This print is in my office to remind athletes of the importance of having fun while competing. In a way sport psychology is an attempt to help athletes mentally return to that time when sports were free of pressure and filled with joy; when we were six years old and pretending we were as fast as the Flash, as powerful as the Hulk, or as passionate as Brian Dawkins. When this mental state is achieved, performance is maximized and the athlete is likely to get in the zone.

Zach Ertz, tight end of the Super Bowl bound Philadelphia Eagles, wrote a great piece in The Players' Tribune (linked below) in which the following quote captures his season and one of the biggest reasons for the team's success, "I've never had more fun playing football than I've had this year." As many athletes climb the success ladder and earn a coveted spot on elite teams it is often forgotten to soak up as much fun as often as possible. Sports, unfortunately for many,  become so important and serious that athletes will say to me that fun no longer matters and it is all about winning. Don't get me wrong winning is important. Athletes see me to return to winning ways. A win for the Eagles on February 4th would be incredibly important to the city of Philadelphia. Winning when embattled in fierce competition is the most fun part of the competition. But winning and fun go hand in hand and this team is a radiant example of this concept. The point is that you don't have to exclude or forego fun in your pursuit of greatness. 

Ertz talks about the strong and valuable bond between the current teammates on the Eagles. He mentions last year when Carson Wentz asked him how he was doing during a rough time. Wentz emotionally picked Ertz up by telling him he was going to be fine. This team genuinely seems to care about each other which can be powerful in moments of doubt, high pressure, injury, and failure.  In those moments of doubt, these players probably dig a little deeper because they want to succeed, not only for themself, but for the guys around them. This bond doesn't just exist between players. Based on press conferences, interviews, and post-win speeches it seems that head coach, Doug Pederson cares about his players both as performers and as people. This care contains an apparent mutual respect between players and coach. When a team has cohesion, love for each other, and mutual respect... Well, we will see Super Bowl Sunday.
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/zach-ertz-eagles-playoffs/

​*If you're interested in this concept, apply it to your own professional life. Think about how much the level of fun impacted your experience, motivation, anxiety, endurance, and overall performance. Those job we hated probably received the minimum effort and poor performance whereas fun jobs earned maximum effort and best performance.
​Please feel free to comment, even if it is a prediction for the game.

The title of this blog alludes to one common feature for most people, athletes, and teams. We tend to wallow in failures and permit success to fade all too rapidly. Failures and injures negatively get caught on a repeat loop in our head while the joy of success swiftly vanishes. Our brain is like Velcro for the negative and Teflon for the positive. This is problematic mental pattern for athletes and teams because it can cause diminishing confidence, fragile bonds between teammates, poor performance, throwing in the towel, and more failure.

Watching the Eagles this season has been an emotionally trying experience. They started out the year with expectations of mediocrity. A week two loss to the Chiefs and then very close wins in weeks three and four to the Giants and Chargers caused concern. The remainder of the season consisted of blowing out weak teams, closely overcoming good teams, and losses to the Seahawks and Cowboys (this one probably doesn't count because starters played very little.) In the midst of this great season were injuries that should have devastated. Two all-stars (running back/offensive lineman), a rising linebacker, and the new face of this franchise all went down with season-ending injuries. Needless to say, despite the injuries, this season has been a welcomed surprise for the fans. However, even with the number one seed and subsequent first round/home field advantage, many analysts, Vegas included, have counted this team out. So, why have they been wrong so far? How has this team managed to continue winning in situations where other teams would succumb to losing key players? How did this team hold onto the number one seed. How did they beat a team that was one half from being Super bowl champions one short year ago? Obviously this team is talented, but it seems that there is something else going on here. Head coach Doug Pederson seems to have instilled a firm belief of family, brotherhood, and faith in one another. No matter what happens, from Wentz's torn ACL to Ajayi's fumble in the first offensive drive of last week's game, this team remains cohesive, maintains a sharp focus, and finds ways to prevail. 

​It is possible that the culture of family and firm belief in each other has been exacerbated by the Eagles' perception of success and failure. When injuries surfaced, they didn't dwell on it and become disheartened. It was a matter of "next man up" and the belief that this next man was going take care of business. Below are some examples:
1. The loss to the Chief's was followed by a thrilling three point win against the Giants due to a 61 yard field goal by replacement kicker, Jake Elliot. Two points here. First, teams that lack cohesion often falter under pressure because they are not connected. The Eagles remained cohesive in a pressure filled game following a tough loss. Second, simply put, next man up: Jake Elliot. Caleb Sturgis went down the previous week. Jake Elliot was cut from the Bengals on September 2nd, picked up by the Eagles on the 12th, and kicked the longest ever field goal in Philadelphia 61 on the 24th to win the game. He was the next man up.
​2. The Eagles experienced a tough loss to the Seahawks in week 12 in which they were never really in it. Rumblings of this team being a fraud began to surface. Comments suggested the wins were against weak teams and the losses to the Chiefs and Seahawks were proof that the Eagles could not compete with the elite teams. However the following week on the road against the Rams proved this team was elite and could overcome any failure. The Rams high powered offense scored points, but not enough to win. During the competition Carson Wentz left the game with a torn ACL. The franchise QB this team has been looking for. The league MVP at the time. The one player who the Eagles could not afford to lose in their quest for a Super Bowl win. This type of devastating, catastrophic, heartbreaking, soul-ripping injury was certain to be the setback that crippled the team. Next man up: Nick Foles. He preserves the win in LA, throws 4 TD's against the Giants, stumbles against the Raiders but still wins, barely plays in a loss against the Cowboys, and beats the Falcons in the divisional round of the playoffs. This team may not be winning games by a lot, the games may be ugly, but a win is a win is a win. 

​The stats, analytics, talking heads, and Vegas all say this team should not have had the number 1 seed, should have lost to the "much better" Falcons, and will most likely lose tomorrow to the Vikings. Lets face it, the Vikings have the best defense in the league, a good running game, talented receivers, and a good QB, therefore should win. (Side note, even the NFL "knows the Vikings are going to win" because they momentarily posted a Super Bowl ad on their web page with a picture of Tom Brady and Case Keenum. Hopefully it is more fuel for the Eagles angry fire.) All of this points to the Vikings being the first team to ever play at home for the Super Bowl. But heart, confidence, and brotherhood are all things that cannot be accounted for through the analysis of numbers. This team fails, learns from it, and gets better. They succeed, gain unwavering confidence, become more connected with each other, and celebrate in hilarious dog masks. 

​Tomorrow's game is going to be a battle and battles are often won by fights harder and who sticks together. I cannot wait to see who fights harder.

Addiction can change the course of an individual's life in unimaginable ways. Many experts call addiction a progressive disease, meaning it worsens when untreated or it progressively does more damage. One key factor to addiction is tolerance which is medically defined as "the capacity of the body to endure or become less responsive to a substance with repeated use or exposure." Simply put, as an addict progresses with their drug use, they need to consume more of the substance more frequently to feel high.

Many runners experience a runner's high which is defined as "a feeling of euphoria that is experienced by some individuals engaged in strenuous running and that is held to be associated with a release of endorphins by the brain." It is that moment where pain becomes pleasure, confidence is soaring, and the runner feels like a powerful machine in the midst of suffering. It seems to me the runner's high has a type of tolerance opposite to that of drugs or "reverse tolerance." Previously mentioned, addicts need more of the drug to get high. Let's say it takes someone one pill to feel high as a recreational drug user. As the addiction progresses this individual now needs four times as many pills to experience the same feeling. As a runner, I've noticed that I need less of the running in order feel that powerful euphoria. For example, let's say I've returned to consistent running after an absence of a few months or I'm a "new runner." For the first two weeks, I might feel that runner's high late in the run, maybe around mile seven. It takes a lot of running for me to feel good, however, over time, I experience that same feeling at mile six, then five, then four, and so on. I'm experiencing a reverse tolerance in which I need less of the drug (running) on order to experience the high. This might be one of the reasons why people who do not run sometimes think runners are crazy. They've never run for long enough to feel great in the moment or feel the runner's high. They've only experienced the pain of miles one through six before giving up. 

Go out and run, it makes you feel alive.