Learning better and faster

In my experience as a peak mental performance consultant, I’ve realized that the greatest value I could bring young hockey player to help them learn better and faster - to teach them skills and techniques that would help them become more involved in their own development.

The InnerWarrior Cycle™: Improving Better and Faster

One of the tools I have designed and used effectively to help young hockey players, world champion athletes and corporate leader is called the InnerWarrior Cycle™ -- It is an easily applicable THINKING sequence that teaches players how to be more purposeful and capture and apply knowledge leading to improved performance.

The 4 steps of InnerWarrior Cycle™

So imagine a young hockey players attending his first junior major training camp whose goal is to improve his skating speed.

Step 1: Achieve Clear Intention

What: Clarify the true essence of what it is that you want to accomplish. Many hockey players are surprised to realize that their intent is not always as clear as it could be in light of the results they want to deliver. The goal is to state an intent that is precise and meaningful.

For example, instead of thinking “Skate faster” think “I will load the power leg every stride”. This second objective is much more precise. The thinking is that Clear Intention lead to Clear Actions or Pure Performance.

Step 2: Pure Performance

What: Access a true state of pure performance. One in which you will performs in the moment and without fear of making mistakes. By pure performance we don not meant to perform without making a mistake, but rather to be tally involved in the act of performing.

Our corporate logo (The InnerWarrior) is a good example of this state of clear action. Imagine that you were a warrior involved in a battle to the death. In such a situation, you could not afford to focus on anything but the present - the “Right here - Right Now” frame of mind as we call it. As well, you could not afford to allocate any of your mental energy to thinking about possible mistakes. The best way to insure your survival would be to involve all of your attention in the moment and give it your all. The challenge for young hockey players and any athletes is to re-create this ultimate state of pure performance for every performance.

Step 3: Gather Complete Feedback

What: Measure yourself. Capture the TANGIBLE (score, results, numbers) as well as all the INTANGIBLE outcomes of your actions. 

In the case of our young hockey player who’s trying to improve his speed, it is a natural to capture the tangible outcome of his performance: time. What we instruct our client to do is to also capture not-so obvious and not-as easily measurable elements. For example, our young hockey player could be directed on measuring the amount of tension in his body as he is attempting to skate fast.

Step 4: Complete a Courageous and Truthful Assessment

What: Analyze the outcome of ones action in light of the original intention. The challenge is to insure that this assessment is done in the most truthful and courageous way possible - you must be totally honest with your performance. Many of my clients who have mastered this step call it the no B.S. assessment (Fill in the acronym as you wish). If perform properly, this assessment will lead to a RESTATEMENT of the original intention. It is a system to capture then apply knowledge.

For example, our young hockey player realized that he skated with a lot of tension. After performing a complete and courageous assessment, he realized that a lot of this tension came from the fact that he was trying too hard to impress the coaches. After reflecting on his performance during the first day of the camp, he captured the knowledge and applied it into a new and improved clear intention: Tomorrow, I relax and load my power leg - The only person I need to impress is myself...”