I played college basketball. I was on two championship teams and three 20-win teams. But I'll save you the research - I wasn't a great player. I did have some great coaches though, and I believe it was that combination that has made me a great teacher.
What I understand and teach now, I wish someone would have taught me as a player.
I wish I knew how to relax in high-pressure situations.
I wish I knew how to give myself the care I needed when coaches were pushing me harder.
I wish I knew that angry, on-edge persona wasn't helping me as much as I thought it was.
I wish I knew how to train my mind and instincts as much as my skills.
I wish I knew I wasn't a victim of my own brain wiring.
In 2015 I met a girl and started playing sand volleyball. After a year of practicing in a Tuesday night rec league, I made the jump to Saturday mornings, king-of-the-hill 2 on 2 play. I was ready to show off my awesomeness to the world. My partner and I stumbled our way to the top court where we ran into my nemesis, Robert. That's when everything began to deteriorate.
Passes shanked. Serves miscued. Robert's cockiness soared.
My demeanor devolved into a cussing rage.
I tried to will my way through it.
Spikes sailed long.
I tried to breathe and relax.
I couldn't release the tension.
I went home and processed everything I had learned. The following Saturday I showed up to play, not to impress, and it was my best performance ever. The strategies I used to go from awful to awesome in one week are the core of SightShift: Athletes.
Now I'm obsessed with teaching what I'm learning to help athletes and coaches remove distractions and relax with pressure.
SIGHTSHIFT
Our mindset is framed in one simple progression:
IDENTITY --> MISSION --> COMMUNITY
Viewing your life through this filter develops the resiliency to keep going and the clarity to make the next right play.
I am Bret (Identity) --> I coach (mission) --> I have a team (community).
My coaching doesn't define who I am, nor does my team. I coach and build my team out of an overflow of who I am.
RELAXED INTENSITY
You have probably heard it called "flow". It's all about finding your optimal performance state.
The intensity of focus and purpose.
But a relaxed approach in that you have nothing to prove and the results don't define you.
The good athletes play with a chip on their shoulder.
The elite athletes dance while they play.
Relaxed intensity happens when you learn to remove distractions (intensity of focus and purpose) and surrender your skills to instincts (relax into flow).
In my volleyball experience, I was distracted by the need for my performance to validate my worth as a person, as if my awesomeness was dictated by how well I played. And I couldn't relax because I needed to prove something to Robert. I grit my teeth and powered serves out of bounds. The second week, I showed up relaxed with nothing to prove and danced while I played. Everything I wanted to grab hold of the first week, came to me the second week.
HOW CAN WE HELP?
Click around the site to learn more about who we are. The blog will give you a taste of our worldview. And there's some free stuff to get you started. Make sure you get plugged in so you don't miss out on events.
If you really want to dive deep, we can work together 1 on 1 for the most transformational impact.
This program isn't for the soft.
It isn't for the non-competitive.
It's not for people who don't care about winning.
It's a program that develops mental toughness, resiliency and persistence.
It's for athletes who want to get to the edge of their abilities.
It's for coaches who want to connect with their teams in a way that accelerates performance.
It's for team managers who want to create a championship culture that high-level performers thrive in.
Let's relax.
Let's play.
Let's win.