Mastering the Mental Game with Dr. Mrazik of Elite Athlete Services - Episode #211 - #Bellletstalk

In honour of #bellletstalk day, come discover the transformative power of mental resilience in the world of high-stakes sports with Dr. Mrazik, the clinical neuropsychologist who has carved a niche in the realm of athletic performance. On the 211th episode of The Athletes Podcast, we journey through Dr. Mrazik's transformation from a hockey enthusiast to a highly sought-after expert in sports psychology. He illuminates the astonishing fact that a mere 17 minutes of mindfulness can restructure the brain's wiring, offering athletes a competitive edge in their mental game.

Tune in as we unpack the distinctive nature of athletes' mental health challenges, from the intense pressure of scoring the decisive point to navigating the emotional turbulence post-game. Dr. Mrazik highlights the importance of understanding mental health as it specifically applies to athletes, recognizing their unique environment, and the resilience required to rebound from setbacks. Our conversation with Elite Athlete Services' Dr. Mrazik equips athletes at all levels with insights to manage stress and sustain their mental fortitude, promising an episode that enlightens, entertains, and motivates anyone looking to elevate their mental strategy in the athletic arena.

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Produced by Rise Virtually
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Other episodes you might enjoy:
World Strongest Man Mitchell Hooper,  Taylor Learmont (Little "T" Fitness), Bruce Boudreau (Vancouver Canucks), Rhonda Rajsich (Most Decorated US Racquetball player), Zach Bitter (Ultra Marathon Runner), Zion Clark (Netflix docuseries), Jana Webb (Founder of JOGA), Ben Johns (#1 Pickleball Player in the World)

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

And we have some pretty good research that if you engage in certain mindfulness activities for 17 minutes, you can produce permanent changes in the wiring of your brain.

Speaker 2: 0:11

You're the most decorated racquetball player in US history, world's strongest man, from childhood passion to professional athlete, eight-time Ironman champion. So what was it like making your debut in the NHL? What is your biggest piece of advice for the next generation of athletes, from underdogs to national champions? This is the athletes podcast, where high performance individuals share their triumphs, defeats and life lessons to educate, entertain and inspire the next generation of athletes.

Speaker 2: 0:39

Here we go. This will be the 211th episode of the athletes podcast. A little 10, 15 minute mental health talk with Dr Merazek, who were joined here by Elite Athlete Services, and I wanted to give you the floor first off to introduce yourself, share a bit more about Elite Athlete Services, some of the opportunities that we're going to be able to offer, moving forward with you folks, and what got you started in the space Over to you, dr Well thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:09

So I was a wannabe young hockey player who just didn't have the skill set, and so my dreams of making the NHL ended pretty early in my career.

Speaker 1: 1:19

But then I've been very blessed to pursue the academic side of things, and so in the late 90s I started my PhD in the area of clinical neuropsychology, and at that time there was just this very beginning interest in the area of sport concussion.

Speaker 1: 1:35

And so because I was doing my doctoral studies at the time, I'm a sports guy and so this really aligned with both my studies and my personal interests. And so I completed my studies down at the University of Georgia and then came back to Canada and had the privilege to start consulting with the National Hockey League and a few years later with the Canadian Football League, and so I've been able to work with athletes. And then, a few years later, I started at the University of Alberta and again had a chance to work with athletes at that level. And so I've just really had a great opportunity to work with athletes of all levels of sports, starting from the very young ones all the way up to the professional levels. And what I've learned over time is that, when it comes to the area of performance. Mental performance, the concussion obviously learning to manage that is important, but there's often a very significant mental side to that, and so the last few years I've spent a lot more time just both studying, learning and talking to athletes about mental health, mental performance.

Speaker 2: 2:38

I guess it leads into a good first question what is mental health and how is mental health different for athletes?

Speaker 1: 2:46

Yeah, so there's been a lot of talk about mental health, especially from athletes. I think during COVID that really accelerated, you know, as we were going through that that was a tough one, and so athletes were really isolated, not doing their normal things, and so we really saw more and more athletes start to talk about mental health in that format. And so I think it's been helpful to see athletes at all levels speak about it. But we also. What I've learned too is that when we talk about mental health, it's different. For athletes it just is.

Speaker 1: 3:20

And so when we think of an athlete in the unique situations that they're in, being at the free throw line with three seconds left, with the game on the line and experiencing some anxiety, that's going to be quite different than somebody in their day to day life who's experiencing high levels of social anxiety or generalized anxiety. And so, you know, depression is like that as well, where athletes if you had a bad game, you're struggling with certain aspects, well, that can weigh you down, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you're clinically depressed. And so when it comes to this whole idea of mental health, we talk about a state of mental well-being and if that is working for you and if you're able to do the things that you normally do with a general sense of positive well-being and then also are you able to bounce back from stressful, difficult situations. So I think a really important concept that we're just trying to really make sure that athletes understand is that athlete mental health is different, and sometimes I think athletes may just kind of disengage from these conversations because it's not for me, right?

Speaker 1: 4:24

I don't struggle with these things, it's not my, you know. Yeah, I'm stressed out with sports at times, but it's not weighing me down, and so that's where it's different. And, I think, understanding that there are some situations in your personal life where you may be stressed and anxious and if you have a lot of stuff going on that can affect you. And some athletes, of course, do struggle with mental health, and we saw some, you know, back in the 2022 Olympics with Simone Biles. She came out with these statements saying that she was really weighed down by her mental health, and so I think it's really important to understand what was happening there in that context, but also understanding that athletes are unique and they have their own set of circumstances that may drive their own mental health issues.

Speaker 2: 5:08

Yeah, and it's, you know, not uncommon to hear for especially males in the space. To you know, hide your emotions, shut it down, don't worry about it. On to the next, no big deal. I'm wearing a Love you Bro t-shirt. I don't know if you can see there A buddy of mine, garrison Grant, down in Nashville. It might be in Austin. Either way, he's basically built this brand on the fact that his hockey team they just started saying Love you Bro after hockey games and it was their way to say goodbye, and it's now transformed into a business because, you know, mental health was something that impacted him in a negative fashion and he's now overcome it. And I think it's important for all athletes to understand the importance around performance, that being mental performance as well, and mindfulness. And you look at michigan's quarterback Meditating prior to the game, right like can you take us through a bit of that mental performance, mindfulness, what that actually means?

Speaker 1: 6:04

Yeah, it was really interesting to see JJ McCarthy and his routines that he had embedded even in a championship game, right, and so again, that was. That was kind of interesting. And what we're getting at there is this concept of mindfulness. I think traditionally we thought of it as you know, if you're a monk living in a remote part of the world, in a mountain, somewhere, that you engage in these mindfulness practices. But we kind of learned over time that when we started to study this, and especially with the age of brain scanners and we put people in these brain scanners, we could see the brain Is very different when we're engaging in mindfulness practices. It's quite striking actually, and well, that's a good thing, because when a brain is well regulated, you're not going to make the same mistakes or you're not going to have the same, you know, cascade of emotions that you would normally deal with. It's just your brain is just better able to stay focused. And so mindfulness is really, I think, become a little more mainstream, where now people are engaging in these regular practices.

Speaker 1: 7:06

And what I would tell you is that, you know, in a day, in a nature, we have a lot of social media, when we have a lot of things that bombard our psyches every second of every day. Clearing your thoughts, having a good mindset, is harder to do. We just have more distractions. There's more things, more this, more that this, you know all those kind of demands that are on our attention, and so I think that's why I like for the for most athletes these days they really understand this that for them to be in a healthy mental state Is really key to good performance.

Speaker 1: 7:41

And you have to be proactive now. You can't just let it happen. And the majority of athletes, they have routines where you saw JJ McCarthy where he's a few minutes before the game, a few hours before his mindful state is helping him to be able to focus on what he wants to and not deal with the distractions that he doesn't want to. And so those regular habits, habitual routines, are pretty interesting, and I'll throw a number out to Dave, which is the number 17. And we have some pretty good research that if you engage in certain mindfulness activities for 17 minutes, you can produce permanent changes in the wiring of your brain. Seventeen minutes. Think about what you do for 17 minutes in the day, and if you can engage in effective mindfulness practices, that's positively wiring your brain, which I think is pretty cool.

Speaker 2: 8:31

Okay, so if I take in my 17 minutes of mindfulness, which I'm happy to incorporate, I scroll for many more than 17 minutes per day, absolutely, and I definitely am Going to introduce this. But what should I be doing? What is my protocol if I was to take that into a three, five step process for you?

Speaker 1: 8:51

before we dive into our final point here on this quick talk, yeah, well, there's a lot of ways to practice mindfulness and so I'm not trying to endorse any specific way, but the process that we're getting at is really where you're focusing on what we call interoception, which is what's going on inside your body, and moving away from extra-oception, which is the things that normally distract you the thing of your phone, noise, is all that stuff and when you, when people start to mindfully practice, they call it the third eye, which is almost this fourth behind your forehead, where you're focusing, focusing all your energy on being in your body in this present moment, and thoughts that come into your mind.

Speaker 1: 9:33

You know things that you're supposed to do, or worries you, just you address them and you say I hear that, but I'm going to be present in my body, and so it's really this mental space. You're not attending to things that are outside, the inside of your mind and really focusing on being very awake and alive and present in your mind set. So it's hard. It sounds like you're doing some of that and like 17 minutes. If anybody you ever just sits down and says, well, I'm going to do this for 17 minutes, I would bet you're not going to be able to do it. It's hard to keep your mind off what you normally are thinking about during the day.

Speaker 2: 10:09

This conversation will be less than 17 minutes. I highly encourage everyone, after listening to this podcast, that they turn their phone off. Put a timer on for 17,. See if you can keep your eyes closed for 17 minutes. That on its own, in complete silence, will mess some people up. Guaranteed 100%. Tag us, let us know. Elite Athletes Services. I think the final point that we should end on here Dr Murazek, here on this little teaser episode, is around building self-confidence in athletes. Obviously, this is a hot topic as well. You're an expert in the field. How should athletes be building that self-confidence?

Speaker 1: 10:45

Yeah, and confidence is. I think every athlete, especially as they're starting out in their sport, deals with confidence issues, and even at the top levels of sport we talk about slumps, we talk about being in a bad mindset. Confidence is one of those things and, I think, some of the things that are really important to understand. With confidence, it's not a switch that you just turn on. It's not something that you can just tell yourself. Look yourself in the mirror and say I'm confident. I mean, some of that can be a little bit helpful. It's really building practices that help with a more confident mindset, and so some of the things that we really want to emphasize is how do you deal with a negative event? Say you just screwed up, you made a bad pass, you got scored on, you played bad defense. That can affect your confidence, that can affect how you're functioning. So how are you clearing your mind? How are you taking that negative energy and moving it in a slightly in a different direction? You can't lie to yourself, you can't say it's okay because it's not. So how do you switch that negative energy, that negative emotion, into something more positive? Well, that takes work, like building, like going to the gym. It takes work. It takes practice, it takes the right type of practice, it takes simulating that in different environments, and the more you don't do that, the more you find you're able to clear your mindset, the more you're able to build a more positive outlook on that.

Speaker 1: 12:12

The other thing that's interesting that I'll say is that when athletes are confident, they're more likely to take risks. When you're not confident, when you're struggling, you're less likely to take risk, and so it means the range of activities that you normally do have shrunk, and that's never a good way to play at your level, and so, again, we want to think of that. As for the athletes to say, well, okay, how am I taking a risk in a practice when I'm feeling bad? How am I playing with an edge that allowed me to do what I normally do? It's kind of interesting. But we have to break that mindset down, because when we start to think of how the player is not doing what they normally do, it's usually because they're not taking risks, they're scared to make a mistake, and their mind is shifted on that, as opposed to normally what they do to play with an edge. So there's a lot to building a confident athlete. There's a lot to it and again you're going to have successes and failures and everything, but again the process is. It's a building plan.

Speaker 2: 13:12

That plan that you went through sounds excellent. We'll have to dive deeper into this plan in more detail when we sit down for the full length episode where we bring you and the elite athlete services team on. But this is, in lieu of mental health month awareness, making sure that athletes are aware there are services out there like elite athlete services, available, whether it's listening to the athletes podcast on a weekly basis or searching out individuals like Dr Murazic and others in the space. Please don't hesitate to do so. Your mind is a muscle, just like working out your biceps, your triceps, your legs and your calves. You got to make sure you work out that mind right.

Speaker 1: 13:48

Yeah, absolutely, and we appreciate what you're doing to promote this, because I think there is a lot of talk on that, but I think we want to do more than just talk about it. We really want to dive into these concepts so people don't quickly dismiss it or that they worry that they're not doing enough. I think it's really important to give it the due time and attention and, again, that's what we're devoted to at Elite Athletes Services to do that. So we really appreciate your attention to that.

Speaker 2: 14:11

My pleasure and we'll look forward to continuing these conversations in the future. Thanks so much.

Speaker 1: 14:16

Sounds great. Bye.