Whenever I ask athletes how important mental preparation is, compared to physical and technical preparation, to achieving their competitive goals, everyone says either as or more important. But when I ask them how much time they devote to their mental preparation, they say, \u201clittle or not time.\u201d Athletes in all sports spend many hours each week getting into their best physical condition and perfecting their competitive skills. Yet, despite its importance, the mental side of sports is often neglected, despite the fact that mental training doesn\u2019t take much time and, in fact, much of it can be incorporated directly into your regular training regimen.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest obstacles for you is simply not knowing how the mind affects sports performance and what techniques you can use to strengthen your \u201cmental muscles.\u201d To help you better understand, I offer the Prime Performance Pyramid. Prime performance is defined as performing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions. The Prime Performance Pyramid is comprised of six essential mental factors that influence athletic performance: motivation, confidence, intensity, focus, emotions, and pain.<\/p>\n
Motivation<\/strong><\/p>\n Motivation is at the bottom of the pyramid because without the desire to train and compete, all of the other factors would be unnecessary. The challenge is to find the determination to keep working hard in the face of frustration, pain, boredom, and the desire to do other things.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Set goals.<\/strong><\/p>\n There are few things more rewarding and motivating than setting a goal, putting effort toward the goal, and achieving the goal. The sense of accomplishment and validation of the effort motivates you to strive higher. You should set clear goals of what you want to accomplish in your sport and how you will achieve those goals.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Focus on your long-term goals. <\/strong><\/p>\n To be your best, you have to put a lot of time and effort into your sport. But training often goes well beyond the point that it is enjoyable. During those times, focus on your long-term goals. Remind yourself why you\u2019re working so hard. Imagine exactly what you want to accomplish and tell yourself that the only way you\u2019ll be able to reach your goals is to go through the Grind.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Have a training partner. <\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s difficult to be highly motivated all of the time on your own. There are going to be some days when you don\u2019t feel like getting out there. A training partner is someone who can push you through those motivational lows. The chances are that, on any given day, one of you will be motivated. Even if you\u2019re not very psyched to train on a particular day, you\u2019ll still put in the time and effort because your partner is counting on you.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daily questions. <\/strong><\/p>\n Every day, you should ask yourself two questions. When you get up in the morning, ask, \u201cWhat can I do today to become the best athlete I can be?\u201d and before you go to sleep, ask, \u201cDid I do everything possible today to become the best athlete I can be?\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The heart of motivation. <\/strong><\/p>\n Motivation is not something that can be given to you. Motivation must ultimately come from within. You must simply want to train and compete. There are two things that should motivate you to compete. You should compete because you have a great passion for it. You should compete because you just love to get out there and do it.<\/p>\n Confidence<\/strong><\/p>\n Confidence may be the single most important mental factor because you may have all of the ability to be successful, but if you don\u2019t believe you have that ability, you won\u2019t use it to perform your best. Confidence is about believing you can be successful when it gets tough, perform your best when it counts, and achieve your competitive goals.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Preparation breeds confidence. <\/strong><\/p>\n Preparation is the foundation of confidence. If you believe that you have done everything you can to perform your best, you will have confidence in your ability to achieve your goals. This preparation includes the physical, technical, tactical, and mental parts of your sport.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Adversity ingrains confidence. <\/strong><\/p>\n Your biggest challenge is to maintain your belief in yourself when you\u2019re faced with adversity. To more deeply ingrain confidence, you should expose yourself to all experiences that take you out of your comfort zone, for example, bad weather and poor training conditions.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Success validates confidence. <\/strong><\/p>\n When most athletes think of success, they think about having great results and reaching their competitive goals. But every day you train, you\u2019re scoring little victories. With each of these small \u201cwins,\u201d your confidence steadily increases until you have the confidence to achieve a big \u201cwin.\u201d After every training session, be sure to acknowledge the small victory\u2014give yourself a pat on the back for your effort and remind yourself of the goal you are working toward\u2014and allow them to accumulate.<\/p>\n All of the previous steps in building confidence would go for naught if you did not then experience competitive success. Success validates the confidence you have developed in your ability. It demonstrates that your belief in your ability is well-founded. Success further strengthens your confidence, making it more resilient in the face of adversity and poor performances. Success also rewards your efforts to build confidence, encouraging you to continue to work hard and continue in your sport.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Positive self-talk. <\/strong><\/p>\n Perhaps the most powerful mental tool for building confidence is positive self-talk. The first step is to become aware of how positive or negative your self-talk is. Often, athletes say things like, \u201cI stink\u201d or \u201cThere\u2019s no way I can do this\u201d without even realizing it. The problem is that your negativity will become ingrained and will come out in competition. Positive self-talk is a skill that develops with practice. Identify the negative things you often say to yourself and figure out something positive you can say in its place. Then, be aware of when you\u2019re negative and immediately replace it with something positive.<\/p>\n Intensity<\/strong><\/p>\n When you\u2019re in a big competition, it\u2019s natural for your intensity to go up and for you to feel nervous. You have to take active steps to get your intensity back to a level that allows your body to perform its best. There are several simple techniques you can use to help you get your intensity under control.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Deep breathing. <\/strong><\/p>\n The most basic way to lower their intensity is to take control of their breathing by focusing on slow, deep breaths. Deep breathing ensures that you get enough oxygen so your body can function well; you will relax, feel better, and have a greater sense of control. This increased comfort will increase your confidence, calm you, and improve your focus. Deep breathing should be a big part of your pre-competitive preparations. If you take a few deep breaths, you ensure that your body is relaxed and comfortable, and you\u2019re focused on something that will help your perform your best.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Slow pace of pre-competitive preparation. <\/strong><\/p>\n A common side effect of overintensity is that you tend to do everything faster. You can rush before the start of the competition as if you want to get the race over with as soon as possible. So, to lower your intensity, give yourself more time before your start and slow your pace as you get ready.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music. <\/strong><\/p>\n Music is one of the most common tools athletes use to control their intensity before competitions. We all know that music has a profound physical and emotional impact on us. Music has the ability to make us happy, sad, inspired, and motivated. Music can also excite or relax us. Many world-class racers can be seen listening to music before they compete. Calming music relaxes you and makes you feel good physically and mentally.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Smile. <\/strong><\/p>\n The last technique is one of the strangest and most effective I\u2019ve ever come across: Smile! As we grow up, we become conditioned to the positive effects of smiling. In other words, we learn that when we smile, it means we\u2019re happy and life is good. Second, brain research has found is that when we smile, it releases brain chemicals called endorphins which have an actual physiologically relaxing effect. When you begin to feel nervous, simply smile and I promise you will feel more relaxed immediately.<\/p>\n Focus<\/strong><\/p>\n The ability to stay focused is essential for you to perform your best consistently. Keywords in training and competitions can help keep you focused and avoid distractions. Come up with one or two key words that you need to focus on to perform well. For example, key words can remind you of proper technique (e.g., reach, straight body), staying relaxed (calm, breathe), good tactics (e.g., attack, patience), or staying motivated (e.g., be tough, hang in there). Key words are particularly useful when a competition gets difficult because they give you something you can grab onto and say to yourself, enabling you to remain focused when it really counts. Mental imagery\u2014closing your eyes and seeing and feeling yourself performing the way you want\u2014is another powerful focusing tool. You can use mental imagery before training sessions or competitions to block out distractions, focus on key aspects of your performance, and imagine yourself being successful.<\/p>\n Emotions<\/strong><\/p>\n The emotions that you experience before competitions often determine how you perform. If you\u2019re excited and happy, you will likely do well. If you\u2019re fearful, frustrated, or feeling despair, you will probably not achieve your goals. There are no specific mental training techniques to improve emotions, but you can develop emotional mastery by learning to recognize what emotions you are feeling, what is causing the emotions, and then look for solutions to resolve the cause of the emotions. You should use opportunities in which you\u2019re feeling bad to figure out how to change your emotions so they can feel good and perform better.<\/p>\n Pain<\/strong><\/p>\n Perhaps the greatest obstacle you will face in achieving your athletic goals is the pain you experience in training and competition, particularly if you compete in endurance sports. Pain is your body\u2019s message telling your mind that it is threatened and wants to stop. Pain has such a powerful influence because, not only does it hold your body back, but it also affects how you think and the emotions you experience. Unless the pain indicates an injury, if your mind listens to your body, you will ease up and you will not perform your best.<\/p>\n Research has shown that when you connect performance pain with negative thoughts (e.g., \u201cI hate hurting this much!\u201d) or negative emotions (e.g., frustration, anger, despair), you actually feel more pain. There are several mental techniques you can use to limit the pain you feel.<\/p>\n First, accept that pain is a normal part of sports training and competition\u2014\u201cno pain, no gain,\u201d as the saying goes. The reality is that if sports weren\u2019t difficult, they wouldn\u2019t be very satisfying and you probably wouldn\u2019t do them. Second, stay emotionally detached from the pain and use it as information to help you perform your best, for example, adjust your technique, pace, or body position. Third, realize that everyone else is probably hurting too, so if you\u2019re the one who handles the pain best, you\u2019re more likely to be successful.<\/p>\n Fourth, when you feel pain, your body braces to protect itself. Unfortunately, this actually causes more pain. You can counteract this tension by actively relaxing muscle groups and using deep breathing. Fifth, by connecting positive self-talk (e.g., \u201cThe pain means I\u2019m working hard to reach my goals\u201d) and emotions (e.g., pride, inspiration, excitement) with your pain, you\u2019ll increase your motivation and confidence and trigger pain-killing endorphins so you\u2019ll feel less pain. Finally, perhaps the greatest lesson I have learned as both a sport psychologist and an athlete is this: The physical pain you feel in training and competition in no way compares to the emotional pain you will feel if you don\u2019t achieve your goals because you let the pain beat you.<\/p>\n Sidebar: How Strong is Your Mental Muscle?<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the most difficult things about dealing with the mental side of sports is that its not tangible. Unlike physical testing which allows you to measure precisely your strength, speed, or endurance, your mental muscles aren\u2019t as easy to assess. The following test will help you determine how strong you are mentally. By having a better understanding of yourself mentally, you can focus on the areas that need the most work. I have identified 12 mental and competitive factors that are important to athletic success. Rate yourself on a 1-to-5 scale based on how you usually feel before and during an important competition. Then follow the instructions at the end to determine how mentally strong you are and what you need to do. Rate yourself:<\/p>\n __________________________________________________________<\/p>\n Motivation \u2013 How determined you are to achieve your competitive goals:<\/p>\n Not motivated—1—2—3—4—5—Very motivated<\/p>\n Confidence \u2013 How positive or negative your self-talk is in competition:<\/p>\n Very negative—1—2—3—4—5—Very positive<\/p>\n Intensity \u2013 Whether your physical intensity helps (relaxed and energized) or hurts (get too nervous) your competitive performances:<\/p>\n Hurts\/nervous—1—2—3—4—5—Helps\/relaxed<\/p>\n Focus \u2013 How well you\u2019re able to stay focused on performing your best and avoid distractions:<\/p>\n Distracted—1—2—3—4—5—Focused<\/p>\n Emotions \u2013 How well you\u2019re able to control your emotions in competition:<\/p>\n Lose control—1—2—3—4—5—Maintain control<\/p>\n Pain \u2013 How well you\u2019re able to handle pain in competition:<\/p>\n Not well—1—2—3—4—5—Well<\/p>\n Consistency \u2013 How well you\u2019re able to maintain a high level of performance in competition and throughout the season:<\/p>\n Very inconsistent—1—2—3—4—5—Very consistent<\/p>\n Routines \u2013 How much you use routines in your competitive preparations:<\/p>\n Never—1—2—3—4—5—Always<\/p>\n Adversity \u2013 How you respond to difficulties you\u2019re faced with in competition, for example, bad weather or tough conditions:<\/p>\n Poorly—1—2—3—4—5—Well<\/p>\n Pressure \u2013 How you perform in important competitions when it really counts:<\/p>\n Poorly—1—2—3—4—5—Well<\/p>\n Ally \u2013 Whether you\u2019re your best ally or your worst enemy in competition:<\/p>\n Enemy—1—2—3—4—5—Ally<\/p>\n Prime Performance \u2013 How often you achieve and maintain your highest level of performance:<\/p>\n Never—1—2—3—4—5—Often<\/p>\n Scoring: Add up your scores for the 12 factors above. Use the evaluations below to determine how strong your mental muscles are:<\/p>\n 45-60: Mentally tough as hell! Your mind helps you perform at your best consistently. Use the techniques in this article to maintain your mental strength.<\/p>\n 30-44: Mentally solid, but vulnerable. Your mind generally helps you perform well, but you may break down in important competitions or when things get difficult. Pick a few techniques and work hard to strengthen your weakest mental muscles.<\/p>\n 15-29: You never know who\u2019s going to show up. You may have your good moments in competition, but mostly your mind lets you down and keeps you from achieving your goals. You should develop an organized mental training program using the techniques above to systematically improve your overall mental strength.<\/p>\n 0-14: Call the sport shrink!: Your mind is your worst enemy in competition. It fails you at the worst possible times and you\u2019re often frustrated because your head is such a mess. Find a good sport psychologist to work with.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whenever I ask athletes how important mental preparation is, compared to physical and technical preparation, to achieving their competitive goals, everyone says either as or more important. But when I ask them how much time they devote to their mental preparation, they say, \u201clittle or not time.\u201d Athletes in all sports spend many hours each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1517],"tags":[1057,149,1054,1055,186,766,60,155,61],"class_list":["post-6585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-athlete","tag-mental","tag-mental-edge","tag-mental-strength","tag-performance","tag-prime-performance","tag-psychology-2","tag-sport-psychology","tag-sports-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}