Why is sports mental training important?
Mental strength, flexibility, and strategy are learned by facing challenges, succeeding and failing, and learning to use fear as their biggest weapon. It also motivates them to face any difficulties. Everything is learned through life experience, athletics, and the cultivation of the mind and its huge potential. Mental training gives athletes structure to build and upgrade qualities from the ground up as this is the best way to grow as an athlete and face any situation in life. As for performance level increases, division of skill decreases. Professional training will tell you what separates the good from the great is their ability to prepare mentally and carry out well under pressure. If you’re looking for a change, then mental training will make the biggest impact.
What does mental training look like?
As we know everything about mental training, there’s no one-size-fits-all for mental training. It’s up to you to figure out what routines and strategies are right for you, your team and to practice those consistently. However, here are some general examples of what mental training might look like,
Positive self-talk and affirmations:
practiced throughout the day to help build true, internal confidence by rewiring negative thought patterns.
Game-day routines:
Specific routines for pre-competition, in-competition and post-competition will help you prepare, stay anchored, and recover from competition.
Guided visualizations:
Visualization exercises help players move more ably towards a particular prearranged goal in real life.
Daily mental drills:
Including mental check-ins throughout the day and mental preparation for practice. These may include the above as well as focusing exercises, mindfulness, and deep breathing.
Team workshops:
Weekly workshops that may involve visualizations, affirmations, stress training, goal setting, and various forms of team dynamics training.
Some qualities of Mental toughness training for athletes
Mental tough athletes-
Find a way, not an excuse-
Mentally tough athletes don’t make excuses when things don’t go their way. Instead of just neglecting things, face them- take responsibility for the performance, go back where you fail, and try again.
Adapt-
Instead of doing things the way they always have, mentally tough athletes find new challenges; it’ll push them to the outer limits of their potential. Mentally tough athletes understand what they did yesterday got them to where they are today, and they’ll get more tomorrow.
Expend their energy on things that benefit performance-
Mentally tough athletes focus on the things they can control. Mentally athletes focus on what they can do in the present moment to overcome the challenges of performance and give them the best opportunity to succeed.
Take risks-
Mentally tough athletes understand that fear of failure prevents fully committing to and achieving excellence in their sport. Mentally tough athletes refuse to be average and understand they may miss the mark on occasions, but it’s worth taking the change to achieve great things.
Pursue excellence, not perfection-
Mentally tough athletes have a goal, but their focus is on the steps they need to take to get to that goal. Each step along the way moves them closer toward the ultimate goal. Mentally tough athletes understand they will make mistakes along the way, and these mistakes are both necessary and critical turning points in their journey towards excellence.
In other words, talent can be overrated. Thousands of talented athletes fail because they don’t get the proper mental training. And that’s their main reason to lose. Talent without mental toughness training can be average for consistent performance, but average talent with mental toughness makes good athletes accomplish great things.
