Mental Strength Skills and Athletic Performance

Apr 212011

Do you use mental strength skills to enhance your athletic performance?

To help better answer this question let me define what I mean by mental strength skills. This way we have a common understanding what ‘mental strength skills’ are and how they affect your personal performance.

Sound’s good, right?

A while back, a group of international sports psychologists worked together to develop an inventory to measure the mental skills that athletes utilize to enhance their athletic performance. In the development of this tool, one crucial step was to figure out exactly what mental skills to measure.

The question asked by these researchers was this; “What mental skills positively influence athletic performance?” By studying the elite level athletes, the scientists were able to uncover the mental skills that these athletes used to achieve success. It is these skills that were integrated into the inventory.

SIDEBAR: This is called “modeling” in NLP. NLP suggest finding someone(s) who has or is doing what you want and is excellent at it. Find out their thoughts, feelings, internal representation and “model” them in your own life…success has to follow! Cool yea?

OK…back to the athletic mental skills assessment…

To understand if and how well you make use of mental strength skills (in your select sport), you need to start by assessing and evaluating how well you use those skills that are applied most often by elite level athletes.

So…are you up to it?

Are you ready to evaluate your mental skills and abilities?

Sure you are!

The following questions are adapted from the mental skills inventory and will begin to help you assess your use of the mental strength skills that have been found to enhance performance in elite athletes.

Elite athletes don’t use all the mental skills all the time, but they are aware of them and use them when the situation calls for them. The first step is knowledge of were you are and then develop a plan for where you want to be.

That plan would to be to constantly make use of some of these skills in your practice and competition to help manage the mental aspect of your personal performance.

The intent of this exercise is to get you to think about how you now use mental strength skills and how effective, or ineffective, they work for you.

Energy Management

Elite athletes use various mental skills and strategies to manage their physical and mental energy. This requires using strategies for relaxation – to clam your body down, and activation – to get your body fired up.

Are you able to increase your energy when feeling lethargic or flat?
Do you effectively psych yourself up to get ready to practice or competition?
Are you able to relax efficiently if you get too nervous?

Visualization

This skill was discussed in detail in a previous post. Visualization involves creating or re-creating a full sensory (see, hear, feel, smell and taste) athletic experience in your mind for the purpose of athletic performance enhancement.

Do you imagine fully specific athletic skills and techniques in practice and or competition before executing the desired skill?
Do you mentally rehearse the “feel” of the performance?
Do you “see” the rehearsal through your own eyes?

Goal Setting

This is an imperative strategy for planning and tracking your athletic performance level. Both short-term and long-term goals, as well as processes and outcome goals are important for maximizing your personal performance. Elite level athletes set both types of goals in their training and competition.

Do you set long-term and short-term career or outcome goals?
Do you set long-term and short-term process or personal performance goals?
Do you evaluate your progress toward your goals on a consistent basis?

Self Talk

Again, as discussed in an earlier post, this skill relates to managing what you mentally (and verbally) say to yourself before, during and after practice and competition to facilitate performance.

Do you talk positively to yourself before, during and after an event or practice?
Are you your own best friend?
Do you consciously manage and alter what you say to yourself in practice and competition?

Emotional Control

Elite athletes are characterized by an ability to manage their emotions effectively, before, during and after an event. This means being able to deal with frustration and negative emotions and get on with the business of performing.

Are you able to manage your emotions under pressure?
Are you able to manage your emotions when there is no pressure?
When something upsets you, does your performance suffer?

Attention Control

This skill focuses on concentration or the ability to maintain focus on relevant cues, and is a crucial mental strength skill to train since distractions are commonplace in most athletic endeavors. I like to compare this skill with a wolf and dog. A wolf once on target will let nothing distract it from its mission. A dog on the other hand…squirrel… squirrel, where’s the squirrel?

Does your attention wander during training like a dog?
Are you able to focus your attention like a wolf on effective performance cues?
Are you committed to W.I.N. – What’s Important Now?

Negative Thinking

Elite athletes use specific mental strength skills to deal with negativity and to mentally get back on track following a mistake or distraction.

Are you able to refocus when distracted?
Do you have thoughts of failure or images of screwing up?
Are you able to “cancel” negative thoughts as they come up?

Well that was just a small sample of questions but let me ask you…how’d you do?

Are you good at managing your images, self talk, attention, but lack a bit on the emotions, energy? That’s OK, you now know where you stand and you can move forward and develop a plan to enhance some of the skills and maintain others.

You can understand and see how improving these mental strength skills will be an asset to your athletic performance…can’t you?

Read through the questions again and again to identify the mental skills that would be helpful for you to address. Seek resources to help in areas you identified as needing improvement…like a mental strength coach.

Also, check out “Mental Strength for Athletic Performance.” The program covers many of the skills in this post; how to develop a mental skills plan and nine audios track the help implement them.

OK, now it’s your turn. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Energy Management and Athletic Performance (warriormindcoach.com)
Mental Strength Tip #37 – The Art of Conversation and Personal Success (warriormindcoach.com)
Mental Rehearsal And Athletic Performance (warriormindcoach.com)
Practicing Mental Strength For Peak Personal Performance (warriormindcoach.com)
Eliminating Anxiety for Peak Performance (warriormindcoach.com)

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Keep Your Mouth Shut For Personal Success

Personal Empowerment 2 Responses »

Dec 032010

With the New Year approaching many of you are probably thinking about resolutions, goals and what you want to accomplish in 2011. Often we get excited about our plans and begin to share them with our friends and family.

This always isn’t a good idea.

Here’s what Napoleon Hill said about sharing your dreams with others.

“Keep your major purpose and your plans for attaining it to yourself except in connection with your master mind groups. The reason for this is twofold:

a. Telling many persons, indiscriminately, will allow negative thinking persons to throw stumbling blocks in your path, or to discourage you from attempting to achieve your definite major purpose.

b. Too much talking about your definite major purpose may tend to dissipate the intensity of your desire to achieve your goal.

Either eventually would tend to destroy your enthusiasm and possibly even deter you from further efforts to achieve your definite major purpose.

So far as we are able to tell, this law of cosmic habitforce is absolutely neutral, just like the subconscious section of the human mind through which it operates. It will accept and carry out a negative pattern as readily as it will a positive one. If you allow the fear of criticism, doubt and other people’s negative suggestions to take shape in your mind, it will blot out the picture of your major purpose.

The reason for emphasizing this point is that it is a common tendency of people to boast and to express their greatest enthusiasm in the future tense, by telling what they are going to do. When you speak of your ambitions, if at all, use the past tense, after they have become accomplishments and are not just words.

A word of caution: Do not make the mistake of assuming that because you do not understand these principles completely, they are not sound. Follow the instructions and you will be adopting the method used by some of the greatest leaders ever produced. These instructions call for no effort that you cannot easily put forth. They make no demand on your abilities with which the average person cannot comply.” – Source: PMA Science of Success, pg. 500

As much as we get excited about our future and goals, to achieve our personal success it takes mental strength keep our moths shut and share our vision with a select few.

Let me know your thoughts about this in the comments below.

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Mental Strength Training and Goals For Athletes

Athletic Performance, Mental Strength No Responses »

Nov 162010

Recently, I received an email from an athlete looking for resources to guide him in the “how” of mental strength training. He indicated that he knows a little about various mental strength skills and the importance of them, but has trouble actually performing the techniques.

I’ve heard this type of comment from a numerous coaches and athletes. It also confirms the opinion of many athletes – mental strength/mental training /sport psychology concepts are fairly easy to understand (concentration, self-confidence, goal setting, or motivation) – but they often are perceived to be difficult and tough to put into practice.

Think for a minute about a wide receiver in football who yells at himself to “C’mon…focus…before your blow this game” after dropping a critical pass in the end zone. Can this athlete, who says he “knows” about focusing and the importance of keeping his mind in the game, effectively implement a refocusing strategy in the middle of a playoff game? He knows that he should, but can he…or better yet, does he?

Ask yourself this…”Have I learned and developed my mental strength training enough for my success at [name you sport and position]), or does the above story of the wide receiver have some truth in it for me?”

One of my goals is going to address the action part of the mental strength training and less on the “knowing” part. Oh yea, did you know that the three deadliest words a person a can say, “I know that.” We’ll get into how to apply specific mental strength skills in to action so that you’ll be prepared and ready to reach your peak performance.

Let us begin this session with the skill of goal setting. Yea, yea, yea…I can hear you already…not another session on goal setting. So, let me ask you, if you’re really good at goal setting can you tell me exactly what do you want, how will you know you have it and what’s stopping you from getting it, and all the steps necessary to archive it?

Didn’t think so…and that’s OK. I’m here to help you.

You see, most athletes already set goals…kind of…so the challenge is not in setting goals. Rather, the challenge is in setting the correct goals that will influence behavior—setting effective goals. To do this, we’ll apply scientifically-derived goal setting principles. Research on goals tells us that the following factors consistently enhance the effectiveness of goal setting (1):

Goals should be specific (versus • general or “do your best” types of goals)
Goals should be moderately difficult so as to challenge
Short- and long-term goals should be set
Goals that relate to both outcome (e.g., Win, achieve a specific time) and the process of performance (“explode out of the blocks”) are important, but performance goals are controllable
Set goals in practice and competition
Goals need to be recorded and evaluated

That seems like a lot of things to think about and incorporate and there’s a simple acronym that will help in setting goals: SMARTER

S = Specific (and keep it simple and positive)

M = Measurable (it must be meaningful to you)

A = Achievable (is this something you CAN do?)

R = Realistic (is this goal really reasonable taking into account all areas of your life)

T = Time bound (when are you going achieve this goal)

E = Evaluate (document your results, are you making progress towards your goal?)

R= Revise (if you’re not making progress, or not in the time frame revise your goal or your actions in obtaining it)

The following exercise is one way of how to “do” goal setting effectively. Keep in mind that there is no best way to do this, but there probably is a best or certainly better way for you. Your job is to adapt it to your unique situation.

While you will read quickly through the following section, it is meant for you to come back to when you have time and can really put some thought into your responses.

1. Write down your season goal.

Notice the first word—WRITE. Commit this to paper to make it “real” and also enable you to honestly evaluate this and ensuing goals. Is your goal challenging yet realistic for you to accomplish with hard work and dedication? Is it positive? That is, is it’s something you want instead of something you DON’T want. If you are like most athletes, you did not hesitate in knowing your long term goal. But are your daily, weekly and monthly goals written down too? By writing down the subsequent “short” term goals and achieving them you’ll automatically achieve your long term goal.

2. Identify the primary skills and abilities you have and will need to achieve this goal.

Your long-term goal may be to win State or qualify for Nationals, but what is needed to accomplish this? Many athletes and coaches only focus on what’s missing. This tends to unconsciously emphasize that the athlete is not good enough. There will ALWAYS be room for improvement and to focus only on those areas can create doubt in the athlete.

Make list (yes another list) of all the qualities you possess in relation to your goal. Keep adding to this list and read it everyday. If you don’t think you have any ask a teammate, a coach or a fan. They’ll be able to give you a ton!

Now on to the areas of improvement…some skills and abilities you may need could include developing greater strength, increasing flexibility, improving a specific aspect of technique or enhancing our emotional control during games.

List, specifically, the things you can and need to do to develop these skills and abilities. For example, suppose you need to develop core strength if you are to achieve your goal of running a sub-11 seconds 100 meters. You will need to identify the specific core exercises and proper progressions to develop this strength. It may be helpful to solicit input from your coach as to specific skills and abilities that will lead to long-term development and success.

4. Based on this goal breakdown, identify one thing you are going to work on today to help you reach your long-term goal. Then, do the same tomorrow and the next day.

Is the goal for practice specific enough such that you (or your coach) will know if you accomplish it? While your daily goal may seem far removed from where you want to be at the end of the season, it is a necessary step to get there.

Goals, when set effectively, can provide direction, enhance training motivation, and build confidence as you see success and improvement (that may otherwise go unnoticed). OK, now it’s time for you to get to work on the “doing” of setting goals.

References

1. Weinberg, R. & Gould, D. (2007). Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

OK, let me hear from you athletes and their coaches….how do you use goals to achieve peak performance in the comments below.

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Are You Paying Attention

Guest Post No Responses »

Aug 302010

Are you paying attention?

This is another great guest post from Kasia Rachfall from Fresh Perspective Coaching

Many of us like to accomplish things in our life. For some this may mean traveling to lots of places or writing the next bestselling novel. For some this may mean finishing a marathon or an Ironman. For others it may mean finding joy in a relationship or in one’s work. Whatever accomplishment you want to achieve in your life…make sure you’re paying attention to what’s going on inside and out to know if you’re on the right track or not.

Why would you want to look inside? What does it mean to look inside, anyway? In his book The Holographic Universe, Michael Talbot explores how our beliefs shape our reality. When you believe in something you’re more likely to make it happen – whether it’s healing from a dis-ease or finding a new career.

Beliefs cause us to think a certain way. They cause us to have certain emotions and to behave in certain ways. When our beliefs aren’t congruent with what we want in our lives, they can also cause us to miss opportunities that are standing right in front of us. Sometimes the universe has to literally be sneaky to give us what we want. And even then we may not be aware of what’s going on.

Which is why it’s important to notice what’s going on around outside us too. We may meet people or pick up a random book that gives us exactly what we need to know, and unless we put two and two together, we will completely miss the message.

It’s important to have this awareness and to let go of the limiting beliefs that can create such missed opportunities and stagnation. When we look for ways to think differently and become empowered with tools like NLP that help us easily align our mindset to accomplish all our goals, we achieve those goals in record time.

I have a funny story about this concept that I’d like to share. When I was struggling to build my business I had lots of goals that I wanted to reach. Of course, one of them was a certain level of income. I thought I was doing all the right things and believing and thinking all the right things until I had a huge “aha” one day. I realized that I was afraid of my new career becoming just another j.o.b. that I had left behind because I hadn’t liked the corporate world. I didn’t want to become a robot who traded hours for dollars and was miserable sitting in an office all day long with other miserable employees. No wonder I wasn’t making any money or attracting many clients! By thinking this way I was telling the universe that I didn’t want to work. Now the universe, the wonderful consciousness that it is, was sending me abundance in other ways. For example, in the span of 2 months I won 3 trips that totalled over $20,000 in value! They were spectacular and luxurious trips to neat places and my family and I enjoyed ourselves very much.

So what was my learning? How did I figure this out and finally get my memo from the universe who wanted me to be successful so badly that it had to sneak me money through ballots and contests?

I released the limiting beliefs I had about my new career and life purpose, I aligned my thoughts, attitude, and actions to reflect all the goals I had, and I began to attract the perfect clients and abundance through my work, not through winning contests!

When you look at the areas of your life that are not the way you want them to be, make sure to look inside and outside yourself for the possible misalignments. What do you believe and think about your ability to have that area of your life exactly the way you want? What’s going on in your life that is giving you clues and opportunities to change and create the perfect solution? Then take the necessary action to make it happen. Being, doing, and having the things you want is easy when you’re willing to do whatever it takes to get there.

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Olympian’s, Goal Setting and You

Uncategorized 1 Response »

Jan 082010

I love sports…specially the Olympics! I’m in awe of top performing athletes, no matter what the sport.

With the 2010 Winter Olympics almost here and a New Year still fresh with us; I thought we could take a look to these top performing athletes and see what we can learn…specially with goal setting.

Virtually every Olympic athlete shares the same goal: winning the gold medal. (Although a few seem to be there just for the parties – we’re talkin’ about you, Bode).

Seriously, though, the interesting finding from research by sports psychologists is that successful athletes set goals in a very specific way that is far more precise and detailed than just setting one big goal.

The best news: we can all use the goal-setting strategies of elite athletes to achieve more in our everyday lives.

Here’s the most crucial principle: supplement the big, long-term goal with specific, challenging, near-term goals. Then focus more of your effort and attention on those near-term goals.

An athlete who wakes up each day to focus only the gold medal (or the Super Bowl, or the World Series, etc.) will quickly become overwhelmed. He or she will start to wonder:

How can I get from here to there?

As two experts on sports psychology, May and Veach, put it: “Repeated daily focusing on long-term goals is often counter-productive. The focus is too far into the future and prevents the athlete from completing the intermediate steps essential to ultimate success.”

What happens when you focus on near-term goals?

According to the scientific research, lots of good stuff, including…

Heightened performance and success
Greater likelihood of accomplishing goals and making life changes
A stronger sense of confidence and self-efficacy
More determination and persistence, particularly after setbacks
More enjoyment and intrinsic interest in the topic

What happens when you don’t set near-term goals, or focus too heavily on long-term goals? I call it “the goal gap,” and it’s a perfect recipe for procrastination and rumination – thinking about goals, but not taking action toward goals. It’s also a recipe for general unhappiness.

People who focus too much on their long-term goals view those goals as more difficult, more pressure-filled, and less enjoyable. And at the same time their near-term goals seem less relevant and satisfying.

Who avoids the goal gap, and successfully leverages the power of near-term goals? The scientific research points to many examples, including…

Successful athletes, as we described above
Successful students. Research conducted at Stanford University found that students struggling in math significantly improved their grades, and their psychological well-being, by focusing on near-term goals
Successful business and military leaders. Effective leaders often “segment” or “compartmentalize” complex tasks or missions into smaller, “bite-sized” sub-missions.
Resolution-keepers. Less than 20% of New Year’s resolution-makers become resolution-keepers. One of their key success strategies: focusing on near-term goals.
Happy people. Those who are most satisfied with life are those working toward enjoyable, moderately challenging goals of high short-term importance.

It’s easy to use the power of near-term goals to achieve more success in your everyday life. Just don’t go overboard by making goals “too near-term.” For example, students asked to make general monthly plans and goals perform better than those asked to make highly specific daily plans.

They spend more time studying, study more effectively, procrastinate less, and get better grades. Monthly planners experience more flexibility in crafting strategies for accomplishing their goals. They more easily adjust “on the fly” and are less easily “derailed” by changes in circumstance.

A daily planner who gets a mild case of the flu quickly finds his daily goals unattainable, resulting in disappointment and a loss of momentum. General planners enjoy the process of planning more, gaining a sense of designing their lives, while highly specific planners get the sense of their lives being controlled by their appointment books and PDAs.

The bottom line: Set weekly or monthly goals, and work aggressively toward them while giving yourself some flexibility about how to achieve them. Do this, and you’ll not only get the maximum performance boost, but you’ll also be setting goals like an Olympic champion.

Mental strength coaching and training will help you develop the strong mind-set need to set and stick with your goals. And presuming you have your strategy and tactics in place, with the development of the mind-set you WILL be able to accomplish your desired goals.

If you need assistance in determining your top 5 goals, developing a plan to achieve your goals, or sticking with plan…I’m here to help you.

Let me know how I can assist you OK?

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