SportExcel                                 Own the Zone - Own the Game
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In This Issue
Olympic Silver Celebration
Sneak Preview!
Slump Breaker
Swim for Yourself
You Asked!
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Peak Performance
Tip

Start the day right. Give yourself a reality checkup before getting out of bed in the morning.  If you find that you are dreading the day (big game, exam, project, problem to deal with, etc.), use one of your strategies to fix your perception of the problem.  
 
If you have worked with us, use techniques like Anchoring, Dock of the Bay or Theatre of the Mind.  

If you haven't worked with us, imagine how a coach or mentor might resolve the issue and proceed accordingly. 
 
Get in this daily habit and your brain will have you hopping out of bed  with a smile,
every day
 
Give us a call and we can help you with the process.  Our program is a lot more fun than staying in bed. 

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We invite you to join us online for the latest tips, news and tools to enhance your peak performance training.  We'd love to connect with you and invite your feedback!
 

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Please take a moment to answer the three multiple choice questions listed. 

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Why SportExcel?
The SportExcel experience is an educational and strategic approach to peak performance.   
 
Athletes and coaches gain a mental edge with the Zone - where mind, body and spirit synch to create magic.
 
As President and Head Trainer for SportExcel, Bob Palmer is one of North America's leading experts.  
 
Highly respected for the success that he brings to his clients in different sports, he has been an important part of the training programs of Olympic, international, national and regional athletes.  

Bob conducts workshops and one-on-one training sessions throughout North America, is a regular guest speaker on a U.S. based Coaching Hour, is a published writer with a regular column in two North American sporting magazines, and has a book in the works.

Empower...Inspire...Excel
 
 
Our Clients Say
"Bob Palmer inspired me to set life goals, and helped me reassure myself that they could easily be attained."

         Chad Camirand, Hockey Player and student in Laurentian Concurrent Education Program

April, 2010 -  Volume 15, Issue 2
Sportexcel Peak PerformanceWelcome to SportExcel's new look and renewed focus. The past fifteen years have been fabulously interesting as we and our clients have had much to celebrate-local, national, world and Olympic champions, as well as endorsement for our upcoming book.

Most importantly, our athletes and coaches have always separated themselves from their competition by a very high rate of success.


One of the reasons for this success is the educational nature of our program. Our coaches, athletes and parents enjoy strategies that are easy to learn and easy to apply, in virtually every circumstance, even in the heat of the game, even when injured.


Most importantly, in every workshop our athletes and coaches learn the Zone. There is no mystery here. Very soon into the training process, they hold the prescription, and, were it patentable, would own the rights.


Congratulations all and we look forward to the next fifteen years of success.

 
                           Bob Palmer
A Winter Olympics Silver Celebration

Back in December, as the 2010 Winter Olympics approached, we were prepared to watch from the sidelines with no clients participating. We were certainly Olympicsgearing up for many participants in the summer games in London 2012 and the 2015 Pan Am games, but no Winter Olympians. 


So imagine the honor of getting a call to work with a young athlete vying for a Winter Olympic medal.  Suffice to say, THE ATHLETE WON SILVER and we're celebrating this wonderful achievement!
 
Congratulations go out as well to all the athletes, coaches and trainers who participated in both the Olympics and ParaOlympics.     

 

Sneak Preview of our New Program


SportExcel is working on creating a teleconference workshop in a small group setting, that is patterned after our very popular one-on-one telephone program.  The workshop will be held over eight weeks and be one hour in length each week.  The groups will be limited to five to 10 individuals.  New strategies will be presented in each session with lots of opportunity for practice and feedback. 

There will be workshops for coaches, athletes and teams, and workshops can evenPhone imagebe customized for specific team requirements, such as pre-season tuneups and mid-season emergency sessions. 

The program will receive the same high quality that we are known for but at a group rate and without travel costs. 
This opens up the door for small groups of athletes, teams, coaches or parents to get involved with our program.

We'll initially offer two workshops: one aimed at athletes and the other at coaches, with additional workshops being offered in the near future.  

It is anticipated that we will be launching this program within the next two months.

Please call us or email  us if you have questions or if you wish to put yourself on our reserve list. 


Toll free: 877-967-5747

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Slump Breaker!

Banner Zone InsiderWe've worked with hundreds of athletes and it can be an exercise in detective work and problem solving. 

A case in point is a young hockey player. We have helped him through the normal growing and development pains, from minor hockey to Junior A.  Recently, prior to the Christmas break, he found himself in a slump. The season's first twenty games had produced a mere point. Even for a defenseman, that is a shaky start. 


As it turns out, he had a very simple set of problems: 1) his routine had changed in how he got to practices and games and 2) a recent injury was throwing off his timing.    

The routine change had a huge effect on his pre-game preparation.  The current drive was now a carpool with fellow players--young adults talking about partying and girls, rather than hockey.  In the past, his dad had driven him to the game, while he focused solely on getting mentally ready. Once he had identified this, he went back to having his dad drive.  And his dad liked it, too.

As for the injury that was throwing off his timing, especially with body checks, he learned to forget the trauma of the initial injury, as well as the muscle memory  associated with it (a process that is one of our specialties at SportExcel).  It allowed him to relax and stay in the Zone. 

The problem-solving worked, and over the next ten games he assisted on seven goals.  Now, this spring, he has been selected to play on the Team Canada Select Under 20 squad!  A trip to Sweden awaits him! 

 

Congratulations.   

 
Swim for Yourself, not your Coach! 
Swimming CompetitionProblem solving must be the theme of this newsletter, as one of our swimmers found himself in a funk over how his coach rewarded and punished him in practice. 

After a mistake, he and his teammates are hauled out of the water to do push-ups on the deck. 

We met for one short session (30 minutes) just prior to a weekend competition to get him beyond this anger and frustration. It worked, as at the meet, he blew most of his times "out of the water." He even beat a competitor whom he'd always perceived as unbeatable! 

The real bonus is, however, that he has now learned to interact with his coach in a positive manner to build up the relationship. According to his mom, he even got his coach to laugh at a recent training session. 
  
 
You Asked!

How do I speed up my thinking?

Hockey goalieQuite often we over-think sport situations and lose our opportunity to score. In hockey, if you see the goaltender first (rather than the opening) it is probably too late to score.
 
 

In his autobiography, Wayne Gretzky notes that he dislikes being asked about the greatest goaltender he ever played against.  Simply, he never saw the goaltender -- only the goal openings.

For most beginning athletes (and this applies to any scoring game) scoring is a four step process:
1)  Catch the puck with your stick. 
2)  Look and see where the goaltender is. 
3)  Look to where the goaltender isn't. 
4)  Shoot the puck.    

Instead, you might train yourself to:
1)  Catch the puck with your stick while the whole ice surface and goal openings are in your peripheral visual and
2)  Shoot the puck.

Although this sounds like an unspectacular change to 2 steps from 4 steps, it is geometrically faster and gives the goaltender no set-up time.  This was clearly evident with Crosby's goal over Miller in Canada's gold medal win at the Olympics.  Miller even said as much.  

One way to achieve this is to visualize the process.  Imagine seeing the whole ice surface, catching the puck on your stick and scoring.  Visualize this over and over.  This kind of practice is a complement to regular practice, although it has one advantage--you can score as many goals as you like without your opponent ever complaining.