What sport do you play? I'm asking in order to see what sports I should include more examples of. I will either use this poll as a guide or I will prioritize based on the global popularity of the sport.
I only get 5 poll options, so I included more options in the comments (click thumbs up on your sport). Thanks!
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I'm planning the next videos.
If you have any questions, topics, or ideas that you want me to make a video about, leave them in the comments.
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I have started making YouTube shorts about what the best athletes in the world say about training their mind and body.
Should I make a separate channel for the Shorts or post them on this channel? Vote Below
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I'm considering making a mental training mobile application (I already have designs ready). The app will have guided meditations, visualizations, and many more mental training exercises used by the best athletes and sport psychologists in the world.
I will only make it if there is interest from my subscribers. Vote below.
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Thinking of making videos about the science of training the body (speed, strength, endurance, flexibility, agility, power) and the limits of human performance. Vote if interested.
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Hello subscribers, this post will include the following: information regarding the future of this channel and short summaries of my top book recommendations.
Iâm a full time student at the University of British Columbia and soccer coach. I am also training for a half iron-man with my buddies, potentially building up to a full iron man in 2 years time. I have big plans for the future of this channel, but it is not easy for me to pump out videos at the moment. For that reason, I have included a list of my favourite sport psychology books to help you get started. There are also many phenomenal video summaries of the books below (check out âŞ@HeroicBrian⏠).
The future of this channel will include videos on:
The books summarized below
Interviews with sport psychologists, coaches, and athletes
Coach and athlete autobiographies
Mental strategies for specific sports
/situations
Secret project (more details later)
Vlog of my Iron Man training (maybe)
Book Summaries:
Compete to Create by Michael Gervais and Pete Carroll
The author Michael Gervais is arguably one of the most knowledgeable applied sport psychologists in the world. He has worked with countless Olympic level athletes, CEOs, and professional athletes. Michael believes that we all have a personal philosophy that impacts our thoughts, tendencies, behaviours, and how we experience life. Gervais states that almost across the board, the highest performers operate from a clear and finely tuned philosophy. Gervais believes that it is essential to actively define and succinctly articulate our personal philosophy, and use it as a compass that guides our thoughts and actions. Once we have clarified and succinctly articulated a personal philosophy, Gervais suggests using visual imagery to create a vision for our future and setting goals that will bring the vision to life. The book includes mental strategies (visual imagery, mindfulness meditation, optimism training, and applied examples from Seattle Seahawks coach, Sean Carroll) to help us on our journey.
Peak by Karl Anders Ericsson
I made a video summary of this book, you can check it out in the channel. The author, Karl Anders Ericsson, is the world's leading expert on expertise. Ericsson categorizes practice into 3 forms: deliberate, purposeful, and naive. Naive practice is going through the motions without having clearly defined goals of what you would like to improve. Purposeful practice involves setting goals that are outside our comfort zone, being fully focused, and seeking feedback. Deliberate practice consists of the same dimensions as purposeful practice, but adds one more critical property: seeking informed feedback. Informed feedback comes from a knowledgeable coach or teacher that has experience with knowing how to most optimally help you achieve your goals. Ericsson also describes a concept of mental representations, which is helpful to understand in order to appreciate the significance and importance of deliberate practice. You will have to read his book for the part about mental representations as it is difficult to define in this short summary and without the examples he includes.
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Karl Anders Ericsson makes it clear that deliberate practice is whatâs needed for expertise. The issue, however, is that deliberate practice is no walk in the park. Ericsson tells us that it is hard, effortful, and not very enjoyable. To make deliberate practice easier, one must make it a habit. Atomic habits is about the science of how to build and break habits. The author James Clear believes that it is more important to focus on what he calls âsystemsâ than goals. Systems are essentially the habits that help us accomplish goals. To build good habits, what you want to do should be made obvious, easy, attractive, and satisfying. To break a bad habit, make it invisible, unattractive, hard, and unsatisfying. James Clear states the importance of focusing on making 1% improvements rather than big leaps. Focusing on 1% gains is easier, more realistic, and less likely to lead to discouragement. Over time, these 1% gains lead to exponential gains. James Clear provides excellent examples on how to do the above.
Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal
We have already established above that the way to achieve expertise is to engage in deliberate practice (Peak by Anders Ericsson). Deliberate practice is made easier by cultivating good habits (Atomic Habits by James Clear). Sometimes, however, we need some extra help to push through the discomfort and get going despite not feeling up for it. Willpower Instinct helps in this regard. The book covers the essentials to increase willpower, such as sleep, exercise, meditation, diaphragmatic breathing, and more.
Rethinking Positive Thinking by Gabriele Oettingen
Several self-help books, such as âThe Secretâ preach the value of positivity and visualizing your dreams and goals. Although this is most certainly fundamental and extremely important, it is also important to think about what could go wrong (a sort of negative visual imagery). Author, Gabriele Oettingen, draws an important distinction between positive fantasizing and mental contrasting. Positive fantasizing (or dreaming) is pleasurable - it allows us to fulfill our wishes in our minds. The drawback, according to Oettingenâs research, is that positive fantasizing saps our energy to perform the hard work of meeting the challenges in real life. Mental contrasting is about dreaming our dreams but then visualizing the personal barriers or impediments that prevent us from achieving those dreams. Oettingenâs research suggests that when we perform mental contrasting and specify the actions we intend to take as obstacles arise, we gain energy to take action. Michael Gervais, one of the best applied sport psychologists in the world (Author of Compete to Create), suggests spending 85% of the time in positive visual imagery and 15% in negative visual imagery.
Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman
The journey to the top of whatever discipline you pursue will inevitably include setbacks, suffering and adversity. This book may help you find positive emotion on your journey. The author Martin Seligman is a legend in the field of psychology. Seligman pioneered the field of positive psychology: the science of positive emotion and living life optimally. This book is about the science of positive emotion (happiness) and how to increase it. Seligman describes that the amount of positive emotion we experience is influenced by our genetics, circumstances and factors under our voluntary control. I will briefly summarize the factors under our control. Positive emotion can be experienced from the past, present and future. To increase positive emotion about the past, we can train forgiveness and gratitude. Positive emotion in the present comes from pleasures (candy, drugs, food, etc) and gratifications (absorption in your craft, relationships, and activities). The former provides short term satisfaction, the latter is intrinsically motivating and the more fulfilling long-term strategy. Positive emotion about the future is influenced by our levels of optimism, hope and faith, which can all be trained. The book includes strategies on how to train all the above: gratitude, forgiveness, hope, optimism, faith, and how to find meaning and absorption in our craft.
Grit by Angela Duckworth
Angela Duckworth tells us that passion and perseverance together are the biggest predictors of success. In Grit, Duckworth covers the topics of deliberate practice, flow states, habits, goal setting, and more. Most importantly, she talks about how to find and cultivate one's passion, and strategies to persevere when the going gets tough.
12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson
This book is a mix of theology, neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology. I believe that Jordan Petersonâs 12 rules provide a powerful foundation to help guide oneâs motivations, thoughts and actions. The rules are easy to understand, however, Jordanâs reasoning and in-depth explanation for the rules is not an easy read (it has taken me over 5 reads to grasp some of his ideas - worth it!). Google the book for the rules.
Brain the Changes Itself by Norman Doidge
Scientists used to believe that the brain was fixed and largely unchangeable, they were wrong. Turns out our brains can adapt and change through active efforts.
Altered Traits by Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson
I mentioned above that our brains can change. This book summarizes the scientific literature on meditation. Through different forms of meditation we can improve our ability to focus, dampen our stress response, become more loving and compassionate, improve our immune functioning, and more. Single focus meditation helps us improve our ability to focus on one thing and gate out distractions. Wide focus meditation can help us quiet our minds. Loving kindness meditation makes us more loving and compassionate. The effects from loving kindness meditation show up the quickest, it turns out that we are primed to love and be cooperative. All forms of meditation decrease our amygdala reactivity and stress response.
Why Meditate by Matthieu Ricard
I mentioned three forms of meditation above: single focus, wide focus, and loving kindness. This book provides a how-to guide about each of these forms of meditation.
Coming to our senses by Jon Kabat Zin
The author, Jon Kabat Zin is an important figure in the meditation space. Zin has conducted several studies on mindfulness meditation and is the founder of mindfulness-based stress reduction. This book covers the science of meditation and how to guides to help you get started.
Ninety Percent Mental by Bob Tewksbury
The author, Bob Tewksbury, is an ex-MLB pitcher and current mental skills coach for the Chicago Cubs. Tewksbury has a plethora of lived and applied experience. The book includes valuable insights and mental strategies that will help you on your journey to mastery.
Mindset by Carol Dweck
The author, Carol Dweck, explains that we all have beliefs that fall on a spectrum between a fixed and growth mindset. Iâve already made a video summary of this book, check it out on the channel.
Happy reading, all the best!
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Exploring the limits of human performance.