Post by Purple Pain on Sept 9, 2022 12:54:41 GMT -6
Krawczynski: Adam Thielen enters Year 10 with the Vikings with the dog still barking inside of him
Plenty more at the link above.
The dog has been barking inside of Adam Thielen for as long as he can remember.
As a kid in the backyards of Detroit Lakes, Minn., he had a difficult time keeping control of it when the games did not go his way. The beast would eat him alive from the inside out, making it hard to focus and finish the job. In college at Minnesota State, Mankato, it showed up at inopportune times when he started dating his future wife, who didn’t back down on the ping-pong table or during a heated Pop-A-Shot showdown at the arcade.
Now as he prepares to enter his ninth season on the Vikings’ active roster — his 10th year with the team in total, counting a season on the practice squad — Thielen credits that competitive nature, that snarling animal inside of him (that has prompted him to growl at a Hall of Fame coach on the opposing sideline and occasionally butt heads with his own quarterback when the offense isn’t clicking) for his becoming one of the best receivers ever for a franchise bursting with talent at the position.
Much has been made of Thielen’s fairy-tale rise from Detroit Lakes through Division II Mankato to the NFL, the kid who dressed up like Randy Moss for Halloween as a kid eventually breaking some of the records Moss set for his hometown team. But there is nothing cute about what it has taken for Thielen not just to make it to the league, but to stay here for as long as he has. Humility has played a role, but ferocity has been the bigger key. If that dog pulled him into the league, it has now turned around and locked its jaws on that leash, dug in its heels and is making damn sure he doesn’t go anywhere.
“It’s using that chip on your shoulder to drive you and push you, having that a-hole in you a little bit,” Thielen says. “I refer to it as that dog. On Sundays, you’re a dog. When you’re off the field, you’re not. When you’re on that field, you’re something different. You’ve got to flip that switch and be somewhat different.”
An ankle injury limited him to 13 games last season, and he just turned 32 years old last month. The Vikings are coming off a disappointing season that prompted a housecleaning in the front office and coaching staff, and they open the season on Sunday with the Green Bay Packers, the NFC North standard-bearers and the team that Thielen has hated for practically his whole life. There are younger receivers around him, on the Vikings and across the league, offering daily reminders of the ticking clock. But he can’t hear the clock. The barking is too loud.
“You’re always pushing yourself. They think I’m too old or they think I’m too slow. I’m going to prove that I’m faster than they think I am, that I’m a better route runner than they think I am,” Thielen says, leaning back in a chair and seemingly falling into the pregame routine that gets him ready to go every Sunday. “It’s always something in the back of your mind: You know what, I’m going to prove them wrong.”
In sports psychology, it is known as individualized zones of optimal functioning (IZOF), a long-running theory that each athlete has his or her own mental zone that brings out the best performance. Some play better when their nerves are firing and their anxiety is high. Others are at their best when their mind is calm and their body relaxed.
Thielen has been studying and applying this theory dating back to his days at Minnesota State, when the Mavericks brought in Cindra Kamphoff, a mental performance coach, to meet weekly with the team following a high-profile coaching change. Kamphoff said Thielen was one of the leaders of the weekly sessions, bringing up topics to discuss and giving an honest self-examination of his strengths and weaknesses when it comes to preparation and focus.
Kamphoff, who was given permission by Thielen to discuss their work together for this story and has worked with other players in the NFL, college athletes and Olympians, said it was Thielen who came up with the metaphor for that motivation inside of him as a way to understand the energy and visualize how best to manage it.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations about what do you do pregame, what’s your routine like, your energy level, your intensity,” she said. “In this case we named it. He named it his dog.
“The fire. I can see it in him, in pictures. As a wide receiver in the NFL, you have to have that grit, this unshakeable belief in yourself and this pursuit of excellence every day.
On the IZOF spectrum, Thielen seems to be the athlete who thrives on emotion, running hotter than a 10-yard crossing pattern on third-and-8. Every practice rep is a fight. Every interaction with the opponent is a man-to-man challenge, whether you’re a rookie quarterback or widely viewed as the best coach in league history.
“He’s not quiet. He is the most talkative person I know, and I love it,” Vikings receivers coach Keenan McCardell says with a big smile on his face. “I love the fact that he cares that much to go in and do the dirty work and the blocking, throw his body around. It shows you a complete receiver, a complete professional.”
As a kid in the backyards of Detroit Lakes, Minn., he had a difficult time keeping control of it when the games did not go his way. The beast would eat him alive from the inside out, making it hard to focus and finish the job. In college at Minnesota State, Mankato, it showed up at inopportune times when he started dating his future wife, who didn’t back down on the ping-pong table or during a heated Pop-A-Shot showdown at the arcade.
Now as he prepares to enter his ninth season on the Vikings’ active roster — his 10th year with the team in total, counting a season on the practice squad — Thielen credits that competitive nature, that snarling animal inside of him (that has prompted him to growl at a Hall of Fame coach on the opposing sideline and occasionally butt heads with his own quarterback when the offense isn’t clicking) for his becoming one of the best receivers ever for a franchise bursting with talent at the position.
Much has been made of Thielen’s fairy-tale rise from Detroit Lakes through Division II Mankato to the NFL, the kid who dressed up like Randy Moss for Halloween as a kid eventually breaking some of the records Moss set for his hometown team. But there is nothing cute about what it has taken for Thielen not just to make it to the league, but to stay here for as long as he has. Humility has played a role, but ferocity has been the bigger key. If that dog pulled him into the league, it has now turned around and locked its jaws on that leash, dug in its heels and is making damn sure he doesn’t go anywhere.
“It’s using that chip on your shoulder to drive you and push you, having that a-hole in you a little bit,” Thielen says. “I refer to it as that dog. On Sundays, you’re a dog. When you’re off the field, you’re not. When you’re on that field, you’re something different. You’ve got to flip that switch and be somewhat different.”
An ankle injury limited him to 13 games last season, and he just turned 32 years old last month. The Vikings are coming off a disappointing season that prompted a housecleaning in the front office and coaching staff, and they open the season on Sunday with the Green Bay Packers, the NFC North standard-bearers and the team that Thielen has hated for practically his whole life. There are younger receivers around him, on the Vikings and across the league, offering daily reminders of the ticking clock. But he can’t hear the clock. The barking is too loud.
“You’re always pushing yourself. They think I’m too old or they think I’m too slow. I’m going to prove that I’m faster than they think I am, that I’m a better route runner than they think I am,” Thielen says, leaning back in a chair and seemingly falling into the pregame routine that gets him ready to go every Sunday. “It’s always something in the back of your mind: You know what, I’m going to prove them wrong.”
In sports psychology, it is known as individualized zones of optimal functioning (IZOF), a long-running theory that each athlete has his or her own mental zone that brings out the best performance. Some play better when their nerves are firing and their anxiety is high. Others are at their best when their mind is calm and their body relaxed.
Thielen has been studying and applying this theory dating back to his days at Minnesota State, when the Mavericks brought in Cindra Kamphoff, a mental performance coach, to meet weekly with the team following a high-profile coaching change. Kamphoff said Thielen was one of the leaders of the weekly sessions, bringing up topics to discuss and giving an honest self-examination of his strengths and weaknesses when it comes to preparation and focus.
Kamphoff, who was given permission by Thielen to discuss their work together for this story and has worked with other players in the NFL, college athletes and Olympians, said it was Thielen who came up with the metaphor for that motivation inside of him as a way to understand the energy and visualize how best to manage it.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations about what do you do pregame, what’s your routine like, your energy level, your intensity,” she said. “In this case we named it. He named it his dog.
“The fire. I can see it in him, in pictures. As a wide receiver in the NFL, you have to have that grit, this unshakeable belief in yourself and this pursuit of excellence every day.
On the IZOF spectrum, Thielen seems to be the athlete who thrives on emotion, running hotter than a 10-yard crossing pattern on third-and-8. Every practice rep is a fight. Every interaction with the opponent is a man-to-man challenge, whether you’re a rookie quarterback or widely viewed as the best coach in league history.
“He’s not quiet. He is the most talkative person I know, and I love it,” Vikings receivers coach Keenan McCardell says with a big smile on his face. “I love the fact that he cares that much to go in and do the dirty work and the blocking, throw his body around. It shows you a complete receiver, a complete professional.”
Plenty more at the link above.
