Visualize your success , then take action . Part 3

If you cant see it , can you achieve it ?

I firmly believe if you want to win something you've got to mentally be able to see yourself winning it first. You've got to believe that thought and visualise it over and over again until your so driven to make that thought reality , that you dont remember what it was like to not believe in it.

I have practiced this myself on personal challenges i have done in the past. I wanted to see how we could integrate this into this years league campaign.

Thankfully much of the squad from the previous year were still present so we could take from last years Munster Junior Bowl success. A competition most people frown upon however it wasnt the competition that we won , it was the achievement of reaching a final , an achievement of progression , the achievement of being the first 2nds team in 36 years to win anything at the club that we celebrated .

I recently sent this famous Michael Jordan quote to two people i have worked closely with in the past as they prepared for important finals matches in their own teams. Sana Govender for his incredible work with Skibbereen ladies rugby team & Adam McCarthy and Cobh GAA before their County final last year.

“Champions don't become champions when they win an event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it.”

Thats was what drove me last year.

We were half way through our league campaign and we were facing Midleton again away from home this time. The way the league was panning out it was looking increasingly likely that a win away from home here would have us sitting in a very good place in the league ... first place. We were on the home straight so to speak.

We were also looking at the start of a cup campaign and i didnt want that to distract from the importance of this game so we needed to re-emphasis our goal.

I must admit i faced some objection or well at least some questioning about this from the other coaches. Would it be too much pressure ? Is it presumptious ? is it arrogance ?

As head coach i had to make the final call and i went with it , I again went with a poster (its a cheap , quick easy option but has a huge effect visually) but this time i would bring the Munster Junior Bowl trophy aswell to put on display.

The plan was to let the players get ready , we had our usual whiteboard meeting then the players go out for the warm up , they usually come back in with 5 minutes to go. In that time i left the warm up to the other coaches and i prepped the dressing room. We removed everything and put up the poster , the cup was sitting proudly on a display in front of the wall where the poster was . The players would come back in to the dressing room and see this for the first time 5 minutes before the game.

It was risky as players may have taken to it badly but i felt we had mentally prepared them in advance to have them already in the zone and to have been prepared for this.. I had taken a leaf out of non other than British Mentalist Derrens Brown book , and especially and episode called "The Heist" where he had used subliminal messaging all week to get innocent people to hold up a security guard transferring money with a fake gun. The messaging triggered a reaction when ever they were exposed to it.

Let's jump back to the thursday night before this game first ....

I wanted to try and use that subliminal messaging with the players prior to this game so at the team meeting on the thursday night we went through the usual gameplan on screen , but at the end of the presentation i added a slide of each player when at some time or another they had been part of a winning team , a past photo of them with a winning team or holding a trophy . I wanted them to go to a place where they remembered that winning feeling . I wanted something to trigger inside them so that over the course of the next few days they would perhaps retrace those emotions and feelings. This same feeling i hoped would again appear when they re entered the dressing room and seen the poster and trophy.

Also on our White board , in the middle of the messaging was the word WIN , in big bold red font. It jumped out at them even if that was the only thing they saw on the board. Would that rekindle the same thoughts they experienced on the thursday night. Would it prepare them for the visual later on ?

Now back to the game ....

I cant say what happened when the players reentered the room as i wasnt there , i didnt want to be there . I wanted them to experience it for themselves. I have asked players what they thought and these are some of the responses we received. I like that there was a mixed response , these things dont work for everyone.

Another thing that was slightly different in this game was our players base. For this game we had 3 or 4 experienced senior players available to us. Hugely experienced players coming into this set up , They were unfamiliar with the Connect Accuracy and Patience concept , we had to make it personal for them in the space of a week.

We asked them three simple questions about who they were that day and how they would approach the game , could they see the bigger picture.

"The Game"

We won....... another roller coaster of a game , connections , accuracy and patience really paid off in this one , below is the scoring timeline and my half time notes . We eventually came away with a 38-27 point win , yes we took our foot off the gas but look at that start , 22-5 up at one stage with 3 tries within the first 10 minutes. Our connection in having shared memories of momentous occasions allowed us to be very clear in our goal not just as individuals but remember the time we had last year and how that made us feel , be accurate and patient in our execution as we knew if we were we would take that next step in achieving what the ultimate goal , we saw it and we took action....

The next blog - How a bird (should of) helped us remain consistent .