teaching

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The other night, I watched on in admiration of England’s penalty-takers. It was an emphatic display of precision and courage. Perhaps, like you, I tried to imagine myself doing it. Dealing with the moment, the pressure, the decision, the technical skill.

I looked on, impressed by Bukayo Saka. A player who, not so long ago, had attempted and missed from the spot, and had felt the depth of the plunge beneath his error.

I wondered what must have been going through his mind and how he found the courage to return to the edge of the precipice. Seeing him possess the strength and power to be seemingly unaffected was amazing.

LIsten to this article here

Trust and Truth

Courage is on my mind a lot at the moment. I regularly speak to people who must find the courage to deal with their situation. All sorts of environments demand it. Courage will need summoning in your personal life, in your profession, in front of others and in private. But where does it come from? How do we get it? And once we have it, can we always rely on it?

I have spent a while talking to different sports people about courage. For them, courage would seem a common currency, one oft-discussed and admired. But in pondering the whys and wherefores associated with courage, I find myself returning to two well-known values that you need at your foundation: trust and truth. Without these, courage doesn’t flower.

To be courageous, you have to, at first, acknowledge the truth of the situation. You have to be honest enough to lay out everything that is in front of you; how much it might hurt, how tricky it might be, and how you might fail. There is little point misrepresenting the task you will have to take on.

This is not easy. In a way, this is your first courageous step. You need to admit that you are afraid. Courage is fear turned inside out. It is impossible to be courageous if, at first, you weren’t afraid.*

Vulnerability and weakness

There is vulnerability here: a willingness to accept weakness. It will be difficult to do but the benefit is a base point of truth. From which grows the trunk of our tree, the strength of our being. Think how vulnerable seeds are. Great towering oaks were all seeds once.

You need to accept the vulnerability and the fear. Let it into your world so that you can stand next to it for a while. Size it up and appreciate the things that make it scary to you. Accept that it might have hurt you in the past, and understand why that was the case. Take away the emotion and just look at how it did it.

All of this has to involve honesty. A truthful appraisal of the situation and your feelings towards it is the starting point. Once, and only once, we reach this point can we properly start summoning the power to make you courageous.

You see, the same power that made something frightening is going to make you courageous. You are just going to harness it differently. It’s a similar mental process but has vastly contrasting outcomes. Both are powerful, both feel real. One with the ability to limit, cower and restrict. The other will enhance, engage and enable possibility. It won’t guarantee anything, but the chances of success will be significantly improved.

Authenticity is key

Be careful of outcome bias. Courage is not defined by an outcome. Bukayo Saka was not courageous because he scored, but because he put himself, once again, in the position to score. It is not determined by an outcome, and should not be judged as such. This is why we see courage in fallen heroes; why the Victoria Cross and Medal of Honour are given out posthumously.

You can be unselfish with your courage, in an attempt to make things better for others but, in a way, courage is a selfish act. Determined by our willingness to remove fear, or the thought of failure, for ourselves. As such, courage must come from within and be authentic. It is very difficult to hide the truth about our thoughts from ourselves.

False courage, unsupported by inner belief, cracks easily and will see you crumble early. Courage must be a genuine thought propelled by absolute assurance from the self that it is the right thing to do.

Courage given to you by others does not stand up to scrutiny, either. This is the idea of courage being ‘a solo act’. We cannot be courageous just because others have been. It is ours alone and in being so, we must accept its truth, and completely align ourselves with our desire to stand up to our fear. And this is only properly achieved with the help of trust.

You need to trust in your ability. Given to you by practice, preparation, experience, visualisation and mindset. Having recognised the threat, the beating of it must be seen and believed in the mind. And this vision is often gifted to you by the experience of previous achievements.

Mindset is perhaps the most prevalent tool of those listed. Determination and resilience is seen most predominantly in those who have had no practice, preparation or experience of the situation they are in. Which brings us to…

Fortitude

Interestingly, this is how the classical virtue of ‘courage’ is referred. Fortitude requires patience and persistence, a willingness to persevere. Courage is cultivated in the time you spend practising and preparing to face the fear; in the moments you spend seeing and believing in your success, in the resilience and determination you show in pursuit.

Although carried out by you alone, being courageous can be achieved through others. Trust in those around you and gain trust from those around you. Courage can’t be given to you by other people, but they can create the environment needed for you to forge it. A team, a family, a circle of friends that also believe in the merits of your challenge and the truth of your mission can deepen your resolve.

Courage is ‘a solo act’ but is always better fashioned from a shared belief and understanding. If you can find others to face down the fear with you, it reduces the seeming size of the task and increases the joy of achievement.

TRUST THE PROCESS TO SUMMON THE COURAGE

So, most importantly, we must remember that courage is only really borne out of trust and truth. And to truly experience courage, we must at first have been afraid. If we are willing to recognise that vulnerability, be patient, persevere with practice and preparation, and surround ourselves with a group of people who can help nurture that belief within us, we will be able to become courageous.

This isn’t easy. And neither should it be. Any virtue worth attaining should always be difficult. But, like many things I have shared on this website, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it.

Keep being truthful, keep trusting the process and keep pushing yourself into situations where you need to summon courage.

*This is another Bob Rotella quote

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I was reminded recently of a glorious piece of mind control from the world of cricket. One that appears, on the face of it, to be daft, superstitious and reliant on a lot of luck. But when you break it down, it is actually a very clever exploitation of how everyone’s mind works.

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I spend time with young golfers looking to get the most out of their game. Golf is pretty special in the way it works with your mind. It is little surprise that some of the most eminent sports psychologists and mind coaches work in golf.

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I spent some time with Tommy Freeman recently. For those who don’t know, Freeman is a prodigious talent. Capped internationally over the summer for England, his club rugby is played for Northampton Saints in the Gallagher Premiership. He is a favourite at Franklin’s Gardens because of the way he plays: intelligent and fast but most importantly, he seems incredibly gifted at producing outrageous pieces of skill when seemingly most needed. Within just a couple of seasons, Freeman has firmly set himself into East Midlands’ hearts.

a coach looking his soccer players
As a coach or teacher, how much information do you give?

We talked for the well-known rugby publication ‘The Rugby Journal’ about his rugby journey and making his international debut this summer. One part of our discussion linked especially well to my work as a Mind Coach. We discussed how he best performed out on the field. Amongst the disorder and the fury of a top-flight game of rugby, he revealed what worked for him to access his best self. He talked about his mindset and revealed how top coaches had recognised the way that his mind operates and how they have changed things to suit him.

Now, we have to put this insight into context. Freeman is a distinct talent and plays a game that is incredibly fast-moving and unique. He has to recognise and respond to situations in a very quick and particular way. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t learn from him and apply it to how we do things. Listening to the way that he sets up his mindset is fascinating and can give us some interesting pause for thought.

Trust Your INstincts

Here he is talking about being in the game and trying to work out what to do:

“You can’t think about it; when you do it you haven’t got time to think, it happens too fast; you’ve just gotta read it, trust your instincts. Other people have it in different ways. Tiny things that most people would miss: Dingers (Fraser Dingwall), with his defensive reads, sees things almost before they happen. If I think about shooting up to intercept or whether I’ll sit back in the defensive line, if you think about it, the moment will have gone. Thinking about it isn’t very useful to me.”

For a brisk, chaotic sport like rugby union, perhaps this is understandable. But it links into a conversation I have with all sorts of different sportspeople about their mindsets. How their minds can overcomplicate things. Thinking about things for too long can bring confusing, almost contradictory messages and a feeling of sinking under a weight. They want to operate freely, without that burden.

Tommy Freeman in action for Northampton Saints

The less the better

Freeman went into more detail about how he is being coached. How certain coaches see the way he works and have actually removed him from situations where he might take on board information.

“That’s what Sam Vesty (Saints Head Coach) and Eddie Jones (England Head Coach) have both said to me. ‘The less you’re coached, the better.’ It comes down to me having to think about stuff on the pitch. Vesty said to me that I ‘make the easy things look hard and the hard things look easy’.”

“When I started in England camp, in training especially, I was so focused on doing what I was told and I don’t think I stood out. Outside of set plays, it is just rugby, and I had forgotten that. That’s why my second test match was better because I had started to relax and stopped thinking about what I was doing. I just started to become me and I started to make breaks.”

This is somewhat revelatory. But look at that last sentence: “I stopped thinking about what I was doing and just started to become me…” Sports coaches, especially in schools, spend a huge amount of time trying to pass on information.

And of course, there are players who are good at being able to deal with this, but I wonder how many are better the lighter they travel? Translated into the classroom, I wonder how many times we’ve tried to give kids too many pieces of information.

Rugby does have moments of coordination and structure: set pieces like lineouts and scrums will have specific things that players will need to know to operate as one. But outside of that? Freeman’s brilliance often appears in these ‘broken field’ moments.

Have a look at this bit, coaches actually excluding him from meetings:

“Sam (Vesty) tells me not to come to some Saints’ attack meetings. He doesn’t want to overcomplicate things for me. He says that he just wants me to see space and run into it. Just play rugby. It’s an incredible thing, a lot of players would dream about having that freedom. But the best coaches are the ones that understand their players best.”

“Vesty and Vassy (Ian Vass) know how best we attack and defend. That’s the difference. And that’s what you have to be as a coach: you can have the best ideas, best drills, best plans, but if you don’t understand your players and what skills they have then you’ll be playing a different game plan to the one that actually suits you.”

understanding players

This last part chimes incredibly well with the ideas and words of Owen Eastwood. If you haven’t read his fantastic book ‘Belonging: the Ancient Code of Togetherness’. I would recommend you do. Eastwood has worked with a lot of different teams in different sports and even sectors, working out how best people perform together. These words from Freeman around understanding players sound like they come from Eastwood himself.

In his book, Eastwood bemoans the idea that top sports coaches are tasked with creating their own plan and then getting the players to adapt to it. This is especially evident in football where the rather archaic nomenclature of ‘manager’ still exists.

The manager comes in with his way of doing things and everyone has to head in that direction, or leave. Eastwood feels it is the job of a top coach to work out how his set of players work best and look to find a style that suits the skill sets of the players in the team. And there’s a huge amount of logic in that concept.

Here’s Freeman again talking about his relationship with world-renowned Wales fly-half Dan Biggar. Again, ‘information flow’ comes up:

“It’s funny; he says to me that, during a game, I should do the opposite of what he says. He knows he talks a lot and says things to me, tries to get me to do things the way he sees them but then I will do them my way, the opposite way, and they work out.”

“When I’m fed lots of information it doesn’t really work, I think Dan knows that now. I am always looking for a cross-field kick, if there’s a bit of space I will back myself nine times out of ten. I have learnt to read his game quite well and I think he knows the way I do things.”

“He’s incredibly driven, a great leader, great vision and that’s what you want from your ten. But not everyone needs shouting at and maybe he recognises that about me!”

How much information should coaches unload onto players?

Nothing is the best Thing

What strikes me re-reading this all is how adept Tommy Freeman has become in recognising something in himself. He has understood how he plays best and rather than passing judgement on that, he has focused on what he can do. This is a great positive mindset.

He’s not saying that being unable to take on lots of information is a failing on his part, he is just saying that he does things differently. He knows how his mind operates and crucially, for him, either he’s been able to communicate that to those around him or they’ve had the ability to read the signs and change their behaviour.

So often, we can go into situations overloaded with information. And in an attempt to get it all into our lesson or performance, we end up somewhere in the middle. We aren’t able to be ourselves because of all the information, and we are not able to put across all the information because we are not ourselves.

I often think about this as a teacher at this time of year. Insets are amazing at loading you up with lots of information that you then have to carry around. ‘Just get to know your class in a fun and enjoyable way’ is probably all that is needed for the first week back.

Taking stuff away really helps. Not loading people with extra advice and instruction can make a real difference. Making tasks simpler and more straightforward can enhance the message. Making messages less laden with information can make them much more likely to stick.

And Tommy Freeman is a timely reminder to us all that sometimes in life, removing things to the extent where you are left with nothing but your instincts and skill, can be how greatness is achieved.

The full interview I did with Tommy is available in the beautiful Rugby Journal magazine. More information on how to get your hands on it is on their website.

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We want to make sure that teachers receive the same sort of performance mindset coaching that elite athletes do. At the bottom of the page, there is an extract from an article in The Daily Telegraph where George Ford, the England Rugby player, details how he uses MP3 recordings to get him ready to perform. I want to create that sort of thing for teachers.

We hope you enjoy them; they can act as the catalyst for you to take greater care of yourself and your mind. I split them up for ease, although you can also download them as one long recording if you would prefer. They work best listened to with headphones, perhaps at a time when when you can just focus on yourself and your thinking.

Audio Recording 1 – You the teacher, your monkey and control

Audio recording 2 – Your superpower and clearing the street

Audio Recording 3 – Being ready for the next child and the best version of your teacher

All audio recordings as one

The extract from the national newspaper – this is how top performers prepare

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I had a bad dream last night. One of the reasons that I am so invested in looking after other people’s mindsets is that I was, once, pretty beset by anxiety dreams. One returned last night. I now know what to do; how to deal with the subsequent feelings and thoughts I experience. Within a few moments, it was gone, dwindling like a match to its charred end.