Athletes try to motivate teammates through their own hard work in the pool, on the field, court, or in the weight room by using encouraging “fire up” words, and/or pep talks. The idea of motivating others may work for the short-term but the affect tends to wear off especially when athletes are faced with situations where they are stretched outside their comfort zone or they fail. There is also the motivational impact that goal-setting makes to create an extrinsic reward which can help athletes create intrinsic meaning. Most of the time without appropriate goal setting practices that impact wears off after the goal has been reached. The reality is that you cannot motivate anyone but yourself beyond a superficial level. Each person has their own basic psychological needs that need to be met (Self-Determination Theory, Deci and Ryan 2002). The ultimate target is to promote a sense of vitality and well-being through three areas: The need for autonomy (choice): The word choice means, in this context, that athletes understand they have a say in how they execute in their sport and in their role. The need for relatedness (connection): If the culture of the sport and team is one that provides a time and place for open and honest communication, every one thrives. Connection with others in an athletes support team also helps tremendously in continuous pursuit of goals. The need for competence (knowledge):  Gaining knowledge about one’s position on the team, their role, and how to play and compete in the game all lead to growth in ability, confidence, and intrinsic motivation.  There is a difference between pursuing goals and living a mission. The mission drives athletes to train harder, focus longer, and beat all odds. The mission may take longer to reach than goals, so it is important to set goals that are actionable.   Starter guide to establishing the mission: What values and qualities do you see in the most elite athletes? How could you operate by those values and qualities on a daily basis? In what ways could you interact with others? What legacy would you like to leave in your sport for yourself and your team? Combine your values, qualities, and legacy into a short statement or an acronym (example: R.A.I.D.E.R.S. Rise Above with Intensity, Determination, Endurance, Resilience, and Strength). Actionable goals may include a long-term vision that is then broken down into short-term action steps that focus on the execution of improvement and competition. Sharing goals with an athlete support team can also improve the connection and relatedness an athlete feels with those involved around them to feed more internal drive. Finding the right balance of inclusion and collaboration is a huge boost to motivation since nothing can be achieved alone.   Author: Brian Alexander | Date Published: 10/15/2019 Brian Alexander, MA, CMPC is a mental coach and co-founder of WellU Mental Training. He works with the USA Men’s Water Polo team and in private practice with athletes, coaches, and teams at the youth, high school, collegiate, professional, and Olympic levels in sport. Please visit www.welluapp.com to download the WellU app and start your mental training program.

In every competitive atmosphere (or life in general) we are faced with adversity, either internal or external. For example, we may internalize losses, injuries, failures, or rejections from others as deep invalidations of ourselves (inner critic dialogue), while other forms of adversity will be presented based on external events. These external events may feel out of our control; the weather, the referees, the plane that got delayed, the coach that will not play you, or the team you were cut from. These internal and external events are individually unique to one’s experience. They may leave us feeling dejected or deflated, lacking hope or maybe a sense of giving up. When adversity strikes, you have a choice. The defining moment in your sport (and in life) is how you choose to respond.  The words that come to mind that will most effectively steer us in the right direction during these challenges: resilience, perseverance, and plasticity - (fluid, flexible, or supple, much like a river moving around an obstacle). Each competitor must find a way to encapsulate this mindset when adversity strikes and each competitor MUST find a way to build and add resilience to their mental tool bag if they are to have longevity and success in their sport. Building this skillset takes practice. Trust me, if you are a competitive athlete you will have plenty of opportunities to practice resilience. You must first start by finding what works best for you, but fear not, you do not have  to learn from scratch.  Some people are under the notion that either you have resilience or you do not. There is no research to specifically tell us that resilience is a genetic trait. Therefore, it is my professional opinion, that resilience can be built. Just like the work and training you put into your body, your resiliency muscle needs to be exercised.  Let’s dive into some core tools that can help kickstart your resilience muscle.  First: Define your foundation. What I mean by this is you must identify your core belief or foundation that you stand on or behind in life. Then apply this to your sport. They should cross over. This can take the form of many different things for each person, religion for some, or family for others, or it may be an ideology such as “the universe provides”. If you do not have a core belief in life or a solid foundational rock of faith that you can always stand on or go back to, then it will be important to spend time cultivating one or two core beliefs in your life.  Second:  Leverage your experience. Each one of us face significant challenges in our sport and in life that are unique. It doesn’t matter how significant that challenge is in comparison to your peers, all that matters is the relevance to you and your experience of that event. Your ability to work through and overcome this challenge allows you reassurance that you can conquer new and future challenges as you compete. These experiences feed belief in your ability to overcome new obstacles. Draw upon your past victories no matter how small to build belief in your ability to overcome new challenges. This becomes a snowball effect as we get older and we can keep moving forward and going over or through life’s hurdles. Through this process, we can become more and more resilient. You might ask what if I haven’t overcome a challenge yet or am still in a really difficult time? This is where we look to someone in our environment close to us who has overcome adversity, which leads us to our last principle in building resiliency.  Third: Learn vicariously. This draws upon the principle that you may not have acquired the skill, but someone before you has acquired this skill. This is the beauty of history. We learn and grow from what we see, hear, read, or experience. This is a basic human tenant (nature/nurture). Athletes before us have all overcome. We just need to look to their personal stories and listen. From here you can gain insight into how someone else has overcome and you can begin to model and apply those same principles to your situation. Research tells us that vicarious learning helps us to establish belief once we know or see that someone else has been in a similar situation and they reached success.  Here are three examples of athletes who exemplify these three principles of resilience:  James Anthony Abbott: James Abbott was born without a right hand, yet went on to become a successful major league baseball pitcher. Even batting at times.   Shaquem Griffin:  Shaquem Griffin was born with amniotic band syndrome affecting his left hand, which ultimately was amputated at the age of 4 years old. He pursued his dream and went on to be drafted into the NFL, where he currently plays for the Seattle Seahawks.  Toni Harris: Toni Harris became one of the first female athletes to earn a collegiate scholarship to play football. She dreams of going to the NFL.  These examples are just a fraction of the athletes that have paved the belief path for others behind them. Examine these 3 guiding principles to begin your resilience practice today.  Click Here To Watch Video   Ami Strutin-Belinoff, M.A., LMFT and CMPC, is a certified mental performance consultant. His private practice is based in San Diego, CA and he works remotely with athletes at all levels and in all sports. If you would like to train your resilience, you can follow training programs by downloading the WellU Mental Training App on apple and google play devices. WellU provides engaging mental training opportunities to help athletes develop peak performance. Visit www.wellumentaltraining.com to download the app!

The mental health and well-being of athletes has always been relevant through the history of sports. Issues such as race, gender, and sexual exploitation have created political protests and conversations that have reached the Olympic platform. Depression, anxiety, drug abuse and disordered eating are just a few of the clinical aspects that elite athletes struggle with just like everyday people. Fortunately, and as of recently, popular media has begun to open the door to the previously mentioned issues. However, these are just some of the human challenges competitive athletes face on top of the mental performance areas to compete, win and find success. The main concentration of mental training emphasizes specific psychological skill development learned systematically over time to promote performance improvement through behavior change, awareness, and general well-being. Athletes can find within themselves the tools to proactively cope with many life stressors they face as humans. All the while, athletes learn new mental skills for performance demands to reach their athletic potential as individuals and teams. WellU Mental Training has discovered that mental training and sport psychology interventions should be structured in a systematic and methodical way. Different phases of a comprehensive mental training program include assessment, interpretation, systematic goal setting, action planning with targets and objectives, implementation, progress monitoring, mindfulness awareness, and evaluating. WellU combines mental skills training content into 7 main categories: Confidence, Focus, Nerves & Emotions, Resilience, Motivation, Communication, and Self-Awareness. As with all helping professions, the most effective approach is one in which the support connects with you as a human first. In order to truly establish a connection to your training with a coach or program, you must establish trust and rapport so that you can unpack the barriers and layers positioned between you and your potential. For example, WellU offers free introductory 20-minute video coaching sessions as you progress through the content to provide person to person guidance in applying the content to your sport performance and training. If you decide, you can personally connect with a mental coach online to access further one to one comprehensive mental coaching. Your success is highly correlated with your wellness in and out of your sport. WellU is a mental training program that allows you to find consistency in your performance, connect with other athletes, share stories, and improve the relationship you have with yourself.  We have found that younger generations of athletes require a greater sense of connectedness and access to supportive mental skills training and mental health. The greatest purpose to a mental training program is to provide (1) global access to guided performance based mental skills training and (2) a gateway to better access in discussions of athlete mental health challenges. When this is accomplished, the WellU athlete steps into their own greatness.   Author: Brian Alexander | Date Published: 8/15/2019 Brian Alexander, MA, CMPC is a mental coach and co-founder of WellU Mental Training. He works with the USA Men’s Water Polo team and in private practice with athletes, coaches, and teams at the youth, high school, collegiate, professional, and Olympic levels in sport. Please visit www.welluapp.com to download the WellU app and start your mental training program.

  Team Name: San Antonio Water Polo Club “ShellBacks” Location: San Antonio, TX Head Coach Name: Bill Freeman Team size: 15 Age group: 18U     San Antonio Water Polo Club (SAWPC) “Shellbacks”  1. When and why was your team founded?  The Shellbacks were founded in the Fall of 2018. A few of the team members belonged to another water polo club in the outskirts of San Antonio that was not looking out for their best interests and was solely focused on generating revenue. Many of the team members and their parents quickly identified this and decided not to return after attending the Junior Olympic National Championships in 2018 although they were awarded Silver Medals. In an attempt to keep a small set of the boys together as a team, two of the fathers from the previous group identified a local facility and Water Polo Club that at the time was focused solely on Men’s Open Division Water Polo and have now created what is now known as the ShellBacks. The two fathers were able to broker a deal with the San Antonio Water Polo Club leadership to rent pool time and hire a skilled coach to help these young men develop and hone their skills. Coach Bill Freeman was the “diamond in the rough’ needed for this team and he has transitioned this group of Water Polo playing boys into Water Polo playing men. 2. What makes your team special?  Our team is comprised of players from 4+ High Schools. The SAWPC Shellback 18U team ages range from 14-17. This group hasn’t been together for countless seasons like many other teams they face in the Texas Tournaments. This diverse group of young men have successfully taken on fully developed and home grown 18U teams that have been together season after season with no hesitation. The shellbacks recently solidified their spot in the 2019 Junior Olympic National Championships in Houston, TX Junior Olympic Qualifiers. 3. What was the inspiration for your team’s gear?  Well Bosko Dimic and his design team at Ryte Sport were instrumental with the design ideas. The Shellback or Sons of Neptune is known as a symbol of a veteran sailor who has been initiated by crossing the equator however, we wanted to pay tribute to the “raucous and rowdy” who crossed the line from the previous team. Since water polo is aquatic in nature and with this diverse group of young men ready to battle any team that stands in their way, we wanted to represent something that is deep in tradition as well as American nautical folklore origins such as Davy Jones Locker, King Neptune, creatures of the deep, etc.. 4. Greatest moment or achievement so far as a team? The SAWPC Shellbacks are the sole San Antonio, TX Water Polo team and club. They are generating visibility of Water Polo here in South Texas. The Shellbacks qualified for the 2019 Junior Olympic National Championships to be held in Southern California. 5. Any athletes that went on to swim or play collegiately or overseas?  Not yet, but this is year 1. Many players aspire to play in the Colleges located throughout California, the Naval Academy and Coast Guard. 6. What would your athletes say is the best part about being apart of your team?  Playing Water Polo of course. We also have a real Coach that developed and led many of the top tier Water Polo teams out in California. The players say, Although he’s tough, he’s fair and has taken our team to the next level. We’re not just another Texas Water Polo Team. We’re a classy team that fully exhibits the highest level of Sportsmanship win, lose or draw. It’s hard to find that these days and we take pride in our ability to represent San Antonio and do it well. 7. What meet or tournament does your team look forward to each year?  Junior Olympic National Championships. In the player’s previous Water Polo club there was about a 3 month work up to prepare for the Junior Olympic Qualifiers and subsequent JO National Championships. We now commence each Fall with the expectation, hard work and dedication to make it to JO’s! 8. Any big plans for the future of your team?  With the attention the Shellbacks are getting, the desire is to now work on competing at the National level year round. Assisting with the growth of the club is also important and on the horizon. The Shellbacks love giving back to training opportunities such as clinics for younger players taking interest in aquatics and providing visibility into the wonderful world of Water Polo. 9. RYTE Sport product review from Bill Freeman: When looking to establish uniformity for our newly developed team we looked all over for a custom swimwear shop locally only to come up empty handed. We looked to USA Water Polo who recommended their sponsors, RYTE Sport. My initial feeling was, this could get very expensive and cumbersome working with an Organization that isn't local. This can prove to be extremely difficult to get the desired designs just right. Bosko and his team at RYTE Sport have truly changed my thought process on customer service and execution for custom swimwear and team apparel. Their design team was very responsive, developed exactly what we wanted and the quality of every product has been second to none. We had a couple of players that even ordered the wrong size custom made speedos and RYTE Sport cut a return shipping label and shipped out replacements without hesitation. Their service and quality is second to none. Team RYTE Sport’s personnel are true professionals and I’d highly recommend them to any club swim or water polo team.   Click here to check out all of SAWPC's team gear

    Team Name: Gator Water Polo Club Location: Gainesville, Florida Head Coach: David Huelsman Team Size: 60+ Age group: 10/12U, 14U, 16/18U   1. When and why was your team founded? We were founded in April 2013, because there was no youth water polo in North Florida.   2. What makes your team special? I think what makes our team special is the fact that we are the furthest north team in the state of Florida. This has been a great challenge for our program, to not really have any teams to play against without traveling.   3. What was the inspiration for your team gear? Trish. She has always been amazing at designing our gear.   4. Greatest moment of achievement so far as a team? Our first venture to Sunshine State Games, the Florida Championship, we went and got destroyed. But, the kids had a blast just being able to play water polo.   5. Any athletes that went on to swim, play  at the collegiate level, or overseas? We have several that attend and play water polo at the University of Florida. We also have a girl playing for the UNC club team.   6. What would your athletes say is the best part about being on the team? Our athletes all love being able to play water polo. So water polo is the best part. Our athletes didn’t have the opportunity to play water polo before our club was built.   7. What meet or tournament does your team look forward to each year? The Sunshine State Games, which is the Florida Championships.   8. Any big plans for the future of your team? Continued growth, is our main goal. We want to add more high schools to the area, as well as grow in the 10/12U age group within the next few years. Click here to checkout all of Gator Water Polo Club's team gear