Your mind is like a noisy passenger who shows up whenever things get hard. It's not your enemy — it's trying to protect you — but it's a terrible football coach. Today we learn how to notice it, unhook from it, and keep playing our game.
Your mind is always talking. That's not a problem — that's a brain doing its job.
Imagine you're driving a car. You're focused on the road. But in the backseat there's a passenger — loud, opinionated, always convinced something's about to go wrong. "You're going to mess this up." "Everyone's watching." "What if you lose the ball again?"
That passenger is your mind. It shows up in every game, every pressure moment, every big performance. And it shows up for everyone — Richie McCaw had it, Messi has it, every elite athlete you've ever admired has it too.
The session you just did — Meet Your Mind — was built on one foundational idea from ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy): you can't make the passenger disappear, but you don't have to let it drive.
According to the GROW framework, what should you do when unhelpful thoughts show up during a match?
Fighting thoughts makes them louder — that's the irony of mental control. The ACT approach is different: you notice the passenger, you might even name it ("there's the 'I'm going to mess up' thought"), and then you keep your hands on the wheel. You're not trying to silence the mind. You're learning not to hand over control.
Ready for the most important test of the session? Here are the rules.
For the next 10 seconds, you must not think about a pink elephant. A big, round, rosy elephant — with little wings and a polka-dot hat. It might be bouncing on a trampoline. It might be making a trumpet sound. Whatever you do — do not picture it.
Your challenge: for 10 seconds, do not think about a pink elephant.
Don't picture the big pink elephant with little wings and a polka-dot hat. Definitely don't hear the trumpet sound it makes.
Don't think about it...
You thought about it, didn't you.
That's not a flaw. That's your brain working exactly as designed.
What you just experienced is called the ironic process of mental control. Psychologist Daniel Wegner first showed this in the 1980s: the harder you try NOT to think something, the more that thought bounces back. This is why "just don't think about it" is the worst advice in sport.
What does the Pink Elephant challenge prove about trying to control your thoughts?
This is why GROW doesn't teach you to fight thoughts or replace them. The more you wrestle with mental noise, the louder it gets. The skill is learning to notice it without handing it the steering wheel. That's what ACE is built for.
There's a phrase in neuroscience: "Name it to tame it." It works.
When you label a thought or feeling, you activate the part of your brain that observes — and you quiet the part that reacts. In ACT this is called cognitive defusion: creating a little space between you and the thought, so it doesn't automatically drive your behaviour.
The simplest defusion technique? Add "I'm noticing the thought that..." before whatever the mind says.
"I'm going to mess this up."
The thought is driving.
"I'm noticing the thought that I'm going to mess this up."
You're still in the driver's seat.
It feels small. It isn't. That gap between "I am" and "I'm noticing I'm having the thought that..." is where your performance lives.
Which of these is an example of cognitive defusion — creating healthy distance from an unhelpful thought?
"I'm noticing the thought that..." is defusion. You still have the thought — you're not pretending it isn't there. But you've stepped back from it. The thought is now something you observe, not something you are. A and D are fused — both treat the thought as the truth. B is suppression — we just proved that doesn't work.
These are the phrases real Nomads players hear in hard moments. Tap the ones that show up for you.
Mental noise is personal — but it's also surprisingly universal. These phrases come from the actual session. Which of these have visited your head during a tough match or training block?
You've tapped 0 phrases
According to the GROW framework, mental noise is...
Richie McCaw had it before every All Blacks test. Eliud Kipchoge has it during marathons. Simone Biles has talked about it openly. The noise doesn't go away when you become elite. You just get better at what you do with it. That's the entire point of GROW — training the skill, not eliminating the experience.
Ten seconds. Three steps. This is the most important skill in the GROW programme.
ACE is the tool you run when mental noise shows up during a game. It's short enough to use between plays. It's simple enough to remember under pressure. It's deep enough that professional athletes use it too. Work through each step below.
Notice what's here. Name the thought or feeling — out loud or silently. Don't fight it, don't hide from it. Just name it.
The critical word is "noticing." It creates distance between you and the thought. The thought is now something you have — not something you are. You can't unhook from a thought you haven't noticed.
Anchor in your body. Use your senses to return to the present moment — right here, right now. This is how you get out of your head and into the game.
This isn't relaxation — it's a physical anchor. The body brings the brain home to now. You can't control the past touch or the next minute — but you can feel your feet on the ground, and that's enough.
Eyes up. Find the next action that matters. Commit to it — not when you feel ready, but now. Do the Nomads thing: move toward the difficulty, not away from it.
This is values-driven action, not emotion-driven. You don't engage because you feel confident. You engage because it's what matters — regardless of what the passenger is saying.
In ACE, 'Come Back' means coming back to the present moment. What's the most effective way to do this in the middle of a game?
'Come Back' is a physical anchor — feet on the ground, breath, senses. The body is always in the present. Your mind travels to the past (that mistake) and the future (what if I do it again) — but your body is always right here. That's why the physical anchor works: it uses the body to pull the mind back to now, which is the only place you can actually play.
You've got the skill. Now put it under pressure.
Every time you used ACE in the session, you were building a habit. The more you run it in training and in matches, the more automatic it becomes — until it happens in the space between a mistake and the next action, without thinking.
But first, let's test it on paper.
"You're stepping up for a penalty in a cup shootout. The keeper is bouncing on the line. The crowd is loud. Your mind says: 'What if I miss? Everyone will see it. I'm going to bottle this.'"
Which is the best ACE response?
You're stepping up for the penalty. Your mind is loud. Which response uses ACE correctly?
A = you're fighting the thought (pink elephant problem — it'll get louder). B = avoidance (rushing because of the noise, not despite it). D = you've left the present moment. C is ACE: acknowledge what's there, come back to now through the body, engage with your routine. The noise might still be there when you run up. That's OK — you're driving, not the passenger.
Session 2 takes what you learned here and connects it to your values — the kind of player you want to be when it gets hard.