Agility - The Mental Game

L to R:  Pepper, Lucky Lucy, Maxie

This is part of the quarterly Blog Action Day where agility bloggers all write on the same subject.  See what others have to say here.

The mental game has been at least 50% of the challenge for me in this sport, so much so that I can safely say if it wasn't A LOT OF FUN for me and my dogs to over ride the inertia of "comfort", I wouldn't do it at all.  Fortunately, I can afford the financial cost, so that's one problem I don't have.  But I've never been athletic, so making my body get out there and move, and in distinct ways, provides daily resistance.  EXERCISE (leg lifts, stretches, footwork, etc.) has never called my name, except for walking and swimming, both of which I love.  SPORTS have never interested me either -- I don't care to participate, and don't care which team wins!  I'm somewhat uncomfortable chatting with PEOPLE,  mostly because what interests me doesn't seem to interest them and vice versa.  Also, I find I never have enough time to learn enough, so I covet my private time.  So I'm not particularly suited for the bustling agility "scene"!

What does appeal to me is learning to communicate with my dogs and give them a wonderful life, and since they respond to body language that means I have to move my body.  I do agility for them.
For them, I've left the comfort of my home for classes and trials.  I've learned umpteen rules, which, by the way, I might direct you to my essay in the sidebar of this blog, Tips For The Novice Agility Competitor, to refresh you on how much you've had to learn and how far you've had to come to do this sport.  It's an eye-opener, especially for the seasoned agility instructor, reminding them how much their new students  have to learn in order to compete, and this doesn't even count training the dog!  It's intimidating!  One certainly needs a good mental game to endure it.

I've had injuries and illnesses - torn ligaments, twisted ankles, hip bersitis, pneumonia, cat and dog bites, vertigo, etc.  I've run my dogs with a TENS unit in my pocket and wires running under my pants leg to stimulate my sore calf muscle -- the only way I could endure the pain of the run. I've used and given away KT tape and ice packs to help others function at trials.  I see tons of knee braces, back braces, ankle wraps, etc., at trials, so I'm not alone in this.  Not to mention my eye problems -- my depth perception is way off since my cataract surgery 1.5 years ago.  This has been very depressing, like living with a continuous hangover.


Maxie, giving it his all.

Increasingly, I see people lining their dogs up for chiropractic and massage treatments.  It makes one wonder, why put our dogs through this sport if it's going to injure them?  Are we just doing it for ourselves?  One needs a good mental perspective to develop satisfying answers to these questions.  In my case, Maxie has needed some adjustments and isn't running as fast as before, and it turns out Lucky Lucy doesn't like being in arenas.  That is disquieting.  But . . . my dogs are bored to death if I don't do something active with them every single day.  They both enjoy movement, and I need movement.  They beg me to make them do tricks.  Agility seemed a good solution, so I've put 4 years into it, and loved it.   Truth be told, they'd be just as happy walking through the neighborhood, fetching balls, etc.  But that isn't sufficient for me, see.  I need more mental challenge than that.  I need to teach them stuff, and test their understanding, and occasionally it's nice to show them off.

Another significant part of my mental game has been learning how to tune out the critics and the ambilivants . . . . . just focus on my team.  When I'm at a trial, or even in class, I do my best to be friendly, attentive and supportive, but in the final analysis I'm there to be with my dogs and inch forward in our teamwork.  That's where the thrill is, for me.  I don't really enjoy being with people who aren't there for me.  Everyone is basically preoccupied, doing their own thing.  And then there are the rude people that nobody ever talks about.  The mental game helps provide the shield.

I enrolled in John Cullen's online courses via Cognitive Edge, learning a lot about setting up a Pre Competition Routine.  I've read books (reviewed elsewhere on this blog) about developing my mental game.  I've learned to love watching football games, (LSU and the New Orleans Saints in particular), because it amazes me what these "gladiators" go through to develop their physical skills as well as their mental game. What the human body can do, given proper and regular training and right mental attitude, is nothing short of miraculous.  I still don't know the rules of that game.  I just watch the players give their all -- pass and run and tackle and fly through the air, and arise unharmed after 20 guys have just piled up on them.  I want to be that way.  But I'm not.

I've done Susan Garrett's Puppy Peaks, but when I got my puppy (Pepper) 2 years ago, I didn't do many of the exercises.  Partly because I already train 2 dogs, partly because Pepper doesn't catch on as quickly as the other two and I'm not into the "thousands of repetitions" gig some dog trainers say is needed to train our dogs.  Maxie and Lucky Lucy spoiled me.  They learned quickly.  Not that it matters much.  I adore my beautiful Pepper-Tu, too. His manners are pretty good, and his antics are so funny!  He is very PRESENT and WITH ME in the most important ways.

Looking back, this whole blog has been mostly a chronicle about my involvement in this sport, but it also captures the enormous amount of work that goes into agility -- training, packing, travelling, filling out forms, learning the rules, solving training and other problems, building equipment and relationships, keeping up the training yards, setting goals, analyzing runs, developing a healthy mental game, streamlining processes, cutting losses, and carrying on despite the many disappointments and constant struggles.  Not that I'm trying to discourage anyone else, but lately I've been wondering why I continue when I could stay home where everything runs pretty much smoothly and I don't have to struggle so much.  There are a lot easier things to do.

I'm kinda in that mental space right now, wondering if just taking classes once a week and backyard training would satisfy me, without need to trial and compete for ribbons and titles.  Hopefully it's just a phase.  What did John Cullen's recent article call it  -- burn out.  I read the article -- all the ways to prevent burnout -- but I didn't even want to do those.

On top of that, there's my declining FoohFooh, my first dog for whom this FoohMax agility blog is named.  I never did agility with FoohFooh.    He was so smart, but I was not ready to handle his enthusiasm. I did the best I could. We did many tricks. He wowed our visitors with his roll-overs, hand shakes, fay-do-do's (i.e., bang, you're dead's), and such forth, but I had never heard of Agility in 1998. Nor even Obedience!  I was a highly skilled child trainer, but not a bit with dogs.  I made it up daily, but never caught up as he was so smart, I knew I was lagging right away.  But it wasn't until I acquired Maxie in 2008 that, never to make the same mistake, I began to search online for dog training tips.  Fooh is just as smart as Maxie, maybe smarter.  I failed him in so many ways.  He forgives me, and he's now so old, can barely stand.  We are waiting with baited breath for his last day.  Maybe 3 weeks, 3 months, not sure.  I don't want to leave him behind for a weekend of trialing and miss his passing.  That would scar my soul. So I tend to stay home.  His poor backbone sticks out, his paws curl under, he can barely make it down the steps to the yard, he barely responds to the call to go "outside", which used to excite him so.  We are all feeling kinda low around here, though he still loves his food.  Death sucks.  Is that bad?  Is it wrong to linger with a dying loved one and let them know how wonderful their blip of life was for you? Wrong to lose your mo-jo for awhile?  Wrong to feel depressed, sad, wound down?  Wrong to not respond to the enthusiastic urgings of the yet-healthy ones whose main focus is, without doubt, Me, Me, Me?  Gees, if fading away means nothing, why rise?

And then two weeks ago I tripped on a root after a stimulating class, landed flat on my belly, knocked the breath out of me.  I spit the dirt out of my mouth, got up and drove home, but within 2 days I realized I had re-strained my old knee ligament injury (which had me in a walker for 3 months a few years back), and I think I fractured a rib.  I've been in pain ever since, with NO desire or ability to practice the past two weeks.  Feeding and petting the dogs and letting them out is about all I can muster.  So that's "where I'm at" at this writing.

Hopefully, reading the other agility bloggers' posts will help me get back my mo-jo!  Bring it on.  No doubt, this agility gig has been a life-shifting, motivating, memorable ride and I don't regret it one bit.  Would I love to go to my own grave saying I had a CHAMPION AGILITY DOG?  Of course, I would.  And Maxie's only 7 QQ's from getting there, and we'd have been there long ago if it wasn't for just, every single trial day, just ONE LITTLE MISTAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

Happy Holidays to you all.  Upwards and onward!

What Does Winning Mean To Me?

John Cullen, an athletic trainer I follow, posed this question today on his The Winning Process program, and asked us to write down our responses.  He says the two basic types of winning attitudes are, in a nutshell:

1. Comparing yourself to others, and feeling you've won only when you beat them.
2. Comparing yourself to yourself, and feeling you've won with self-improvement.

The full list is on his video, which he asked us to share with everyone, so here's the link:
http://thewinningprocess.cognitive-edge.ca/twp-pl1/

He also asked for comments, which I posted there, and am posting here as well:
I relate to both sets and find them compatible, as follows:

My self-esteem comes from Q's, Placement, & Titles. To achieve those, I have to be improving, and keeping my dogs engaged by having fun. Placement in dog agility doesn't have anything to do with "beating other people", but it serves as a good measuring rod for my own self-improvement. How can I know if I'm as good as I can be if I don't compare myself to what others are succeeding in doing? Maybe I can learn to go a little faster, get tighter turns, straighter lines, more focus, better acceleration, improved body language, etc. I am never jealous of others' achievement, just envigorated to try harder, practice more. I am only competing with myself.

This may sound strange, but my biggest life win, by far, has been figuring out how to let people off the hook, and let my dogs fulfill my great lifelong desire for loyal companionship, undivided attention, and someone to share life with, teach and caretake. All the people in my life are busy doing their own things, ambitious with their own achievements, they rarely look me in the eye and say "what do you want me to do now, let's go". They can't give me what my dogs give me, and that is finally OK. After years of disappointment that family and friends were so busy with themselves they didn't seem to notice what I achieved, didn't want to listen or learn from me, I have finally beat the system!

Which brings up this important point. I love it that AKC provides a framework for competing, and keeps a record of our Q's and Titles. It makes me feel that someone besides myself is watching me, caring how we do, providing benchmarks for measuring our progress, and thinks I'm achieving something "certificate worthy" when I do. My wins are their wins! Hooking into that venue has been very satisfying, and I am always walking around with gratitude in my heart for their significant efforts in organizing this sport. (I only compete in AKC but I presume other clubs provide similar support.)

Thinking this through has been helpful with my mental game, so that's another Upwards and onward for me!

"The Cognitive Edge" Online Course

In 5 more days I'll be 64. It's Michele's "birthday season", my friends say. So I bought myself another birthday present a few days ago (with my husband's blessing so we've agreed it's from him) -- Susan Garrett and John Cullen's joint venture in sports psychology -- to help atheletes develop a pre-game routine that sets up consistently calm, focused performances. The course has a 14 day money back guarantee, and it all comes to you online.

Just to recap. For the $197 price tag you get:

1) The "Pre Competition Routine for Big Events" video
2) The "Pre Competition Routine for Big Events" companion ebook
3) Access to the gurus: Three hour long webinar/coaching calls with John Cullen and Susan Garrett to really help you to unlock the power of your mental game.
4) Bonus #1: my "Without Pressure You Get No Diamonds" ebook.
5) Bonus #2: John's "Finding Your Ideal Performance State" ebook.
6) Bonus #3: The "Pre Competition Routine for Big Events" MP3 recording for your ipod.

So far I've received:

• Pre-competition Routines for Big Events,a 20 page e-book to download and print out, by John Cullen
• Pre-competition Routines for Big Events, a video you download which repeats verbatum the same thing,
• Without Pressure, We Get No Diamonds, a 10 page e-book to download and print out, by Susan Garrett
• Determining your Ideal Performance State (IPS) - a series of charts for studying and ranking your performances, by John Cullen.

Okay, so I woke up yesterday very excited to get this course. I downloaded everything, printed out everything, read everything, listened to everything, and did all the exercises.

My impression so far: it's good, but hardly worth $200. Susan's revolutionary 2x2 Weave Pole training DVD was $79 and am still studying and learning from it a year later. I bought her Success With 1 Jump DVD for $69 and the things I learned in there I use every training session and in my teaching. Will this course contain twice the value or just be twice as expensive?

I'm still waiting for the 3 hour-long webinars to show up. I don't need Bonus #3 as I don't have an ipod.

While I'm waiting, let me state my BIG GRIPE with e-book publishers.

• Color: Why do they insist on putting so much color in their E-books? We have to print this out! Why do they make their customers' use up their $75 color ink cartridges printing out stuff that doesn't look worth a crap on bond paper anyway, and conveys NO information? PLEASE, any of you e-book publishers out there, go light on the half-page color photos, full color backgrounds and borders, 72 point bold red letters in your headlines. A touch of color here and there is acceptable, but be respectful of your audience's purse.
• Fine print/grey print. Why all the fine print/light print? Not everybody has 20/20 vision. Some of us need a minimum of 10 point type to see it, even with our 2.75 reading glasses on. On some printers, the grey print prints out so faint it is barely visible. And ink jet printers tend to blur the edges just a bit so the smaller, tighter the letters the more they run together. It costs no more to send things over the internet in 12 point type, black ink, and using a font (Verdana for example) where the letters are spaced further apart than with Arial. Perhaps you sacrifice a bit of "design", but at least it is readable.

For $200 and all the hype about it, I expect a whole lot from this course. At this point and from other e-books I've purchased thru the years, I think it is worth about $29.  Let's see what the 3 Webinars bring me.  I'll post my notes as they come in.

Webinar #1 - Visualization

Webinar #2 - Pre-Competition Routine

Webinar #3 - Power Phrases,

Okay, it's December 28 and I just finished the 3rd webinar.  Based on the 3 of them, I do think the uique tips I received is worth the price I paid for it.  There is a lot of homework. I have taken notes on each webinar and saved them in my drafts on this blog, but am wrestling with the ethical question of whether I can share them with my readers (current and future), in effect, give the information away.  My notes from each webinar are linked to above, but the links won't work until I resolve this issue.

What I can share for now is, if I do even half the exercises they recommend, this course definitely will help me move upwards and onward!