re: BK mentality coaching for players?

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Amber Selking, who led the offseason classes, wanted LSU’s players to understand how their thoughts affected performance. Brian Kelly believes they need to train their minds the same way they train their bodies

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Everything she did aimed at teaching them how the brain works, the way thoughts affect outcomes and the tools to create a mindset that helps them achieve their best on a daily basis. It’s an ongoing process designed to create consistent routines. Much like weight training, multiple sessions are required to make new habits.

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“The brain is similar to a muscle,” Kelly said. “You have to train it as well. Mental performance is the weight room for the brain for us. That's an important piece in our total preparation.”

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One of the tactics was to replace negative thoughts whenever they arose with positive ones.

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Jones had never experienced anything like the training during his career. He went through a mental performance lesson every Thursday before games when he played for three years at Clemson, but the players there learned what to think about before games. Not much more.

“It wasn't that deep,” Jones said.

Throughout his career, Jones has dealt with anxiety before kickoff. After the conversations with Selking, he learned why that happens. He now has a notebook full of tactics to calm his nerves. He plans to look at them often during the season. They help him in his everyday life and on game day.

“For me, as a fifth-year guy, a veteran, you feel like you've got it all,” Jones said. “But it was eye opening for me to see this might be the reason I feel this way this certain day before this game. Thinking this way might help me do this better. That aspect of the mental preparation has changed my life, has changed my career. I've been able to apply it to myself daily.

“We were talking one day, and one of the things that was said is, 'When you get nervous, it's your body telling you that you're prepared to execute your job,’” Jones continued. “That locked in for me.”

Selking will return in the fall. Moving forward, the players have to consistently apply what they learned so they establish the lessons as habits, slowly reshaping what they believe.

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