Fear

This episode, uncovers fear, and how it could be blocking you from becoming a better version of yourself in your sport. This podcast also helps you with different strategies and tactics you can use to overcome fear.

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Hello everybody, I am Owen Clover, the owner of Botanists, the third episode of Building Athletes Up Daily. Today's episode is about fear and how it can block you from your fullest potential as an athlete. So before we go on on fear, I want to be telling you guys this little story. It's about me and fear. And it actually just happened to them recently. So I went on this mission trip to help build houses. So we went to these houses that people were in need, they couldn't afford anything. Someone might have had a disability or something. And while we were there, we went to this place called Small's Falls. And I myself, I'm a big height person, but for some odd reason, there's this 30, 50, and 70 footers uh cliffs. But for some reason, when I went off the 50, I couldn't do it for some reason. And I just waited till other everyone else went. And that just built up, built up, and built up with my fear. So like, you know, the the 30-foot one though I was fine with because that was pretty easy. It was sketchy to get up though, I'll tell you that. Very sketchy. But when I was with this the 50-footer, it kind of reminded myself of when I was playing hockey. I was on the bench and I didn't want to go out there because I feared of making a mistake. I feared of putting my team down in people's reactions. And that's not way to live, one way to live. Because I myself, I was trying to be a people pleaser there. And I've always been like that. And it kind of stings for myself to say that. But I've realized now that I've sort of gone away from this. Cause why should I fear what other people say about me if I do something wrong? Because I'm not perfect, I'll tell you that. I'm definitely gonna make mistakes. But going back to the cliff jumping, as I was there, there was like one to two seconds where it was like, whoa. I was indulged in fear. But and then this the fear got so bad that it brought me like to my past, right to my past, of really? Are we really gonna do this? I don't see any data from the past of us doing this. Is this a good decision? So your mind will take things from the past that have happened. Now, this could be neg for fear it is negative. So like if I made a bad play in hockey, or if I made a bad play in football, and I'm running down the field and I try to put this break this guy's ankles and I misplace my foot and I get absolutely rocked, I might not try to do that thing again. I might not. I probably won't. Because I realize I put my team down. But the thing is, I want you guys, anything, if it's basketball, soccer, baseball, golf, to try it again until you get it right. But first, do that in practice. And get that confidence, that bait that basic knowledge of your skill set, which we talked about in the other episode, and do it. And that's what I did when I'm on the cliff, the cliff jumping. I realized, wait a minute. I know that I'm gonna be able to jump out there. I know that those rocks are a little too f they're far out towards me, but I know I have the capability to jump out, and I did. And let me tell you one thing that I didn't do right was I didn't put my arms in like a pencil dive, I put mine out, so it did hurt a lot. It did. But I'll say this one thing that getting up there, up that cliff, was really sketchy. Really sketchy because there was a rope, obviously, to help us, which I didn't really need to use the rope because it actually kind of wasn't working to my advantage. The rocks were like at a 90 degree angle for me to get up, and the ledge was like at a hundred and hundred degree angle, so it was really hard to get up. And the rocks were also very slippery, so I had to be very c careful as well. But I then went on the cliff about eight times. Eight times. See, it shows you once you get over fear, nothing can stop you except fear again. But it's gonna come again. So I'll be giving you guys tactics and strategies on ways to overcome fear, or what I also like to call work with fear. You see, uh working with fear or having fear work to your advantage is rare. But so are you. So most of the time, us as athletes, we are working against fear. You see what I'm saying? It's holding us down, it's putting us in this little jar and keeping us captive. But these strategies I'm gonna give you are gonna open up that bottle and let you fly. So the first tactic or strategy that you could use to uh overcome fear is the third person method. And so, for instance, we all are in the f first person, we are seeing through our eyes. The third person is basically someone in the stands or your coach, but also they don't have as much emotional attachment as you do when you're playing. And to go deeper into this, let's think of a movie theater. So you are watching a current moment that has happened in your past, and you're in the back. The back of the theater. While you're watching it, you notice things that you could have done. To go even deeper, I'm gonna give you guys a checklist on how to reach this. So, first, close your eyes and imagine movie theater. So we're doing that. It can be any theater that comes to your mind. Then we're gonna see yourself walking into the theater and observe a picture of yourself, and the picture is gonna be black and white on this big screen, okay? And the theater will be empty as well, and but then your body starts to float, and then but then you flow out of your body, and up and behind you into the projection booth. So once you're in this booth, standing next to the projector, put your hands gently on the glass and feel the coolness of it. Then look down and see yourself sitting in the empty theater. Once you do this, turn on the film projector. Imagine you're the film in black and white, and maybe even flickering a little bit. And I know you've seen at least one of them, and you know how bad quality they are. They're really bad. So the film is going to be recording of the event you want to take the emotion out of, okay? Once you start the projector, you'll stand there behind the cool glass looking down at your body in the theater, which is watching the movie playing on the big screen. So you're probably like even in the fourth person if you want to add that. After you've watched the movie, speed up speed it up and watch it again. First twice as fast, then four times as fast, then eight times as fast, each time, watching from behind the glass in the projection booth. Now, this strategy does take a long time. It doesn't take like two seconds where you'll be in a game situation, you won't be overcome fear. This is something earlier, because let's be honest, if you are dealing with fear a lot in a game situation and you're going into a game, it will probably happen. So do you want to feel prepared for that? So now, when you've watched it eight times as fast as the original, float back down in your body and go up into the movie and put yourself in that film again, which is the first person through the eyes. At the very end of the film, when you are ready, play the movie backwards in double speed. We're gonna play the movie back in double speed. This time, experience it in the first person through the eyes again, still reliving the movie backwards. Then play it three more times, faster each time, four times, eight times, even sixteen times as fast. I'm gonna give you guys this little story, another story of fear and how it's played in my life. So we had a game, I believe it was oh my gosh, how long ago was eighth grade? So eighth grade for me was almost four years ago, which is insane. This probably took towards in November, I would say, so we were in this place called the Wonder Dump, or we were playing this team called the Wizards. And the Wonder Dump, it's an absolute, absolute shit show. It is one of the worst ranks I've ever played in. And so when I was there, I was in the locker room, I was scared out of my mind because I thought, because it's my first year of last year playing Bannams, and I still wasn't getting used to like the checking regimen and all that stuff. And I was really timid in that season, and I wasn't truly myself, I wasn't playing the way I really could. And I remember going out and in warmups, being timid as well. And one thing that happened that ticked me off and it got me angry was myself. One thing that got me ticked off and angry was my own teammates talking crap about me beyond my back. And I will say this now, I never have any respect for the team I was playing for in that organization. I do not. But that's something for a different topic. And when I was there, that just pissed me off. That first period I scored like two goals. Next period, two goals. I was on fire. But something took me out of the fear took me, I believe the anger took me out of this like cage. But that was for me. Because I realized, whoa, why are these guys talking rap about me? I know how actually good I really am. The thing is, I was brought to this thing that I know how good I really am. That fear was messing with my confidence, not showing my actual skill set. It was diminishing me to way lower than my actual skill set really is. That game, I believe, we ended up winning, and that was like one of the number two teams in the state last year. And hey. Athletes in general can deal with a lot more stress than other people can that have not played sports at a competitive, competitive level. The majority. No, I know there's some people that can still deal with that, and hey, props to you. But most of us can deal with insane amounts of stress. And sometimes we can fear that stress, we can fear that anxiety, and we shouldn't. Thank you guys so much for tuning in to this episode of Fear. We will be covering fear even more in other episodes further down the line. So if you do have any questions, please reach out to my Instagram. It's Owen underscore clore. I'll be happy to answer questions you have about fear and ways you can overcome it in your own way because I know everyone else is different. They have different paths and different strategies that they may use. Also, if you are trying to support, please go to bodware.com to purchase some of our clothing items. And each purchase you make, we send an individual note of your contribution of your mental health donation. So please, have a great day and tune in for the next episode. Owen Clore out.