Behind The Best Podcast

Hosted ByDr. Jay Cavanaugh

The Behind The Best Podcast is a behind-the-scenes look at the people, mindset, and secrets behind the best athletes in the world.

Pro Athletes Become Explosive With This Mind Hack

Athletes looking to become more explosive, this technique today is for you.

Now, if you are a pitcher and want to get a little more snap on your throws.

Or if you’re a football player and want to be a little more explosive off the line, you’ll love this technique.

As a matter of fact, I test-drove it and used it recently to hit my max on the flat bench, and it worked like gold.

As a matter of fact, it worked in about half the time I thought it would.

And I know right now that if I were to go, I could set my personal best on the flat bench as of probably next week once I heal from and recover from my most recent workout.

So this is how powerful this technique is; I will share it with you now.

So my name’s Dr. Jay Cavanaugh; I’m a mental performance coach.

Check out behindthebest.co, where you can go and get mental tips, just like the one I’m about to share with you directly in your email inbox.

And if you join The Beast Bulletin monthly, the subscription-based weekly bulletin you receive every Monday.

You will get a Monday through Friday game plan and tips for parents and coaches on becoming a mental beast yourself. Now, the way this technique works is it starts with visualization, but here’s where it’s really interesting. This isn’t just your standard imagination visualization concept.

It’s a little bit more now. One thing that we know, and I’m going to digress to, is an example here that will make so much sense to you. So let’s say it’s Halloween. You are in fifth grade, or maybe you’re, I don’t know, 6, 7, 8 years old, whatever the math is. I don’t have kids, so I don’t know what fifth grade is.

Shouldn’t even talk about fifth grade.

So let’s say you’re suddenly a calm, cool, collected kid, somewhat passive.

You’re not too loud or boisterous, but when something interesting happens, grandma buys you.

Superman outfit.

Now all of a sudden, you kind of slouch a little bit. You know, you walk a little slow.

Your voice is a little bit low. Now, grandma says, Hey. Dave, try on this Superman outfit. You go ahead. You try it on. Suddenly, you come out, and let’s say it fast-forwards to Halloween night, and you put on the outfit. Now all of a sudden, you’re walking with this confident step. Your chest is out.

You’re speaking in a louder voice.

This is what we call an alter ego effect, but more importantly, you’re embodying it.

Something other than yourself. Right? And that’s why you have the freedom and, and, and the courage to become, you know, this strong, confident walking with your chest out, shoulders, back, chin up person, right?

That you typically aren’t. And so we tap into the power of this technique. By using what I call this mental imagery as a spring, right? As a spring that is loading. So, for example, let me walk you through how I did it on the bench press, and if you guys are training and using this technique, you’ll absolutely love it.

So I’m bench press. Well, I’m about to have the bar come down in my chest.

I imagine in my mind that I am a spring.

I am not Jay, and I am not a human. I am a spring.

And trust me; it’s easier than you think; so as I’m coming down with the bar, I’m slowly loading my spring. The spring is loading. I can actually see it as the bar is coming down.

Yes, with my eyes, I’m noticing the bar, but to be honest with you, what I see in my mind is a spring, and as that bar gets closer and closer to my chest, the spring is getting loaded and loaded and loaded. And then once it hits that bottom, and I boom, I explode. It’s that spring and the power of the spring releasing and pushing that weight forward.

Now, what’s interesting about this? , it gives you the freedom to be someone better or different and almost have somewhat of a mechanical advantage, for lack of a better term. Because I’m not Jay in that instance. I’m actually a spring.

And so another way you could do it is, let’s say, for example, oh, let’s use the example of an MMA fighter, right?

So MMA. He could use the spring concept, but it may not fit as well when you’re throwing a punch. So what can he do, or what could someone who’s a football player exploding off the line do? Well, what you can do instead is imagine a pane of glass. That pane of glass is in front of you, and you need to explode through it and crush it.

But here’s the thing. , it’s got a certain degree of thickness. This is not just some thin piece of glass anyone could bust through. It’s got a little bit of thickness to it. So you’re imagining that thickness, you’re imagining that pain, and you’re realizing that you got one shot, you got one shot to bust through that pain, and this is it.

And what you’ll find is the same concept, and you can even apply the two together. But that’s a little advance. Don’t go into that quite yet. We want to get down to the basics of this first. And so when you’re about ready to explode off or, let’s say, you’re about to throw a punch, that punch you’re imagining is exploding through that glass.

And so what happens is in your mind, you don’t realize it, but you are probably adding another 1, 2, 3, 5. Who knows? Maybe up to 10%, but I would say to be conservative, one, two, three, 5%. Call it one to three, right? That one to three extra snaps you have because you’re imagining that you’re not just throwing a punch but busting through that pane of glass truly elevates your game.

And then what you do is you start to make the unfamiliar more familiar. And what I mean by that is you start to step outside of your comfort zone and get into the growth zone. And once you dip into that growth zone enough, you actually start to level up, and your performance increases. Uh, your explosiveness increases.

Powerful technique. Let me know what you think, and thanks for listening. We’ll talk to you soon.