long practice and you're about to click the button on the elevator and then you go take the stairs. Even hopping in a cold shower when, when you know that it'd just be so much nicer if you took a warm one. So, it can be those little things. It could be some big things too, like any bigger challenges in your life that you want to tackle, but yeah. The goal is to put yourself through those, those minor inconveniences to build your willpower and your mental toughness.

Jesse 20:24

I don't Fully understand how this relates to volleyball.

Oog 20:32

Good, good

Jesse 20:33

question. Because I think I agree, it's very cool. And I think I got to start implementing some of this stuff in my life. Cause I'm really not, I, I don't know if I've said this on the podcast before. The reason I work hard is not for myself. It's for other people. Like I work hard because the team will succeed. And like, I do things. For the betterment of the team or other people, not for myself. And I think I got to kind of change that narrative a little bit. If I, especially now that I'm in the world of professional sports where your team is always changing and the off season is a little bit longer in the summer, if you're not playing national team, like. I gotta start doing things for myself. So I gotta start stretching my, what's it called? A CMC. C-A-C-B-C. Yeah. First off is gonna be huge. I'm gonna have the biggest A, C, D, C when we're 70 guys.

Mathias 21:26

Okay. First off, I wanna say that's kind of amazing by the way, that, that you, your motivation comes from doing things for your team. I think that's why you're such a great teammate. Um, yeah, thanks. But, but this is the same thing, like when you said that at the beginning, that mental toughness is when you do things in the dark by yourself. That no one will see and getting yourself without the motivation of your teammates to do things is mental toughness. So this could be valuable also, um, well, I think by doing things you don't want to do, you build up. This part of your brain, which allows you to do more things that you don't want to do, right? And so that's that's how I think it relates to volleyball. When you, if you've been doing all these tiny crappy tasks for so long and you've built up this willpower center in your brain to get used to that, when you wake up at 6 in the morning and you feel terrible and you have to go to lift, you have so much willpower Available from this part of your brain to go and get that task done or even dieting stuff the ability to resist The donut or whatever will get easier over time, the more you train this section of your brain, you know?

Jesse 22:44

Dude, that makes a lot of sense. I thought we were still talking about, like, how we respond to an error. And I didn't fully under or does it still? And I'm not grasping that.

Mathias 22:54

I, well, I would say that this, this kind of, uh Like, here, here's

Jesse 22:58

my question. I guess my question is how does this idea of the ACDC Relate to your story about the national championship. doesn't, it doesn't. Yeah,

Mathias 23:08

yeah, this, this, this growing of the AMCC is, uh, I think more the type one that, that I've. Made up. It's like the gritty pushing back like you're holding that plank and you're burning like crazy And you have another 30 seconds to go like that's the willpower that you need to need to rely on or use

Oog 23:34

having like I don't know if this is way off, but having like a bank of just hard moments in your life not and not necessarily card physically But just like hard Like, it's going to make you think back in those like times where it's like, I got to go to lift at 6am at least I'm not doing this, you know, for me, it's shoveling out like a barn in the 30 degree weather and you're sweating your nuts off and you're doing it for eight hours. Like, at least at 6:00 AM I'm lifting in an air conditioned building that at least I'm not doing that. Like, is that almost a MCC? Like being, like being able to transfer? I would more, yeah. That, that's kind of how it works. Like,

Mathias 24:24

yeah, like difficult challenges in one area of your life can transfer anywhere. But I think the, uh, the idea even psychologically is like when you do those hard things, you, you have evidence to believe that you're the kind of person who does hard things. You know,

Jesse 24:42

I think, yeah, I think that's a good point and I think too, if I understand this correctly, you, the more your ACDC gets strong, the less, um, what was the word you used when you walked by the sink

Mathias 25:00

negotiation,

Jesse 25:01

negotiation, the less negotiation you're going to have with yourself. So the more clearly you're going to be able to think. Yeah, it's true pressure situations, or when something happens that you don't enjoy, you

Mathias 25:16

guys ever hear the, hear the phrase freedom is on the other side of discipline, maybe, but cool. So it sounds like a Bob Marley song. I think that's a pretty popular saying, and I don't know, I'd like to know what you guys think that means, but trying to figure out I think freedom is on the other side of discipline, because when you have discipline. You can do whatever you want. You don't have those negotiations going on in your mind all the time. You say, I want to, I want to lose 10 pounds and get shredded with discipline. It happens. So whatever you want to do is possible through discipline. Do you guys have a alternate thought on what that means? It's

Oog 26:15

changing

Jesse 26:17

what you want, right? Is that what you're saying? I think so. Because discipline, you know, the resist donut. When, when, when you finally don't even want the donut. That's what freedom is, right? That's what you're saying. Toia,

Mathias 26:32

maybe. But I'm saying even if you always,'cause you said you can do whatever you

Jesse 26:35

want, you can because you're saying you can do whatever you want. But when you, when you don't even want that donut anymore. That's, or that's how I understood what you were saying.

Mathias 26:45

That could be part of it. But I'm saying you can go anywhere you want to go by just making the decisions that will get you there. But it takes a lot of discipline to make those decisions all the time. Another thing with this is, uh, if you're disciplined enough to get the things done that you know you need to do, then you won't be thinking about the things that you need to do all the time. So let's say you wake up in the morning and you have 30 minutes of schoolwork to do. If you don't have the discipline to get that done right in the morning, the entire day you're going to be thinking about that. You might go for a round of golf and the whole time you're thinking about this homework you have to do, or you go out for dinner with your family and you're like, Ah, I just gotta, ah, when I get home I gotta do this homework. But if you have the discipline to do that thing right, That you don't want to do first thing in the morning, it's done. And it frees up your mind for the entire day. That could be another explanation for that, um, saying. Okay, so, that whole thing about the ACDC, as Jesse's been calling it, is uh, I think, yeah, like the gritty, Whatever motivated side of things. But then we're talking about being able to let things go too. And you're saying that it's really challenging to think of nothing. And that's why you have those anchors and you have those things that you do externally to take your mind off it. But I, I truly believe that you can gain enough control of your mind to let thoughts go completely. And I think this happens through meditation. And meditation comes up a lot in the mental performance world, but I never really understood why it seems so passive and. You just lay there and you think of nothing. That's the goal. Or you focus on something. You focus on your breath most of the time. Just focus on your breath. When your thoughts wander, you come back to your breath. And you can do that for whatever, 10 15 minutes. And it's really hard to make the connection of how that relates at all setting and spiking and serving and blocking and winning volleyball games. But now that I've got this, this second idea of mental toughness that is letting things go, it makes so much sense. Because the goal of meditation is to let those thoughts go that, that come into your mind.

Jesse 29:14

That does make a lot of sense. Do, do you meditate? Did you? Have you? Will you?

Mathias 29:22

Yeah, I have quite a bit. whenever I am feeling overwhelmed or anything like that, I do, I do really enjoy meditating. It feels, it makes you feel so much better and free afterwards. So I'd recommend that to anyone.

Jesse 29:35

Dude, maybe, maybe we should answer the second part of that question about what we have, er, what was it? What have we done? What did we do? Let

Mathias 29:44

me look. What is your mental game prep? What do you do to work on your mental game?

Jesse 29:50

Yeah, so what, what do you do? I guess meditation is one of them. What else do you guys do? Meditation

Mathias 29:54

is one of them. I,

Oog 29:55

like, journaling. Big journal. I feel like that's my kind of meditation is whenever there's thoughts in my head, just throw them on a piece of paper and then they're not real. Right.

Mathias 30:08

Yeah, dude, like speaking those things or writing those things, take, get some out of your mind and you don't ruminate on them and they don't grow in your mind. Good word, dude. Ruminate. Thank you. Do you

Oog 30:17

know what a ruminant

Jesse 30:17

is? Isn't that anything with four stomachs? Hey o, Rancher Jesse. Ooh. Um, No, I was, ooh, I agree. I think journaling, like, I think I have, and I keep all of them. I'd never re read them, but I think I have like eight or nine fully filled out journals, cause, yeah, any time I'm overthinking or overwhelmed or stressed out, just get those thoughts on paper and you can see yourself writing them and you read the words, you're like, oh, it's actually not that bad. Or, oh, I, I,

Mathias 30:49

Dude, journaling? is almost like free therapy because correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that the goal of a good therapist is not to like tell you what to do, but it's to just ask questions to the point where you get an answer for yourself. Explore your thoughts enough to where that to where you get make an answer for yourself. And it's the same thing with journaling. If you just write your thoughts, ask yourself some questions, then you can really dig down to the root of things. And it is, yeah, it's super freeing. I think, yeah, journaling is amazing.

Jesse 31:23

Yeah. Also, also, like, like, I will tell myself things, I'll write myself things that I would never tell myself or think myself. You know, I don't know if you guys do that, but I'll be like, Or tell others. Yeah, exactly. or you tell yourself you're negative, or you write down your negative thoughts, and you're like, wow, that's a really mean thing to say to, like, you wouldn't say that to someone else. Why am I saying that to myself? Yeah. Um, anyways, I think also, uh, visualization is a really, really big one. Yeah. And I had a question to you guys when you visualize like a Trinity, we would do two minutes of visualization before every game. Can you each walk me through what you did? Cause I'm really curious. Cause no one ever told you what to do or how to do it. Like you show up in your first year and the lights go off and you have two minutes to do whatever, basically.

Oog 32:22

Yeah. To be honest. I just sit back in my locker. Like I kind of lean past so that I can't hear or see anything. and I just, I try not to think about anything other than cool things that could happen, like, like the good that's going to come out of this game. T,

Mathias 32:42

what do you do? I would basically play like a highlight reel in my head from the first person. So I would just like be in the moment and it wouldn't be like ever full points, but it'd just be making six serves like this. bunch in a row, and then I'd go to setting and just getting all these no blocks and all that stuff. Yeah. So it was like, first person, meaning you like I was in my body through your own eyes. Yeah.

Jesse 33:16

Do you think that's better or worse or indifferent if you visualize yourself from like the crowd, for instance?

Mathias 33:26

Yeah, I'm not sure. I think the goal of The goal of visualization is to prepare yourself for what's to come, and I feel like you see the game through your own eyes, so maybe preparing that way is beneficial, but there could be some cool psychological trick with doing it the other way around that I don't know, but that's just what I

Jesse 33:47

think, I think, I think,

Mathias 33:48

but here's the thing, I don't know if it's always Good to just only review the positive or yeah, to get yourself all hyped up. Like you're going to have a good game because there's never been a game in my life. I don't think it'll be in anyone's life where nothing goes wrong where you don't make any errors and you play perfectly. So I think that maybe visualizing things that could go wrong and the solutions to that and how you're going to respond to that in the moment could be super cool. I don't know when the time to do that is. Maybe it's not right before the game. Maybe you do just want to be building a little bit of confidence right before the game. But like you only get one chance at each game, but you can rehearse that game infinite times.

Jesse 34:38

Did I tell you guys about the distraction thing? Did we talk about that?

Oog 34:44

I don't think so.

Jesse 34:45

Yeah, tell us. I think TSS is what it's really, I think this is what you're talking about. And you can do this in a journal. Like I've done it in my journal too, but when we were, I think U16 or U17, Team Alberta, We were going to Canada Summer Games, maybe, or NTCC's or whatever, some tournament and we had a mental performance guy come in and he say, I want you to write down every single possible distraction that you can think of. That's going to happen between now and the last whistle of the gold medal match. And then we did that on one page and whatever, we all had like 30, 40, 50 things. Like there's a lot of distractions. And then on the other side of the page is how we're going to react or what we're going to do when those things come up. So then when that happens, you've already rehearsed how you're going to react and how you're going to process the distraction. So it doesn't become a distraction because distractions when it just detracts from Your path, but now it's no longer a distraction. It's a, it's a, all right, I'll deal with it and I'll move on. So I think that's some, it might be hard to do visually, but that's something I've done in a journal that I think could be really helpful to build mental tough. I don't know if that's mental toughness, but at least work on our mental gain.

Oog 36:02

Well, I think it's like mental stability. Yeah, being able to manage what

Mathias 36:06

comes back to Andrew Huberman He also has a saying that mental toughness is your ability to tolerate stress and still think clearly and those distractions are just little stressors On your on your life and then keeping your ability to think clearly would be highly or significantly enhanced if you've already prepared for what you're going to do and how you're going to respond to that. Same thing for visualization in games. When you've prepared for the stress, that allows you to think clearly. And what are some other things that you guys think that you can do? On the court, like, how can you tolerate the most amount of stress on the court and still think clearly?

Jesse 36:55

Well, I think just like trying to find a way to enjoy it. Like, we're saying stress as in like pressure, right? Are we saying these are synonymous? Yeah, yeah, I would, I would say so. Like we had, we had a saying in university that pressure was a privilege and like trying to enjoy a, That pressure and like there's very few people in the world that get to experience That kind of pressure and those feelings and those thoughts however scary they might be It's something that I think at least talking with guys that have retired or guys that didn't Play after university. That's something that you don't really get to experience outside of the sporting world and like really trying to enjoy those pressure moments because it It is a very special and unique challenge that you get to face, I think.

Mathias 37:58

Dude, 100 percent man. I think this might be the biggest thing that I've learned in my entire volleyball career. Like, number one out of everything. And that is using gratitude under pressure. Because, like, my relationship with pressure has changed a lot over the years. When I was little, I would try to convince myself that I didn't careabout the outcome of the game and that would somehow allow me to play free. And then, for example, in that national final 2022, I tried to convince myself that I was best rise above this pressure or something. And then there's one point I remember last year where I was serving. For the game in just a regular league game and I try to convince myself that the moment wasn't very big like oh, it's just a league game like it's it's university volleyball like I'll be playing pro and like so this doesn't really matter but that obviously isn't sustainable for when moments are actually big not that that moment wasn't big but I try to convince myself it was small and then finally I heard someone say that it's impossible To be grateful and stressed at the same time. And I was like, that's pretty wild. Um, let me try that. And for the last, this is how, this is how I was kind of able to, to play well last year at the end of the season. I didn't feel like I was actually setting. or playing volleyball well, but I just was able to stay so present because I had so much gratitude for those big moments when we lost in the semifinal of Canada or sorry, the final of Canada West. That's the most fun I've ever had in a volleyball game before. And we lost because. We were in a gym with like, I don't know what it was, 3, 500 people or something. It was so loud, like just the biggest moment. And that's what you dream of. Like when you're a kid, my example is like when you're shooting, shooting hoops, and I'm sure everyone has done this, is that you go, Oh, NBA finals, clocks counting down, 3, 2, 1, and you shoot that shot. So that's like, that's what you dream of as a kid is having that opportunity to perform under pressure. So, being grateful that that pressure is on you, that you're in that moment that you've dreamed of since you were a little kid. I think it takes it all away. And I've used that since like I've this year in France, I had to, I had to serve, um, on match point a couple of times and I would just be back there and heart's pumping, super nervous. And then I would just look around. I'll take a look at the stands full. I was like, I'm in France right now playing professional volleyball. This is literally my dream, my whole life. And then. Just be super grateful that I'm there in that moment and then all of the pressure dissipates.

Jesse 41:10

I love that. I got, I'm for sure implementing that into my repertoire of stuff.

Oog 41:19

How can you do that when your environment isn't something, like those are like ideal environments. But how do you feel grateful in a stressful or like scary environment when it's not something that you are grateful for at all, like, you know, like, yeah, I do

Jesse 41:42

series, for example, like the COVID year, like, yeah, that was stressful in its own way because yeah, like not stress as well. You don't know what I'm saying.

Mathias 41:50

I know what you mean. My

Jesse 41:51

favorite thing to do

Mathias 41:52

in those situations is to be grateful for the opportunity to grow. And this goes back to this AMCC thing that we keep talking about. It's like, this sucks, I'm stressed, I'm under pressure, but I know I'm gonna be better off by getting through this. So being grateful that something is, something is worth enough to be stressed about. You know?

Jesse 42:25

Yeah, that's fair. I think, uh, It's kind of to answer this question and also just a little bit to build off of Tia's, like, I think doing repeatable, doing and saying repeatable things in practice makes those high pressure situations a little bit less tense. Tes if you, if you're really, really struggling to serve, but you did a different serve every time in practice, and then you go back and you look and you enjoy and you're really grateful, but then you don't remember which serve to do because you did a different serve every day in practice and you had a different inner dialogue before every serve. Yeah. Maybe your, your gratitude will increase your chances, but you're still not gonna be able to like, yeah, I wouldn't say it exponentially increases your chances, but if every single servant practice you say the same three things to yourself. And you look at the same thing, then your, your body's going to take over in that moment because you're going to settle down. You're going to be like, wow, this is where I am. I'm in this huge game. And then you do the same three things you didn't practice. And then it feels comfortable. It feels like home. It's not high pressure and high, like, Wishy-washy. What am I gonna do? You know?

Mathias 43:48

Yeah, exactly. Because yeah, with nerves, like it's so hard to perform. It literally changes your physiology. Like sometimes you can get so nervous, you can't even move your arm the way that you've practiced so many times. Right. So, yeah. Yeah. It's not gonna help you perform better, but it's gonna help you perform at the level that you can, you know, it's going to in increase the odds of you, of you executing the skill well, if you can calm your, your body down in those big moments. Yeah, yeah, for sure. how do you guys, how do you guys deal with nerves pre game?

Jesse 44:25

I, I have a hard time remembering how I approached nerves a couple of years ago, but this year I tried really, really hard to just let my body do what it wanted. Or like, no, that's a bad way to describe it. Go about its natural course. Like there was a couple of games, like CB cup final, we're playing a psycho resolvia. Like one of the most historical volleyball programs in the world, and I didn't feel like eating, I couldn't nap, like I was anxious, my leg was like bouncing up and down, and instead of like fighting it, and instead of like overthinking, like oh I'm not hungry, oh I couldn't nap, I didn't get my, my 45 minute nap, like my body was, I, I understood that my body was preparing. And I was just like, all right, you don't want to nap. You don't really want to eat. That's okay. You're, you didn't forget how to play volleyball. I'm going to be ready. I've been training all week, really hard. We had a great team practice. Like I'm going to be ready. And this is just how my, my body's preparing because it's, it's, it's something big is about to happen and you just can't wait to get going, you know? Um, but then for me, nerves always went away as soon as I stepped in the gym, like with my roller and my ball and the nerves just disappeared.

Oog 45:59

if you're nervous, it's because like way back when we were prepared to go and fight a woolly mammoth, you know, and you're like, dang, I'm nervous, but I'm gonna, I'm preparing for battle. the nerves are all fabricated things that are there to make you get amped. But I think if you can turn those nerves into something positive, Like, I'm going to go in there and I'm going to do my best, This is going to be hard, but it's going to be fun. It's going to be hard. And then you get there, your nerves peak at a time where it's like, Hey, I am fully prepared to go. And like you said, if you let your body run its natural course, I think that, that peak is where it needs you to be in order to do your best.

Jesse 46:46

I think also understanding what you're nervous about is important.

Mathias 46:54

Yeah, yeah, this is, can I, can I, sorry, I'll let you finish your thought.

Jesse 46:59

No, no, I was, I think I was about to tee you up, T. S., because I think I know what you're going to say.

Mathias 47:05

Okay, well, I hope I'm going to say what you thought I was going to say.

Jesse 47:08

Well, if not, then I'll fill in the troops. Okay,

Mathias 47:11

okay. Well, this is I'm gonna read a text that I sent

Jesse 47:18

bingo bingo

Mathias 47:19

when I read a text that I sent to banjo after we won nationals last year. I mean, I've already said I had a really poor game the year before in the national final and I had to do so much reflecting and learning and growing to be able to go back there and to play and to win. And he asked me what I learned and this is this is what I said to him. Said to him, Sid, I was trying to nap before the final and I was getting the typical nerves and anxiety rushing through my head And I realized that was only because we might lose. I thought why would I be nervous to win a national championship? I realized that the fear of loss is more consuming than the Opportunity for victory and this causes most people to play to lose, play not to lose rather than playing to win So I shared this with the team and I think it really helped us because we weren't afraid of the game We weren't afraid to lose just excited to win And so I think this is a super cool reframe that I think really helped our team in that big moment, helped me in that moment and moment since. And it's kind of this idea that came from a coach when I was in U16, 17. He said, each situation is either an opportunity or a threat. Or you have the chance to view it as an opportunity or a threat. And another example of this is as a serving sub. That's one of the most nerve wracking jobs on a volleyball team. Because you go in there, you're not warm, you're not, you're not Engage in the flow of the game. You got to come off the bench, all the pressures on you. You have one job, you're in complete control of the result and you can view that as an opportunity to go out there and do something good for your team. Or you can view it as a threat that things might go poorly. You might miss. And I think that's a cool reframe to view those, those high pressure moments as opportunities to get what you want, to get the win, to play for the win and not be afraid of the loss.

Jesse 49:27

That's cool. I just had a thought we should do, we could do or should do a whole episode on like serving, serve subbing. I think that we definitely could. I think that would be cool because we've all been in that situation, right? Yeah.

Mathias 49:42

Oh yeah. Okay. Well, I want to go back to this nervous pregame because I think the thing to understand too, is that it's so common. Everyone is going to be nervous before a game. It's not, it's not something to get rid of, or to be afraid of, or that you're the only guy who, or girl who gets nervous before games. It's so common. You need to understand that. And like Jesse said, let it, let it run its course. Like Uke said, control what you can control. And one of my favorite things to do in any situation, when I'm stressed, Is ask myself, what can I do about it? So, this puts your mind in like a solutions based mindset. Instead of like suffering from this pressure and this stress, you, you're, you're coming up with, with answers to the question. And often times there's going to be a clear answer. And if the answer is nothing, then that's when you use your meditation practice and your letting go practice to, to let it, let it go. Um, And so, an example here is like, I'm stressed about the game coming up, what can I do? Okay, well I can review the game plan, I can take a nap, I can stretch, I can watch video, I can drink some water. There's so many things that you can do in that moment to maybe reduce stress or give yourself an edge in the moment. The opposite side of it is, I'm stressed about the grades that I'm gonna get back from an exam that I already took. There, in that moment, you ask yourself, what can I do about it? And the answer is nothing. It's done. And that's when you let it go. So it's either, the solution is either doing something about it or letting it go. That

Jesse 51:12

was really, really, uh, well

Mathias 51:14

described. Okay. One, one more thing here that I have that is super, super popular or prevalent in the game of volleyball that everyone needs to understand how to work through is resetting after errors, because that is mental toughness for real. It's, you don't need much mental toughness when things are going well. It's about, it's about dealing with those, with those problems in game in high pressure. So what do you guys do to reset from errors?

Jesse 51:47

I think I already kind of talked about the anchors.

Oog 51:50

Yeah, mine's a similar thing Like just talk, talk about it doesn't have to be anything. It doesn't have to be productive. But if you can talk about something, you're distracting your brain from thinking about negatives. If you, if you made a spike in error, hit out the back, what do you do right after? I'll go talk to Anselm and be like, Hey man, like that was a sweet set. I gotta hit that in the court. Like, and then I'll go and talk to Pierce, who's beside me, or Kyden. I'll be like, Hey, like, like dude, like that was a sweet pass. Like you set up, you set that up perfectly. Like that's all you. And then that way, when I'm getting back into my spot for that service heave, the second time, And I'm, I'm set up perfectly with everyone around me to be able to do the exact same action again, better. I think where I get into trouble is when I start thinking about stats. Like when you're thinking about stats mid game, you are deep in the cycle. But if you can just, just exclude numbers and only think about like the human side of it, and that you're, you're best prepared with the people that are around you, I think that's when you're going to be going to be set up for, for success. Well, I

Jesse 53:11

think me anchoring good or bad, it's a repeatable action. Ask a compliment or ask a question or give a compliment that gets me out of my head either way, whether it was a good action or bad action. But then also I've worked really hard to try and understand that it's just one point and it, it should not, although it often does, it should not affect the next point. Okay. And the previous point shouldn't affect the future course. Even if you get blocked on the same shot twice in a row, that's still only two points out of potentially a, I don't know, like 125 or whatever it is in a volleyball game. So like treating each point like its own game almost. is really important. But to be honest, I think I've gotten worse this year at resetting after errors. So that's something I kind of got to tackle this summer, I think.

Mathias 54:18

Yeah. It's a, it's a tough one, man. When, especially when you make repeat

Jesse 54:24

errors. Yeah. And like, I felt, especially in my last year at Trinity, I had like, this might sound cocky, but like, I knew I wasn't like, there wasn't a possibility that I wasn't going to start. The next night or the next weekend, you know, like

Oog 54:42

piss me off. I would come down the bench and say, Jesse makes one more error. You're going in. And then Jesse would make three errors and I'm still sitting on the bed,

Jesse 54:53

but like, it just gave me such a sense of like confidence that was fabricated a little bit, I guess. And that's kind of unrealistic, especially at the next level. Like it's pretty common that you're, if you make three errors in a set, you're going to get pulled. Like that's three points is a lot at the next level. Like a lot of games are one 25, 23, 25, 22, like that you could be the reason you cost them the set or the game. So I've been trying to find, figure out a way to find that confidence to play free, but I didn't do a very good job of it this year, I don't think.

Mathias 55:40

Same with you guys. This is something that I've not figured out that I'm still working through that I'll probably be working through for the rest of my career. But what I've been trying to do recently is just the separation of each action. So trying not to make adjustments on the skill based off of the last attempt at that skill. So, for example, if I serve one into the net, And then full rotation background serving. I'm not going to say last one was in net. I'm going to aim a little higher on this one because then I feel like you get in this cycle of making adjustments based off of errors when you know how to serve. So I'm not, I'm going to forget that last one. And I'm just going to pick a new spot on the court that I want to hit and hit that. And then that frees up your mind to use all of your, brain power in the decision making process rather than the skill execution. You know what I mean? That's cool. Um. It was a really good episode.

Jesse 56:50

Well, should we just

Mathias 56:52

kind of Well, I have the one last idea here that's separating how you feel from your competitiveness. Do you want to talk about that? What do you mean? Well, let me explain it and then we'll, we'll see if it's good. Explain it, my brother. All right. So this last idea is I think I've learned to separate how I'm feeling from my competitiveness. So in the past, a lot of times I would need to like eat the perfect amount, need to Feel well rested, need to have a good warm up, and all those things gave me the confidence to play well in the games. But that's pretty unrealistic. Sometimes you go into a game, and you just feel terrible. Like, one, physically, or two, like, your skills aren't as sharp. You're playing Pepper, and you can't even make hand contact. Like, that's just like a big kind of drag on, on how you feel the game might go.

Jesse 57:56

I remember before the national semi final, we were peppering TS, you and I, and I couldn't hit my hand, and you were like, Jesse, figure it out.

Mathias 58:02

That's

Jesse 58:03

funny.

Mathias 58:03

Yeah, but I feel like those things have no bearing on your approach to the game. And I think this is mental toughness, not letting those things have an effect on, on how you approach the game. And you don't need to feel good to win. You don't even need to play good to win. You just need to be present enough in the moment and stay competitive enough to give yourself a chance. I think that's kind of the

Oog 58:34

idea of mental toughness.

Mathias 58:36

That's perfect. That is cool. Alrighty. Well, I think that pretty much wraps up episode number six. This has been on mental toughness and dealing with pressure. So thanks everyone for listening and signing off.

58:57

Thanks everyone for listening to the Pit to Pro podcast. Give us a follow on Instagram and submit your questions to the link in our bio. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone you think will like it and subscribe to our show on Spotify and Apple podcasts.