Why YOU Should Hit the Mental Gym
Do you consider yourself a competitor, a contender or a champion? Do you attend practices regularly to sharpen skills? Do you train physically for your sport by improving your strength, agility, and flexibility? What about your competition, do they train their skills and physical fitness? When there is only a marginal difference between skill and fitness level what is going to set you apart and to keep you on top? The answer: Mental Training.
Unfortunately, mental skills training is one of the most underutilized tools for a few reasons.
1. Coaches often feel that their athletes are not ready for performance psychology until they have mastered all of the specific skills and techniques that they have to offer. The skills gained through mental skills training can be applied to all areas of life, because life is one big performance. For this reason, performers with a broad range of experience can benefit from incorporating mental skills into a regular training regimen.
2. There is a stigma that only athletes that have "issues or problems" need performance psychology to "fix" them. In truth, mental skills training is implemented to enhance performance in and out of the sporting arena, to increase satisfaction in performance, and to assist in training adherence.
3. When an athlete underperforms whether attributed to choking under pressure, losing focus, losing motivation or composure the knee jerk reaction from coaches, parents and athletes alike are that more technical practice is needed to build confidence before success ensues. Performers do not have to wait until there is a performance "concern" to act, in fact, mental skills training can optimize performance when regularly combined with technical and physical training.
Performers across the board attribute specified amounts of their performance as mental. "Tennis is 90% mental," according to both Jimmy Conners and Chris Evert former World Number 1 tennis professionals. Looking at this quote and doing some quick math, both Conners and Evert have left a mere 10% of the game attributed to physical and technical skills. However, the majority of players spend the greater part of their time training these physical and technical skills. Logically it would make sense to spend time in preparing the area of the game that makes up most of the performance and by improving this area overall performance can be enhanced.
The bottom line is that mental skills similarly to technical and physical skills need regular attention and practice to be effective.