High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 559: Play Big with Dr. Tom Hanson, Mental Performance Coach & Bestselling Author

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

Dr. Tom Hanson frees athletes and coaches, executives and work teams to consistently perform at or near their best. Formerly the Director of Performance Enhancement for the New York Yankees, Dr. Hanson also consulted with the Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Angels, and Minnesota Twins organizations. His business client list ranges from giants like Microsoft, Verizon and Pepperidge Farm to small businesses like Public Trust Advisors and insurance adjusters Johns Eastern. He co-authored both Heads-Up Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time and Heads-Up Baseball 2.0: 5 Skills for Competing One Pitch at a Time with Dr. Ken Ravizza. The books have combined to sell over 200,000 copies, been adopted by many major college and professional teams, used as a college textbook, and been called “the bible for developing mental toughness,” by Collegiate Baseball. Dr. Hanson also wrote the award-winning PLAY BIG: Mental Toughness Skills that Take Baseball Players to the Next Level, and the best-selling business fable, Who Will Do What by When? -- How to Improve Performance, Accountability and Trust with Integrity. Dr. Hanson graduated with his Ph.D. specializing in sport psychology from the University of Virginia. In this episode, Dr. Tom and Cindra talk about: Confidence as Easy as ABC How to Play Big in 5 Simple Steps How Tapping helps overcome mental roadblocks HIGH PERFORMANCE MINDSET SHOWNOTES FOR THIS EPISODE: www.cindrakamphoff.com/559  FOLLOW CINDRA ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/cindrakamphoff/ TO FIND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT Dr. Tom: Heads-Up Performance FOLLOW CINDRA ON TWITTER: https://twitter.com/mentally_strong  Love the show? Rate and review the show for Cindra to mention you on the next episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-performance-mindset-learn-from-world-class-leaders/id1034819901 

Welcome to the High Performance Mindset Podcast. This is your host, Dr. Sindra Kampoff, a keynote speaker and executive mental performance coach, and I'm just excited to have you here today ready to listen to episode 559. The goal of these episodes is really to help you play bigger, to help you develop the high performance mindset so you can get to your goals in your career, in your business, and in your sport quicker. And today's episode is perfect to help you do that. I've wanted to have Tom Hanson on the podcast for quite some time now. I think his book Heads Up Baseball is legendary in the field of sport and performance psychology. So let me tell you a little bit about Tom Hanson to get

us started. He frees athletes and coaches, executives, and work teams to consistently perform at their near best. He's the former director of performance enhancement for the New York Yankees, and he's also consulted with the Texas Rangers, the Los Angeles Angels, and the Minnesota Twins organizations. As I mentioned, he co-authored both Heads Up Baseball and Heads Up Baseball 2.0 with legendary Dr. Ken Ravizza, and these books have combined to sell over 250,000 copies. They've been adopted by many major college and professional teams, used as a college textbook, and has been called the Bible for Developing Mental Toughness. He also wrote the award-winning

book Play Big, Mental Toughness Skills That Take Baseball Players to the Next Level, and his best-selling business fable, Who Will Do What by Wynn. He has a PhD in sports psychology from the University of Virginia, and I think you're going to find that today's episode applies to any area in your life that you want to level up and play bigger in, whether that's in your sport or your career or maybe your role as a parent or a friend. And in today's episode, Tom and I talk about how confidence is as easy as ABC and what ABC stands for, how to play big in five simple steps, and how tapping can help you overcome mental roadblocks. If you'd like to see the full show notes along with a full transcription of this interview,

you can head over to cindracampoff.com slash 559 for episode 559. And as always, if you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a rating and review wherever you're listening and share it with one or two people who you think could benefit from playing bigger in their lives. Without further ado, let's bring on Tom. Welcome to the High Performance Mindset Podcast. I'm so excited Dr. Tom Hanson is here in the house with us virtually. Thank you so much, Tom, for being here and for coming on the podcast. You're very welcome, Cyndra. I'm excited about the conversation. I think it's going to be great.

I agree. And I think some of your books, all of your books are classics and I can't wait to list. That's a good start. We're off to a good start, at least for me. I have one and two here actually heads up baseball and then check it out all the tabs and another one heads up baseball 2.0. And then I had some time to spend reading your other two books. So I'm just really excited that you're here and that you're willing to share with us some wisdom to help the audience and everyone who's listening today. So maybe just get us started and tell us a little bit about what you're passionate about and what you're doing right now. Yeah, I'm really passionate about human performance and helping people close that gap between where they are and where they want to be.

It really starts out, hey, what's your dream? What would you like to have happen? And that comes really though, and then it's like, well are you now what are your current limitations and well let's close that gap particularly focusing on inner game stuff like how how they're thinking how they're processing information kind of nervous system related stuff not so much mechanics i was a i was a hitting coach at the university of virginia when i was getting my phd there i was a head college coach for seven years in the 90s. So on the field, you know, coaching, absolutely, you know, mechanics, but that's not really a focus here. I work with a lot of athletes from professional levels to youth. And I also work with a lot of executives and leadership teams. One of the other books that you mentioned or didn't have, a physical one, Who Will Do What By When, I've been doing a lot with that lately.

My wife is a master certified coach. She's doing a lot of work really in high levels of the government, helping people with that. So we can get into that. So anyone that's's got a gap, they're like, okay, I'm here, but I'd love to be here. And I want to enjoy the ride from here to here. That's what I'm most interested in helping. And one of my big distinctions over the years is that I teach what I want to learn. Like this book is about commitment. It's not like, you know, I'm great at commitment and I really owe it to the

world to teach them what I do. It's more like, well, I'd like to be better at that. Let me dive in. And I'm a chronic teacher. So it comes out, the Play-Doh gets put in, it comes out a book or a course. Yeah, absolutely. And a constant developer of knowledge. That's what I see. I agree that I love to learn and I like learning more about myself. And that's why I'm in this profession. And one thing that I've also noticed is this trend of more business people and executives

coming to our work and being interested in our coaching. And I'm sure that you've seen that over the years of just working in the field. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's very much. And then now what I'm doing is the Reese's commercial chocolate and peanut butter, because I'm about to launch, I'm not about to launch a coaching program for executives who used to play sports or do. I've got a pilot going with it now. There's a guy who's like, he's a golfer, avid golfer, and now he's running businesses. And it's fun to go through that with them.

So that's what I want to do in this conversation, bounce back and forth. That program is called That Winning Feeling. So as much as anything, what target is is that exactly that people have that winning feeling because you're never done you could win the super bowl we want the vikings to win the super bowl i haven't connected with you on that i'm uh right here man right there you got your school mug oh yeah let's go and i'm from moor, Minnesota. I grew up going to school in a Vikings jacket and I love and bleed the purple. So and it's been some blood. I was there with Fran Tarkington and the, you know, the purple people eaters losing the Super Bowl, crying my

head off. So. Well, not you grew up not too far from where I live. So that's exciting. So one of the first books that I read that you wrote with Ken Reviz is called Heads Up Baseball. And I do think of it as a classic. As I teach graduate students, I have them all read this book because I think there's so much great content in the book. And I also know that it's not just related to baseball, that it's related to life and business and our career. So maybe just get us started and just tell us a bit about how did you partner with Ken Reviza to write Heads Up Baseball and where did that motivation come to? That was your first book. Yeah. So this is people don't know Ken. I pulled out his card.

That's his, Ken Revisa, really a giant in our field and just a giant human being. And from that, I would say to people listening, it's like, wow, wouldn't that be cool if people say that about me? I was a giant. The guy was a really giver he was on the cutting leading edge um and i would it started to me i told the story a while back because i could start it in effect with a thank you note so again in terms i'm trying to bias everything toward hey what's something useful that people could get a thank you note the power of a thank

you note. Ken came, I was at the University of Illinois getting my master's degree because I'm from Moorhead. I went to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. And then at Illinois, I was there and played a bunch of rugby and I was a hitting coach there. We won three big 10 championships. One day Ken comes because he's a friend of Dan Gould, my advisor. And I asked him a couple of questions and he's really helpful. And thanks to my mom, she had encouraged me to write a lot of thank you notes. And so I wrote him a thank you note. And a year or whatever, a yearish later, we're at this ASP conference, a sports psychology conference. And I see him and he's like a biblical character in that gaggles of people around him. And I saw him, Hey, Ken, you know, I met you. And he's like,

Hey, good. Tom, you're Tom Hanson, right? He goes, yeah, come here. And he goes, I just want to tell you, people put me for information all the time and I'm happy to give, you know, don't get me wrong, but nobody, nobody writes me a thank you note. And I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciated that, what that meant to me. So then I go to university of Virginia, Bob Rotella is my advisor there. And I've been in charge of the summer week long sports psych program. So who do I want? I've got a budget. I'm bringing Ken and I bring Ken in and we take long walks, smoking cigars at night outside of Rotella's house. And then I was at Skidmore College, upstate New York as a professor and I needed to, I had a

sabbatical. And so I partnered with Ken and that's how we wrote Heads Up Baseball. Wow. Well, isn't that wonderful? What a great story and the power of just giving and thanking people instead of asking for something you can get from them. You know, and it goes a long way. Yeah, that was big. And so, yeah, I got to learn from him and all the stuff that's there. We can dive into or go whichever direction that you want. What is your favorite concept from the book that you think could relate to anyone who's

listening? It's a cool question. I would say what comes to my mind, what I've been hitting lately isn't a term that's in it. And we didn't put it in the second. I wanted it in the second book, but to meanify. To meanify is to bring meaning to something that you're doing. Like I'm going to step on the rubber, make that, that's the start of the next pitch as a pitcher. Okay. I'm not going to step on until I'm ready. There's a picture there of it says ready on the rubber. And so that's, I'm going to make that meaningful. Yesterday talking with a guy who's in a pilot of my debt winning feeling program trouble sleeping it's he's meanify crossing the threshold he comes down the stairs to right is his bedroom to the left is

is whatever but when i go there and cross that from then on it's everything is off that's now i'm i'm out of my warrior mode for sure and i'm'm crossing that threshold. Now it's bedtime. I got a great text from him this morning. He said, I slept great. So we, cause it's been a big issue for him. And so bringing meaning to something, you already do have me give meaning to everything ourselves. However, it's like, Hey, what can I do that? That's the start. One of the things Ken would say, um, down the, down the end before we lost them in 2018 would be a, when does the at bat begin? When does your at bat begin? When does your, whatever you do begin? I've got a thing on my office door here. One of these sliding things, Dr. Tom Hanson, it says, and then it can slide it in or out and so my practice is to is to stop there

center be like okay dr tom hansen is in and and off i go so um that's one that comes to mind that i've been been doing a lot lately um but um and then the the breath i when you have to you have to say I remember writing the book we talked I talked to like 15 big league players kind of worked for already like 15 years with big leaguers and I and say let's go talk to these guys and see what they think is most important and and so we're going around it's like Kirk McCaskill Jim Abb remember jim abbott a pitcher yes yeah and um guys like that and far and away the number one thing is the breath taking a breath between pitches and i remember again i was a little deflated um in or disappointed because you talk about so many things and then it's like the breath but you know there go. Really taking a breath and whether you're an executive, Hey, I'm going into a meeting him about to make a phone call,

a good breath. And he really didn't get into much nuance to the breath. It was really, could you just take one or not? But as I think, you know, there's lots you can do with the breath um that can help bring up your energy what you can do to bring it down um all kinds of things like that but really just that was such a such a big one and people giving it back and the other one would be the traffic light that i use every day pretty much to this day this idea that we have an internal traffic light green yellow red

and green means you're feeling good. Let's go. I'm on. And yellow, you're sped up a little bit, losing it. And red. So just yesterday I was talking with a corporate group about that, and it boils down to deliberately get yourself green. you need to do, figure out what has you feel good and structure something ideally right away in the morning that helps you get going good, feeling good. And then notice when you get yellow, we'll talk about, Hey, what, you know, how does it show up in your body? What do you hear yourself

say? What are things that, Hey, when you get a yellow light, ah, I'm losing it. And then how do you get back to green right in the moment and if you're executive you're whatever it is i haven't found anyone where that doesn't play well i remember do you remember phil roof you know i do yeah i'm a catcher for the twins when i was growing up i then i did some work with the twins it was the same thing i was working with the rangers at the time and they were playing the twins and they said hey you're tom hansen we're doing a study every you know it's our day where we're doing a reading from the chapter from a chapter of heads up baseball you want to comment it's like i'm there in my rangers uniform awesome twins place and phil

roof comes up to me and says hey hansen thank you for that traffic light. I mean, because now I can talk to people. You can say what gets you green. Hey, did you, did you get a yellow light? How did you know? When did it start? Did you do anything about it? How did you choose to respond? One of the great questions of all time. How did you choose to respond to that? And I was like, you're welcome, Phil. You know, I'd grown up, you know, cheering for him, rooting for him. And then to have that was super cool. Yeah. Super cool. Well, such great concepts that you just mentioned there. I like the meaningful because it makes me think

about how many times we kind of blend things together and we don't have routines or we don't reset. And I think the power of the Heads Up Baseball books is really about staying in the present moment. And how can you take it one pitch at a time or one phone call at a time or, you know, one rep at a time. And so many times we're thinking about the past or the future. And I think the traffic light helps us check in with ourselves because we just sometimes are on automatic pilot or rushing from thing to thing without taking some meaningful steps. And I think about how a lot of athletes that I work with struggle and even executives struggle with how to turn off the performance sort of, you know, what do you, after the game, what do you do to debrief or when you're done with a busy day, you know, you just come home

and then you're kind of checked out at home because you're just so exhausted and you don't maybe have the routines to put your phone away and be present. Yeah. Yeah. Having it be okay. Just pulled up, uh, you know, to the house and now i'm going to go in and i got two kids who do i want to be there and and pre-play that um and set an identity and really big identity it's like clarifying who you want to be and then having those transitions. One of my, I've got five biggies, like my coaching fundamentals. And a biggie number four is win this segment. So the segment I'm in, because everyone say, be present.

You know, you gotta be present. Okay, I'm present, I'm present and then I'm not. And then I'm a loser. So that's just too high of a bar to to think that you're going to be that all the time and that's often the way it gets hey be in the moment be in the now appreciate your moment damn it appreciate what's going on right now can't you be grateful like and then you can for a bit and I find it super helpful to think in terms of a day as a segment um or you know and at the baseball you see that these funnels like one one funnel on into the next um and so having

it be a declaration like walking into my office like this morning it's like okay i'm coming in here to do this i i walked right in it's like hey wait a second i went back you know did the in out thing even though i'd left it in make it out and then go just to have something it's like okay now here's this segment because i'm going to move my son rest of the day and and drives to college tomorrow um but right now i'm all in on this this is is the segment of talking to Sindra. And so having something that if I can do that, I can be locked in and have a blast, set an intention for this segment. And then so be as green as I can go in and notice when I get yellow and get back to green as much as I can.

And ideally, a little debrief at the end of a segment ends it. Take a learning. Nobody's going to be super structured like that all the day, but the basic principle of that is like, hey, what did I learn? What could I learn? Take from that and then go on. And I'm not so rigid that every moment of the day is a conscious segment, but the ones where I really want to play and be good. That's what I do. I think the breath is such a powerful tool that we have to stay in the present and to reset. So we stay in our green. What are the ways that are, tell us a little bit about how you're teaching that now, just for those people who are listening and thinking, okay, well, what does Tom really

mean about the breath? Yeah. The biggest one out of it is, well, the biggest one is, is being conscious of your breathing. The breath is like a metaphor for all of us to me for the mental game in that it goes on autopilot. I'm not, wasn't thinking now until you, you spoiled it. Now I'm thinking about my breath. Yeah, that's true. I wasn't until you called attention to it. But it's, it's because it runs on auto, but I also can take control. So that's like consciously it's like, Hey, we run 90%, 95% is on a pro auto program. We can wrestle some control and make deliberate choices with the, to me, that the choices are then to train the 90%

so that it becomes a new set point that that's your normal, if that makes sense. So with the breath, biggest thing once of being aware of it is breathing through your nose. I'd say, hey, let's get on LSD. It's like long, slow, deep breath, alter your state and through your nose and then down into your belly. And so the first, because it's just, there's big

advantages and you've probably seen books about breathing, just the massive advantages of breathing through your nose. I literally sleep with my mouth taped shut because I'm a nighttime mouth breather. I have the blue tape that you use for paint when you paint. It works really well. I've tried a lot of things. It's my favorite. And to just breathe through your nose, it's much more calming, much more awareness. I go over as long as I can during a workout, breathing through my nose, often on a stairmaster. I'll just, I'll keep myself right at my nose limit. And so like that. And also then when performing, the athlete or in the business scene is a longer, slow breath.

It's really what's kind of became famous out of, well, out of heads up baseball is i mean you watch the college world series men or women and you see people put that back foot in the box look you know hold the bat take a breath they're saying something to their self and stepping in but that's yes whatever page right out of heads up baseball like every year, that guy, because a lot of the photos were Skidmore, my players. It's like every year at the College World Series, we just ping each other. I'm seeing them. My kids can't believe that that's a picture

of their dad doing that. So having one big one is for sure. It's great. What I also though talk about is the long slow deep breath the whole time from from on the bench to grabbing your bat when my bat begins if that's when it is and then slow conscious breath from there and then i'm not attached to someone taking a big breath i've often said hey i want to be able to see it from the second deck. I'm not as attached to that. I'm not trying not to be attached to anything because the, the wild card is what works for you, what works for you now. I've kind of made a living

talking to really good people and seeing what they do, pull it together and then make it available to others. That's kind of been my shtick. And I talk about this. I mean, my dissertation, I interviewed Hank Aaron, Rod Cruz, Dan Musial, Kari Strimski, Pete Rose, Tony Oliva, who got into the hall of fame. He got, he got into the hall of Rose. Wasn't part of the dissertation. Once Tony got into the hall of fame, I had all guys, all hall of famers in my dissertation picking their brain for, hey, what did you do? How'd you do that? That's my PhD level questions. Like, hey, you lead the world in total bases,

all time total base leader, Mr. Aaron. It's like, how'd you do that? And so talking through stuff like that. And what did he say? How did he do it? He said, first, it's all about preparation. How a guy prepares to do battle was his phrase. So PhD boy says, how did you do that? That's like the level of intellect that I was at, but that's a simple wins, right? So he said, well, I'd visualize, I would imagine the pitcher and what he throws and what he's got and i go okay uh jerry kuzman's pitching for the mets tomorrow talk me through that he said well i think about the night before okay kuzman's pitching tomorrow what does he got what does he throw i see those pitches coming in i said like from as you'll see them or do you see yourself on TV? And he's like,

no, as I see them. So he's inside and I see those coming in. And then I put myself in different situations, man, on first inning, two outs, how does he pitch me? And I see that. And then fourth inning, nobody on, nobody out. How does he, like that and talked through. and he said that's then what enabled him to be so focused and so consistent it's like how do you do that he's 12 miles of base running ahead of stan musial who's the second all-time in total bases so it's like stan the number two guy of all time would have to just run the bases for a half marathon to catch Aaron. It was so consistent. Like, how did you do that? He goes, just what I'm telling you. And it was, it was still, it gets me right now. Cause he said, we're driving in the car. I'd flown down there and he said, Hey, you just want to talk, right? Yeah. And I said, can we go, we got to, I got some things

to do around town. And I said, okay. I said, Oh, we're going to run some errands. And he's like, yeah. And so I didn't explain that. I just made a joke, but anyway, so we're driving around and he said, this is the most important part about hitting. And no one's ever asked me this before. Wow. No one had ever asked him. I don't think anyone got into it then it's on my list still to get a book out and of this you know how great hitters think um but it was that mental preparation so it's the same for an executive i use that story all the time of like okay the night before you're okay what do i got tomorrow what do i want to how do i want it to go and picture it and pre-play it, I call it. And you go through that and how do I want to be? What have I got?

And certainly in the morning, you get up, getting green. Part of it, you get feeling good. Feel good first is the first biggie. And then second is beyond target. What are my targets that I want to go through? And that ends up with the kebab. I got to give you my kebab model that I teach basically, which is you're going to have targets. That's a person has all these targets of goals. A kebab,

there's chunks of meat and there's vegetables, and those are the tangible goals. And then there's the pathway. So we'd say a lot, I hear a lot in our world about, oh, it's all the process. It's a process. It's a process it's a process like well my process to put the toothpaste on the brush and then i put it in here it's like well how's that going to help me get to the major leagues it's like whoa it's good to have good teeth but the goal what is what's the dream what is the goal what are the targets and then it's this this way what is your way what is that yellow part there of driving through that this kind of stick of the shish kebab um and it's to me it's one thing it's it it isn't

it's an artificial dichotomy to break it into outcome and process because i want them doing with the problem i want them thinking i want to get a a hit. I want to get a hit. Okay. And then you back onto that because when I was, what I ran into at Skidmore fresh out of my PhD was I was so processed. Oh yeah. You know, take your breath, do your routine, just right at heads of baseball. I'm writing heads of baseball. I'm doing this, but it's, I, and I still have this image in my head of me standing in the outfield, my teams around me. And I'm saying, you guys did a great job. You took those breaths importance of the breath. It's beautiful. These guys all say it's super important. Did you routine?

And we lost 12 to three. And so it was playing sort of beautifully like a beautiful, you know, Oh, let's be in the process. It's all about the process. It's all okay. Well, it's not okay. It's not okay. You have to, yes, do it, but with an intent to win the game and win the game. Always be focused on, focus only on winning. End up saying, focus only on winning. Stay on track. When we drift off we get on to things that oh i'm upset about this or that shouldn't be this way my ball shouldn't be in the bunker it shouldn't be like what do you want to have happen and be on track so i think of it all as the kebab the

process and the outcome so because aaron aaron back on that was was that he was like what did he throw and and yes you could say well that's the process yeah but he wanted to get it but he he also said the the last piece that's big from him i said what were you doing in the batter's box and he said well i want to put the fat part of the bat in the ball and so to me and my my corporate keynote like message is the fat part is the best part of the bat and the ball is the most important thing at that time so it's bringing your best to the most important thing what's most important how do you bring your best to that and then stan mutual is like my dad's hero um I asked him what were you doing in the box what were you doing and interestingly he said I always knew where the fat part of the

bat was and I want to put it on the ball that's and then PhD boy is like and and that became clear as I was transcribing it that that that was what he was doing. So this idea of simplicity and like you see in Heads Up Baseball 2 with Joe Madden, do simple better was the mantra as the Cubs broke the curse and won the world series. Sure. Do simple better. And that ties in with, with this book, which is really about commitments and commitment management, I will do X by Y. I just spent a week at a company just training people in that. In a way, it's almost embarrassing because it's like, I will commit. I will do X by Y.

By when will you do this? And then if you aren't going to fulfill that, you should let them know. And if you risk the deadline, you should let them know, and if you miss the deadline, you should clean it up, and then there's acknowledgement, and there's a way to complain if someone didn't do any of that, to do it skillfully, so super simple, but not often done well, and so it's really executing that, so what I find in some with these high performers is yes, the preparation, and then what is the essence? What is the critical variable? How do I keep this simple? Because simple wins, whether it's hitting or business or life, once things get complicated, then you're

veering off the kebab. Absolutely. So yeah, Tom, so many. I don't know what the question was. Well, I appreciated so many different things there, like do simple, better, the visualization, just kind of thinking about where you're going. And it makes me think about your book, Play Big. And I want to talk to you about, ask a few questions about that. And then we can talk about your last book as we keep going here. And tell us a little bit about what Play Big means to you. And I loved your five simple steps of playing big. And I'm just going to share them with the audience now. And I'd like you to talk about those. So you said five simple steps to play big are clarify what you don't want, clarify what you want, fully experience having it,

notice and remove resistance, and then focus and trust as your fifth ones to perform. Tell us what about what that idea of play big means. And then, you know, these five steps that people can use to play bigger. And I'm thinking it doesn't relate just to sport, but in life in general. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's really the company we have, Heads Up Performance. This is what this book is like. And I wanted the book to feel good, like have a good vibe. I worked with a guy, Todd Pearl, who's just fantastic at that. So just to me, feels good, looks good. And that's what it's about is that good feeling where that's what is playing big is getting

to green in effect, deliberately getting to green. And then I teach the beginning of the book. It's a fictional story. It's really me coaching me on the field that I played in high school with all, every name in there is one of my teammates, either from high school or college. And it's this guy coaching this younger, this young player through a fence and he doesn't see the guy. It's like Wilson, you know, tool time from Tim Allen.

Do you know that show? Yeah, I love that show. Where Wilson, where you never see the neighbor, but it was like that. Originally was going to have it be Babe Ruth, like it's in the dugout, but no one else can see him, but this guy, but then a couple of people sat down. I think that's a little over the top. Like, so it's really about learning to, to me, the whole with the mental game is learning to express yourself

fully you know that that your sport or your business is a as a means of a vehicle for self-expression so it's a really ends up being about playing big and i like this this um thing you would have seen where it's like you're gonna play like this or you play with this you think tell me about a time when you, when you played like this. Oh, this game against, you know, Tampa Catholic when I have love. I did this. Okay. Now tell me about a time when you were like this.

Small. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's this big and small. And so people relate to that of like an expansion and a freedom. That's what it's about. And so book teaches these tools. The first, the main one, which I do teach all the time

is my ABCs. A is act big. B is breathe big. And C is commit big. You know, I will, that part of that on ball. I will do X by Y. You commit. So you act, carry yourself that way.

I came to that. I was going to talk to this, this guy was in Chicago and it's like, Oh, talking to this older group. And then it's like, could you talk to my nine-year-olds tomorrow? I was like, sure. And I'm like, well, what am I going to say? Like the top thing would just act like you're confident. And that would still be the thing. If you said, okay, Tommy, you got three seconds for the podcast. I would say, act like you're super confident. And I'd still have two seconds left maybe but that would be the thing um and then breathe as we've talked about and then commit there's a

focus what am I locked in I call it a goldilock you want to have a goldilock which is not too much to think about not too little hey just go have fun okay but um you know just right like that bat on the ball fat part of bat on ball um and so the guy's learning that as we go and then it actually the reason i wrote this book is to have people start to tap without having to be in a crisis first i work a lot with the yips where people, it's like a catcher can't throw the ball back to the pitcher. A second baseman can't throw it to first. And so you have to be able to talk to Miggy.

Miggy is to me the amygdala. But if we're on a team, you and I were on a team and then there's our new guy named John amygdala yeah we call him Miggy that's awesome Miggy um it's Miggy and Tux so that's it's a little more complicated I don't say it too much to my brain my neuroscience friends but I break it down into Miggy and Tux and if people aren't sure what that means, it's like two different parts of the brain. Yeah. Because they're not though. Yeah.

Exactly. And so the tapping is literally tap. We literally tap. I've done this for 20 years, but still it's not that well known. Are you familiar with it? I'm familiar with tapping. I'm not trained in it or heard about it. Is that what it means? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, it's literally tapping on acup, on, um, acupressure points. And if you said, okay, what's your most powerful tool you got into this field in 1983, I reached for this book called sports psyching. Um, it's right behind me somewhere. I was in a bookstore. It's like sports psyching. And I just said, I'd major in psych because I didn't think you could do anything in sports. So, and I sports and i've been in it ever since like what's the most powerful tool yeah um it's tapping and so and it's got a cousin i'm also certified in um called havening where you're you're you're making physical moves it's a it's a somato psychic um modality tool so using the body to change your thinking but again a big big big

false dichotomy is that the mind and the body are two separate things even mind body stuff it's like well it's one thing i've never had a hitter go up to the plate without his head so the you're you're doing things with the tapping. They can see it or not. I just use top of the head, inside edge of the eyebrow, out of the eye, under the eye, under the collarbone, and then under the arm. There's other points and we can get into that as much as you want. But it's talking to Miggy. And there is, I do have this because I end up talking about this.

Here's a book called The Science Behind Tapping. It's a hardcover book. This woman in Australia is the rockstar researcher. And it's all kind of brain scans and cortisol level goes down 45% and a replicated study. So this is a compilation of all the studies on it. It's not like you have to believe in it, but you have to do it. And so it's really, it's sending signals to Miggy that it's safe because the way our brain works, this is how I explain it, that every information comes in through our senses and goes to Miggy because

Miggy is around 30 million years old in development and Tex is more like 40 or 4 million so as as the brain layers you know as we developed more brain um but it came in that order the ones who develop more brain lived so the ones with the bias towards survival it was really you could one way to think of it is a um survival of the scaredest as von klontorctor goes out there, hey, there's a new tribe. Hi guys, may or may not come back. But then whoever stayed back and said, well, he's an idiot, kind of mates maybe with his mates

and pass on that safety bias. And so information comes in, goes to Miggy and Miggy is saying, am I safe? Am I safe? It's super, super fast. And he uses, or she uses past experiences. How has it gone when I've thrown the ball? Am I safe to throw this ball? How has it gone? If they've had some trauma, I think of the yips as like a PTSD and we all have

it to some degree. There's no just yips over here. It's a performance hierarchy. And you just, we slide up and down it all day. It's just that the yips and the choking is way at the bottom. And so the thing is, Miggy is associating this with fear. Throwing equals danger or threat is a better word. Throwing equals threat. Therefore, go into survival mode. Everything stays down below tax. And now the guy, the body goes into defense.

And Tex is saying, but I'm playing softball. I'm talking to a woman that I like. Or whatever the thing is that could then trigger this protection. But Tex, Meggie doesn't speak English. Meggie is like a reptile. that could then be trigger this protection, but text, Maggie doesn't speak English. Maggie is like a reptile. And so it only does that. And so that's our unconscious. So the tapping gets, it's like tapping is how you speak lizard. You know, that's what communicating with Maggie, you call up the event yesterday.

You call up the event, oh, this game against this or this presentation I made the time I talking to my boss, whatever it is, um, food. I mean, it's, it's everything because it's the nervous system where it comes up and then Miggy says, so you call it up and then you feel it. Like, think of something that's stressful. Now, something you could stress out or, or worry about if you want it and you focus on it because what you focus and then you feel it. Like think of something that's stressful now, something you could stress out or worry about if you wanted. And you focus on it because what you focus on, you feel. So you bring that up and then you tap.

And so you've got this called up, this negative thing, and now you're sending positive neurochemicals into that area. And then it's like pulling up a word document, editing it, and then you put it back. So do you think the tapping over time, like, do you, do people do it just when they recall an event and then they start seeing the event differently after the tapping? Or what do you see is like the impact of the tapping over time? Yeah. So that sticking with the word document, now I put that memory back because now it's like, it's okay. And I'll be tapping away. And now then I'll be, I call it the, um, the, uh,

Tik TOK or, uh, thing where you, instead of remembering what happened, let something play, you know, put yourself back in that game and hit the play button and see what happens. And I want to keep going until I make a good throw. Even though he never made a good throw, memory is plastic. That's one of the biggest things to know is that memory is plastic. You can change it. And that's a big part of my work is helping someone see their past differently, that it happened for them, that I'm going to rewrite my

past through a different lens. So I see, oh, how great that was that that happened. I left Skidmore. I was really depressed. I quit. I was a tenured professor and I quit, but I really turned out that I was quitting because I was getting depressed. And then I got really depressed in my mid thirties and I was like hurting. And at the time it was like the stupidest thing any human had ever done. That's how it occurred to me through my lens. But in time now it's like, my gosh, I worked full-time with the Yankees. I have this family, I have these great kids. I have this whole thing. If I had been stuck in that position, was really contained so it was great and it hurt but now so at the time it made me cry that I left that job and now it's arms up like that's one of

the greatest things I was a tenured professor and I just bailed because I wanted more and something else and it was not easy. But that perception, change of perception of your own past is the target with what I'm talking about here. And then we do it for the future. But because then if it comes up to Miggy, am I safe to throw this ball? Am I safe to talk to her? Am I safe to make this presentation? Miggy's like, how's it gone in the past? And if it's okay, yeah, this happened, but everyone makes bad throws that kind of shift in perception of the past. Then Miggy's like, yeah, I'm safe to throw. And now I'm free to run my motor program because Miggy's not clicked me

into survival mode, which overrides everything. Cool. And so people want to learn more about the science of tapping. You said the book learn more about the science of tapping. You said the book that was called the science of tapping and people want to learn more about that. Tom, one question I have before we move on to your, your last book that I want to spend a little time on, um, give us an example of how tapping has helped the yips and those people that you work with who have the yips, because I think there, it, that can be a really scary thing for people who all of a sudden, you know, can can be a really scary thing for people who all of a sudden can't do something so fundamental that they love.

Yeah. And so for someone listening, it's like, well, I don't play baseball. Well, we have this old Harvey the RV, and I was being so careful, this old C-class Shasta thing. I'm so careful to not hit that thing that I backed into another one. And so after that, when I'm backing up almost anything, of course, it triggers because Miggy's like, don't let that happen again. I remember backing up equals threat. So anything, you could have a car accident, you could have a yelled at by a boss or by a parent to do work with parents.

Well, I can take a woman a tennis player has been doing great end up with the yips on her on her forehand and um you know super critical of herself and so this is to me that ends up being the big leagues i only do this if this is what comes up but the big league of the mental game is that she's hitting four hands and we go back to bad incidents that she's had and we tap to clear them so that she you know she goes back to the game you know to the match at kenwood and go back there now see what you saw hear what you heard feel what you felt you can feel that now right yeah where do you feel it oh my chest what does it feel like zero to ten how strong is it eight right now yeah okay let's go and we tap or haven it's a really cool one um same principle

and because we're using our body it's just like just think if people are tapping what have you ever been stressed and then taken a run or gone to the gym and then you felt better right well you just moved your body in such a way that it changed your, like your thinking. It's the same thing without needing to take a shower. So you, you, she tapped on that and she got way better, way better as she, then, you know, we clear the past step one is, is clear the past past so they don't have these triggers. Things don't trigger you. And then secondly, you clear the future so that as you imagine going out there now, you want her to be calm and confident with that. In Zoom, that's how I do it. And then she goes

out and does it. It's a process. You't like get a onesie session with me because it's it's a conditioning process so she goes out it's like a video game you go here on then you fail and then you need to oh and then you fail and then you gain more skills so she this becomes a big like part she gets so critical she was doing great and then she played with with a guy who really came down on her in a negative, you know, criticized. And it triggered this stuff. And she was kind of back to a low level of performance with her forehand in particular.

And why it's the forehand, you know, it gets, it's really complicated, but you don't have to figure that all out exactly. And then I said, well, there's critical, critical voice. And I said, well, whose voice is that? And she's like, it's, well, it's my mom's. And I'm like, okay. And now I said, oh, there's critical, critical voice. And I said, well, whose voice is that? And she's like, it's, well, it's my mom's. And I'm like, okay. And now I hear that. And then off we go into that.

And now we're back in school and growing up, tapping on things that happened when she was young with her mom, so that she can gain freedom from it, such that it doesn't trigger her anymore because nothing means anything i showed you like my vikings cup this you know it's like to you and me it's like like to packers fan it's like boo and other people it's like whatever of the chargers like means nothing but this we took dad to the viking stadium for his 90th birthday and he gets this cup and then he says, he gives it to me.

And then he dies like two weeks later. So it's like the meaning of this to me, where is that meaning? That meaning is in me. So all meaning is in ourselves. And so it's in that lens. So we got to, it's lens crafting. The tapping affects the lens through which you see things because we live in an occurring world, not a is world. You know, how does it occur to you?

Jumping out of a plane, is that stressful? Depends on the lens, right? Because if it's my thousandth jump, I'm probably not feeling the same as my first. So it's the same activity, but it's perceived differently. So the main work, if I work with somebody, it's like 50 minutes on the lens and then 10 minutes on the heads of baseball stuff of, okay, and now let's create a routine. Yeah. Because the lens is way more important than, than those actions.

Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Tom. I think, you know, we all have experiences in the past that, you know, we make meaning based on the past. So as I was listening to your experience with tapping and, and helping people clear that, I think we can all relate to that. Because there's always been something that we wish would have gone differently or we still hang on to now that doesn't serve us. So thank you for sharing that. You're welcome.

And you're never done. It's not like, oh, if you tap for X amount of time, and it's a tool, it's not a magic wand. It's a tool, it can be pretty miraculous, but it's just a tool and you have to use it um using it over time i mean every day stuff comes we're so hardwired for safety yes that we're not going to override that i'm not going to make that shasta that c-class 1999 rv that we have you can do a lot to that. We redid the inside. Okay, great. But it's still in 1999. You're not going to turn that into some jet stream,

new thing. You'd have to start. So it is with us. It's like, we've got our design. I grew up the way I did. My physiology, my family, all these things go into these programs. So it's really always a matter of, that's why with that shish kebab, it just keeps going. You hit some goal, it keeps going. And you just keep setting new targets. And it is that journey as that being on track is having that winning feeling is winning, you know? And, and, but if you don't have targets that you're going through, then you're back. Like I was with Skidmore baseball of the first few years of like, Hey, nice job. You guys really

did your routines. And they're like, don't you care that we just got our ass kicked? It's like, okay, I'm missing that. The target part of like, yeah, do your routine, but do it with the intent to win. Yeah. Yeah. Love it. And so as we wrap up, Tom, I want to ask you one question about your latest book, who will do what by when, and my favorite quote from that book, by the way, is this quote, no team can outperform the limitations of its leader. If you want your team to get better, you must get better. So tell us just one thing from the book that you think is the most important message from that book. Well, that's a great one. And because nothing happens if you don't think you aren't committed to expanding. I want, I need to expand and to say, oh, it's me. I'm, if I'm a leader,

it's, I'm the bottleneck. If I don't expand, the company can't. I'll work with the CEO and it's like, you and your vibe is the most important variable in this company because crap runs downhill. And your vibe, your disposition, your vision, that's what you ought to be doing is being the vision. If it's contracted, if you're down more because you're a hard-nosed, get-her-done guy, I'm down in that lower part of that model, more red, yellow, you've got fewer options. You just don't see the playing field. There's a guy, Mark Joyner, I think, where it's like the top variable for a video. What makes a good leader? The top quality sees the playing field, whether it's a battle, corporate, or football.

You see what's actually happening. And to do that, you really have to continue to evolve. And having said that, what we then get to is who will do what by when. You don't even have to read the book. Just say that at the end of a meeting. And Birgit, as I said, is a master certified coach. She's amazing. And this was 20 years ago we're like oh yeah we got fired by the Yankees we moved here to work full-time with the Yankees and it lasted

one year they just weren't really ready other stories but but so now we're going to corporate and it's like yeah we're going to do planning and you know high level to corporate and it's like, yeah, we're going to do planning and high level stuff. And then it's like we realized people don't block and tackle. You have to throw and catch. The Vikings can design a great play. But if that, oh, it doesn't block that X, then it doesn't matter. It's not going anywhere. So you have to execute the fundamentals and honoring your word is the most important business asset

that you have is your own integrity. It's like, I'll do business with that guy because I trust him. And how do you build that trust? You make a commitment. I will do X by Y. I will get back to you with this by noon on Friday. And then you do it. You put in the in the wall of building a high integrity bridge between the two of you you violate that and so it gets you get stuff done better relationships and um and you feel better about yourself so the road to success is paved with commitments is what do you mean commitment i'm committed to saving the helping the veteran okay great but let's operationalize that i will do x by y like that and that's that part of bad on ball do simple better yeah and it's a fictional story with a with the love interest uh going on underneath it's it's really fun we had some really good help um crafting that. And so it's, again, a fictional story of a guy who was

successful salesman, now a failing manager. And he goes to his high school baseball coach who helps him learn this model that I just kind of brushed over. Well, perfect. So your four books, Heads Up Baseball, Heads Up Baseball 2, Who Will Do What by When, and then Play Big. You know, such great content and ideas here. And Tom, thank you so much just for joining us on the podcast. I'm going to work to summarize today to the best of my ability. I love at the beginning when we talked about meaningful and just being really mindful about what you put meaning towards.

And I like it. I'm sorry. I like it as meanify. Meanify. I think I spelled it as the verb to deliberately put meaning onto something. Perfect. Meanify. There we go.

We talked about the green light and the breath and why that breath is so important. We were talking about your dissertation and what you learned from some of the best pros. We were talking about ABC, act big, breathe big and commit big. And then tapping to help us continue to break free from some of those past experiences. And I appreciate how you shared that with us. And at the end about your newest book. So where can people find more about you and learn more about your books and buy them? So Dr. Tom Hanson is the main, it's just a very simple site, but so it's D-R-Tom Hanson, H-A-N-S-O-N.

To contact me, there's a contact form and that's, that'd be the easiest for that. Our business site is Heads Up Performance. So just like Heads Up Baseball, but it's headsup with no dash, headsupperformance.com. And I have playbigacademy.com as well. So awesome. So there that would be those would be the best things. And it's my email would be Dr. Tom Hanson at Gmail. Again, the D.R. T.O.M. So happy to have people reach out more information or anything I could help with. Be great. Thank you so much, Tom. I'm grateful that you're here and appreciate your wisdom and your experience. So thank you so much for being on the podcast. You're very welcome. I had a great time. You did a great job and you'd really do great work. I've watched you and admire you for a good while. So it's a fun experience for me.

Thank you, Tom. I appreciate it. Way to go for finishing another episode of the High Performance Mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe and you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes and to join my exclusive community for high performers where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can head over to Dr. Sindra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A dot com. See you next week.