Smash'em & Bash'em Seminar for Shotgun Shooters January 24 - 27

In the Fall issue of our Shotgun Newsletter we highlighted a video about our seminar with Todd Bender & Lanny Bassham. If you did not receive that newsletter and would like to receive future emails related to shotgun please click here and make sure when you fill in the topics for email you check the box for shotgun sports.

Our seminar with Todd Bender & Lanny Bassham will be held January 24-27, 2008. We are ALMOST FULL so call now to register 800-879-5079 or 972-899-9640. click here for a link to more information on our website:

Half of the training will take place in our offices in Flower Mound, TX and the shooting application will take place at the Dallas Gun Club in Lewisville, TX.

We are limiting the class to ONLY 8 participants. We will begin a waiting list once we have all of the spots filled. We hope to be able to coordinate schedules again with Todd and do another seminar in the future.

Lanny is also working on booking a seminar just like this with Wendell Cherry for Sporting Clays Shooters - if you are interested attending a seminar with Lanny & Wendell please email info@mentalmanagement.com so we can put you on a list to be contacted as soon as we have the dates scheduled!

Mental Toughness Seminar - July 21 - 26, 2008

Mental Toughness date has been decided - July 21 – 26, 2008 in Denton, TX. For those who may not know - Lanny Bassham offers 16 hours of instruction during the 5 day Mental Toughness Course at Eagle U for students ages 14 - College (25). Mental Management customers who use this code when they call will receive a $200 discount on tuition: code # 22774. Register before November 30th and save an additional $200. If you are in this age group or have a child in this age group who competes in anything, stage, sports, music, academics, etc. please check it out!

Below is information straight from the Eagle U website.

Throughout our lives and our children's lives, we face defining moments that have a profound effect on our future. Some look back, and our children may look back, at those moments and wish they could do it over, or prepare differently, so that they, simply put, could have performed to their potential - the level they have reached many times in practice.

We have all witnessed the talented individual that did not reach their potential in sports, music, education, stage, screen, or countless other endeavors. They choked and became afraid to try again for fear of failure.
Eagle "U" offers a program designed to teach students a system to perform at their best on demand under pressure.

Teaching the Mental Toughness 5-day program is a member of the Eagle "U" faculty, Mr. Lanny Bassham. Lanny is a two time world champion, a 1976 Olympic gold medalist and author of With Winning in Mind. Lanny has been training Olympians, corporations, and individuals wanting to improve their performance under pressure for over 30 years. Now the same proven system that makes the difference between excellence and average, is available to your student through Eagle "U".

Will your student move beyond fears and limiting beliefs, accomplish goals and reach their potential? By following a system that separates medal winners from the rest of the pack, your student will learn:

• The three mental processes that control an excellent performance
• How to turn deficiencies into strengths
• The most powerful mental tools used by Olympic winners
• Why 95% of all winning is accomplished by 5% of participants
• The secrets of performing under the pressure of big competitions
• Mastering the stress of life's defining moments

Growing up we all pursued our talents, practiced our sports, music, and hobbies, until we mentally gave up. Physically we had not even reached our peak. We were coached how a particular activity is 80- 90% mental and only 10-20% ability or technique, but we always spent 80-90% of our time practicing technique and trying to improve our ability. What about the mental preparation? The Mental Toughness seminar will provide the tools and a proven system to take your student to the next level, and teach them how to continually raise the bar with their own level of expectations in all their endeavors.

When is it? July 21-26, 2008 in Denton, TX

for more details or to register call: 1-888-7 EAGLEU, or visit our website at www.eagleu.com

This is an amazing program and we recommend it to anyone who is able to attend. The cost for the 5 day program is very reasonable for the information you receive and the mentors who guide you. The Mental Toughness Program offers exceptional Mental Management training (16 hours) as well as all of the other amazing Eagle U speakers and perks!

Remember you save an additional $200 off tuition by registering before November 30, 2007! (seating is limited)

If you register for this seminar through Eagle U please take a moment to send us an email letting us know you will be there. info@mentalmanagement.com

Thank You From Figure Skating Coach in Plano, TX

Hi Heather,

I just wanted to thank you for coming out to Liz's performance last week. The mental management training has really helped her. I'd also like to thank you and your Father for his great book! Not only has it helped with my teaching, but using it has made an incredible impact on my students. As you probably have heard, Marylin won her final round of the 2008 Southwestern Regional Competition for the Juvenile level and will be continuing to Junior Nationals in Salt Lake City the first week of December. Marylin has struggled during her performances over the last few years. She has read the book and we have both been applying the Mental Management principles to her training. The results have been astounding! She went from last place to first place in just one year! I am so excited to continue using the training and know it will help many skaters in the future.

Thanks again!

Sincerely,

Andrea Larsson
Professional Figure Skating Coach
Plano, Texas

Canine Cover Models Needed!

We are working on several new products for different dog sports and we need some photos to use on the covers. If you would like to send in a photo of your dog to be considered for a future product please email the photo to Heather Sumlin at heather@mentalmanagement.com

Please include your name, the dog's name, any accomplishments you want us to know about, how you use Mental Management in competition and/or preparation and your contact information.

We are working on products for the following dog sports:

Obedience

Agility

Freestyle

We are in need of photos for Obedience immediately. We have a new Audio CD for Dog Obedience coming out as soon as we have a cover created. We would like to use a photo of a dog who's handler has an understanding of Mental Management and wants their dog on the cover!

We are looking forward to seeing the photos of our customers who use Mental Management in preparation and competition. Our goal is to always use a photo on our covers of a dog who's handler understands what our company is all about.

Mimi Wilfong - My Road to Mental Control

My first encounter with Mental Management Systems’ products came when I started to shoot Olympic trap. I had been shooting for several years and was pretty familiar with trap, skeet, 5-stand, sporting clays, some wobble trap, helice, and a limited amount of international skeet. One of the gentlemen I was shooting with told me he had the "Bassham tapes" and wanted me to listen to them. He was a nice guy and had been shooting for a long time, so I figured I’d humor him and listen. I was not excited about the thought of his ‘assignment.’ He brought them to the gun club for me to borrow. There were 6CDs in the set (he had failed to mention that part). That seemed like an awful lot, but I figured I had an hour and a half drive home and I could listen to them then. I put the first CD in the player and began to listen. After about 25 minutes, I decided that was enough. As a 17 year old, there were other CDs that I wanted to listen to (and they definitely weren’t audio books or learning programs). I also got pretty bored listening to a guy who was sitting in a room by himself talking into a recorder. I was having trouble paying attention, because there was a lot of other stuff I could look at and not actively listen (oh! Look, a bird!). Plus, I figured, they recorded this before I was born. It was old information. I had all kinds of reasons not to listen to it. So I took it out of my CD player, returned it to its rightful owner, and didn’t think much of it.

Fast forward 2 years. My Olympic trap shooting had improved. I had been working with a coach and my scores were increasing. I was more consistent and really enjoyed the game. I experienced some success, making the National Development team and being able to travel overseas to compete as a junior. I kept hearing Lanny Bassham ’s name though. Every time someone mentioned the ‘tapes’, I was amazed that someone actually sat and listened to SIX hours of one guy talking. I figured they were crazy. The more places I shot and events I went to, the more I heard about Lanny. The people talking about him shot really well and were people whose opinion I respected. And these people weren’t crazy.

Another year goes by. My technical ability was pretty good. I could break every target and I knew it. I had made more teams to travel overseas and won some national titles. I was moving well to the target and had a solidpre-shot routine that I almost always went by. But why wasn’t I consistent? My mental game wasn’t there and I knew it. I was convinced that I had to do something. I had been to a group session with a sports psychologist, butdidn’t feel like I got much out of it. I didn’t want to learn to ‘deal with’ the scores I was currently shooting; I wanted my scores to improve. I didn’t need to hear that I should ‘figure out what works’ for me. I knew I needed to do that, but I wanted guidance and direction on HOW to do that.

Next , my mom calls to tell me she has scheduled my seminar with Lanny Bassham. And to make sure to read the book she was sending before I went. "With Winning In Mind" arrives in the mail. The first thing I noticed was that the book wasn ’t very long, which was good because I was thinking that anyone who could record six hours of audio would probably write a book longer than the Bible (Yes, I was still holding a grudge about that!). I wasn’t sure what I was getting into with Mental Management, but I was to the point where I was willing to try almost anything.

I’m a fairly fast reader, and I had the book read within a day or so. And I was EXCITED! I was ready for my seminar and wanting to try the techniques in the book.

My seminar was two days in December. The day after I finished my last final of the semester at Texas A&M, I drove to Mental Management Systems. I was tired of studying, tired of classes, and ready for a break. I was determined to focus for two more days though, because I was ready to see my shooting improve.

I spent two days learning about the Mental Management System, and left feeling excited and motivated. Lanny was easy to talk to, easy to understand, and great at answering questions. Two full days of sessions from 9-5 covers a lot of information, and I was exhausted. I knew I wouldn’t remember everything, so I made sure to take notes during my session so I could go back and review.

I left my seminar, enjoyed Christmas break, and began to implement what I had learned. I saw some improvement and was pleased. While at my seminar, I got some more Mental Management Systems products, including Winning Sporting Clays: It’s All In Your Mind. I’m one of those people who likes to shoot different disciplines for variety, and I could easily transfer the information in the sporting clays program to how it applies to trap. I found that after going to my seminar, CDs were easier to listen to and understand; I was able to pay attention to the CDs and not get distracted by something else going on. Really, I had matured and was more motivated to improve my shooting than I had been at age 17. The thought of listening to 6CDs wasn ’t as hard to digest once I saw the value in it. I also was introduced to the Performance Analysis. I had been keeping a shooting journal. Comparing my shooting journal to the Performance Analysis is like comparing Dr. Seuss to Shakespeare – related, but not the same. My shooting journal was very vague; the information was varied from entry to entry, and was usually an afterthought, if I even remembered to write in it at all. The Performance Analysis helped transform the way I talk to myself and aided in positive reinforcement. In my PA, I wrote all of the details that I had been keeping in my journal, but in a more positive and beneficial format. PA provides a structure and outline to refer to when I need to go back and compare training sessions and competitions. I complete my Performance Analysis on the same day I’ve shot and don’t have to struggle to remember how I shot two weeks ago. At this point in the evolution of my training, I was running my mental program pretty well most of the time. Some days I didn’t try as hard, and my scores reflected that.

As I mentioned, I am a student at Texas A&M University, and marketing is my major. I was looking for an internship related to my degree in an area that I had some interest in (not just a random internship picked from a hat). I approached the Basshams to see if they had any interest in employing an intern. Much to my surprise, they liked the idea and accepted me with open arms.

As I began to talk to people on the phone explaining Mental Management Systems and the products sold, I started to understand more about it myself. I re-listened to all of the products I had and listened to the others. Not only did this help me describe the products to customers, but it served as great reinforcement for my own mental game. Things I learned in my seminar continue to become clearer and each time I listen, I learn something new.

My training has improved immensely as I continue to develop my Mental Management System, especially in the past few months. It is important to realize that a mental program always has room for improvement. As I’ve trained this summer, I’ve improved my self image, gotten a lot better with imprinting and reinforcement, and have seen my scores become much more consistent. With a solid mental program, confidence level rises. Each time I go to the range, I continue to work on my program, and I spend time away from the range to improve my mental game. I’ve worked hard, and it has paid off. The more I run my system, the better it becomes. My focus has been on making myself run the system and to stay in the present rather than focus on the outcome.
I run my program, focus hard on every shot, and the resulting firework explosion of the target breaking is pure bliss – the process seems so simple.

Things I’ve Learned:

Implementing a mental system is not easy. You have to work at it and stick with it.
Inevitably, something will come up in your program that you need to find a solution to. I began working so hard on my mental routine and became so focused on that aspect of my shooting that I became less concerned with making sure my eyes were focused correctly before calling for the target. I couldn’t break targets that way. I learned to make sure my mental and physical training were in balance.

The people who say you should not begin to work on a mental program until you have become a very good shooter (AA or Master class)aren’t thinking clearly. If you wait that long, you’ve wasted valuable time that you could have been developing, implementing, and tweaking your mental game so everything falls into place much
sooner.

Justin Leonard Rises to the TOP!

Congrats to PGA Tour Pro Justin Leonard who won the Valero Texas Open on Sunday!

Justin and his wife Amanda attended the first 2 days of training with Lanny Bassham last Spring. He is one of our Limited Elite clients.

Way to go Justin!!