Many athletes and teams that that we work with through FREE2COMPETE can struggle to be consistent in their performances. One week they perform great, the next they are on the struggle bus, and they ebb and flow between highs and lows. Sometimes that can even happen moment to moment within a game. A mental tool that we share with them is something that we call the HYPE DIAL. Imagine a dial, like the one shown below, that you can set anywhere from 0 to 10. If you get the setting right, you find the gaps between your performance highs and lows much smaller meaning you are more consistent.

A setting of 0 basically means you are not hyped up at all, for most of us that happens when we are actually asleep. So having your HYPE DIAL set at 0 basically means you are asleep. If you’ve ever had to say something to an athlete like “Hey, let’s wake up out there,” their dial may have been too close to a 0.

A setting of 10 means you are cranked up as high as you can go. You feel like adrenaline is coursing through your veins, everything that comes out of your mouth is basically yelling, your muscles are ready to explode! If you’ve ever had to say to an athlete “Hey, let’s slow down out there and make the simple play,” their dial may have been too close to a 10.

The document attached below will help you guide your athletes through a 3-step process to understanding their HYPE DIAL and learning how to leverage it to be a competitive advantage. Check it out and then we’ll break down the 3 steps.

NOTE: As you think about using this with your team, you could do all three steps in 1 session. I would also recommend breaking this into 3 different sessions with your team and providing athletes the opportunity to share out to their team what they wrote down. This can help your athletes understand that each of their teammates needs to prepare themselves to compete a little differently.

STEP 1: Getting the Dial Set

The idea behind the HYPE DIAL is to encourage athletes to think about where it needs to be set for them to have the opportunity to perform near their best. The HYPE DIAL isn’t a one setting fits all situation. Each individual will have a setting that works best for them, however that may even vary depending on what they are doing.

Let me illustrate this a little further. If I am working with an athlete 1-on-1, I perform best when my HYPE DIAL is at a 2 or 3. If I am speaking to a larger group of people, maybe 100 or more, and in a large room, I perform best when my HYPE DIAL is at a 6 or 7. When my son and I jumped off a 30 foot rock into Crater Lake, because I have a small fear of heights, I needed my HYPE DIAL at a 10!

Now, we need to understand how our HYPE DIAL setting impacts us. For most of us if our dial is too low for a particular activity, we are flat, lacking energy, and under-perform. If our dial is too high, we tend to try and do too much, play too fast, and are basically out of control. You’ll see that the document above asks the athletes what it looks/feels/sounds like when their dial is set too low or too high. Being able to recognize when your dial is getting turned off its ideal setting is an important part of leveraging it to be a competitive advantage.

I’ve also found that a really high HYPE DIAL setting is like a shot of adrenaline…big energy that doesn’t last very long! If your event is relatively short (completed in less than 15 seconds) with long breaks (10+ minutes) in between reps and explosive by nature — you might be able to crank your dial up to a 10. However, most athletes we work with are in the 4-8 range based on their sport. Golfers and endurance runners tend to be on the lower end of that range, while volleyball and football players tend to be on the higher end of that range. But again, this number is varies for each individual.

STEP 2: What Turns Your Dial Up? Down?

Now that your athletes have reflected on where their HYPE DIAL needs to be set to give them the opportunity to compete at their best, they need to reflect on the situations that they regularly face in competition that tend to turn their HYPE DIAL up or down. On the backside of the document you’ll see we ask athletes to identify 3 situations that turn their dial up and 3 situations that turn their dial down.

Based on conversations with student-athletes over the past decade, let me share with you some situations to help them kick-start their own reflection:

• Level of Opponent - Better or Worse

• Crowd - Hostile or Dead

• Play of Teammates - Strong or Struggle

• Weather (for outdoor sports) - Hot, Cold, Rainy, Windy

• Officiating

• Unforeseen Adversity - for yourself or team as a whole (injury, illness, etc.)

• Opponent Talking Trash

• Recent Performances in Competition and Practice - Strong or Weak

In one of my most recent conversations with a basketball athlete that I am working with 1-on-1 we were discussing the HYPE DIAL and she shared when she is playing really well and she is hitting shots, her dial starts to get turned up too high. I thought that was a great example, because most of us think when we are playing well we don’t need to think about the HYPE DIAL. However she recognized it was something she needed to be aware of even when she is playing well.

STEP 3: What is the Right Response?

Now it is time for your athletes think about how they want to RESPOND in each of the situations they identified above to keep their HYPE DIAL “locked in” so they can remain an asset to the team.

To help you do that I am going to share with you some responses that my good friend Coach Joel Hueser, the head boys basketball coach at Papillion La Vista South HS, shared with me. I have the opportunity to work with his team on the mental aspect of the game each week during the season. He and his coaching staff are intentional about equipping their players with RESPONSES that help them continue to be assets to their team. He adapted this from Focus 3 Culture’s material and wanted to make sure they got credit.

Share with your athletes the 6 responses below and ask them which of them would be the proper response to the situations they identified in Step 2.

R1 = Press Pause

• What does this situation require of me? It gives you time to think, gets you off autopilot. Pressing Pause does not come naturally, it's a skill that must be developed!

Two Benefits of R1:

• Helps you avoid doing something foolish or harmful.

• Focuses on you acting with purpose to accomplish your goals.

R2 = Get Your Mind Right

• Focus on negative things equals a negative mindset.

• Focus on productive things equals a productive mindset.

Two Things To Manage:

• What you focus on (Concentration).

• How you talk to yourself (Self-Talk).

Three Mindsets:

• Irritated Mindset

  • Comes from negative focus that is born of laziness.​

  • Resistant to the productive discomfort that real growth requires.

  • Poor Self-Talk: "I can't make anything. I suck!"

• Survival Mindset

  • Comes from a desire to take the path of least resistance. ​

  • Focuses on what's comfortable and convenient. 

  • It's not focused on getting better. Poor Self-Talk: "This practice sucks. When will it be over?"

• Purpose Mindset

  • This is the Above the Line way of thinking. #ACEfactor​

  • Embraces productive discomfort: Knows that discomfort is necessary in order to practice and perform at an elite level.

  • It wants to compete! 

  • Positive Self-Talk: "This drill makes me better. It makes our team better. I'm comfortable being uncomfortable!"

R3 = Step Up

• Every team faces some kind of adversity:

  • Mediocre teams are destroyed by it. ​

  • Good teams survive it.

  • Great teams get better because of it. 

"A hammer shatters glass, but forges steel."

R4 = Adjust and Adapt

If what you are doing isn't working, change it! Don't blame the E. Choose a better R. The best athletes are exceptional at:

• Adjusting 

• Adapting to change​

R5 = Make a Difference

• Your RESPONSE is an Event for others.

• Your attitude and behaviors have a profound impact on your teammates and coaches. The quality of your relationships is determined by how you manage the RESPONSE. 

• What kind of Event's are you giving to your teammates? Make a Difference means taking complete ownership of the experience you give to teammates and the contribution you make to the culture of the team. 

• The way you manage your RESPONSE matters not just to you, but to the people around you.

• The experience you give to others may be the single most important element of teamwork. You will be no better as a team than you are to each other. Make the people around you better.

R6 = Build Skill

• Everyone has some level of talent. Elite performers are the ones who are relentless about building skill beyond their talent. Talent is a gift. Greatness is a choice!

• Embrace discomfort. Discomfort marks the place where the old way meets the new way. Discomfort indicates that change is about to happen. Push through the pain. If it doesn't challenge you, it will not change you. 

TAKING IT TO A DEEPER LEVEL

Coach, it would be wise for you to complete this document for yourself. Keeping your dial at the right setting is critically important as you model this to your team. You want to be an asset to your team, so what is your dial set at when your team tends to perform its best? Like it says in R5 - Make a Difference, your response can create an event for your team.

I would also consider your typical pregame routines. Are there aspects of your pregame routine that are creating a challenge for your athletes getting their dial set just right? Loud music in the locker room, a great motivational speech, etc. may actually be cranking your athletes HYPE DIALS too high. On the flip side, taking phones as athletes step on the bus or requiring a quiet bus ride to the game may be turning your athletes HYPE DIALS too low. How can you use the pregame environment to help your athletes get their HYPE DIAL set just right?

If you have your athletes complete some sort of post-game reflection, consider asking them to reflect on where their HYPE DIAL was set at the. start and if they could recognize anything that caused it to turn up or down during the competition.

SCHEDULE US FOR THIS SUMMER!

Are you interested in having us work through activities like this or more with your team, athletic department, group of students, or school? Respond to this email to set up a ZOOM meeting where we can find out what you are looking for and discuss how FREE2COMPETE can serve your students, coaches, and/or parents.

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