“The mind is the athlete; the body is simply the means it uses to run faster or longer, jump higher, shoot straighter, kick better, swim harder, hit further, or box better.” Bryce Courtney, The Power of One, 1992.
Sport and Exercise Psychology; more specifically Mental Conditioning (Mental Skills Training/MST) is about improving. MST focuses on understanding how the athlete succeeds and assists that athlete in achieving their best performances possible. MST is about learning how good you are and discovering how far you can go. MST is about the joys of teamwork and striving for a team goal that is greater than any individual goal. MST is about enjoying each moment because neither success nor failure is permanent. If the journey is not worthwhile, the destination is not worth reaching. MST is also about the wonders of self-discovery and learning to understand how you, the athlete, respond in certain situations, and how you can make yourself better every day by learning from your experiences, both on and off the field.
(above adapted from The Sport Psych Handbook, ed.: Shane Murphy, 2005.)
There are numerous skills that are essential to succeed in sports, be a champion, or have success in life. Most know the importance of physical skills, and how essential it is to develop these skills with training.
But what about your mental skills?
How often do you spend developing and training your mental skills?
A Baseball legend once said “Ninety percent of this game is mental, the other half is physical.” (Yogi Berra) The underlying message of that quote is of extreme importance; a major aspect of performance in sport and exercise is the person’s mental skills! A common theme among Olympians and elite athletes is their use of mental skills training in all aspects of training and competition. In an era when most individuals have access to state of the art equipment, training, and coaches through the internet or in person, it often comes down to the mental skills the athletes have that influence their success or failure.
How often do we see a player, a coach, or even a parent lose their mental focus and control in the middle of practice or competition? How does this uncontrolled emotion influence the player or team’s performance? Typically, the results are detrimental.
By now, you are probably asking yourself just what are the mental skills that should be trained. The following is a brief overview of what skills generally create a mental training program. It is important to remember that a mental skills training program, just like physical training, is individualized and influenced by one’s strengths and weaknesses as well as the specific demands of one’s sport or exercise goals. For example, a football player’s mental conditioning is significantly different than that of a golf player, as the sport’s demands of each are unique. Additionally, you do not gain the physical skills required to be successful in sport overnight, and the same applies for your mental skills. Mental skills training must be consistent to develop the mental skills required for peak performance.
| Arousal Control |
| Attentional Skills |
| Goal Setting |
| Imagery |
| Self-talk |
