Mugford believed in the latter approach. And that's what started a nearly 30-year journey in the world of sports psychology, which included stops with the NFL, MLB and even the U.S. military.
"We can't simulate World Cup finals every day in practice. But you know what, we can simulate pressure," he told the Speak of the Devils podcast. "And we can create performance routines to help you control what you can control. Putting those structures in place and getting reps, that's where the talents of Lindy (Ruff) and other coaches simulating pressure in practice and being very deliberate in the way they design practices and design the schedule, having concrete skills and routines to fall back on.
"The expression in the military they would often use is you don't rise to the occasion; you fall to the level of your training. So, how are we weaving in mental performance into our training?"
That will be part of Mugford's role with the Devils. He'll be working with everyone in the organization - from coaches to trainers to other staff - to create the best program to help the Devils gain the psychological edge. And a big part of that is working with the individual players and helping them mentally.
"When you're competing at your best, what is that like? Describe that," Mugford asks of the players. "One of the things we often ask is how much are you thinking. And quite astonishingly, they'll actually say 'nothing, not much at all.' And then we flip that and think about your worst performances, how much were you thinking and what's going through our mind? And our worst performances are when we're flooded way too much. We're thinking way too much.
"A lot of mental performance is making you think less and not more. It's having clarity, it's being in the present moment and letting your body do what it knows how to do."
Mugford joins the Devils after serving as the VP or High Performance for the Toronto Blue Jays for the previous seven years, where the club was on the cutting edge of bridging the gap between psychology, performance and development. And that overarching vision is shared by the Devils organization.
"That's part of what was really exciting to me about the vision that the Devils have," Mugford said. "Whether it's an NHL team or a Major League team or an NFL team, every team has a lot of experts at the table from scouting to performance to coaching. But I think the truly great teams are the ones that put it all together. The players are in the middle. The rest of us work together to create the best program we can for them to win and get better every day."
Here are some other topics discussed on the podcast:
New Jersey Devils Official Podcast
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Angus Mugford | Speak of the Devils
