Leadership,Psychology
14 September 2011
We all say we want constructive feedback, but not all of us are equipped to receive it, openly and in a manner that makes it a worthwhile effort on everyone’s part. Although there seems to be lots of opportunities to learn how to deliver feedback, I think what’s missing is learning how to receive it. Being skilled at receiving feedback can make the process more manageable and comfortable for everyone involved! And we just have to trust that our counterparts are doing their part in learning how to best deliver it. They have their work cut out for them, so let’s help them out a bit!
Psychology
8 July 2011
During a post-game debrief at Montreal Jazzfest, the other captains used me as an example of being able to “always get open” on my cuts. They qualified this by saying that it wasn’t because I was the fastest but that regardless, I still got open.
I do get open often and it is not because I’m faster, it’s because I BELIEVE I can get open. And for what my mind believes, my brain processes information accordingly and creates appropriate opportunities, and then the rest of my body follows. One of my favorite quotes is by Henry Ford. He says “Whether you think we can or think you can’t, you are right”. I love it because it nicely sums up the power of the mind-brain-body relationship I have come to understand through personal experience and formal education.
Psychology,Tournaments
1 July 2011
There’s something magical and truly indescribable about playing competitive team sports. If you’re reading this, you’ve likely had the experience yourself and have possibly struggled to describe it to people in the “real world.” While driving back to Toronto from the Boston Invite 2 days ago I was, once again, thinking about how amazing these experiences are, particularly this year as I struggled heavily with finding my mojo.
Main,Psychology
1 June 2011
I’ve had an amazing rollercoaster ride since arriving on the Toronto ultimate scene last July. First of all, I was scared to death to move here largely because I was scared of integrating into a new scene after having only played in Halifax. Not long before my move, I spoke of my ultimate career as ending once I left Halifax. I was so sure that my level of play was not high enough for me to be considered for Lotus, Toronto’s top women’s touring team.
Psychology,Training
19 May 2011
About a year and a half ago, I had the opportunity to see something from a different perspective. Having done several degrees in Psychology, I understood the concept of positive reinforcement and all of B.F. Skinner’s work. In a very simple way I understood it as such (feel free to skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to relive intro psych):
Positive reinforcement is about increasing the likelihood of a behaviour by providing a rewarding stimulus. So for example, if I want my dog Jett to sit in the future, I will reward her sitting now with a treat. That should reinforce sitting and increase the likelihood that she will sit in the future.
