Do You Need Help With Your Mental Game?
This is a very important question because sport performance is largely mental. Every component of practice, rehab from injury, and competitive performance is strongly impacted by your mental game.
10 ways to improve your mental game include:
- Pushing past the discomfort of a hard training session.
- Maintaining a positive attitude when you experience a rough patch during your season.
- Ignoring distractions and keeping your focus during grueling competitions.
- Sustaining motivation throughout a long season.
- Bouncing back after a mistake in competition.
- Rehabbing from injury and readying yourself for your return to competition.
- Managing your competitive emotions especially when playing in hostile environments or playing against opponents who try to taunt you.
- Being confident when your performance is not up to par.
- Overcoming comfort zones in sports and breaking out.
- Coping with high expectations from others to perform well.
Keep in mind, this list is just scratching the surface. Everything you do, from the car ride to practice until you sleep and everything in between is affected by your mental game.
With all that going on mentally, you need someone in your corner to help develop your mental game.
Just as a nutritionist advises how to fuel your body, a mental game coach can help you navigate the mental hazards and proactively develop a strong mental game that gives you an advantage over the competition.
You don’t have to go at it alone, nor should you, with learning effective mental game strategies.
Butler University football team has brought in a sport psychologist to coach the team in regards to the mental aspects of the game.
Joey Lindstrom, Butler’s red-shirt freshman quarterback, knows he needs to train his mind, as well as his body, if he is to play at his peak.
LINDSTROM: “I wanted to see how I could get better mentally. Sports are 90 percent mental, the four inches between your ears is the biggest part of your game. I wanted a way to get internally focused with myself so I could become a better athlete.”
Butler red-shirt junior quarterback, Will Marty, echoed the importance of training the mind.
MARTY: “I think it’s more important to be mentally ready than physically ready. I had an old coach who used to say ‘competence breeds confidence’ so as long as I’m making sure that everything I do mentally is correct then it’s going to translate onto the field.”
We have programs for every age and every sport to help you improve your mental game. And you have two options:
- Start with a mental training audio or workbook program.
- Engage in one-on-one personal mental game coaching.
How to Improve Your Mental Game:
Step 1: Download the one-page mental game test to assess your strengths and weaknesses…
Step 2: Visit Peaksports.com mental training library to see if we have a program for your sport or check out The Confident Athlete series.
Step 3: Contact us for the mental coaching programs to explore the options for personal mental coaching.
Imagine how much better you could train… How much better you could perform… And much more fun you would have competing if you had a strong mental game.
Related Sports Psychology Articles
- Mental Game Keys to Take Your Practice to Competition
- Coach: Support Your Athlete’s Mental Game
- Your Mental Game and Performance Slumps
*Subscribe to The Sports Psychology Podcast on iTunes
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Download a free sports psychology report to improve your mental game!
Learn more about our one-on-one mental game coaching.
The Confident Athlete
“The Confident Athlete” consists of 2 audio programs that include 14 days of confidence fueling exercises and a simple to follow workbook that guides you through the 14 days, helps you apply the strategies, and customizes the exercises to your personal needs.
Let me help you put a stop to the confidence leak. You can learn to have greater levels of confidence in competition than you do in practice by identifying the specific ways you undermine your own confidence and how to convert your practice confidence into COMPETITIVE CONFIDENCE.
“The Confident Athlete” is a ground-breaking system to teach you how to think like a champion and have ultimate self-confidence every time you step on the playing field, court, track, or course. The confident athletes was developed for any athlete – junior to professional –that wants to gain confidence. However, coaches and sports parents can learn how to teach others to perform with ultimate confidence. Use my program if you want to bust a slump or just wanting higher or more consistent levels of self-confidence.
Awesome! your ideas and explanation are very well. This blog is very helpful for players of any game.