Mental Skills Paradox: Part 2

In Part 1 of the Mental Skills Paradox, we talked about how even though we, as coaches, may be aware of how important mental fitness is for sports, we may spend little to no time developing these skills.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be complicated! Let’s look at how you can incorporate mental skills training into your athletes’ routines.

Here are some ways:

1. Create a sports journal with prompts highlighting important mental skills. This gives the athlete time and space to think about how their thoughts, feelings and behavior impact their performance. You might ask how they prepare for competitions or games, or what goes through their mind when they make an error or fall in competition or practice.  What are common distractions? Ask about their definition of failure and have them interview three people to find out their definition of failure. On the flip side ask about success and what it looks like. Asking questions is a good way to start building self-awareness.
2. Have them research their favorite sport figures and see how they approach the mental game. In the age of YouTube and Google, information is just a click away. 
3. Have a book talk with your athlete. Choose a book you feel addresses an aspect of the mental game and is age appropriate for your athlete. I recently had a book talk with an athlete using “Atomic Habits” by James Clear.
4. Create games you can incorporate into practice. For example, you can say,” Let’s play a game; you need to perform this jump five times in succession. If at any point you miss you have to start over.”  This involves performing under pressure, learning to focus on the process and staying in the moment. If on the fourth attempt the athlete is thinking, “On no this is it.  I have to hit this or I lose and have to start over,” then they probably won’t do so well and they learn a lesson about mindset. The mindset for the fifth jump needs to be the same as for the first, focused on the process, not the outcome and staying in the moment.

These are just a few suggestions. Be creative and have fun finding new ways to introduce mental skills to your athletes.  Be sure to help them connect the dots so they realize they are working on important skills that will help them during challenging times or with their mental obstacles.

Mental Skills in Daily Practice

Secondly, you want to intentionally integrate mental skills into daily practice. Skills such as goal setting, visualization, positive self-talk can be woven into lessons or practices.  If you don’t have a lot of knowledge then you will need to educate yourself or reach out to others for help, just like you would if you were learning to teach a new skill.

• Find other coaches who have knowledge or experience with the mental game and brainstorm ideas. 
• Reading books or articles can help deepen your understanding. Refer to other articles on this website.
• Professional organizations often offer workshops or professional development on mental skill development.  If they don’t, request future programs be offered in sport psychology.
• There are online courses that are very informative about sport psychology.

If you don’t have the time, energy or desire to learn the basics of mental skills then find a professional you trust and to work with you or your athletes. Don’t overlook this aspect of your athlete’s development.  Having your athletes meet in a group and work with a professional is great and it is also important for you as the coach to participate.  Your presence shows you value the work. It also gives you a shared experience and vocabulary you can use with your athletes during their training.

 The goal is to develop mentally strong athletes.  Athletes who are focused, committed, self-motivated, persist when the going gets tough, maintain high levels of confidence even after setbacks and deal effectively with adversity and failure. These athletes continue to find joy in their sport.

The mental skills paradox does not have to continue to exist. As coaches we can take steps to introduce mental skills with our athletes.  Your athletes will benefit, you will benefit and the parents will see the impact mental skills can have on their athlete on and off the field.

What’s one thing you can do today to lay the foundation for mentally strong athletes?