By Martin Wilson of positiveperformancetraining.com
You know that the mind is a huge part of athletic success. Unfortunately, it’s usually the least emphasized part of your athletic training and yet, is the easiest and fastest route to higher performance.
Why aren’t you doing mental training? Typically, we see two reasons
- You don’t believe that mental training is the fastest and easiest route to higher performance (If this is you, let me know in the comments below)
- You don’t know how to train the mind. Maybe you’ve done some training in the past or were overwhelmed with trying to figure this out
In this article, we will explain the benefits that a good mental training program will provide.
At Positive Performance, our mission is to make mental training easy and approachable for you! Through our blog posts and free trainings, you can start making a big impact now (we have tons of content for coaches, athletes and parents).
Benefits
Here are some of the top benefits to Mental Performance Training (MPT):
1. Reducing breakdowns and inconsistency
In any sports career, expect to face adversity, failure, and some serious mental roadblocks. Sports wouldn’t be very interesting without these factors. The great athletes have learned how to be proactive in dealing with these issues. Mental performance training is like weight training. Just as proper weight training will improve your performance and make you less injury prone, mental training will improve your performance, minimize the mental issues and give you the tools to deal with all the mental challenges you will face.
2. Body and mind alignment
You want to be successful but do you know how to align your mind to work in unison with your goals. Do you get frustrated not knowing what to do or maybe felt that you were holding yourself back? We see athletes that only believe themselves “worthy” of a certain level of success. Once they reach that level, they actually begin to self-sabotage. Have you ever done that? Mental training teaches you how to get your mind to work for you, instead of feeling like it’s working against you.
READ Using visualization to crush the next pitch
3. Time efficiency
In as little as 5-10 minutes a day, you can make significant improvements in your performance. For instance, we did a study of our clients and found that they won 15% more games, had less mental issues as a team, and reduced wasted time post-training in comparison to pre-training. In one instance, the coaching staff saved 20 minutes each day because their team was focused and ready to practice.
Sports may be 90% mental, but thankfully, mental training doesn’t add a lot of time to your physical training. The important thing is to integrate it into your athletic routines.
No building is better than its structural foundation, and no man or woman is better than his or her mental foundation.”
-John Wooden, former UCLA Men’s Basketball Coach –winner of 10 NCAA championships
4. Life application
Mental performance training is 100% applicable outside of sports. The sooner you learn these skills, the better you do both on the court/fields/pool/etc… and in life.
Here is a great example that we routinely help solve:
- Problem: An athlete has a lot of anxiety about taking tests at school. They knew the material but couldn’t handle the pressure and routinely failed tests. This same athlete also had a lot of anxiety around competition or other high stress situations.
- Solution: Learn and practice the mental skills and routines of great competitors in 4 hours. Example: How to regular emotions, how to prepare, how to handle mistakes during competition, what to do afterwards, etc..
- Results: By learning the mental skills and routines of great competitors, these same athletes are now able to do well in high stress environments (school, sports, interviews, etc…).
5. EMBRACING and overcoming CHALLENGES
Let’s face it, losing hurts. Failure is not fun. Mental training can’t change this, but it can help you reframe it so that the pain of disappointment is channeled into something productive. When you face adversity, you are more prepared and ready to grow from challenges, rather than be defeated by them.
READ Are you busy or just boring? Banishing busyness in a chronically over-scheduled world
6. Increased confidence
Does your confidence come from playing well, or does playing well come from confidence?
Many athletes build confidence by playing well but often times you can’t play well until you have confidence. It’s a catch-22. We will train you to build confidence, so you can go play your best today. Even when the results you want seem elusive, mental training gives you the tools to keep fighting and allows you to create the circumstances that lead to success.
7. Learning to relax
The ability to control your emotions in the heat of a competition is critical. Yet most of us are rarely taught how to relax and gain control. In athletics, pushing hard, trying a lot, intensity are all rewarded because they are all important. But you also need to know when and how to relax. Sports isn’t always about intense exertion, it’s also about relaxing. Mental training helps you find the balance between the two.
8. AND…. more happiness
What makes you happy is complicated. However, research tells us that your happiness is often times a result of your expectations, performances and outcomes. Think of a time when you were expecting something and didn’t get it (maybe a birthday or holiday). How did that make you feel? What about a time when you weren’t expecting anything and you received a lovely surprise? How did that make you feel? Since sports are so outcome focused, most of us over-focus on the outcome to define success or failure. Think about how many times you have played a great game yet felt unsuccessful and like a failure because you lost.
A lot of us focus on the short term outcomes and get tied up in the emotional roller-coaster of wins and loses. Yes, outcomes are important but mental training focuses you on the long term process. In turn, you will not only be more successful but also happier (we’ve seen this with thousands of athletes).
What did I miss? How would mental training help you or your athletes?
Martin Wilson - A three sport letterman in High School, I spent a tour in the US Army before playing college football. I've always been passionate about helping athletes and love putting mental training in the hands of coaches and athletes. I wish I'd learned the mental skills we teach in High School. I would have been a lot more successful as an athlete as well as professionally. Part of what drives me is seeing the impact we have on individual athletes and teams. We love hearing how we have helped people be more successful and happier. Hit me up atmartin@positiveperformancetraining.com
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