Caitlin Clark the Lion?

In this episode we discuss Caitlin Clark and the Enforcer/Lion Mindset.

ryan@successbeyondgameday.com

www.successbeyondgameday.com

Ryan: Welcome to shift happens athlete Mindset hacks, where we talk everything. Mindset development, taking lessons from the college and pro athletes, the coaches and the teams that we get to work alongside. I'm Ryan Schachner. This is Cheney Robinson, and today we're going to venture into the WNBA, and we're going to talk about, I guess, the phenom that everybody is talking about, Caitlin Clarke, specifically about her comments controlling her emotions. And this was specifically after a loss in which she had, you know, 25 points, eight rebounds, eight assists. Like, she went out there and performed, but, you know, obviously frustrated with taking the l. And, you know, we cover this a couple of times, but it always comes up Cheney. It's, you know, we're talking about that. The elephant, the rhino, the lion.

Cheney: Right.

Ryan: You know, the three different mindsets that. That people have, and she's clearly. She's in that lion mindset, and it's tough for lions.

Cheney: Right.

Ryan: I mean, we speak from experience this, but it's tough for them in everything in life.

Cheney: Right. Well, and I think the mindset in regards to being the lion has shifted also from early WNBA season to where it is now. She was being with a very good teammate, distributing, getting everybody involved, and then the coach like, hey, I need you shooting more. So I think that gave her, okay, you've told me now I'm going to get it. I'm gonna be the lion, and I'm the leader of this team. I mean, she was two rebounds, two assists shy of another triple double, and has set all kinds of rookie records, but also league records, too.

Speaker D: Right?

Cheney: And I get it. Right. I mean, she's coming in. I don't know that she necessarily saw herself as being, hey, I'm the savior for the WNBA. I think she's been. She's been tabbed that, right. But she's come in, she's performed well.

Ryan: She's.

Cheney: I mean, she's established herself, you know, and thinking about just the emotions, and we hear coaches say, hey, be neutral. We talked to a club volleyball coach yesterday. He was talking about a neutral.

Speaker D: Don't.

Cheney: Don't let your emotions get the better of you, up or down, you know, one. One way or the other. And we can certainly see that. We see the value of that, too, because, again, there's that psychology of somebody getting to you, and now they know that they're swimming around in your head right now, having said all that, and I haven't watched every game.

Speaker D: Right.

Cheney: That she's played in. She's getting beaten up.

Speaker D: Right.

Cheney: I mean, they're they're getting. These folks are getting after her. And I don't know if it's just that, hey, it's hazing, or is this just initiation? And it's just being a rookie. That's what you got to deal with. But, I mean, she's taken some beatings, and I. And she probably had enough of it, most likely.

Ryan: And I've seen a couple of her games. You know, I think it's. It's getting fans that typically haven't been, you know, w. You know, viewed WNBA games, you know, in there. So there's been a lot placed on her shoulders, and she didn't ask for it. Right. But that's what happens to the line. And so the path has been walked before. You know, Jordan went through the exact same thing. Kobe went through the exact same thing. Shaquille O'Neal went through the exact. So these. These stars. Right, which are really just people, and the lion is that high achiever.

Cheney: Right?

Ryan: And so there's this torment that goes on inside their brain that they're never accomplishing their goals. Right. And this. And you and I talk about this all the time, right? And it's, you know, you know, we say, I can't turn my brain off, and it's always on, and it's always measuring against what could be, what could have been. And it's this torment that they go through, and so. And it's that. Such a rare individual that. That experiences this. That is born this way and has that, and that's what she's going through. Jordan had it where he. It didn't matter how he performed on the court. It could always be better. And Kobe had it. Right. And they just devote so much time and energy to perfecting their craft while knowing they will never perfect their craft. And it's a mental, like, just no chasing. Knowing that you're chasing something that you're never gonna reach is what these. This lion mindset goes through, and. And that's what she's facing.

Cheney: Right.

Ryan: I think she's finally starting to learn about who she is, what it is to be a pro, and how to deal with just being who she is and also having to operate in that world where she's starting to realize not everybody thinks the way I think. And so how do I make this work?

Cheney: Well, and a lot of it, too, is with all the work that we get to do, is creating awareness, and there's. Now there's awareness, and she knows it and even has been able to articulate it and say, I know it. This is something I need to work on. And that's that we know that's the first step. You got to admit it first, be aware of it. And now you can start to take some, some action items. You put action in the place of how to. How do we, how do we figure this out?

Ryan: How do we navigate it? She's going to have to accept who she is, right. And when we work with athletes, that's, that's really where we start, is helping them identify why they see the world the way they see it. Who am I really? Because it starts there and it's accepting that this is who I am. And once you do that, it kind of takes the burden off your shoulders because she's not going to outgrow this mindset, right. This has been with her since she wanted to play at UConn and they didn't offer her, and she went to Iowa, and all she wanted to do was, you know, show that uConn, you made a mistake.

Cheney: Right.

Ryan: Like, this is the mindset that she never forgets it. And you look at Jordan, if you look at, if you look at those people, they were okay not being liked. Right? They'd rather be feared than enlightened. And their circle of friends is really small. It's really tight. And because very few people understand how they process information, how they view success, failure, all that type of stuff. And people in general don't understand it. And so it's this bubble that they need to create in order to really stay sane. I just look back at, you know, when I played, you know, athletics, when I in business, all that sort of stuff. If you weren't putting in the same amount of work that I was putting in, I didn't have any time for you. You were, you were time away from me. And, and so that's the mindset that they, the lens that they view everything through. And it's not something that was taught to me. It's just something that I had every, as long as I can look back on, this is something that I had. And so you got to accept it. And you have to realize that not everyone's going to like you. You're not going to fit in every locker room, but you have to be you and put those, that good circle around you. But then it's also learning how do I interact with those that are not like me? How do I communicate, and how do I help them raise the bar so that it makes it almost more bearable for me? But also, we can accomplish, you know, winning. We can win the titles, all that type of stuff.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Cheney: Well, you. You've alluded to two of the best that have ever done that. Now, I'm not saying they did it the. The most effective way, but on the flip side of that, they kind of did. Between them, I think there were, what, twelve finals championships. So Jordan. Jordan talked about, he pushed them like he would. He would. He prod you and goad you and just to try to get the best out of you.

Speaker D: Right.

Cheney: But he was always, he was there. Nobody out working. I mean, the end of practice sprints, he was. He always finished first.

Speaker D: Right.

Cheney: So I'm first one here, last one to leave, that kind of thing. And I saw something with Kobe Bryant, and I don't. I can't remember if it was him or it was one of his teammates, but basically the impetus behind it was this particular person. Teammate was not working as hard as Kobe was. So Kobe was like, I'm not passing you the ball. Cause I don't trust that you go, you can perform. Cause you hadn't put the work in.

Ryan: Yeah, I saw that, too. I mean, there was a. There were guys wearing his shoes in the locker room, and he had the equipment manager take all the shoes away because they weren't. They weren't playing well. You almost operate in this dark zone, or you have a dark side that refuses to be brought to the good side.

Cheney: Right.

Ryan: So you're. And it's this piece of you, and this is where we get into, you know, we had coach Kelly at LSU talk about that killer instinct. You know, we had talked about that a couple weeks ago, but it's that I've got these people on the ropes. I am gonna make them wish they never competed against me. I'm going to make them. And it's that dark side that you just want to bury them so that they are forever intimidated by you. And that could be in business, it could be in athletics. But so very few of those people exist. But that's what they live with, right? They live with this piece of them that's, you know, I think about the angel and the. And the demon on the shoulder in the cartoons, right? I. A lot of times you can just brush the demon off, but for these people, it always hangs on, and it's always there telling them, hey, don't stop. Can't quit. You can always do better. You're not good enough. And it's this constant again, it's this constant bar you're trying to reach that you will never reach, and you know it, and it torments you.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Ryan: And so that's what she's living.

Cheney: Right.

Ryan: And so she's got to do a couple things. Yeah, she's got to, she's got to accept that's, that, you know, this is who I am. She's got to understand it, but then harness it to accomplish being a good teammate, to accomplish the, the goals. Understand that not everyone is going to be your friends. And to the rest of the league, it's a, she wasn't, you know, she's just out there playing ball.

Speaker D: Right.

Ryan: And I don't know, you don't know her, but she's just out there playing ball. And this all media hype has been placed on her shoulders, which then again, adds to the, to the torment it does.

Cheney: And what's, so, what I enjoy so much about these type athletes, and I was not nearly the caliber of any of these athletes that we've talked about, but they know that there's, as we've alluded, unattainable goal.

Speaker D: Right.

Cheney: And it torments them. But they're still so highly motivated to achieve that unattainable goal. They still, they're never, they're not deterred in the least of, hey, I'm still working hard, I'm putting the time in and I'm going to do everything that I can to get to this unattainable goal. And I think that's what's going to separate those elite, elite athletes from the majority.

Ryan: A lot of times we're taught in sports that we have to be that ultimate team player. And so there's a percentage of people that are these lions. Right. Or that enforcer personality that almost hold themselves back and they fight being who they are, which then affects them, you know, on the court, on the field, in business and all that. And so, you know, it's, you're either that effective person, you're the executor or you're the enforcer. And, you know, it's, you have to be good with who you are, but how you grow that person, how you develop that person is going to be unique to that style, to that, to those characteristics.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Ryan: And, you know, if you are that lion, if you're that enforcer type personality, you have to lean into it because otherwise you, it's going to be rough. Life is going to be rough. Everything you do, you're going to be battling this mental battle.

Cheney: Right. I think of Mike Tyson and, you know, when he started out, he was attack mode, but in the locker room, I mean, before he's even in the ring, he's, he's already in attack mode.

Speaker D: Right.

Cheney: And he put his foot on your throat. Figuratively.

Speaker D: Right.

Cheney: But it was, if he saw a *****, he went after it. If you stumbled, he's, now he's on top of you.

Speaker D: Right.

Cheney: So it was, I want to, like you talked about earlier, I want you to, I want to humiliate you and make you question ever getting into the boxing ring again, much less in the same ring with me.

Ryan: Embrace who you are. We've lived it. We've worked with these people. There's definitely development opportunities there, if done the right way. I'm Ryan, this is Cheney talking on shift happens. Athlete mindset, hacks. And we'll see you next time.