January 2025 - Condor Performance

Early morning training session — The best athletes in the world are almost always the ones with the best Off-Season Mindset.

What Is Your Off-Season Mindset?

The “Off Season” is an odd sporting term. It typically implies that athletes and coaches from around the globe only have two gears. “On” during pre-season and the competitive months where they give everything. And then “Off” for the rest of the year when everything stops.

This Black and White / Either Or / Binary way of conceptualising the sporting year is counterproductive. Certainly from a mental standpoint. Almost without a doubt, the origin of the term Off Season comes from a bygone era when training was regarded as almost entirely physical. So these athletes would’ve overdone it physically for eight months and hence required complete rest and recovery for four months.

However, this whole idea falls apart pretty quickly when you look at modern-day high-performance preparation whereby a lot of improvement requires little or no physical movement whatsoever.

The Five Pillars

Anyone who has completed our online Mental Toughness program – Metuf – will know that “preparation” can be broken down into 5 pillars: Physical Capability (PC), Mental Toughness (MT), Tactical Wisdom (TW), Technical Consistency (TC) and LifeStyle Choices (LC).

If we assume these 5 pillars are of equal importance then really only Physical Capability (PC) requires more body than mind. The other 4 pillars are “above the neck” processes, needing little or no physical exertion.

So for highly demanding physical sports (for example CrossFit, rugby union, rugby league, American Football, AFL and endurance sports – to name the first few to come to mind) then it’s only Physical Training that might want to be reduced during the gaps between the end of the competitive season and the start of the next preseason.

But even this is questionable. If the physical demands are adequately managed during the season then the necessity of an off-season of little or no physical effort is reduced.

A Season Is A Long Time

Part of the work that we do as one of the biggest independent groups of sport psychologists and performance psychologists in the world is to pass on invaluable “mind hacks” to our monthly clients. One of these is to tweak the way we think about time.

We encourage our 1-on-1 clients to use months and weeks rather than seasons or years. In summary, use weeks to plan and review efforts. Use months to monitor progress (KPIs etc). And if you must only use periods longer than this to set goals.

Start with a week-by-week approach. Think about a week as a block of 168 hours. Add your ideal sleep-in first. Not just amounts but bedtime and wake-up time too. Then add the stuff you have little or no influence over. For example, school or medical appointments. Finally, fill in the gaps with a healthy mix of process blocks across the 5 pillars.

This typically results in 52 weeks of “the right amount” of effort instead of 40 weeks of overdoing it followed by 12 weeks of undergoing it (oh, how very common this is).

The Biggest Clue

One of the biggest clues is how you feel mentally and physically at the end of the competitive season. If you are desperate for the break then there is a good chance you’ve been overextending yourself. Many individuals involved in elite sports believe that the primary purpose of an off-season is to recover from burnout. But the sports science is clear now. Burnout harms performance consistency, so we should be designing our preseason and the season to prevent burnout. Sometimes, less is more.

The concept of best-kept secrets is a bit of a cliche in sport. But having said that some things genuinely seem to separate the best from the rest. One of these is not so much the amount of time spent on training but the way it is designed and implemented. Not all 60-minute training sessions are equal. Some will be outstanding, whilst others can be damaging (it would have been better if they had not taken place at all).

Need A Hand?

If you feel like you might benefit from a professional helping hand in developing a smarter way of going about your preparation then why not get in touch? Regardless of how you contact us, we will attempt to get back to you within a couple of working days and talk you through the unique way in which Condor Performance goes about our sport psychology consulting.

LONDON, ENGLAND – August 21 2013: Graeme Swann reacts after missing a catch during day one of the 5th Investec Ashes cricket match between England and Australia.

Understanding the Fear of Mistakes and Errors

Firstly, it’s essential to understand why we often fear making mistakes or errors. This is because mistakes and errors are often stigmatised and associated with failure, and we know that our thoughts and feelings are not always the truth.

In many cultures, we are taught to aim for perfection, which can lead to anxiety around failure. Although there is nothing wrong with striving to be our best, this creates a sense of pressure that can hinder decision-making and prevent us from taking risks. The good news is that we often worry about things we care about. By recognising the purpose of mistakes and the importance of reframing errors, we can focus on our processes or actions that are within our control.

The Benefits of Reframing Mistakes and Errors

Mistakes and errors can often give us valuable information about the numerous ways to improve and learn. When we take the time to reflect on our performance, we can gain insights that inform our future decisions.

This process of reflection helps us develop resilience and adaptability. Mistakes and errors can also sharpen our critical thinking and improve our problem-solving skills. When we embrace that they are a normal part of the learning experience, we are more likely to take on opportunities for growth without fearing failure.

“Setbacks are not reflections of our abilities but stepping stones toward improvement.”

Strategies for Reframing Mistakes and Errors

Have you ever wondered why some performances might feel slightly less or more pressured after a mistake or error? The weight we give to them is very significant. Reflecting on the last time you ‘messed up’, did you notice what happened to your performance afterwards?

For some athletes and performers, it allows them to relax, as the worst-case scenario we were trying to avoid has already happened. For those who feel more pressure after a mistake or error, there is often an intent to ‘make up’ for that mistake. This is very risky from a mental toughness point of view. More often than not, this will switch the internal focus away from the process to the outcome.

But what if I suggested that how we act after the mistake is far more important? It is common for performers to consider starting at 100% of the quality of their best performance. What ends up happening is that we try our best to maintain this level of performance for the whole duration of the competition or performance. This can often lead to rushing our processes or creating a sense of pressure due to the unrealistic expectations we place on our performance.

The Start From Zero Percent Approach

But what if I said the quality of our performance starts at 0%? And we work towards increasing our quality throughout our performance. At the start of all performances, we haven’t achieved anything productive or equal to what we know we are capable of. This means that any error or mistake would not detract from the quality or hard work we have already achieved. But what if I said the quality of our performance starts at 0%? And we work towards increasing our quality throughout our performance.

At the start of all performances, we haven’t achieved anything productive or equal to what we know we are capable of. This means that any error or mistake would not detract from the quality or hard work we have already achieved.

For example, say you are a tennis player, and you miss an easy cross-court winner during the first game of a match. Using the start from Zero Percent Approach, this feels normal. But when you start from A Hundred Percent not so much.

Mistakes vs Unfortunate Occurrences

Sometimes, just changing the label will get the job done. In high-performance sports, the words mistake and error are particularly confronting. Imagine yourself in a one-on-one meeting with your coach on Monday morning, and she opens with, “I want to talk about the mistake she made yesterday yesterday”.

A mistake can be referred to as an error or something we have done with a lack of responsibility or misunderstanding. Imagine you’re a basketball player going for a free throw and miss. This should be considered a mistake if the player closes their eyes and executes that skill incorrectly on purpose. But this almost never happens.

What is far more common in these situations is that the player tries to get the ball in the basket, but it doesn’t quite make it. This is not a mistake; it is an unfortunate occurrence. And sport and other performance areas are full of these.

An unfortunate occurrence refers to an undesirable situation or event that is not through lack of effort. We could consider it like this. Unless you intentionally try to do poorly, then it would be impossible for there to be any mistakes throughout your entire performance. But there will always be a bunch of unfortunate occurrences.

Conclusion

Reframing mistakes is a powerful mindset shift that can lead to personal and professional growth. By viewing errors as opportunities rather than failures, we open ourselves to a world of possibilities. So the next time you become fixated on a mistake, remember this. Was it really a mistake (lacking effort), or was it actually an unfortunate occurrence? And whatever it turns out to be, both are opportunities for improvement!

As always, if you need a hand, give us a shout.