Bob Palmer's SportExcel Zone

How to choose a Martial Arts Program

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 19:11:00 +0000

SportExcel Training Tip: Away Game Performance

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 19:08:00 +0000

Own the Coaching Zone: Carrying the team with passion

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:41:00 +0000

A university coach recently described to me how a parent had invited a mental peak performance instructor to work with four select athletes. The coach was concerned that the seminar had been closed to the majority of the team, and wondered what impact this would have on the team.

Based on what he described, I told him that any program directed solely at young athletes would have a marginal impact. Most of the information would be lost in about 48 hours, simply because the most important component of education was missing for the athletes—the coaches.

Only working with the young athletes is generally ineffective. In my nearly 20 years of experience in this field, I’ve been frustrated by this time and again. The reason is twofold:

1) Coaches need to reinforce the concepts and strategies that are being taught, and,
2) Coaches need to have their own set of leadership strategies that will develop their coaching skill-set and set the tone (of the Zone.)

Elite athletes need coaches to be working on the same page as they are. For example, I teach athletes very effective ways of visualizing, and it is important for the coach to reinforce it. I also teach athletes how to overcome the effects of negative people, but experience tells me that immature athletes find it very difficult to overcome a negative coach. So, whether we are speaking of game skills or mental skills, coaches are crucial in the learning process. They need to own the coaching Zone so that they can emotionally carry the team.

Whether you are a coach, team leader, trainer, manager or water boy, high performance strategies can play a huge role in keeping your team in the Zone. Even parents have been known to sit in on my high performance training sessions, as initially encouraged by an Olympic Development Team Coach in Pennsylvania.

As a high performance trainer, once I get an athlete to buy into the high performance program, their change in performance is usually amazing. And when I get the coach to buy in, the end result is pure magic. Working with only the athlete is akin to building a structure without a foundation. By including the coach—and giving them specific strategies—I can develop an assistant who will reinforce the strategies for me when my workshop is over.

So, if you are a parent or coach seeking a high performance trainer, it is a good policy to ask: Who will you include in the workshop? And what strategies will we be learning to support our young athletes? Because we want to own the Zone, too!

Like us on Facebook
SportExcel

Follow us on Twitter
Website: www.sportexcel.ca

SportExcel High Performance

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 22:13:00 +0000

SportExcel to deliver high performance strategies to Edmonton’s Olympians and elite athletes

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 22:44:00 +0000

High Performance has changed and nobody told us. Trainer Bob Palmer of SportExcel brings high performance in sport into the 21st century with an innovative and successful systems-based approach. Athletes use it to get themselves in the Zone consistently. Coaches use it for motivational leadership.

Many teams these days are hiring high performance trainers to help them get their players to be consistent, from the beginning of the game to the end. But it is a hard role to play. “Athletes have very little patience with you,” says Bob Palmer, “If what you deliver is superficial, they refuse to buy in. And they need to get results “yesterday,” or your credibility is on the line.”

On January 29 and 30, 2011, Bob brings his energizing style of high performance to Olympic athletes and Olympic hopefuls in Edmonton. His approach is quite different from traditional sports psychology. As a matter of fact, it is not sports psychology at all, but rather an education-based system. It is made up of powerful strategies that get results very quickly.

“Bob has a successful record of working with athletes, as his approach is easy to understand and work into one’s games,” says Wynn Payne, a prone rifle shooter from Edmonton who recently attended the Commonwealth Games. “Bob has worked with several World Cup winners and Olympic medalists and is well-known in high performance circles.”

Whereas most other approaches concentrate solely on the athlete, teams now have the option to use a “whole team” approach. With this, athletes no longer operate in isolation. Athletes, coaches, trainers and even the waterboy learn strategies to create a team synergy, game in and game out. “Many problems simply disappear when you are in the Zone,” says Jason Caswell, an Edmonton resident and two-time Olympian, who has worked with Bob and won a silver medal in Delhi. “He teaches amazing strategies that fix virtually any problem. If you’re not fast enough? He has a fix. Not confident? He has a fix. Too easily intimidated? He has a fix.”

With Bob’s SportExcel system, athletes can learn to excel without sharing or opening up or being emotional—all things that many athletes find uncomfortable. He teaches strategies like a hockey coach would teach a player to shoot the puck better or a basketball coach would teach a layup. With his system, high performance is a skill, easy to learn and easy to apply.

In the last summer and winter Olympics, Bob’s athletes won gold (skeet shooting) and silver (snowboarding) and at the recent Commonwealth Games, four of his athletes attended and all four medaled. “Bob’s approach is judged on his record,” says Wynn Payne. “And that is why we are bringing him here on January 29 and 30.”

Contact Information: For more information or to register for this limited seating workshop, please contact Wynn Payne at 780-462-1029 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 780-462-1029 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or w_payne@telusplanet.net.

Beyond Winning - Setting outcomes for Competition

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 22:56:00 +0000

Read our latest article on 2011 Goals and Outcomes for your sport:
Beyond Winning: http://hubpages.com/t/1d3b23

People are the Problem

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:31:00 +0000

Check out our latest article on peak performance strategies for staying in the Zone.
http://hubpages.com/hub/People-are-the-Problem

Own the Zone - Own the Game

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:57:00 +0000

If I Stay in the Zone my Child / Athlete Will

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:56:00 +0000

Check out our latest article on how to stay in the zone with your child / athlete posted on Hub Pages: http://hubpages.com/t/16d08a

Knowing the Zone

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:17:00 +0000

As a high performance specialist, getting athletes into the Zone is as exhilarating for me as it is for them. That’s because, as a trainer, I have to be in the Zone in order to do it, and it FEELS good. The transition in athletes is amazing and easy for me to see, but they have to feel it. Recently, after only one training session, a figure skater and her mother returned for a second visit with huge smiles on their faces. Had she won a national championship? No. But, her wide smile and great posture would be her way of carrying herself from now on, on and off the ice. I could see the change the instant she walked through the door into my office. But could she FEEL it?

Some years ago, an athlete’s mother sent me some photos she had taken of her son between skeet shooting stations at the USA Shooting Fall Selection Match. When I’d first met this young man, he had had little confidence and would rarely look at me as we spoke. The picture told a different story. It was taken en route to his winning a berth on the National Development Team. I could see the change in him, but could he FEEL it?

After the GM of a baseball team grew tired of watching his team melt in tight situations, he gave me a call. His skillful and motivated athletes, who were young off-season college players, lacked the maturity and mental toughness of ex-major leaguers they were playing against. They were easily intimidated and looked pitiful whenever they fell behind in a game. In only a couple of workshops, with new confidence fueled by the Zone, they turned an average season into a championship one. I could see the difference, but could they FEEL it?

Being in the Zone is an incredible, on-going, personal, exhilarating experience. It is an emotional and empowering state of mind that is as relevant to a sporting career as it is to a job in medicine. To outsiders you display an incredible sense of confidence. Personally, you just know that you are going to do well. You FEEL it. Read more

Montreal Canadiens let themselves down first

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:40:00 +0000

The exciting ride of the Montreal Canadiens has proven my approach to training people over the last twenty years—stay in the Zone and you own it. Own it and you win.

When Montreal had nothing to lose against Washington and Pittsburgh and were just having fun, they won. But when they suddenly took themselves seriously and thought “Hey, we have a chance to lose this, they did.”

As a peak performance trainer, my role is to get athletes into the Zone—and to keep them there. In order to do that, I have to know when they are falling out of the Zone (before it becomes evident by score) in order to put the brakes to it. I do this by teaching the athletes, coach, assistant coaches, trainers and even the spouses in the stands specific strategies to make the Zone indelible—non-negotiable—normal—[add your own adjective].

Read more on the Montreal Canadiens: Click Here

Accelerated Healing—Too Good to be True?

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Fri, 21 May 2010 17:39:00 +0000

I get many clients with injuries that are constantly being reinjured. As a result, an unconscious fear evolves and it grossly affects their performance. And it is only natural. Touch a hot stove burner as a kid and you’ll never touch one again. Even if you want to touch one for some masochistic reason, your unconscious mind will make it very difficult to do.

This is an important reflex for us to have. We quickly associate pain with avoidance, in the same way we associate red with unsafe traffic intersections and green with safe traffic intersections. We are essentially conditioned by life.

Oops. There goes the game, as no amount of rational thought will help the athlete to overcome this. Thus, a hockey player with an inflamed shoulder will find his timing off when he tries to body check an opponent. A snowboarder with a partially dislocated shoulder will find hesitancy to commit to huge twisting jumps. A skeet shooter will eventually find his timing off by many thousands of rounds of the gun pounding on their shoulder.

The brain knows we are injured and it is designed to protect us. How does it know? Ask it. If you have an injured shoulder, ask the brain to give you an image of your injured shoulder and it will. It will show the shoulder as dark and perhaps red and perhaps larger (inflamed.) Ask your brain to then show you your healthy shoulder and you will see it as clean and neat and “normal.” The brain knows, and no matter how hard you work in physical rehabilitative therapy, your brain sometimes maintains this injured image—and if it maintains the image, that is as good as the injury will get.

Unless…you change the image. Click here to read more: Read more

Team Chemistry Gone Mutant

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:26:00 +0000

Great teamwork is team chemistry in action and you need that kind of chemistry to build a successful team. Montreal is a fabulous example of team chemistry gone mutant. Nowhere in the NHL manual of proper playoff protocol were the Canadiens expected to beat two champions. They were supposed to be fodder for the Capitals, and since that was a fluke, fodder for the Penguins.

The trouble with team chemistry is that it keeps getting better. In the biology of the brain the process is called myelination, where our brains build insulated pathways that improve brain performance. Practice your slapshot over and over and it gets faster. Play game after game at a competitive level and your comfort in critical game situations becomes consistent. Play do-or-die playoff hockey game after game and a certain comfort takes over. Montreal is growing myelin aimed at playoff peak performance and they are having fun doing it.

Whatever Montreal pulls off in the next series, they should be a model for every minor and professional hockey team of how to MENTALLY play (and coach.) They have implemented strategies that any team can learn and apply. And they are certainly a different team now, than the one that entered the playoffs.

Call it team chemistry or myelination, the next team they face should be worried.

Karate Kids Ban Bullies

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:16:00 +0000

With the remake of the Karate Kid movie about to be released, martial arts clubs are jumping on the bandwagon by touting the martial arts as a cure for bullying. And they should, because, by and large, children and adults benefit immensely from the self-confidence and self-esteem they get from the martial arts. However, as a karate instructor, I find that bullying usually stops before my students have the skill-set to adequately defend themselves. So what is going on?

Karate kids begin to transform, walking tall and displaying that confidence outwardly in posture. Their tone of voice grows commanding and their awareness of their surroundings becomes acute, and they hold their heads high. As well, most clubs have forms or patterns where students perform in front of their peers and gain confidence. And they have freestyle, point sparring where they learn to face an opponent confidently.

Once “karate kids” learn the posture of self-esteem and confidence, bullies often leave them alone. Bullies make that judgment in a split second by how one walks and talks. However, not all kids who are bullied have the time to take a martial art, especially if they are involved in highly competitive sports on club or travelling teams. But it is very easy for them to get the benefit of self-esteem and confidence, without having to pretend to be brave and “put on a happy face.”

Athletes in all sports can learn that same kind of posture in two ways:

1) By modeling or copying the posture of pros or Olympians in their sport or
2) By perceiving themselves as powerful in the face of the bully. It generally takes me two to three hours to help an athlete to stand up to a bully, and I’m talking only mental strategies here, not karate ones. Some examples are:

• The baseball batter facing down the imposing pitcher (or vise visa).
• The hockey player learning to keep his or her head up.
• The football quarterback calmly making the play in the face of a big defensive line.
• The coach dealing with aggressive parents.
• The athlete dealing with an aggressive coach.

As a karate instructor, judging from the pleasure I get from it, the sport is not to be missed. But if your child’s time is committed, the projection of confidence can be applied to any sport, even potentially hard hitting ones like football and hockey. As for the Karate Kid, it is not really karate, but I’ll enjoy it anyways.

Zone Signal

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:40:00 +0000

When I watch sports, one look at the posture of the players on the bench often tells me whether they are winning—upright posture—or losing—slumped posture. The Game runs their lives instead of the players running The Game. The Game is like a two-year old, throwing tantrums one minute and smiling at you the next. So, how come athletes let this happen? Because they think it is normal.

Well it isn’t normal and we need to control the game by controlling ourselves. We all have clear signals that tell us that we are in the Zone or not. And we can learn these signals and use them to guide us and prevent The Game from taking over.

Try this exercise: Imagine yourself at a busy intersection. The traffic light is red. GO THROUGH! If you are like most people, you feel a sensation that says, “DANGER, STOP, LOOK OUT!” An internal “gut” reaction tells you that it is unsafe. We all get this same kind of feeling in competition. It represents weakness, lack of skill, frustrated thinking, etc., and the game will run us unless we fix it.

Put yourself back at the traffic light. Now it turns green. GO THROUGH! You probably feel an entirely different sensation, one that says, “THIS IS OKAY.” You relax and feel at ease. This is our Zone feeling and it represents strength, skillfulness and clarity of thinking. We need this feeling at the start of our game—all game—and we need to get it back when we lose it, no matter what the score.

I worked with a high school volleyball team, and shortly after our workshop an opposing coach videotaped them in a tournament. The reason—she could not tell by their behavior whether they had lost or won a point. She wanted to use them as an example for her team as to how to stay in the Zone throughout the game—every volley.

Many athletes and teams expect that they can get this kind of Zone by building a winning score or healthy lead. Wrong. If you wait for it to happen, The Game will run you. And when it does, look out, it’ll be some kind of tantrum. Instead, learn your Zone signal, and you’ll be the one in charge.

Psychologists We're Not

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:54:00 +0000

An Educational Approach to the Mental Game

So what’s up with SportExcel? Simply this – our approach is educational not psychological. We teach sport strategies, just like adding and subtracting are school strategies. We teach strategies that are simple to learn, fun to use and results-oriented. With a strategies approach, change occurs quickly—days versus months or even years. More importantly, they are at an athlete’s fingertips 24/7, especially in the heat of the game.

Imagine your coach coming over to you after a really embarrassing mistake and saying, “You need to be smarter out there.” You’d probably feel even worse. But, what if you could fix the problem in less than the time it took for your coach to walk over to you? Would that be cool or what? What if you could use a strategy to copy a pro’s finesse or bring a person who just intimidated you down to size in your mind? And what if you could do this instantly as well? You would get back in the game pretty quick, wouldn’t you?

The SportExcel approach teaches athletes and coaches these kinds of strategies. If you can’t get up for your game—fix it. If you are frustrated—fix it. If you have serious butterflies—fix it. If an opponent’s goaltender stymies you—figure him or her out.

Equipped with strategies, you’ll become more independent and coachable. You’ll know from experience that every mistake makes you stronger, because you now have the tools to fix virtually any mistake. Imagine having that kind of power. You’ll learn to feel fantastic in your game, in school and in life.

The SportExcel program has been tried and tested in many sports: the martial arts, hockey, tennis, baseball, volleyball, skating, golf, baseball, basketball, snowboarding, football and the international clay target sports to name a few. Our athletes and coaches have won Olympic, international, national and regional events. The approach has even been tried and tested in the classroom, as many of our athletes are seeking scholarships. This is quite fitting, when you think of it, as it is an educational approach.

#2 Rule of coaching and playing: Learn to forget

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:56:00 +0000

All great athletes and coaches play their game in the moment. Thoughts about past losses and mistakes have no place in their memory banks. Let the commentators, fans and parents remember them—not the players and coaches.

One of my karate colleagues taught me to forget. He was unusually obsessed by his mistakes and losses. After the tournament, he would work for hours on techniques and strategies to overcome any weakness he had displayed in the competition. He literally transformed the bad memory into a success—a learning success. And he rarely repeated mistakes.

When you treat past mistakes as a gold mine, they are easy to fix. When you treat them as something that makes you sick (and it will often feel that way), you will avoid thinking about them. And you will learn nothing. Zero! Plus, the negative feelings could be triggered at the worst possible time by some well-meaning (or devious) coach, opponent, parent or spectator.

The faster you can learn to forget, the better. Quit those ‘hang dog’ postures or displays of self-pity. Instead, learn to get back in the game instantly. Your team needs you. One instant of ‘hang-dog’ can prolong your misery (and even bring your whole team down.) And that especially goes for coaches.

So start noticing how professional athletes and coaches move on from mistakes, and copy them. They’ll strike out, miss putts, have mental lapses or be down a few points—and you’ll still see a fierce determination in their eyes.

There are some very powerful strategies you can use to help you to forget. Some are so effective that they can permanently resolve post-traumatic memories involving car wrecks and sexual assaults. Now that’s powerful. If a strategy can do that, forgetting BAD sports memories would be a piece of cake.

Email me today if you’d like some help getting started.

#1 Rule for Coaches

bpalmer@sportexcel.ca (Bob Palmer) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:52:00 +0000

I was at a hockey game the other day and once again my #1 Rule for Coaches held true.

"When the coach stays in the Zone, the athletes will."

The young hockey players were playing their hearts out in a somewhat pathetic show of miss-steps, while behind the bench the coaches were slouching and showing signs of fatigue (and they weren't even the ones playing).

Something called mirroring is at play here. With any great leader you can FEEL their presence, their charisma, their incredible energy. We FEEL it and unconsciously mirror it back at them. Athletes mirror their coach. Employees mirror their boss. Audiences mirror the singer or performer.

Now this is a huge responsibility for you if you coach. Stop blaming your players. At no time should a spectator be able to tell the score by your demeanor, except to think that you are winning. At all times you need to display the sense of presence, charisma and energy of a great motivator and leader. I have gotten more coaches to be winning coaches by helping them with this simple rule.

In the hockey game, the players were playing with such little energy that the fans could feel nothing. There was no spark, no reason to cheer. Half the seats were empty. But think of it: every time a player sat on the bench between shits, he was influenced by a coach who was fatigued and defeated. It is only natural for them to mirror, especially since they don't even know it's happening.

Of course, like so many things in coaching, it's so easy to fix. For one thing, you can always act like you are winning and your athletes WILL feel the difference. And second, if that sounds too easy to be true, it probably is if you don't have some strategies to support it. I'll be giving you some of these strategies in upcoming blogs. Stay tuned or contact me.