From Nerves To Focus: The Practical Power Of Performance Psychology

Pressure doesn’t ruin rounds; untrained minds do. Today we unpack how performance psychology turns nerves into fuel and chaos into clarity, with practical tools you can put to work before your next tee shot. We trace the field from early research to modern routines, then translate the best insights into disc golf language: attention control when the card is noisy, emotional regulation when “nervous” feels like “excited,” and visualization that carries the disc all the way to the chains.

We share the learning targets that guide our practice—focus, goal setting, resilience, confidence, stress management, imagery, and decision-making—and show how to build them into simple habits. Think closed-loop routines you can trust under pace-of-play pressure, small-win stacking that rebuilds momentum mid-round, and strategic planning that frontloads choices so your brain can execute instead of overthink. You’ll hear how we use breathing, progressive relaxation, sensory check-ins, and mantras to get present; how we simulate pressure with team golf and match play; and how a 10-second fix from a trusted caddy can save shots without overhauling your form.

We also tackle misconceptions head-on. This isn’t empty positivity or a quick fix. It’s evidence-based training—visualization, cognitive reframing, and measurable goal frameworks—that complements your mechanics and amplifies your strengths. From biofeedback and slow-motion video to UDisc stats and post-round reviews, we outline low-cost ways to track progress and keep confidence honest. Along the way, we trade stories about slumps, gummy-worm celebrations, worst-shot rounds, and the quiet power of staying in your lane when a cardmate’s negativity tries to hijack your headspace.

If you’re ready to level up your bag and your mindset, start with one habit for thirty days and measure the change. Subscribe, share this with a cardmate who loves process and progress, and leave a review to help others find the show. Your focus is your edge—let’s sharpen it.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome, Updates, And Fan Shoutouts
• 2:57 Sponsor Messages And Partner Highlights
• 5:31 Learning Targets And Episode Roadmap
• 6:39 Origins Of Sports Psychology To Performance Psychology
• 8:51 Classroom Parallels And Everyday Applications
• 10:25 Key Concepts Overview: Focus To Decision-Making
• 16:40 Emotional Regulation And “Nervouscited” In Competition
• 20:45 Goals, Motivation, And Turning Failure Into Fun
• 24:13 Resilience, Feedback Loops, And On-Course Disruptions
• 28:26 Confidence Builders And Trusting Your Skill
• 31:14 Stress, Anxiety, And Composure Under Pressure
• 33:46 Visualization And Pre-Round Mental Rehearsal
• 36:15 Decision-Making Under Pace-Of-Play Pressure
• 39:05 Practical Tools: Anxiety, Focus, And Routines
• 45:12 Overcoming Slumps And Stacking Small Wins
• 49:31 Precision, Slow Practice, And Biofeedback
• 52:36 Consistency, Warm-Ups, And Mental Anchors
• 56:16 Strategic Thinking And Playing The Brain Game
• 1:00:11 Mindfulness, Relaxation, And Mantras
• 1:03:01 Goal Setting, Positive Self-Talk, And Celebration
• 1:06:05 Mental Conditioning And Pressure Reps
• 1:09:36 Learning Through Failure And The 10-Second Fix
• 1:13:06 Coaches, Trust, And Constructive Feedback

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 1:05

Thank you, and welcome back to this episode of the Intentional Disc Golfer Podcast. I am one of your intentional disc golfers. My name is Brandon. And I'm Jenny. And on this episode, we're gonna dive into the purpose of sports psychology, talk a little bit about how it's used, how it was discovered, and how you may be using it today without even knowing it. But first of all, we would like to thank our fans. It is the reason that we can keep doing this. You guys are the reason that we can keep doing this. So keep on listening. Tell all of your friends. And when you give us a listen, please feel free to leave us a little feedback or comment, help us defeat that algorithm. You can find us on social media at Soprinsky Discolf or just search the uh intentional discgulfer podcast. Or you can email us directly at the intentional disgulfer at gmail.com. That is the intentional discolfer at gmail.com. And after the episode, stick around because if we have any bloopers or outtakes, we do like to tack them to the end of the episode. Uh get a little laugh. And we would also like to thank our sponsors. Uh Jenny is sponsored by Prodigy Discs. So go prodigy. Uh Salty Unicorns. We also have Treasures of the Forest. And uh we had a few other sponsors this year from uh some of our tournaments, but we'll be uh plugging those in a little bit.

SPEAKER_01: 2:34

I just wanted to say hi. We're back. We missed you. It's been busy, you know, parenting, having jobs, playing disc golf, but we're back.

SPEAKER_03: 2:45

Yeah, I wish I wish that podcasting was our primary job, but you know, life life is what it is. Uh had an extremely busy season this year. We played almost every weekend. Uh had a lot of travel this year, more than more so than in the past. Yep. Alright, well, on that note. Like I said, this episode is about sports psychology, the origins, the history, and how you may be using it today without even uh noticing it. But before we do that, we're gonna have a few words from our sponsors.

SPEAKER_01: 3:25

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SPEAKER_03: 4:43

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SPEAKER_01: 5:42

Alright, today's learning targets for sports psychology. Have a basic knowledge of the origins of performance psychology. Understand the role of performance psychology and why it matters. Obtain a general understanding of the main areas of performance psychology, focus and attention control, emotional regulation, goal setting and motivation, resilience and coping strategies, confidence building, stress and anxiety management, visualization and imagery, and decision making under pressure. Learn some useful tools and tricks for applying each of these areas to your game. Discuss common misconceptions and objections, and hear from the hosts on how they've used performance psychology in real time so you can apply it to your next game.

SPEAKER_03: 6:39

So, some background on sports psychology. It really was birthed at the dawn of the 21st century by a gentleman named Norman Tippett, who noticed that there were differences between cyclists when they were practicing, say, on their own and performing with other athletes. And he wondered to himself, hey, maybe this could be a mental difference because there's no no physical changes that I can discern. And then moving into 1925, the studies and uh inquiry was increased by a gentleman named Coleman Griffith at the University of Illinois. Uh my grandfather's a moder, so go Ilini. And he released a couple landmark works that are still uh used today, called The Psychology of Coaching in 1926 and The Psychology of Athletics in 1928, which talked about the mental and emotional challenges and the training thereof of elite athletes. Now, sports psychology lost a lot of traction coming into World War II and the Great Depression because a lot of the scientists and a lot of the funding was going towards funding the war. Resources were pretty scarce until it re-emerged again in the 1950s when a lot of Eastern Europe Soviet Union states started using sports psychology to train their athletes, and the results were so dramatic that oftentimes they were accused of cheating in international competition. Then in 1965, the International Society for Sports Psychology was born, providing a global platform and forum to further develop sports psychology and study in the field. But then they realized that sports psychology wasn't all of it. This was actually had broader implications for business, teaching, high-level, military, uh public schools, and also benefits for kids. So that is how the sports psychology ballooned out into the term performance psychology, which is now known as today. And so whether you know it or not, sports psychology, performance psychology is interwoven into your everyday life and everything that you do. And I know for a fact that Jenny, you've used this being an education to get pr to get kids to perform and and solve different problems and things of that nature. Can you talk a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_01: 9:06

Yeah, when I teach math, kids come in with the belief that they hate math and I've been able to get them to realize that uh video games are math, playing music is math, you know, doing art is math, uh it's problem solving. The best way that I've learned uh to teach kids is to get them up, moving around, interacting with things on more of a physical level because that really gets them involved in actually problem solving. So key concepts. My understanding is that we're just going over some of the key concepts. We're not going into anything with any sort of depth. And the plan is that we're going to discuss all of these in separate episodes that will be coming up. But so this is like our introduction to the next couple of episodes. A lot of these topics I've had uh people come up to me and ask me, you know, how do you control yourself? What have you been doing? What have you been working on? And that's what my uh the nonprofit Mindful Flight Stronger You is going to be focusing on in great depth about these different key concepts about sports psychology and how you can uh relate them to your actual daily lives. So focus and attention control is uh the first topic we're gonna talk about, which is developing the ability to maintain attention on the task at hand and avoid distractions. Unlike what I do when I podcast, I'm always distracted. Uh techniques like mindfulness and keywords are used to enhance focus during high pressure situations. The second one is emotional regulation, which is managing emotions such as frustration, anger, or excitement, yes, even excitement, to prevent them from interfering with performance. Techniques like mindfulness, emotional labeling, and self-compassion are often employed.

SPEAKER_03: 11:06

Interesting thing about that is that there's a lot of crossover between emotions, like say anxiety and excitement are chemically the same, you know, the same reaction in your body. It's just how your mind interprets it. So that's getting into a little bit more of that later on.

SPEAKER_01: 11:23

Well, that's why I came up with the term nervous sighted.

SPEAKER_03: 11:26

Nervous sighted? It sounds it sounds like something you spray on your crops to get rid of grasshoppers.

SPEAKER_01: 11:31

That's not what I thought you were gonna say. Well, uh, anyways, because of that, I I that's a term I use in my head when it's like I'm so nervous, I'm scared, but I know that nervousness and excitement present the same in our bodies. And one aspect of this is that uh when Brandon caddies for me, or when we're getting ready for a tournament and he's bouncing around like a chihuahua, and he's just so excited, he's like, Man, I'm gonna kill it. I'm so excited. I'm like, dude, level. No, no, no, no ups, no downs, just keep it level. Teeter totter is level, so that he has a really hard time with not going to the excitement of, oh man, you're so close, you're gonna kill it, like you're doing so good, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's just all this energy, like I can feel it inside me right now. It's like, no, who's uh.

SPEAKER_03: 12:22

I just, you know, I just honestly, I just love watching you play because you're you're so good and you hit all these really big shots that a lot of people can't hit. And it's it's really exciting for me.

SPEAKER_01: 12:33

I get it, and that's why it's gonna be a lot of fun to work on this emotional regulation over the next year with you.

SPEAKER_03: 12:41

Ouch. I'm not sure whether to be whether to blush or be deeply offended. You chose the topic. All right, next one. Thanks, dear.

SPEAKER_01: 12:53

Goal setting and motivation. So, goal setting, we actually talk about in one of our very first episodes about SMART goals. So uh goal setting, establishing clear, measurable, and attainable objectives to maintain focus, increase motivation, and track progress. Effective goals are often smart goals, specific, measurable, achievable, or attainable, relevant and time bound. And motivation, understanding and cultivating intrinsic, which means internal satisfaction, and extrinsic external awards, motivation to fuel consistent effort and persistence. Athletes are encouraged to align their goals with personal values and passions. That is one area that uh the external rewards of disc golf bingo, it takes a lot of those negatives and makes it positive.

SPEAKER_03: 13:51

About this disc golf bingo thing.

SPEAKER_01: 13:53

I love it. If I could take a negative and somehow turn it into a positive, it just quickly I'm really into studying the constant failure of playing golf. Disc golf specifically, because I can't golf. Well, golf is a sport of failure. Right. And so taking those failures and making them positive, watching that change, like it it's crazy.

SPEAKER_03: 14:15

Which event were we at this year where they played the dot game? I thought that was really great. It was one of the ladies' events where they played the dot game where you hit the metal and you get a dot, and whoever had the most dots.

SPEAKER_01: 14:27

Was it at uh Was it Ladies of the Lake? No, was it maybe? I'm not sure. Yeah, because I think Melissa and Kayla really liked the dots game, so I think Melissa had us play the dots game. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 14:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 14:42

But then we asked, Does metal of a signpost count? Or does it have to be the metal of the basket?

SPEAKER_03: 14:48

Which part? All I remember about that is I rocked the porta potty with a disc.

SPEAKER_01: 14:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_03: 14:53

That was the highlight of my weekend. It's like I launched this monster drive and it hit the porta potty and scared the crap, literally, out of somebody. And uh I found my disc laying up there on the road. But yeah, that was at Rat City Rumble. Yeah, that was the day after. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 15:09

All right, back to uh key concepts of sports psychology. Uh speaking of it, resilience and coping strategy.

SPEAKER_03: 15:17

When somebody hits your porta potty with a disc, what do you do? What do you do? How do you cope with it?

SPEAKER_01: 15:23

How do you how do you persevere through that?

SPEAKER_03: 15:28

Pinch it off.

SPEAKER_01: 15:30

Run for the hills. Stop with the potty tuck. We're not teenage boys.

SPEAKER_02: 15:35

Developing for yourself.

SPEAKER_01: 15:40

Where's James? All right, uh resilience and coping strategies. Developing the ability to recover quickly from setbacks, maintain effort in adversity, and adapt to challenges. This includes building coping skills and maintaining a growth mindset to embrace failure as a learning opportunity. Or as a means to success.

SPEAKER_03: 16:04

So when you're trying to concentrate and then you hear a loud bang on the outside of your porta potty, how do you recover from that?

SPEAKER_01: 16:14

Or it's more when you're on the T-pad and you're trying to throw and you hear somebody yell in the middle of your throw, which we go back to the Joel Turner episode of where you're at in your feedback loop. Are you in a place where you can stop or not stop? How do you cope with that? The open and close feedback loops.

SPEAKER_03: 16:31

Yep. Yep. So back to that episode. Yeah, if you haven't listened to the Joel Turner episode, that was our highest performer of the season so far. And uh I still listen to it. It is so good and so helpful with so many things.

SPEAKER_01: 16:45

All right. Confidence building, uh, enhancing self-belief through positive self-talk, past success reflection, and mastering new skills. Confidence boosts performance by reducing doubt and fostering a can-do attitude.

SPEAKER_03: 17:01

And I find that confidence just you know, in the moment and the practice, having that confidence, everything just seems like it's kind of easy and it just kind of flows instead of having to try to force different aspects of your game or your technique.

SPEAKER_01: 17:19

Mm-hmm. I think I talked about it in a previous episode too, that um I think it may may have been that Joel Turner one too, when I s shared that sometimes I'll go up to Putt and be like, I have no confidence, and it's like, but I have skill. So as long as I have whatever that thought is to uh dissuade myself from the negative feedback loop and bring it back to positive, that helps me to build back my confidence.

SPEAKER_03: 17:48

Well, and it's interesting that you bring that up because I've started using that as well, where when I'm not feeling confident in a shot, I go up there and I say, you know what, you have the skill to be able to do this, and whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen. So just rely, you know, trust your skill, trust in yourself, and in in sometimes it becomes a you know an exercise in trust and just trusting your abilities.

SPEAKER_01: 18:12

Mm-hmm. Alright, the next one, stress and anxiety management. So sometimes that we can all learn from learning to regulate physiological and emotional responses to pressure using techniques like deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and cognitive restructuring. These strategies help athletes stay composed under stress.

SPEAKER_03: 18:38

And I think this is maybe one of the biggest ones because we live in the age of anxiety. There's so much pressure from everywhere, from our jobs, from our families, from our kids, from social media, social different social things. I mean, whether or not you pay much attention to it, it does still affect you. And all these little drops in the bucket can snowball. And then when you get into a higher pressure situation where it breaks that threshold, it just kind of all comes out at once. And so it's like it's like a breaking the dam or like opening the floodgates. It just kind of happens. All of this stuff that you've been burying or keeping subdued, it once that once the seal's broken, it's just it's game on.

SPEAKER_01: 19:22

The next one, visualization and imagery. Using mental rehearsal to create vivid images of successful performance. This helps athletes mentally prepare for events, improve confidence, and refine skills by practicing them in the mind. So I am going to be adding on, um, it is my plan to create some discal specific affirmations, um meditations that you can use the first 10, 15, 20 minutes of your routine to help you really get in the mindset. Um, I'm also Hoping to build some lessons through Mindful Flight of uh the night before some of the visualization activities that you can do before you go to bed to help you prep for your tournaments.

SPEAKER_03: 20:12

Yeah, and we have uh a really big episode on visualization coming up because it's probably one of the most powerful tools in performance psychology that you can use. And if you go back to our live episode, you hear, I believe it's Casey White talking about how he visualizes the shot all the way until it stops moving. And then Eric Oakley comes in and says, Hey, you know, sometimes they even go as far as me picking up my putter and taking it out of the basket and we're and going to the next hole. So we're gonna really get into how to use those tools and how to powerfully manifest the things that you want to do out there in the course.

SPEAKER_01: 20:55

And the last topic is decision making under pressure. Developing the ability to make effective and timely decisions in high stakes or rapidly changing situations, this involves honing problem-solving skills, staying calm, and processing information efficiently under stress. I will say that with the uh pace of play requirements for PDGA and being able to perform in those higher stanks, uh, especially if you're at a master's event, and let's say that you have a Marshall following you around with your whole card, uh, that's something that I'm going to be sharing our personal experiences with at a later episode. Um, but having to perform under that level of stress and being able to make the best decision under that kind of pressure. Um if there's a way you can practice it by just shanking your first shot and realizing that hey, doesn't matter where it landed, I can still recover because I'm really good at scrambling, like that's kind of a pretty good way to practice decision making under pressure.

SPEAKER_03: 22:02

I was gonna say that maybe we should go out sometime and play a round of worst shot. It's kind of like dubs, except you take the worst shot and worse shot and worse shot, and you play to see, I don't know, kind of like I don't think it's highest score, but just to kind of hone your skills and like get in as much trouble as you can.

SPEAKER_01: 22:21

Yeah, and and we do that sometimes where you'll throw a couple practice shots and it's like, oh well, I've never landed here. What does it look like to throw from here? Um, but if we're gonna do worse shot, I don't want to just keep playing your shots, dear.

SPEAKER_03: 22:35

Alright, Jimmy. I'm I'm visualizing right now you in a deep dark hole, like fairgrounds, in the valley, way down there. Yeah. Yeah. By the road? By no, by the river. In the van down by the river. Mm-hmm. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01: 22:56

I was thinking of the following hole because I actually liked the area of that first one. That one's not bad though.

SPEAKER_03: 23:02

No, once you get the line, and you get good enough to hit the line. Anyways. But I'm not good enough to hit the line all the time. You know there's a sidearm line through there? I don't have a sidearm.

SPEAKER_01: 23:13

Why would I know there's a sidearm line?

SPEAKER_03: 23:15

See, this is this is that visualization and confidence that we're talking about, is that you actually do have a decent sidearm.

SPEAKER_01: 23:21

I mean I have enough that I can use as a get out of jail free card once every three games, yes. And that's that's do I have a sidearm that I'm confident like no.

SPEAKER_03: 23:33

If you that and that we've talked about it before, that's all you need is like for your game, you're so proficient with shot shaping and everything. In the backhand, if you had a controllable 100 foot sidearm just to get out of trouble, that's all you need. Right? And so, like, if you like that's something that you could concentrate on and develop rather quickly because it's not that it's not that technical of a shot. I'm not gonna say it's not that difficult because everybody has different capacities, but it's not that technical.

SPEAKER_01: 24:07

Alright, so with the key concepts of sport psychology, focus and attention control, emotional regulation, goal setting and motivation, resilience and coping strategies, confidence building, stress and anxiety management, visualization and imagery, and decision making under pressure. We'd like to give you a couple of practical applications that you could actually use right now before we go into our big in-depth uh episodes. So the first one we're gonna hit is performance anxiety. Uh application, you can recognize physical and mental symptoms of anxiety and address them proactively. So it takes a moment for you know, you have to go through the process of recognizing, hey, this is what I'm feeling, and then attach to it uh some words, some language, some thoughts, some processes of what you can do once you've recognized that physical and mental symptoms that you're having.

SPEAKER_03: 25:06

So a big a big tip off to this that you that you use, Jenny, yourself, I know that you monitor your heart rate.

SPEAKER_01: 25:14

That is something I've started doing, yes. I I now uh monitor my heart rate, and it's not it's not like I look at my watch and check and see where where my heart rate is at, but I can feel when it's going too fast and I try and bring it back down to a tempo that I use for my walk-up. So some tips with performance anxiety. Practice deep breathing or progressive muscle relaxation, use cognitive reframing to turn nerves into excitement or just to calm yourself down. That's what I would prefer. Uh develop a pre-performance routine to create consistency and familiarity. And I actually just saw um I want to say it was a Rebecca Cox quick video because she's working so hard on her game for the next upcoming season, and she keeps talking about that I'm going to do the same routine. So something I think we've discussed is that you will go up there and just putt, putt, putt, putt, putt, no change, no movement, whatever. But if you really want to practice, like that's good for one thing, but if you really want to practice putting in a uh performance environment, you need to go through the whole routine. Uh pick up the disc, put down the mini, go through, get in your stance, do your practice shot if that's what you're gonna do, or how Paige Pierce does her uh wrist flick and come up with what does that look like for you so that you are familiar with it, you've done it a million times, you hit that 10,000 repetitions of that practice, and so you just go straight into your routine and it becomes is that a what what did Joel Turner call it?

SPEAKER_03: 27:04

It becomes a closed loop information system. Yeah. So it when you're so deep in your routine that it's just automatic, that's the closed loop information system. Yeah. Just real quickly to to you know touch at that a little a little deeper, is that you know, break it down to little simple things. Like you said, something as as mundane of setting down your mini and picking it back up. You know, that you can work on that one little aspect and get that locked in. So like put down your mini, walk up, get in your stance. Don't even put the disc. All right, pick up your mini, move it, walk up to your mini, get in your stance, and just work on getting into that space over and over and over again, however many times it takes until it's locked in.

SPEAKER_01: 27:54

Uh, the next one, maintaining focus.

SPEAKER_03: 27:58

You should be talking about this. This we're gonna Yeah, maybe you should write that episode.

SPEAKER_01: 28:04

I will.

SPEAKER_03: 28:04

Oh, yeah?

SPEAKER_01: 28:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 28:05

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 28:07

I bet. Good thing the dogs can't hear that. Maintaining focus. In application, you're gonna train your mind to stay present and manage distractions. So, one of the tips, one of the things I actually do is I got a pair of the loop earplugs that have the I think it's called the switch, where it has three different levels of uh noise blocking, noise canceling, and that really helps me to maintain my focus because I'm able to deal with those uh noises, those comments, those sounds in the background, and really maintain what's going into my head.

SPEAKER_03: 28:50

So, like a little sensory deprivation as kind of a tool.

SPEAKER_01: 28:53

Yeah. Yeah, because I'm already dealing with enough nerves throughout my body, so if I can get rid of that sensory of the stuff that I'm hearing, it helps. Uh, but some of the tips, some things that you can practice right now, use mindfulness techniques to enhance present moment awareness. So being aware of, you know, what are my feet touching? What do I hear? What am I smelling? Uh, maybe you're drinking your favorite, like liquid IV or coffee or something. What are those things that really connect you to the present right then? You can also employ focus cues or keywords to bring attention back to the task. Um, I don't have any good examples of that. I know of the words that trigger me. So I could probably like woosa? No. Oh. Think of the words that uh, you know, I don't have any words yet, but I know it's words like amplify it further.

SPEAKER_03: 29:45

Like uh Well, like Joel Turner says, is like in order to override that motor system, a lot of people use the the phrase let's go, or here we go.

SPEAKER_01: 29:55

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I quit doing that.

SPEAKER_03: 29:57

Well, I know, but it's just it's a it's a common use. I know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 30:01

Yeah. And then uh we can break tasks into smaller steps to reduce overwhelm. So uh sometimes when I'm throwing and actually with all the new power I've gotten, I'm realizing that hey, I just threw past the basket 50 feet. It's gonna take me probably two more strokes to get back. So I'm already planning. I, you know, I'm gonna try for the par, but I'm probably gonna get a bogey or something. So just realizing that, hey, that's the that's the present moment I'm in, that's what I need to learn, and that's what I'm gonna work through. All right, the next one overcoming slumps. Application, identify underlying causes, could be mental, physical, or technical, and rebuild confidence gradually. Again, it's not gonna happen in one shot, in one game. It may take months, years, weeks, who knows to rebuild that confidence.

SPEAKER_03: 30:59

Well, and one of the one of the techniques that is used commonly, and we've talked about it before, is getting a small win. You know, pick pick some aspect that is relatively attainable, maybe a little bit of a challenge, not too much, but something that you can accomplish in short term that you can start building off of. It's kind of like the make your bed in the morning concept. You make your bed in the morning so you can start the day with a win, and then when you come home at night, you know that your bed's made and you're good to go.

unknown: 31:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 31:30

And that just gives you a foundation to build off of.

SPEAKER_01: 31:33

Uh, so the first one says set small achievable goals to regain momentum. Uh there is research that once you hit three wins, you're on that upward trajectory. So making a good putt, or even just making a putt, that's the first one, having another uh good shot, hitting that third one, maybe have an amazing approach, and you've hit three positives, and that puts you back on that positive trajectory. Uh the second one is to reflect on past successes and restore confidence. So thinking of man, I was in the same situation when I was at that other tournament, and I did really well at that, so I'm confident that I can make this happen again.

SPEAKER_03: 32:17

One thing that I use all the time when I'm out there on the course is that, you know, I'll see a line or a shot and I'll say, you know, this is the exact same shot as hole two at Freddy's, or this is the exact same shot as hole five at NAD Park. Right. And I'll I'll relate those different things because those are places that I've had success before in the past, and that I'm confident in those shots and that I can replicate them with a high level of success.

SPEAKER_01: 32:44

And the last one, change routines to break negative patterns. So uh I have uh played with some people that will do a 30-second dance party or something, or I'd say do the Taylor Swift and shake it off uh to physically enact um a physiological change in your body to shake some of that stuff off. On the opposite side, some of the wins, we played with a couple people who every time somebody got a birdie, they gave out gummy worms. That was awesome. Everyone was like, I want more worms, and it was for the whole card. It wasn't just for them, it was for the whole card. Someone got a birdie, so everyone got worms.

SPEAKER_03: 33:26

That was a fantastic idea. I love it. Even the caddies got worms.

SPEAKER_01: 33:29

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 33:30

Yeah, that was a worms for birdies. I like that.

SPEAKER_01: 33:33

Yeah, I'm more of a gummy frogs person, so I must be a birds eat frogs. I know, but it must be a bigger bird that can eat a frog.

SPEAKER_03: 33:42

I don't know. There's some tiny frogs out there.

unknown: 33:44

I know.

SPEAKER_01: 33:45

All right. Uh something else you can work on is your precision. So the application, fine-tune your motor skills and mental acuity for accuracy. Here's some tips on how to do that. Incorporate visualization to mentally rehearse precision movements, slow down practice to focus on technique, and use biofeedback tools to measure and improve control. I would say even videotaping yourself and watching yourself on that slow motion could be considered a biofeedback tool to help with your control.

SPEAKER_03: 34:21

But and a couple things on that, you know, we'll go way deeper into it when we get to our visualization episode, but you can actually when you mentally rehearse something, your synapses and your muscles and things, you can actually measure it where they will fire off just exactly as if you are performing the action. So if you've ever done something for a while and be like, oh, okay, I'm gonna take a break, you wait on it for a couple days and you come back to it, and you all of a sudden you're like, you're killing it. That's why is because your brain never stops making those connections.

SPEAKER_01: 34:55

All right, another one is consistency, and I have gotten a nickname of uh Miss Consistent when it comes to disc golf. Uh, the application build repeatable habits and routines for reliable performance. So, some tips on how to create that consistency. Create a consistent warm-up and practice schedule. Brandon wants to be at every tournament like an hour to an hour and a half, if possible, before he plays so that he can go through his full warm-up routine. I, on the other hand, know that I will wear myself out if I warm up that long. So I save mine to be like 20, 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_03: 35:41

Well, and every time I go and do my full warm-up routine, I I've developed a full warm-up routine in an abbreviated warm-up routine, and every time I do that, depending on the time frame, it's always exactly the same. How about how I stretch my muscles, how I go through my bag, how I practice my putting. It's always exactly the same. So if I can go through that, it really puts me in a nice spot for when we start the tournament.

SPEAKER_01: 36:06

And uh on the new website we are building, finally, I'm sure that we can offer some uh uh warm-up routines that both of us have created, and you can pick and choose your own. So, some tips. Create a consistent warm-up and practice schedule, tracked performance metrics to identify patterns and improvements. So we like to use the full score in PDGA live to track uh how our our where our drives are landing, where our approaches are, whether we make our putts. Um it does take a little more effort when you are playing the game, but it uh gives you some good information, some good data. I know a lot of people also do the same with UDISC when they are playing, and they will track it that way as well. Uh, but those are some things you could look at using. And the last thing is use mental anchors, for example, specific thoughts or rituals during the performance.

SPEAKER_03: 37:06

For example, that here we go thing, like right before you're about to throw. Okay, here we go, and then you start getting into your routine.

SPEAKER_01: 37:15

It can be that. It can be uh that you always pick up your chalk bag with your left hand and you hold it while you're throwing. It could be um, you know, maybe you count a certain amount of times in your head. That's something I do as a drummer. I, you know, I've always been taught about counting in my head, so that works for me.

SPEAKER_03: 37:37

You spin your disc. I do. I've started four or five times?

SPEAKER_01: 37:41

Um I spin my disc. So I I I step up to the teapad, and we can videotape this and add it to our site, but uh I go up to the thing, I spin my disc uh three or four times. If I'm not confident, I may spin it like eight, nine, ten, but I'm counting the whole time I throw it until I've can I've connected to where I want it to land or what I want it to do. And then I actually count my steps in the rhythm to the my heartbeat of that's that's what I use. That's just my routine. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 38:15

If it works, it works. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 38:17

Uh the next one is strategic thinking in application, enhance decision-making skills during gameplay or competition. So you want to make as many decisions ahead of time as possible. I know we talked about carrying around the caddy books and actually planning out your tournament. Um, we've gotten to be uh on the card with players as they're doing uh practice rounds and hear them talk about, or even if you watch some of the videos of their practice rounds, how well it's all about the landing zone. Where do you want to land? Where do you want to be at? So make as many of those decisions as you can before you're in gameplay.

SPEAKER_03: 39:00

Well, and on that note, too, you talk about visualization and rehearsal and and practice. When you look at very high-level athletes, they've actually done brain scans of the high-level athletes and have done things like played videos of them playing in front of them while they reflect on what they're doing. And what what they found is that during practice, when they're in the cognitive part of learning and they're working on something, their brain activity is actually very high. But when they go into game mode, they're very their brain activity reflects something like a like a sleeping state. They have very little brain activity, very little confusion. And that's one of the challenges with golf type sports is that it's so cognitive heavy that it's really hard to get into the kind of that zone state where your brain is shut off and you're just operating.

SPEAKER_01: 39:56

Yeah, I'm gonna tell you that the Tournaments where I have been most successful, I don't remember a lot because I am just in that zone space and I've heard them talk about that like runner's high. You're you you get into that place and you're just you're just fully in like automatic reacting acting mode. You're not really fully thinking it through because you've already put those things in place. Uh the next one is strategic thinking.

SPEAKER_03: 40:31

No, we already did that one. Yeah, we did that one. Three shot routines.

SPEAKER_01: 40:34

Um I actually think we've discussed that and visualization and mental rehearsal. Um I'm gonna jump down to So next we're gonna talk about mindfulness and relaxation techniques. So an application, use mindfulness to stay grounded and reduce stress. Some tips are to practice body scans to tune into physical sensations, use apps or guided meditations for regular relaxation space. Develop a personal mantra to calm the mind.

SPEAKER_03: 41:09

Would it be would it be accurate to say that mindfulness is really the practice of bringing yourself into the present moment and not worrying about the future, not stressing about the past, but just just being right there in that second.

SPEAKER_01: 41:27

It's also about controlling your mind because you have so many thoughts just coming into your head by the different senses, by the stuff you know, you're you're inundated with data, and it's worse now that we're in this technological age where we're inundated even more with data and information. So controlling your mind so that you're controlling what thoughts go through your head. Yes, it it does bring you back to that present moment, but it's really the exercise of controlling what the thoughts in your head.

SPEAKER_03: 41:59

Well, and it's great that you say that because your your brain processes I don't know exactly how many thoughts, but it's a lot. I mean, I've heard hundreds of thousands, I've even heard up to like millions of thoughts per day, and you only really remember probably about five percent of them. And so even that five percent is so overwhelming that mindfulness tools uh can be be really useful for kind of clearing up that noise and being able to focus on some of those things. Exactly. I mean, like what's five percent of a million? It was like five hundred thousand? Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 42:35

Next one. Something like that. Which we've talked about goal setting and positive self-talk. Set purposeful goals and reinforce them with encouraging thoughts. Some tips that you can do right now. Write down goals and review them regularly. A lot of people like to set those goals on January 1st, so now's a good time to start thinking about what you want those to be. The old New Year's resolution. Replace negative thoughts with positive affirmations, which takes a lot of work, and that's part of uh the uh impressive amount of healing that happens through disc golf, which I've talked about a lot and I'm continuing to study. And celebrate small achievements to build confidence. So again, handing out worms for the whole card because everyone got a birdie, that's one way to uh celebrate a small achievement.

SPEAKER_03: 43:22

And I think I think there's a lot to be said for that is you know, when you no matter how big or small, celebrate the achievement like it was a big achievement. So, like, okay, you make a birdie, we get worms, but everybody else gets worms, and everybody's all cheering, and everybody's all happy. That's a big achievement, and the more of that dopamine response that you can get, the better, like the more driven you are towards that feeling.

SPEAKER_01: 43:48

And I would say that's why it's so difficult when you're on a card of people who they yell and cheer for only certain people on the card. I've experienced a lot of that. Um, so making sure that if you're gonna celebrate, you somehow find a way to celebrate with everybody on the card because the um the mood of your card really sets the tone of your game for everyone on the card. Just some people are better rehearsed at ignoring things or have uh stronger mindset than others.

SPEAKER_03: 44:26

Well, and that's by and large why I've started playing with my earbuds in, is because I just kind of want to be in my own little space and not really deal with negative talk or peripheral gossip or anything like that.

SPEAKER_01: 44:40

And that's uh for me was a big difference in playing the majors events versus our uh local events. All right. A mental conditioning strengthen mental resilience and preparation. Some tips to do this. Create scenarios to simulate competition, competition pressure. Sorry, create scenarios to stimulate competition pressure in practice. Um, we are a part of team golf, which is allowing us to do that and uh create some of the pressure, but it's actually in a fairly safe place where there are handicaps with certain players, so that say I'm a new beginning player and I'm gonna play with some of those uh MPO players and actually have a chance to win. So it's it's a great learning environment. And if you have team golf in your area, I would look it up and try and become a part of it.

SPEAKER_03: 45:37

Well, and personally, I love the handicap system because I find that if you like she like she said, if you're playing with like a say a 950 rated player, I'm maybe an 850 rated player, and it gives me a chance to be competitive with those people because if I struggle right off the bat, like people have a tendency to give up. And if they're not gonna be competitive, they just tend to give up and start you know doing things for fun or whatever, and maybe not or necessarily worrying about putting their best foot out there. If you know you're gonna be in contention and you actually have something that you can work towards, you have a tendency to work harder and concentrate more. And that aspect of it allows you to drive yourself and become better. And so things like team golf, handy bit handicap-based systems where it's like match play are so, so valuable is because it kind of gives you that positive reinforcement in in you know, kind of a backwards way.

SPEAKER_01: 46:40

Yeah, same with doubles or playing a three-headed monster, things like that. Um use mental toughness drills like visualizing success after failure and reflect on experiences to build self-awareness and adaptability. Um, I've heard, I've I've read a lot about taking a situation that was awful, didn't go the way you wanted it to, and instead rewrite the narrative in your head of say, okay, uh, this didn't work out the way I wanted it to, but in my mind, I'm gonna say this happened, this happened, and this other thing happened to make it into actually a really positive experience. And I don't know if I agree with it fully. Like I'm more of I want to reflect on what really happened, but for some people, rewriting that story, rewriting that narrative at least gives you a place to start from to create those positives and then make them into realities in the future.

SPEAKER_03: 47:37

And you know, it we are so a result of the story that we tell ourselves. And so Jenny's right, change the story, change the narrative. You are the writer of your own story, the writer of your own history, and a lot of times our reality is just a matter of perspective.

SPEAKER_01: 47:56

All right, the next one you can practice is learning through failure, which is something that I know we have an episode on failure. It's coming up, yeah. Coming up. Um, I am uh providing a learning series about learning through failure on Mindful Flight coming up soon. Uh so uh failure is something that we are really looking at here at the Intentional Disc Golfer podcast. So the application is to reframe setbacks as opportunities for growth. So some tips of how to do this conduct a post-performance review to analyze what went wrong, identify actionable lessons from mistakes, and practice self-compassion and avoid self-criticism. Now, if there if you get to a point where you have your caddy support person, somebody with you, even in a tournament, and you say, you know, maybe something's just not going the way you want it to, like I'll caddy for Brandon a lot of times, and he'll be like, Man, I'm just not throwing the way I want. Can you look and see on my next throw what it is that you're seeing that's a quick 10-second fix that I can do to improve my game? But it takes a lot of trust with that caddy, that support person to that they know your game well enough and that they're able to talk to you in that high pressure event in a way that uh allows you to make those changes instead of going to the self-criticism.

SPEAKER_03: 49:25

Yeah, I mean, that that's the role of a coach, and coaches are invaluable to the point where even the best athletes in the world have coaches. Um and at all and the best athletes in the world, every single one of them definitely has a performance psychologist that they deal with on a regular basis. Now, like Jenny said, one thing that's become very useful for us because we play together all the time. We're very familiar with each other's games, routines, attitudes, uh, even though we don't like to admit it sometimes. The 10-second fix has become an invaluable tool to us. Sorry, dog sneeze. The 10 second fix has become an invaluable tool for me and Jenny. Is it's something that we can do in a game, something just a quick little tweak that will, you know, maybe it's falling back into an old habit, maybe it's, you know, hey, you know, widen your stance a little bit. And uh it's it saves shots and it has won tournaments for both Jenny and I.

SPEAKER_01: 50:27

Yep. And a last thing is actually the role of coaches and support systems. Uh foster an environment of trust, motivation, and constructive feedback. Again, it's constructive feedback, it's not criticism. If it can't be fixed in 10 to 30 seconds in a tournament setting, it is not the appropriate level of feedback for that person to receive. So, some tips to do this. Communicate openly and regularly with athletes, provide individualized support to address unique needs, and encourage team cohesion and mul mutual encouragement. Let me say that again. Encourage team cohesion and mutual encouragement. So uh we all know the pros that have their caddies that are with them all the time. I'm known for having my husband with me as my caddy all the time. And if I happen to not be playing an event that Brandon's playing, I will be his caddy. Um, but you know, you you build that rapport with that person and you can trust them in that moment where you're stressed out the most, not being your best self, and they're there to support you and help you to make that next best shot.

SPEAKER_03: 51:38

Well, when you're when you're out there on the course having a bad day, it's like an open wound. And you don't want you don't want somebody coming in and poking at it and poking at it and poking at it. So that's where having the tr you know a coach that you've really, really, really trust can be helpful because instead of you know coming at it like an attack, they can come in like a band-aid and say, okay, you know what, it's gonna be cool, like you're gonna be fine, let's maybe give this a try and see, you know, and let's build off of something.

SPEAKER_01: 52:12

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SPEAKER_00: 54:20

This is Sarah Holcomb. Go check out the Intentional Disc Golfer Podcast.

SPEAKER_01: 54:25

Alright, we're gonna talk about common questions and misconceptions. Okay. Brandon, it's only for athletes.

SPEAKER_03: 54:35

Sports psychology is not only for athletes. Sports psychology, or better said, performance psychology, is something that we use every day. We use it in business, we use it in the classroom, we use it in family management, household management. We also use it as of course in in sports, um, whether it's from goal setting or using coping skills to deal with anxiety and pressure, we always use it all over the place. And we may not realize it, but a lot of you actually probably have a lot of practice uh in using these skills effectively.

SPEAKER_01: 55:10

So in reality, it applies to anyone seeking to improve focus, resilience, and performance under pressure.

SPEAKER_03: 55:18

Yeah. If you're if you're trying to improve yourself, you're using uh performance psychology tactics, whether you know it or not.

SPEAKER_01: 55:26

Yeah, but it's just positive thinking.

SPEAKER_03: 55:30

Which is another common misconception. There's a lot of self-help books and stuff out there, and people try to reduce it to something that's simple, such as like, oh, just you know, have a great day or something like that. But this performance psychology is actually a practiced skill that's backed by experiments, data, etc. etc. And the better the more you use it, the better you get at it.

SPEAKER_01: 55:58

So in reality, it involves evidence-based strategies like visualization, self-regulation, goal setting, and cognitive restructuring. But you know, you only need it if something's wrong.

SPEAKER_03: 56:12

That's not exactly true. I mean, there are tricks and things that you can do to pull yourself out of a pinch or a funk, but sports sports and performance psychology is best used when it's used proactively, uh, such as visualization, such as uh, you know, you can set yourself up for coping strategies with anxiety and dealing with pressure by putting yourself into pressure situations when you practice. So uh like any skill, it's better to be prepared, and it doesn't necessarily necessarily like lessen the blow or lessen the event, but it speeds you along along a path of recovery recovery.

SPEAKER_01: 56:53

So in reality, it's for anyone looking to move from good to great, not just for addressing problems. But you know what, it's not as important as physical training or technical skills.

SPEAKER_03: 57:04

Well, and what I'd have to say to that is that you know, somebody said to me once that this this whole game thing is 90% metal. Uh m metal. Metal. Metal. Yeah. Yeah, metal. I know, that's like your putting game. Dots. But no, this this game is 90% mental, and uh, I've heard a ton of people say that, and you can have all the athletic ability and talent in the world, but the same with any sport is that if you're not focused, if you're not there, if you don't get rid of these limiting thoughts and that keep you from going to that next level, uh you'll never will succeed. It's like it's like that uh there it there is no spoon, Neo. You're only limited by your own by your own mind and perceptions.

SPEAKER_01: 58:02

So in reality, mental training complements and amplifies physical and technical abilities.

SPEAKER_03: 58:07

I would say probably mental training is the most important above physical and mental abilities. Because look at like say, compare someone like Patrick Mahomes to Peyton Manning, right? Patrick Mahomes, he's just he's a rock star. Like he's got all sorts of athletic ability, he does all this crazy stuff, and I'm not saying that he's not smart, but if you look like a quarterback like Peyton Manning, he's got great athletic ability and everything. I don't think everybody anybody would say he's the greatest athlete, but he's the one that always would beat you with his mind, and that's why he was so successful, because he was so smart at the game.

SPEAKER_01: 58:48

Yeah, but all these things are just a quick fix.

SPEAKER_03: 58:52

A lot of people they start dabbling in performance psychology, start using some of these tools, and I think it's a learning curve just like anything else. You you get a little bit of a result, a little bit of a boost right at the beginning, uh, that beginner's luck kind of phase, because you have a larger margin for growth, and so the the result seems huge, but then it starts to level off and plateau, and people often give up on it after a little bit because they're like, okay, well, you know, this stopped working or whatever because I'm not seeing the same level of result that I had. The fact of the matter is that you need to stick with it and practice it and practice it just like anything else. And honestly, the the better you get at it, the more the better it works.

SPEAKER_01: 59:38

So in reality, building mental resilience and habits takes consistent effort and time.

SPEAKER_03: 59:43

What what's the old the old adage? It's uh twenty one days to form a habit, thirty day thirty days to form a habit, something like that. You know you know the the saying.

SPEAKER_01: 59:57

I'd have to look it up.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:00

But you know what? I I would challenge anybody out there to commit to doing something for thirty days. Anybody can do something for thirty days. Pick something small, do it for thirty days, do it consistently, whether it's the same time every day, the same thing every day, whatever, take five, ten minutes, and at the end of the thirty days measure your results and see where you started and where you ended up.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:23

Okay, Brandon, but I don't have time for it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:27

So a lot of these techniques and tricks can be interwoven throughout your day, whether it's riding in your car, listening to a mantra or a meditation like we often do, or if it's just taking that five minutes before you go to bed, commit commit to something small and get those early victories and then build upon that. And next thing you know, you'll find yourself doing it just kind of automatically without even thinking about it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:54

Yeah, it doesn't work for me.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:57

Well, that's the thing, is that psychology works for everybody, whether it whether you believe in it or not. That's the the kind of the nice thing about science. But each and every one of these mess methods is customizable, and working with some sort of qualified professional or qualified trainer, they can help adapt whatever program and whatever structure to your specific needs.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:21

Those are great ideas, but it's too abstract.

SPEAKER_03: 1:01:25

Tools like biofeedback and goal setting frameworks are really nice because they provide you something with a measurable outcome where you can see, you know, I raise my 20-foot putting percentage from you know 93% to 94%. And uh, we talked about it before. Keep keep data, keep like a little logbook, you know, it doesn't have to be extensive. People get into things, and often things, hey, I gotta do all the things, I gotta do all the things right now, I gotta do it all at once. No, just focus on something small and get those small victories. And that's also a key concept for building confidence.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:03

I can't afford it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:07

I would say to that that this day and age, we are in the age of information. It's I think it's been said like 95% of human knowledge is on the internet. Um but also you gotta kind of filter that with reputable sources and everything. Uh ChatGTP is a great resource for uh figuring out different training routines and different mental habits. Um books, we love reading books because it's a lot of information, very concise and driven to a point. Community workshops, uh support groups, things of that nature. And uh, you know, th all these different places, they they offer free to no expense uh entry points. I mean, even a library card. Like you can you can get digital library cards now and download them on your phone on certain applications, and you can find books there. Uh we read a lot of books off of the library app, actually.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:08

Thanks, but I already perform well under pressure.

SPEAKER_03: 1:03:12

Could you be better? So I think I think a great anecdote here is I'm not a big fan of Tom Brady, but you gotta you gotta give him credit. He is probably one of the greatest to ever play the game. Um, one of the most recognized athletes in the world. And I remember seeing this thing on ESPN or something once where when he was at Michigan and working, the uh the coaching staff was like, Okay, you're gonna go work with our with our performance psychologist, and he's gonna be assigned to you. And oh, I you know, I he's really reluctant, I don't need to do that, or whatever. He's an 18-year-old kid coming into you know big time football. I don't need to do that, I'm already you know, whatever. And he the coach was like, Okay, just go give it a try. Right? Like, this is a requirement for you to play here. And he started working with that uh sports psychologist, the performance psychologist, and going through these different drills and started unwrapping and uncovering these traumas and these limiting thoughts that he he never even knew that he had. And it was so successful that he ended up taking this sports psych sports performance psychologist with him all the way up through his entire career and still maintaining that relationship, even even well into the NFL, all the way up to his retirement. So don't don't underestimate, you know. These are trained professionals, they're very good at what they do. They know you know, they they can uh reveal things that you didn't even know about yourself to bring you from that so-so level to the elite level.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:53

Yeah, and that's the thing about learning too, is that once you think you can't learn anything, you're right, because you've closed yourself off to learning. So you always want to acknowledge that you know there's someone out there who knows something you don't know. So, Brandon? Can you think of ways you've used performance psychology to improve your game?

SPEAKER_03: 1:05:17

I'm a big fan of performance psychology, as you can tell. Yay, bitch hands. And um You know, I I think my favorite sports psychology tool is visualization. Uh I know when I'm out there on the course I try to visualize the path of the shot and the the flip of the disc. I try to visualize uh, you know, if I was you know looking at myself in my form, what would I look like and try to dissect that and take it apart. Um I I really don't know any kind of disc al disc golf athlete that doesn't perform some sort of visualization tactic during their round. Um because I know we all we all have to pick our shot and figure out, you know, even if it's just a matter of, oh, I'm just gonna pass it over this point right here and hope for the best. So I I think that's one of my favorite tools um in performance psychology is visualization. Um and and I also find that allows me to practice when I'm not like actively practicing. Um so I mean we watch a lot of coverage on uh on YouTube and uh you know, you can you can put yourself there and you can find your find yourself there on those courses with those shots, and then you know, also the decision making and wondering, well, why did they do that instead of this? And so um we have the luxury of having a course nearby us that we can play at uh that the pros uh also play at, and you know, trying to pick their game apart and f figure out why they made the decisions that they made. How about you, Jenny? What are your favorite tips and tricks for uh using sports psychology out there when you're playing?

SPEAKER_01: 1:07:04

I I I guess the um the time that it really paid off for me was uh the Farragut Open that last round where I want to say I went in behind um I think someone else was leading me to like four or five points, maybe something like that. And uh I had found a uh affirmation for athletes and was listening to it intentionally for like the twenty minutes before my round started. I really focused on uh closing myself off to the sounds and other things going on uh during the game. So I was uh the person who was ahead of me uh started having a really rough round and trying to keep that from uh setting in with my game, trying to find my own wins, um, just trying to enjoy the company of the people I was playing with. Uh and I had at that point gotten myself to a point where I would practice throwing, visualizing each putt to make those really big putts, and I just it all came together and I ended up winning it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:08:42

Very nice. Success story. Well, I know also something for you that you use a lot of is mindfulness out there. It's like you really try to bring yourself into that present moment. What are what are some things that you do to try to capture that?

SPEAKER_01: 1:08:57

Well like like we've said, I I focus on my heart rate and also a lot of it actually is filtering out everyone else because a lot of the players are like, oh man, last time I was here I shanked this shot and it went forty feet over that way, and I hit this tree and I hit that tree, and oh man, I had such a hard time with this, and just putting all that out there, it really sucks. Like no one wants to hear that, no one wants to hear about your crappy shot. We saw it, but you're putting it out there and it affects the other players on your card. So having to filter that out uh through ignoring people, putting in the earplugs, and sometimes refusing to watch their shots, like disconnecting yourself from what's going on there. Um those are some of the things that I do.

SPEAKER_03: 1:09:56

Awesome. Alright, well, that just about does it for this episode of The Intentional Discgolfer. We are talking about performance psychology. In this episode, you may have learned the basic knowledge and origins of performance psychology and understood the role of sports psychology and why it matters. We hope you've obtained a general understanding of the main areas of sports psychology: focus, attention control, emotional regulation, goal setting, motivation, resilience, and coping strategies, confidence building, stress and anxiety management, visualization and imagery, and decision making under pressure.

SPEAKER_01: 1:10:33

And again, we're going to be going into these in more detail in future episodes.

SPEAKER_03: 1:10:39

We hope that we've been able to show share at least a few useful tools and techniques that we use to help you improve your game. And we've also tried to discuss some common misconceptions and some objections that people may have to using performance psychology. We've also had a chance to hear from us about you know, a little discussion about techniques and things that we use in tournament play to be able to kind of settle ourselves and bring us bring ourselves back on track. And if you appreciate us and like what you hear here, here, here, here, please uh feel free to leave us a comment on this episode or wherever you're listening. Uh you can find us on our social medias. We have all the social medias. Just search the intentional discgolfer podcast and we should be able to find it. And if you want to email us directly, we have the intentional discgolfer at gmail.com. We love your fan mail, so please email us. And if you need a good laugh after this episode, we will be pinning some uh bloopers and some highlights and some funnies uh after the episode. So do stick around after the outro music. We would like to thank our sponsors real quick. Uh, we have Prodigy Disc, we have Salty Unicorns Disc Golf Apparel, and Treasures of the Forest, and also our fans, because you guys are the reason that we can keep doing this. You're the reason that we do what we do. We'd love hearing from you. Leave us a comment, help us defeat the algorithm. And here at the Intentional Disc Golfer Podcast, my name is Brandon.

SPEAKER_01: 1:12:14

And I'm Jenny.

SPEAKER_03: 1:12:16

And we truly do believe that disc golf has the power to change lives. So go out there and grow the sport. To avoid this, please stop listening and move on to the next episode now.

SPEAKER_01: 1:12:57

Hey, stop.

SPEAKER_03: 1:12:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 1:13:00

Slow down. Read your words. You read it. Ennunciate. Read it. I don't want to read off learning targets because I think it's dumb. You're gonna learn about sports psychology, which includes all the parts of sports psychology, to the point where what I received from you says just psycho. So learning targets. We're in it. Have a basic knowledge of the origins of performance psychology. Wait, start again.

SPEAKER_03: 1:13:27

Understand my start again without my without.

SPEAKER_01: 1:13:36

He asks me to speak when he's not speaking. I wish I had that on video. Wrong button.

SPEAKER_03: 1:13:48

That was very well done, Jenny. No shit. Very well done. It's like you've done this before.

SPEAKER_00: 1:13:53

I know.

SPEAKER_03: 1:13:53

Alright, stop swearing. Why? Because. You're gonna cut it out. Yeah, but that doesn't mean that it's for continuity.

SPEAKER_00: 1:14:02

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03: 1:14:02

You're welcome. You know, I love waggly tails and wet noses. It's one of my favorite things of the day. I know spy with love dogs. I know, love dogs. Especially catahulas. While we wait, if you haven't had a catahoula catahula dog, you might want to check out Jack's dogs. Brandon. From the Olympic dog to the Seattle dog.

SPEAKER_01: 1:14:27

I told you not to say anything about that. I'm not gonna put it in the thing. I'm just And why are you telling people to eat our dogs? I'm not telling you, I'm putting- You haven't had a Catahula dog, Jack's dog. Why don't you say the Kalachi Catahulas where you can actually adopt a dog?

SPEAKER_03: 1:14:42

Kalachi Catahoulas, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:14:45

Alright. Fine-tune your motor skills and mentor a The application is to fine-tune your motor skotor. Skills. I don't know why this is so hard. Precision. That's why.

SPEAKER_03: 1:15:06

Do we need to go back to that one?

SPEAKER_01: 1:15:07

No. The precision.