The Process. Part 1 A Teaching Paper for Student Athletes Touch • Management • Influence • Control

The central lesson: You do not have to control everything around you to respond with purpose. You need to recognize the moment, organize yourself, influence the next action, and take ownership of what belongs to you.

Why The Process Matters

Student athletes perform in changing environments. A pitch moves, an opponent adjusts, an official makes a call, a teammate makes an error, a coach gives feedback, and emotions rise or fall. The athlete cannot freeze the environment or guarantee the result. The athlete can learn to meet the moment with awareness and a useful response.

The Process is a four-part self-regulation model. Touch means becoming aware of what is happening. Management means organizing the body, attention, emotion, and plan. Influence means acting on the parts of the situation that can still be affected. Control means taking ownership of the next controllable behavior. Its practical sequence is simple: Notice. Organize. Act. Own.

The model is best understood as a cycle rather than a rigid staircase. Action produces new information. The athlete notices again, reorganizes if necessary, and continues. This repeated loop is how composure becomes a trainable skill instead of a personality trait an athlete either has or does not have.

The Four Questions

Stage

Purpose

Key question

Athlete response

1  Touch

Awareness

What is happening right now?

Name the relevant facts without judgment.

2  Management

Organization

How do I manage myself within it?

Regulate breathing, posture, attention, emotion, and plan.

3  Influence

Action

What can I affect?

Choose and perform the next useful behavior.

4  Control

Ownership

What is mine to control right now?

Own preparation, effort, response, and recommitment—not the final outcome.

Stage One Touch

Awareness  What is happening right now

Touch is contact with the present moment. Before an athlete can respond effectively, the athlete must detect what is actually happening in the environment and within the self. This includes external information—score, count, opponent, pitch pattern, time, space, and task—and internal information—breathing, muscle tension, balance, attention, self-talk, and emotional state.

Awareness is not the same as criticism. “My shoulders are tight” is information. “I always choke” is a judgment that turns one moment into an identity. Touch asks the athlete to describe the moment accurately, briefly, and without exaggeration.

What the athlete can notice

• Body: breathing speed, grip pressure, jaw tension, posture, balance, fatigue, and rhythm.

• Attention: whether the mind is on the current cue, the last mistake, the scoreboard, or a feared outcome.

• Emotion: frustration, fear, excitement, anger, confidence, or uncertainty.

• Environment: opponent behavior, field conditions, tempo, release information, defensive alignment, and coach instruction.

• Task: the count, assignment, plan, target, timing demand, and next decision.

A useful Touch statement is factual and immediate: “My breathing is fast, my hands are tight, and I am thinking about the last pitch.” That statement gives the athlete something to organize.

Stage Two Management

Organization  How do I manage myself within it

Management is the bridge between awareness and action. The athlete does not need to erase every uncomfortable feeling before performing. The goal is to organize the system well enough to meet the next demand. Breathing, posture, gaze, self-talk, imagery, tempo, and routine can help return the athlete to a functional performance state.

A practical organization sequence

1. Breathe. Use a slow exhale to reduce unnecessary tension and create a pause before reacting.

2. Release. Soften the jaw, shoulders, hands, and any area carrying effort that does not help the task.

3. Balance. Reestablish an athletic posture and feel the ground under the feet.

4. Direct attention. Move attention from the outcome or previous play to one present-moment cue.

5. Rehearse the plan. Briefly picture or state the action you intend to perform.

Management should be proportional to the athlete’s state. A mild Yellow moment may require one breath and one cue. A Red moment—overwhelmed, angry, panicked, or unable to attend—may require stepping away, lengthening the reset, and accepting appropriate coach support before returning.

Stage Three Influence

Action  What can I affect

Influence moves the athlete from internal organization to purposeful behavior. It recognizes that control is rarely absolute, yet meaningful action is still possible. A hitter cannot determine the exact pitch, but can influence readiness, timing, swing decisions, visual search, and commitment. A pitcher cannot control an umpire’s call, but can influence breath, tempo, target, conviction, and execution.

The strongest influence statement begins with a verb: see, breathe, attack, communicate, recover, move, compete, or commit. It should identify something the athlete can do now—not something another person must do first.

Influence is specific

• Instead of “I need a hit,” choose “See the ball early and make a disciplined swing decision.”

• Instead of “The umpire needs to call strikes,” choose “Reset, commit to the target, and execute the next pitch.”

• Instead of “My teammate cannot make another error,” choose “Communicate clearly and be ready for the next ball.”

• Instead of “I cannot fail this test,” choose “Read the question, slow down, and use the preparation I have done.”

Stage Four Control

Ownership  What is mine to control right now

Control is not a promise that the desired outcome will occur. In sport, skilled actions remain probabilistic: a well-timed swing can become a lineout; a well-executed pitch can be hit; a good decision can produce an unfavorable result. Ownership means accepting responsibility for the quality of preparation, choice, effort, communication, and response while recognizing that the outcome also depends on factors outside the athlete.

This distinction protects the athlete from two errors. The first is helplessness: “Nothing is under my control.” The second is false control: “If the result was bad, I must have failed.” A mature competitor evaluates the process honestly, learns from the result, and returns attention to the next controllable action.

Usually mine to control

• Preparation and recovery habits

• Effort and competitive intent

• Attention and cue selection

• Breathing and reset behavior

• Communication and body language

• Response to feedback and adversity

Not fully mine to control

• Officials’ calls and coaches’ decisions

• Opponent performance and teammate behavior

• Weather, field conditions, and unexpected events

• The exact bounce, statistical result, or final score

• What other people think or say