Well Hello. How's it going? Welcome to your next video. This video is all about mental skills. So we're just starting now to talk about mental skills. And the big thing we're going to talk about today is self talk. Now this can be a big and sometimes a scary topic for athletes. Like you know... sometimes we are really good at pushing ourselves through workouts,

learning new techniques, moving our bodies, strengthening our muscles. But when it comes to working on our mind and stretching our brain, sometimes we don't want to do that. Do you sometimes relate to that? But I'm going to tell you that working on our mental skills is a very important and becoming a good athlete. Like when you are in the middle of an Ironman and you're,

 feeling tired and you're having all these thoughts rolling around your head, and some are telling you to keep going and then some of them are telling you to stop. Why are you doing this? You should just stop and give up. What are you going to do? And if you are not mentally tough at this point in the game, there's a very good chance that you may just say,

Hey, you know what I am done. I cannot do this. And I am going to pull the plug on this race and it does happen. And so that's why I want to teach you some mental skills that you can use to become a better athlete. As I mentioned in the beginning, the start of mental training is going to begin with self-talk.

So let's go into the PowerPoint and let's begin with self-talk. Okay. So mental skills, number one. Self-talk this is one of my absolute favorite quotes. I'm sure most of you have heard it, whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you are absolutely right. And that's by Henry Ford. This Picture here was from an ironman a few years ago.

And I used it as an ad because when I, when I first looked at this image, it really quite scared me and I could picture myself being somewhere in the middle of this swim pack. It looks like you're in the middle of the ocean, right? It looks very deep. You have a lot of people around you. I think you have a wetsuit on,

but I can't quite tell. And so the idea of me being in there evokes a lot of, a lot of fear in me. And I sometimes think, Oh my gosh, I don't want to be there. I do not want to do this. And so then I had to put up a counter counter to that negativity, and that was, I can do this.

I can do this. I've done this many times and I can do it. So I, you gotta change the way you're thinking. And this picture for me was perfect for that. Now you are on the road to success and you need to begin to listen to what you're saying and do not say anything that you do not want to become true.

Now, did he get that? So look, you were on their road to success, whatever you want to do in triathlon, you are on that road, on that pathway to get there, but you need to begin to listen to what you are saying and do not say anything that you do not want to become true. Ok, it's very Important. This picture Here is from Ironman,

Hawaii. And the winner is this, the male winner. This is Patrick Langham. And a quote that I I got from him was every negative thought needs a positive answer that motivates you to Keep going. I recently saw on his Instagram about a picture, about a picture similar to this. And he was saying that this was his, the biggest or the biggest success he's had in his life to date.

And so he is very proud of it. And it was very, very difficult. But as one of these defining moments in his life, this picture here, I think sums up a lot of things to Patrick. And the idea is that, you know what? Even this champion is going to have a lot of negative thoughts in his mind as well,

but you need to be able to handle it so that you can perform to your best. There's a lot of evidence to suggest that athletes compete the way they think and feel. Anytime you're thinking about something, you are in a sense talking to yourself, no matter how positively you perceive yourself, there will always be times when you think negatively or doubt your true capabilities.

I'm sure if you look at this picture in the bottom here, we all sometimes feel like this. Like, can you just, you want to just sit down, put your head in your hands and go, what the heck is going on? What am I doing? And what are my next steps? It's a common, this is a common picture that most people will have,

but how do you respond from this? And there's a lot of self-talk that happens in your brain that will get you back to standing on your feet. The picture here, this little cartoon is a guy shouting. It can be either shouting criticisms at you or shouting a great accolades. So we can be our biggest cheerleader, but we can also be our biggest critic at the same time.

So that's us, right? So you and me, just us for ourselves, we can be our biggest cheerleader, but also our biggest critic, right? So not other people, but ourselves now, since that is true about self-talk the first step that we have to do is to become aware of what we are saying to ourselves. Now, in the next slide,

I have an exercise for you to complete in a highly, highly, highly that's three highly recommend you take the time and go through it, because you are going to learn a lot about yourself by answering these questions. I can't answer them for you because it's all about you. Okay? Let's move on to the, so this is called the awareness exercise, and I want you to answer carefully based on your current self-talk okay.

We are going to change that over the time, and they might be changed after watching this video, but based on your current, self-talk answer the questions that are going to follow. The first one. When I talk to myself in training or in a race, what do I tend to say? What do you tend to say when you perform well? And what do you tend to say when you perform poorly?

Second question. What thoughts go through my mind? When I look at a hard workout that I must complete. I mean, that's a good one, right? I know. Sometimes I look at a work out and say...Gosh, I don't want to do that.  Or I might go.... Oh, I love this workout. I can't wait to do it.

I know it's going to be hard, but I just love it. And there's so it just that's the same person, but two different answers, like, ah, dread this one. I don't want to do it. Oh, I love this one. I want to do at, can't wait to do it. I know it's going to be hard.

It's going to be great. Number three. How often do you talk to yourself in training? So be honest, how often are you talking to yourself? Number four. How often do you talk to yourself in a race? Now, if you haven't done a race, you can skip this question, but I do like you guys to get out there and have a little stepping stone races.

So the next time you're in a race, go through the race and ask yourself, Hey, am I talking to myself right now? And what am I saying? So number four, how often do I talk to myself in a race. Now, prior to the race, during the race and post race. And what do you tend to say to yourself?

When you talk yourself out of doing something in training, have you ever been in a swim session or a run session or a bike session and you get halfway through and then you decide I'm not going to finish this. What happened in here that allowed you to quit? What did you say to yourself? Okay, Or, if you're going to change something,

if you want to do something less, if the workout cause for six Hills, but you only do four, what goes on here? What deals are you making with yourself that you're going from six down to four or alternatively say, if you have six hills planned, but you go, I want to do seven. What are you saying to yourself that makes you want to do more?

Number six when I use self-talk, I feel like I am setting myself up for failure or success. Number seven. I know what I say to myself affects the way I perform because, and fill it out. I'm going to have this, those questions available for you to print off. I really want you to take the time to print it off and write out the answers.

You're going to learn a lot about yourself as an athlete. And this is step one, of becoming mentally aware of what you're doing for mental skills or mental thoughts as you're exercising and racing. Its pretty powerful stuff. And I hope you do take the time to do it. And I do. I promise you, it will help you in the future to become a better athlete.

This video was all about mental skills number one, and this one was about self-talk and becoming aware of what are we saying up here, right? What are the good things, bad things. What are we saying? We're just becoming aware. Take the time and do the exercise. I will see you in the next video. Bye-bye :)