Speaker 1: Beyond the megaphone is a production of I heart radio
Speaker 1: and the college athletes network. Miyata Walker, Miata, how are you? Hi, guys, good,
Speaker 1: how are you? Thank you so much for being on
Speaker 1: our show. Thank you for having me. It's so excited.
Speaker 1: We've been looking forward to this one ever since we
Speaker 1: got our topic list. Oh really, now, you don't have
Speaker 1: to corrupt me. No, I do, I definitely do. Know.
Speaker 1: You were definitely one of the one of the first
Speaker 1: people that we were like, we need to have her on. Oh, thanks,
Speaker 1: guys here. Yeah, for the next twenty nine minutes, we're
Speaker 1: just gonna gas you up the whole time. Oh my goodness, well,
Speaker 1: you can make it thirty if okay, we'll go over. Okay, Um, no,
Speaker 1: but we're so excited to have me on our show. Today.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about the mental side of cheerleading. Okay,
Speaker 1: not only the mental side cheerleading, but just athletics in general. Um,
Speaker 1: this is something that has kind of been something that's
Speaker 1: gotten much more popular, Um, to talk about, something that
Speaker 1: people are much more comfortable with talking about, much more, Um,
Speaker 1: comfortable with sharing their experiences. But there's still definitely a
Speaker 1: long way to go and we want to be just
Speaker 1: one of knows, just another voice of Um positivity and
Speaker 1: um support for everybody going through anything, Um, whether it's
Speaker 1: in or outside of their sport. And so, Um, we
Speaker 1: have me out of here because she's a current PhD student. Um.
Speaker 1: What are you studying? So I'm currently in counseling psychology
Speaker 1: and sports psychology and I'll be a second year in
Speaker 1: the PhD program at Indiana University go hoosiers. So we've
Speaker 1: had me out on and we're gonna ask her a
Speaker 1: bunch of questions. But before I just want to know
Speaker 1: who is MIATA. Can you give us a little rundown
Speaker 1: about who you are? Yeah, so originally from St Charles, Missouri, Um,
Speaker 1: just a suburban area outside of St Louis. Um, and
Speaker 1: I've been in Indiana for quite some time now actually. Um.
Speaker 1: So I won't disclose how many years ago. We're not
Speaker 1: going to do that. But what did you think? You're
Speaker 1: going to aid yourself on him. I think I already
Speaker 1: kind of have at this point. Um. But I've been
Speaker 1: in Indiana for quite some time, like I said, Um,
Speaker 1: I did my undergraduate here and then I actually did
Speaker 1: my masters at ball state, Um, and then now I'm
Speaker 1: back for more. The WHO's your life through and through, right,
Speaker 1: and so a PhD program and just absolutely loving every
Speaker 1: minute of it. Um, it's been great and Bloomington has
Speaker 1: been great. UNCY was great. Don't get me wrong, I
Speaker 1: mean funzy is. It has its ups and downs, right,
Speaker 1: just like any town, but Um, you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: something that I've definitely haven't seen myself looking back to
Speaker 1: Missouri for quite some time. So awesome. So the reason,
Speaker 1: another reason we wanted to have you on the show
Speaker 1: is because, as you were, once in our own shoes. Um.
Speaker 1: So you are currently one of the coaches here at
Speaker 1: Indian University. Oh my goodness, it's still so weird to
Speaker 1: say because it is fresh and you know it's brand new. Um,
Speaker 1: could you take us through maybe, UM, your cheer career,
Speaker 1: maybe just wherever you started and Um, how it kind
Speaker 1: of led you to I you? Um, we'll talk about
Speaker 1: some of the successes she's had. It a you, Um,
Speaker 1: and then how you kind of transitioned into that coaching role. Yeah. So, Um,
Speaker 1: I would say my cheer career started around Eighth Grade, Um,
Speaker 1: and summer before, and I essentially was not any way,
Speaker 1: shape or form, ready for cheerleading. Um, I actually did
Speaker 1: flag football with my brother beforehand. YEA turn of events,
Speaker 1: I went to one of his basketball games in the
Speaker 1: winter and mimicked the cheerleaders. I was like, well, made
Speaker 1: me get out there. Sean how it's done and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm not shy, but you know, Um, I get out
Speaker 1: there on the sideline kind of next to them. They
Speaker 1: were out on the court doing a halftime performance and
Speaker 1: I was just like doing, doing things. And after their
Speaker 1: performance the coach walks up to my mom was like
Speaker 1: and my dad and was like, Um, she's kind of good,
Speaker 1: like you should really consider I mean she kind of
Speaker 1: kept up and I'm like Oh, thank you. And so
Speaker 1: she's like you should get her in a cheerleaning and
Speaker 1: that's how we signed up. My mom was like, if
Speaker 1: you're interested, if you want to do that, then let's
Speaker 1: go for it. I'm like, gonna have good two days
Speaker 1: later I realized a lot of my friends also cheered,
Speaker 1: so I was like, yeah, let's actually try out, let's
Speaker 1: do it. Let's get me in tumbling, glasses, something, anything.
Speaker 1: So that's how it started. Um, and then I ended
Speaker 1: up cheering in high school. Um, at France, south north,
Speaker 1: and so did high school and also did all star
Speaker 1: and competitive cheerleaning as well. Um, just a plug for
Speaker 1: spiritedly cheerleaning. It's not around anymore. It's not your St Louis.
Speaker 1: So my friends know that. Um, that's where I cheered. Um,
Speaker 1: and that was all the way through high school and
Speaker 1: then moved to Indiana. So at first I was not
Speaker 1: going to cheer in College. I was going to throw
Speaker 1: in the towel. My body was like listen, we have
Speaker 1: to stop flipping over, this is not okay. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you can. I'm like, I know. My knees were like, okay,
Speaker 1: screaming for help, literally bloody murder. They were like, excuse me,
Speaker 1: we we can't do this anymore. I don't know what
Speaker 1: you're trying to do. You're going to have any replacements
Speaker 1: in about two years if you continue. And so I
Speaker 1: wasn't going to do it. But one of my teammates
Speaker 1: actually said, Hey, I know you're looking for all girl
Speaker 1: programs if you do cheer in College. Um, Indiana, how's
Speaker 1: a good one? I'm like, Indiana interesting with their corn. Okay,
Speaker 1: I mean, Hey, she she didn't really give it too
Speaker 1: much else, but Um, I was like okay, well, you know,
Speaker 1: I'll take you up on that. Maybe, I don't know really. No,
Speaker 1: you know, just trying to be nice, because I was
Speaker 1: actually looking at everywhere else, like Houston, Texas, right, Um,
Speaker 1: Ohio state, Um, Arizona, I exactly. Um, sorry, I just
Speaker 1: can't do it. Let go big ten Um. So I
Speaker 1: wasn't really looking into Indiana. And then the day before
Speaker 1: she came for the clinic, clinics that we do, right.
Speaker 1: She she was like, oh well, I'm going tomorrow, like again,
Speaker 1: if you want to go, that's fine. I like, do
Speaker 1: you still have room? So I actually jumped in the
Speaker 1: car the day before and we came to Bloomington, Indiana,
Speaker 1: and I've never been here before. So I was like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: I see corn, but thankfully I saw a little bit more.
Speaker 1: But Um, that's so crazy. So you almost weren't even
Speaker 1: a hoosier. No, no, but the clinic went well. Everything
Speaker 1: went well and I was like okay, I'm gonna apply
Speaker 1: and if we get in, I'm gonna try with the team.
Speaker 1: Got In. It's like, okay, I'm gonna go to troy
Speaker 1: outs and if we make it, we're gonna go here.
Speaker 1: If we don't. WE'RE gonna go to University of Arizona,
Speaker 1: which I've never even laid eyes on. The weather, I heard,
Speaker 1: was nice. So you know. So I've heard, um, but
Speaker 1: everything worked out in my favor and here we are.
Speaker 1: So that's the start of the cheer career and I
Speaker 1: came and never looked back, like I said, Um and
Speaker 1: did four and a half years, Um with school, but
Speaker 1: five years with the program. And Yeah, the rest is
Speaker 1: the kind of history. So so while you were here,
Speaker 1: I think you had a little bit of success in
Speaker 1: the program. Is that? Is that accurate? No, no, no,
Speaker 1: that's not accurate. Okay, so give some contexts. The three
Speaker 1: of the six titles that Um I you cheer holds
Speaker 1: is Um majorly in part to Miyata, um so, honest,
Speaker 1: teammates and her teammates. Yes, it was a group effort.
Speaker 1: I didn't sign up for golf. Now, just kidding even
Speaker 1: that collective effort. But but um so, which years did
Speaker 1: you Um win? Yeah, so I was fortunate enough to
Speaker 1: be a part of the two thousand fourteen, sixteen and
Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen championships under you cheerleading. It's crazy. Still
Speaker 1: got the rings. I do they're just not on. So
Speaker 1: they're in a nice box, they're kept safe. It's right.
Speaker 1: You can visualize them. Um, what would you say it
Speaker 1: was like your favorite moment? I'm sure it was probably
Speaker 1: in one of those three experiences. Um, what was probably
Speaker 1: your favorite moment from your time at you as a cheerleader?
Speaker 1: I would say. Okay, so two thousand fifteen, we got
Speaker 1: second place by point zero, one five to the University
Speaker 1: of Alabama. Great Program, but we had a chip on
Speaker 1: our shoulders. As soon as we got off that plane,
Speaker 1: we're like, let's get in the gym, let's work, let's
Speaker 1: get back to to Indiana Cheer liding and to see
Speaker 1: the team come together, the cohesion that came out of that,
Speaker 1: the camaraderie that came around just the goal, the objective,
Speaker 1: and not even that outside of cheerleading. Everyone grew closer
Speaker 1: together and that was so, so cool to see and
Speaker 1: be a part of. Um, and that turned over just
Speaker 1: a new environment, a good team dynamic, a new leaf
Speaker 1: for you cheer and after that, like, granted, my first
Speaker 1: year was great, so I'm not, you know, Um, minimizing
Speaker 1: that experience, but any time, and I use a good time,
Speaker 1: absolutely so I've learned. Hence why, again, I'm still here.
Speaker 1: But just seeing that, I don't know, that Camaraderie and
Speaker 1: that just nature of with being with thirty six females.
Speaker 1: It's kind of hard at times. That was really, really
Speaker 1: cool and that really just made my heart set on
Speaker 1: fire for all my teammates and everything like that. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: And then next year was you guys want right, we did,
Speaker 1: we did. We got the title back, brought it back home. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love that. Um. So you said you hit. So
Speaker 1: you had five years in the program Um, you went around,
Speaker 1: bounce around to get another degree. You're getting like degree
Speaker 1: number fifteen now here. Um, just kidding already myself. So
Speaker 1: can you talk a little bit about maybe what looks like?
Speaker 1: What what's next for Umata? Yeah, so first off, if
Speaker 1: you know just just for today, it can change tomorrow.
Speaker 1: It's okay. Yeah, that's a loaded question. Um, I would
Speaker 1: say with the degree in the pathway that I've kind
Speaker 1: of done, I want my end all big pie in
Speaker 1: the sky goal would be to be a sports psychologist
Speaker 1: for a collegiate department and Um start there essentially and
Speaker 1: then move into a private practice um or professional sports whatever.
Speaker 1: That looks like, but also want to have a private
Speaker 1: practice for eating disorder specialists and specialized in eating Um,
Speaker 1: alongside of doing therapy and s work, techology works. So
Speaker 1: this guy. Yeah, let me know when you're taking clients. Okay,
Speaker 1: yesterday more so. I mean I'm taking practical hours, so
Speaker 1: it's all relative. Right, we might be a conflict of interest,
Speaker 1: but you're not wrong. We're going to get into some
Speaker 1: of the, uh, the nitty and gritty of the mental
Speaker 1: side of cheer. When we come back. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: you through a little bit about cheer specific Um, mental
Speaker 1: things that go on, whether it be mental blocks, Um,
Speaker 1: what we like to call roadblocks, Um, a lot of
Speaker 1: different things involving trust, confidence, insecurity, Um, and all those
Speaker 1: will now stretch into the other aspects of all of athletics. Um.
Speaker 1: We want to make sure that, um, the stuff we
Speaker 1: say is not just for cheer, it's about anything involving athletics.
Speaker 1: So when we when we come back, get into some
Speaker 1: more of that. I mean, I was just gonna take
Speaker 1: us through some of her amazing insights that she's learned
Speaker 1: and as well as Castie and I. So you are
Speaker 1: listening to beyond the megaphone. I'm Nathan and I'm cassidy
Speaker 1: and this is the college athletes network. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: beyond the megaphone on the college athletes network. This is Nathan,
Speaker 1: I'm cassidy and I'Mata. Subscribe to our podcast, so you
Speaker 1: never missed another episode. Okay, so we've gotten the story
Speaker 1: of MIANTA. Okay, everything is there. We're ready to roll.
Speaker 1: Can you walk us through, Um, your definition or your
Speaker 1: idea of a mental block? Yeah, so, when I think
Speaker 1: about a mental block, Um, it's an inability to perform
Speaker 1: a skill or task that was once deemed as automatic.
Speaker 1: So if I give you an example, Um, in gymnastics
Speaker 1: or cheer living. Um, if I had a standing Tuck,
Speaker 1: I could throw it ten out of ten times, eyes closed, Um,
Speaker 1: and then something happens where maybe I stop in the
Speaker 1: middle of the Skille, don't fully complete the skill or not.
Speaker 1: Now I'm not even throwing it, and that's where the
Speaker 1: mental block setting it does would you say that it's
Speaker 1: normal or more frequent to come off of an injury,
Speaker 1: or could this happen even if you land the skill?
Speaker 1: This can be there's a leather of reasons as to
Speaker 1: why the root of the cause is happening. Um. So
Speaker 1: from performance anxiety to fear of the injury or re injury,
Speaker 1: as you were mentioning Um or perfect perfectionism, pressures to
Speaker 1: perform those kind of things. Oh, interesting. So it would
Speaker 1: be like if I can't get it perfect, I'm just
Speaker 1: not gonna do it right. Yeah, okay, yeah, interesting. Mean
Speaker 1: and external factors, Um, from parents, coaches, right, depending on
Speaker 1: if you're not liking their coaching style or they're really
Speaker 1: hard on you. Right. Those are the pressures that I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. There's plenty of that's just one example. There's
Speaker 1: plenty of other pressures. But pressures do you place on yourself?
Speaker 1: Yourself Talk? So, yeah, there's a lot of different things
Speaker 1: that could come up for you as to why that
Speaker 1: mental block could be occurring. So then, off of mental blocks,
Speaker 1: can you um kind of describe the differences, at least
Speaker 1: what you've seen, between mental blocks and just negative self talk, insecurity, Um,
Speaker 1: maybe an unhealthy um feeling of perfectionism? Yeah, so with
Speaker 1: mental blocks you're essentially not performing the skill. I'm not
Speaker 1: doing it Um and I'm not actually physically going Um.
Speaker 1: For the other things that you're mentioning, with the insecurities.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm performing the skill but I have negative self
Speaker 1: talk about it, or it's not as good as I
Speaker 1: wanted to be and that perfectionism sets in, or it's
Speaker 1: not a pretty scale um comparatively to your other teammates
Speaker 1: um or, say, it's not up to part your for
Speaker 1: your standards and your expectations or your coaches standards and expectations.
Speaker 1: So then all of these doubts get set in and
Speaker 1: put in place and these insecurities come to play and
Speaker 1: that's really taking a toll in your performance and hindering
Speaker 1: your performance a little bit, I feel like. I mean
Speaker 1: it's got to be almost all of high level athletes
Speaker 1: experienced something like this. Absolutely, absolutely, and there's different terms
Speaker 1: too for different sports in terms of what happened, is
Speaker 1: happening like, have you heard of the Yips? I've actually. Okay,
Speaker 1: so for the hitting, so you have slumping, you have choking,
Speaker 1: you have yips, you have mental blocks. Right, what are
Speaker 1: all these different things? And a lot of people think that, okay, well,
Speaker 1: they're all synonymous and they're not. For example, we just
Speaker 1: talked about with metal blocks, I'm not throwing a skill,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing it. But with the yips. In baseball.
Speaker 1: I can swing that all day long. I might miss
Speaker 1: ten out of ten times when I'm swinging it right,
Speaker 1: I'm still doing the motion of the skill or the task.
Speaker 1: That's that hand. That's the difference there. So just kind
Speaker 1: of depends to on what sport you're talking about and
Speaker 1: how that looks in a sport, how it shuts up. Interesting.
Speaker 1: It's so funny or like, Um, we always said you
Speaker 1: have to get the monkey off your back. For Baseball,
Speaker 1: that was the UH, the big thing. If you were
Speaker 1: in a hitting slump, it was called he's got a
Speaker 1: monkey on his back, you know. So you kind of
Speaker 1: have these like Um nicknames for it too. That was
Speaker 1: just because growing up in baseball, I recognized that one immediately.
Speaker 1: So that's super funny. Um. Well, my dad was a coach,
Speaker 1: so he would usually use that. Yeah, he's say, he's say, listen,
Speaker 1: he just gotta get that monkey off your back, okay,
Speaker 1: and so I think he was kind of trying to
Speaker 1: make it like kid version, you know, and and it
Speaker 1: would make you'd make us laugh, you know, because, like
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny thing to say and I think
Speaker 1: that it kind of like really momentarily kind of like uh,
Speaker 1: you know, laughing, having a good time. I'm out here
Speaker 1: because I enjoy it. I don't need to be perfect.
Speaker 1: I'm out here because I enjoy it, you know. And
Speaker 1: it's like that split second of I'm just having a
Speaker 1: good time out here with my friends and for me,
Speaker 1: with my friends and my dad, you know. So, so
Speaker 1: it seems like that expression was trying to like shift
Speaker 1: your mindset or reframe what you were thinking momentarily, just
Speaker 1: to see if we can get hit and refocus. Yeah,
Speaker 1: very cool, okay, monkey off your back. Yeah, so there's
Speaker 1: a new one Um in terms of perfectionism. That, I think,
Speaker 1: something that runs rampant through cheerleading and all sports. But
Speaker 1: that's the athlete game right. It's it's the the hunt
Speaker 1: for perfection, you know. So cast like in your experience
Speaker 1: through cheer, maybe in high school all star or even
Speaker 1: in IU, have you had those experiences of I just
Speaker 1: has to be perfect or I'm just not going to stop.
Speaker 1: Every single day I do cheer, anything I do. I
Speaker 1: mean you saw it. What yesterday when I was trying
Speaker 1: to do the fight song, I recorded that probably like
Speaker 1: ten times and still I was just like this is
Speaker 1: not good enough, like I think it's just growing up
Speaker 1: in the environment. So I grew up gymnastics, so growing
Speaker 1: up around, you know, girls who are you're competing by
Speaker 1: yourself and you get your score immediately and just like
Speaker 1: growing up with thinking, well, I have to do this
Speaker 1: perfect or I'm not going to get the good score
Speaker 1: that and everybody's going to see that. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: on display and I'm gonna have to, you know, show
Speaker 1: my friends that too. They're going to see that. And
Speaker 1: then coming to cheer, it was a big difference because
Speaker 1: of the team atmosphere. So if one person messed up,
Speaker 1: your whole team messes up. It's not just you anymore.
Speaker 1: You have to be I looked at it. Started it
Speaker 1: out with I have to be perfect for my team.
Speaker 1: So I think that mindset carrying it on through, you know,
Speaker 1: high school cheer and then I'll start cheer and then
Speaker 1: in college cheer too. Um, especially in college. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm hard on myself every single day with cheer. I
Speaker 1: just want to be I want to hold myself to
Speaker 1: a higher standard so I'm not, you know, letting my
Speaker 1: team down. I don't want to be like the one
Speaker 1: that's holding everyone back from, you know, like having to
Speaker 1: move on from the school song or like having to
Speaker 1: Redo this again, stuff like that. And I know deep
Speaker 1: down inside that I can do said skills. It's just
Speaker 1: in my mind it's never perfect enough, and I think
Speaker 1: that's like us. It's a really bad loop to be
Speaker 1: in Um mentally for, you know, like twenty year old
Speaker 1: girl in College Um. But you know, definitely having different
Speaker 1: support systems Um have helped that a lot, you know,
Speaker 1: with the positive affirmations, talking to the coaches and getting
Speaker 1: their input on how I'm doing and like what my
Speaker 1: performance looks like to them, like, since I don't see
Speaker 1: that myself, getting that input from them helps a lot, um,
Speaker 1: to to know that they are seeing how hard I
Speaker 1: am working um and that my other friends see that too. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: quick pause. Will you tap your market a couple of times? Okay,
Speaker 1: let's make sure cut three, two. Yeah, so you brought
Speaker 1: up a point to about numbers and trying to really
Speaker 1: beat your numbers and to stay in that range. And
Speaker 1: that's a big name of the game for a lot
Speaker 1: of sports. Right, you're seeing your numbers. You're trying to
Speaker 1: either shave off time of your swimming, right, or I
Speaker 1: want to run faster, or I have to be the
Speaker 1: best at any of my numbers, right from butterfield goal percentage,
Speaker 1: everything better, batting average. It's all over the place, and
Speaker 1: I think that that's where the perfectionism tries to get
Speaker 1: set in, right, or get set in, I should say,
Speaker 1: switch stems from exactly the numbers. Absolutely. And then, on
Speaker 1: top of that, you were mentioning to feeling pressure, Um,
Speaker 1: from maybe your teammates. Right, I don't want to make
Speaker 1: us do the school song again. I don't want to
Speaker 1: make us have to do something again because of me. Right.
Speaker 1: And so there's this internal thing that's happening that's making
Speaker 1: you place pressure on yourself even more and have to
Speaker 1: have a certain expectation for yourself. And that's hard when
Speaker 1: it's like a whole team thing too, because deep down
Speaker 1: inside you're like, oh my gosh, is it me, like
Speaker 1: am I holding them back? Like what am I doing wrong? Like,
Speaker 1: for me, I always think like when the comments coaches
Speaker 1: are making, like direct comments to a program, and if
Speaker 1: I'm like in that team, I'm like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: am I the One doing that wrong? Like you're internalizing it, yes,
Speaker 1: like taking it to hard. We're talking, they're talking to
Speaker 1: the team people. I did that too, and I do
Speaker 1: that all the time. So, yeah, you want to talk
Speaker 1: about numbers, Um, creating negative self. Talk Baseball. It's that
Speaker 1: number on the scale, you know. Um. So for me, Um,
Speaker 1: like we've talked earlier in this season, Um, I did
Speaker 1: not start college as an athlete. Right. I had two
Speaker 1: years off of all athletics. So pretty much in turn,
Speaker 1: I had very little to know, Um, motivation to stay
Speaker 1: in shape, you know, and you you just kind of
Speaker 1: start down that, that path, and it's just so easy
Speaker 1: to stay and then once you notice it, it's too late,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Or early in that moment
Speaker 1: you're like, oh well, now I've I've ruined whatever, like
Speaker 1: I like my physique has gone my I'm out of shape,
Speaker 1: you know, things like that. And that was the biggest
Speaker 1: struggle for me my first year back into sports in cheer. Um,
Speaker 1: I was just so, so down on myself and like
Speaker 1: I'm surrounded by these guys who are who just look
Speaker 1: like chiseled Greek gods, you know what I mean, like,
Speaker 1: and this is not a dig on them, this is
Speaker 1: just like I was just so jealous, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean of that? Physique and and of that, of
Speaker 1: feeling like an athlete. I didn't feel like an athlete.
Speaker 1: I was at that point. I was an athlete, but
Speaker 1: I didn't feel like it right, because I looked in
Speaker 1: the mirror and I was like this is not what
Speaker 1: an athlete looks like. And so, you know, the only time.
Speaker 1: And so fast forward two years. I've lost thirty five pounds.
Speaker 1: So something happened right. And so what changed? Right? It's
Speaker 1: it's not until you switch your perspective. You have to
Speaker 1: think like here's what has gone wrong for so long
Speaker 1: or whatever, like I haven't done this wrong, I haven't
Speaker 1: been as good as I can be in this area.
Speaker 1: Is it's why don't I just try and do one
Speaker 1: thing right today? Right, you know. And so it's like
Speaker 1: you don't have to switch everything at once. You've settled
Speaker 1: into a way of life. You need to adjust it, sure,
Speaker 1: but that comes with time and it's a process, you know.
Speaker 1: And so when we come back we're actually gonna talk
Speaker 1: a little bit more about all of the things that
Speaker 1: all of us have done to overcome these negative self talk,
Speaker 1: this perfectionism, Um, mental blocks, when they come and they go, Um,
Speaker 1: the things that you can do and the things that
Speaker 1: people listening back home can do to get themselves out
Speaker 1: of these ruts, to get that monkey off their back. Um. So, Um,
Speaker 1: you're listening to beyond the megaphone. I'm Nathan, I'm cassidy
Speaker 1: and this is the college athletes network. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: beyond the megaphone. On the college athletes network. I'm Nathan
Speaker 1: and subscribe to our podcasts. You never miss another episode. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we've gone through a little bit about, Um, what
Speaker 1: the mental side of athletes of athletics looks like. Now
Speaker 1: let's turn the page, let's get onto the positive side.
Speaker 1: What can we do to overcome these things? What have
Speaker 1: we done, Um, and some of our tips and tricks
Speaker 1: on how to get out of a rhet and get
Speaker 1: those monkeys off our backs. Right. So I think for me,
Speaker 1: like I was talking about before the break, Um, the
Speaker 1: biggest thing was just flipping the script, turning it on
Speaker 1: its head and talking about Oh, I'm so terrible, I'll
Speaker 1: never be able to blank right, or all, I'm so
Speaker 1: out of shape, I'll never be able to be able
Speaker 1: to blank right. We want to turn that around and
Speaker 1: say today I'm going to try and get this much
Speaker 1: better and it might just be one it might just
Speaker 1: be one extra rep it might just be one extra
Speaker 1: minute on the treadmill. Right, these small progressions is where
Speaker 1: actual progress is made. You know, it's not something that's
Speaker 1: done overnight. It's not something that you can just flip
Speaker 1: a switch and and um, everything's okay again, right. Um.
Speaker 1: So being able to be okay with the progress and
Speaker 1: actually enjoying the progress, right, enjoying the journey to get
Speaker 1: to where you want to be, because I think that's
Speaker 1: what really builds something sustainable. Right, that's where you actually
Speaker 1: find who you are, more so than in any other sport.
Speaker 1: It's that journey, it's that progress. Um. So I think
Speaker 1: that was the biggest thing I learned. UH, just turning
Speaker 1: it on his head and saying, regardless of where I was,
Speaker 1: here's where I want to go. Yeah, you know. Um. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know, cassy. What do you what about you?
Speaker 1: What do you think is something that you've learned? Um,
Speaker 1: something I've learned about myself as I've dealt with a
Speaker 1: lot of being a perfectionist and having to pick myself
Speaker 1: up out of those situations. Um, one thing I've learned
Speaker 1: that's helped me is I guess flipping the script in
Speaker 1: a sense, um, except in more from like a negative standpoint,
Speaker 1: turning it to a positive standpoint. I thrive off of
Speaker 1: people telling me I can't do something, when people tell
Speaker 1: me I don't know if you're up for that, I
Speaker 1: don't know if you can do this, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you can do that, those type of things, I
Speaker 1: I love that, I actually do, because then I'm able
Speaker 1: to think, well, I'm going to watched me. I actually
Speaker 1: literally remember gymnastics. I was like working on a flyaway.
Speaker 1: I worked on it for months. My coaches were like
Speaker 1: you're never going to get this skill. I got it
Speaker 1: and then the next day I quit and moved to cheer.
Speaker 1: I was I wanted that skill, I wanted that skills
Speaker 1: so bad. So I never let myself take those negative
Speaker 1: comments and spiral off the negativity of it, but more
Speaker 1: taken into a positive perspective and think, well, they don't
Speaker 1: think I can and I don't want them to think
Speaker 1: I can't do that. So that's one thing I do
Speaker 1: am for this upcoming season. I decided, since this is
Speaker 1: going to be a big change for me, Um, going
Speaker 1: from coed to all girl. I'm no I'm going to
Speaker 1: put a lot of pressure on myself to want to
Speaker 1: be the best Um, but I know I can't do that,
Speaker 1: or else it's gonna be really bad for my mental health.
Speaker 1: So I am going to make a list of five things,
Speaker 1: whether it be after a practice or Um, you know,
Speaker 1: outside stunting, working on my tumbling, whatever. Uh, five things
Speaker 1: that I did, think I did well, and five positive
Speaker 1: things that came out of that practice. So I'M gonna
Speaker 1: be checking in on that too. I'm gonna need you
Speaker 1: to Oh, and that's awesome and I think that that too,
Speaker 1: from self talk to words of affirmation, reflection, journaling or
Speaker 1: great tactics and techniques to get on the right track
Speaker 1: right and to kind of overcome those rights, those monkey
Speaker 1: on your backs things, right situations. Some other things that
Speaker 1: came up when I was listening to both of you, guys, Um,
Speaker 1: that came up for me. We're thinking about, I was
Speaker 1: thinking about with Um, reframing that mentality and really taking
Speaker 1: a step back. So whether that's taking a step back
Speaker 1: from the Skilling, going to a drill that might help
Speaker 1: or going into Um, a different skill that's still maybe
Speaker 1: given that same motion, um just using tree learning or
Speaker 1: gymnastics as an example, Um, going from a back touch
Speaker 1: to a back canswering. So I'm still doing that backwards
Speaker 1: motion and the back canswering is comfortable right now. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm not having a mental block on that specific skill,
Speaker 1: but really taking a step back and allowing yourself to
Speaker 1: feel your body do those things again. Um. And I think,
Speaker 1: speaking of feeling again, and also imagery and visualization, have
Speaker 1: you guys heard of imagery visualization? So allowing yourself to
Speaker 1: visualize the skill when you were successful at it and
Speaker 1: allowing yourself to see, hey, I've done it, or watching
Speaker 1: film right, watching film again, like I've seen my successful attempts,
Speaker 1: or not attempts, because they were successes right, Um, and
Speaker 1: having that be played in your mind before you go
Speaker 1: into the space and then maybe sitting with the space.
Speaker 1: I love doing that. That's like one of my biggest things.
Speaker 1: Like before I hit a stunt, it's not I hope
Speaker 1: I hit this skill right, it's I got this, I've
Speaker 1: hit this before, right, or even if I haven't, sometimes
Speaker 1: I'll be like I can hit this right. It's it's whatever.
Speaker 1: Like you go into this environment you're you're about to
Speaker 1: go and in your mind you're like, oh, I really
Speaker 1: hope I hit the skill. I hope I do this right. Hope. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: shoulders back just up. You got this right. There's you've
Speaker 1: got to change that mentality, change that narrative, change your
Speaker 1: body language even and it does wonders for you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know that self efficacy, piece of feeling like I
Speaker 1: have the belief that I can do this is huge
Speaker 1: and I think that that's something that will take people
Speaker 1: very far in all of their skills. Absolutely, Mianda, thanks
Speaker 1: so much for being on. This has been so much fun. Thanks.
Speaker 1: Thank you, guys, for having me have some time so well.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much and, as always, thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to beyond the megaphone on the college athletes network.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe to our podcast. You never missed another episode.
Speaker 1: One more time. I'm Nathan, I'm cassidy and I'm Yatta.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. We'll talk to you again soon.
Speaker 1: Beyond the megaphone has been a presentation of my heart
Speaker 1: radio and the college athletes network.