Maximize Your Performance With The 3 Levels of Athlete-Awareness.

Self Awareness is vital in competitive sports, high-level business, and life. Self Awareness is needed more than ever with mindfulness practices, reflecting to improve, better understanding yourself, and wanting to maximize your potential in the sport continuing to rise.

I have discussed the three levels of awareness concept with the student-athletes I coach and I am excited to unpack it more.

Self-awareness is one of the greatest growth factors in development as a human being and within any craft that you are trying to improve. I mean think about it, what can you be world-class at without self-awareness?

Levels of Athlete Awareness.

1. SELF-AWARENESS:

   1. INTERNAL: Conscious knowledge of one's character, feelings, motives, and desires. Oxford Languages Definition.

   2. EXTERNAL: Self Aware of how others perceive & interpret your actions.

2. SMALL GROUP AWARENESS: Aware of the 2-3 teammates you surround yourself with & their actions

3. COACH AWARENESS: Zoom out to observe the group & view situations as a coach

Self Awareness starts with you. Are you consciously aware of your actions in your day to day? The skill of noticing the actions you take, and why, and then reflecting on them to improve. Examples of this could be the actions you take within a practice, learning all of the plays, how well you know what to do, and execution in a training session. It brings out a simple formula of asking questions + reflecting + noticing (awareness moments) = taking better actions in the future.

The sub-category to level one is being aware of how your actions are perceived. Not being self-conscious but in a way that you are understanding how your communication, nonverbal communication, and actions are being perceived by others. Taking this into consideration and noting awareness moments gives you more clarity as you go to level two.

Level two awareness is small group awareness. Very similar to level one but you are now aware and responsible for not only yourself but the small group of two to three people you surround yourself with. This could be your position group in practice, the rack you work at in the weight room, or the friend group you hang out with outside of training/classes. Examples of this could be knowing what is needed execution & weight-wise for trap bar deadlift within your group or at skill session on field for your specific position group. Outside of sports, I use this example for college student-athletes, imagine you are at a party, two people get into a fight but you and your teammates are not involved. Level two is having the awareness to not only notice it is a bad situation but also to take action of getting yourself and your three teammates out of there before things escalate.

Level three awareness is called Coach Awareness. It is the ability to zoom out to observe not only yourself and your small group but also see the bigger picture of the whole team. Being able to be aware of the vibe, temperature, and level of execution of the entire team. This is difficult and not easy. This level takes time to develop and improve at, but once developed makes a tremendous impact. Being able to seek out and notice areas where the collective can be better and then communicate it to the team is high-quality leadership. Especially, when you catch something and fix it before the coaching staff even notices. Powerful. That is what leaders do, for the collective, small group, and themselves. The key and the challenge is to do it without judgment.

Taking a lesson from the Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey, it is simply all about noticing, acknowledging, and accepting that it is all just information without a label. The feedback allows you to make adjustments. More awareness opportunities help create space and take positive action toward change.

Lasting change is more concrete with awareness. Awareness becomes the glue to lasting change and taking more efficient actions. Short-term change can happen without awareness simply by being told what to do. Lasting change is feedback plus increasing the awareness of the individual. Improving awareness helps them see not only the solution but the feedback, problem, and entirety of the situation.

As you level up the foundation gets wider and wider. By improving level 2 and level 3 awareness the foundation begins to grow. You not only improve at helping others around you, but you also gain more depth in understanding yourself.

Ways to do this? Ask questions and do your best to answer them. Reflect on what was the best part, the worst part, and any areas to improve. Where did you get confused? Did you ask for help? Yes, or No, why or why not? Through conversation with a coach or even with yourself, a pen, and your journal.

1. Making Time To Be With Yourself

2. Ask Questions, Reflect, & Answer

3. Journal (Writing, iPhone notes, Voice Memos, etc)

Journaling is a tool where you can pause and run back situations. You can even detach from everything by putting your thoughts on paper to observe from the 3rd person. Even the leader, philosopher, scholar, and Emperor of Rome, Marcus Aurelius coached himself through his journal (Meditations). He writes from a place of compassion and wisdom as he coaches himself through these experiences, not from a place of judgment and anxiety.

I hope this helps you look at awareness in a different light. Writing this not only helps me improve at educating others but also applies directly to where I can grow in my own life.

Best Day of The Year, Until Tomorrow…

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