Tracking data is super important and we don’t just want stale data points. We want to bring the data to life as best as possible and provide the color behind the data. We want to create mindset film.  Film is the video recording of athletic performance, typically competition, for the purpose of analysis.  Review of film provides insight into what is working, what is not, and why.  Film study can help gather insights and evaluate performance for individuals, teams, and opponents.  Watching film allows athletes to improve by learning from both the good and bad of their past performances.  Studying opponent film helps create strategy and better prepares athletes for upcoming competition.  Film study and analysis has become an essential part of performance enhancement for every sport at every level. 

Tom Brady, seven-time Super Bowl Champion, makes film study a part of his daily routine.  In discussing his film analysis or “skull sessions” with coach Bill Belichick, Brady said:

       “I love it.  It’s what I love to do.  It’s all football, it’s all preparation.  We go awhile, an hour, two hours.  It’s just a lot of talking about the opponent.  It’s a lot of great insight.  Everyone sees something different.” ¹²   

In his book The Mamba Mentality, Kobe Bryant wrote the section “Film Study Is All About Detail” where the five-time NBA Champion noted:

       “Film study is all about detail. From a young age—a very young age—I devoured film and watched everything I could get my hands on. It was always fun to me. Some people, after all, enjoy looking at a watch; others are happier figuring out how the watch works.

        It was always fun to watch, study, and ask the most important question: Why? 

        The biggest element that changed over time, however, was I went from watching what was there to watching for what was missing and should have been there. I went from watching what happened to what could have and should have happened. Film study eventually became imagining alternatives, counters, options, in addition to the finite details of why some actions work and others don’t work.” ¹³   

Mindset film is created by logging the details surrounding your mental training and competition.  It is similar to training logs used to record “sport specific” or “strength training” workouts to show progress.  On a more generic level, it is like journaling or writing in a diary but with mindset specific intentionality.  Mindset film documents what is going on in your head.  It captures the workings of your mind to gather insights from the data.  By creating mindset film, you will have data points for effective analysis.  It will enable you to look directly into the performance of your alter ego and breakdown both the good and bad so you can continue to improve.  It will allow you to ask “why?” to fully understand the cause and effect of your situations, emotions, behaviors, and results.  Film provides you the opportunity to place every aspect of your alter ego under a microscope for deep analysis so you can learn from both your successes and failures and continually progress toward a more optimal mindset.   

Mindset film provides built in accountability, a subtle but amazing benefit.

• It demands you complete the daily brain train.
• It celebrates your peak performance in competition.
• It expects progress toward your season results.
• It forces you to analyze your progress.
• It motivates you to change.
• It encourages you to get up after you fall.
• It insists you explain both your successes and failures.
• It craves the detailed documentation of every single brain train and competition.
• It provides a permanent record of your alter ego’s growth.
• It produces a documentary of your journey toward an optimal mindset.

All of these traits make film the perfect accountability partner for every athlete striving to master the mental game.

Tips

1. Take the time to create quality film by logging all mindset workouts and every competition with extreme detail because it will pay huge dividends as you work to optimize your mindset.
2. Be sure to create your mindset film by documenting as soon as possible after a brain train or competition so the details are fresh in your mind.
3. Take pride in your mindset film creation as it dictates your mental game success.
4. Fully embrace the accountability built into film and use it to your alter ego’s advantage.

Creating your own personal mindset film is the single most important action you can take in order to provide visibility into your mind, and position yourself to properly analyze your mindset progress.  It is important to understand that the quality of your analysis ultimately depends on the quality of the data captured in your film.  By prioritizing the time and effort into documenting your film in great detail, you are setting the stage for effective optimization of your alter ego mindset.