Hannah Huesman, Philadelphia Phillies Mental Skills Coach – Work In Sports Podcast - a podcast by Brian Clapp - Work in Sports

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp VP of Content and Engaged Learning for WorkInSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast…Watching the Super Bowl one year I looked down at my hands and noticed I was shaking a bit. Here I was on my couch, watching someone else perform...and I was nervous? Anxious? Stress hormones we’re flooding my body, speeding up my heart rate and breathing, while increasing my blood pressure. Again, from my couch. I stopped and laughed for a second thinking, how in the hell do these athletes do it?How does Tom Brady, or Lebron James, or  Daniel Hudson perform to their best with everyone watching and everything on the line? History. Fame. Teammates. Fans. All in one moment. Again, I remind you, my hands were shaking on my couch with none of this at stake. You may think elite athletes are a special breed, but that isn’t it. They may have special skills, but that doesn’t necessarily correlate to a special mentality. Take Ernie Els for example. 4-time major winner on the PGA tour was three feet away from making par on the first hole of the masters in 2016. 3-feet. He missed. And then proceeded to miss 5 more times. A quintuple bogey on the first hole from three feet away. Anna Kournikova - remember her? Photogenic Russian tennis star. Lost the ability to serve. 17 double faults in one set during a match. Look up Steve Sax, Rick Ankiel, Mackey Sasser, Chuck Knoblauch and you’ll find more elite athletes with incredible physical skills, who were unable to master the mental side of performance.Physical skills are just one part of the equation - what separates the good from the great and the greatest ...is the mental component.But these athletes don’t go it alone.  They don’t will themselves to be mentally tougher or stronger or more resilient. They have help. Mental Skills coaches are changing the way organizations consider their athletes. For a long time, it was a focus on physical strength, nutrition and repeated game-conditions practice to reach maximum output. But over the last decade, a greater emphasis has been placed on the mental side, conditioning the athletes with how to think, prepare, execute and frame their mind. Mental skills training now works in conjunction with strength and conditioning to make the athletes unlock their full potential. This to me is absolutely fascinating, unlocking the power of the mind to help the elite skills come through more consistently.  This is why I couldn’t be more excited to have Hannah Huesman, Philadelphia Phillies Mental Skills Coach and incredible social media follow, on the show… here’s Hannah:Questions for Hannah Huesman, Philadelphia Phillies Mental Skills Coach1: I’m so excited about this conversation because it is a totally new direction for our podcast – I’ve wanted to delve into the mindset as it applies to athletes, but also for job seekers, for a long time so I’m thankful to you for coming on.But before we get into you work with the Phillies organization, let’s go back a bit so we can understand how you got here. You were a division 1 athlete – playing both basketball and softball at UT-Chattanooga – so clearly you had a love of sports. Why did you decide you wanted sports to be more than just a hobby and you wanted it to be your career?2: I’ve always felt being a student-athlete is a huge advantage because of the life skills you get exposed to – time management, leadership, responsibility, teamwork – how did being a student-athlete help you in your life at large, but in your career especially?3: You studied kinesiology and exercise science as an...

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