As an athlete, you’re no stranger to training. You know that in order to improve at your sport, you must train!
This is true no matter what sport you play and no matter what skills you want to develop.
To improve your skills and your ability, you must train. And you must do so consistently.
But there’s one aspect of an athlete’s game that often gets overlooked when it comes to this repetitive training…the mental side of the game.
Mental skills are not often given as much attention as physical skills when it comes to training. As a result, many athletes are left with high level physical skills, but a mind that holds them back.
No matter how good you are physically, if you do not have the mental skills to match, you will continually underperform.
Which is why, in this article, we’re going to explore the importance of daily mental training for athletes and how you can use it to develop high level mental skills for yourself.
Mental Training Defined
Mental training involves using sports psychology tools and techniques to train mental skills.
Just as there are specific exercises you use to build physical skills, there are mental exercises you can use that strengthen your mindset.
Mental training focuses on developing positive mental skills. Here are the main mental skills mental training focuses on developing:
- Confidence
- Focus
- Resilience
- Self-Awareness
- Emotional Control
- The Ability to Calm Nerves
- Positive Self-Talk
By developing such mental skills, you will see a significant improvement in your level of play.
How Mental Skills Improve Performance
One of the main reasons I’ve found as to why athletes don’t make use of mental training as frequently as they do physical training, is that they don’t see how mental training improves performance.
It’s easy to see how working on my swing as a baseball player, for example, will improve my level of play. The more reps in the cage I do, the better my swing becomes. The better my swing, the greater my chances are of getting hits during games.
However, just because mental training is not as visible of an improvement as physical training doesn’t mean it’s any less important.
In fact, I’ve worked with many hitters who put a tremendous amount of time into working on their swing, but due to a lack of confidence or getting too anxious at the plate, very little of their true skill came through during games.
This shows us physical training is not enough.
As an athlete, you also need to work on developing skills such as confidence and focus because they will enhance your ability to perform.
Confidence is a great example for us to look at that highlights just how important the mental side is to your success.
Confidence is the feeling of trust you have in yourself and your skills. You trust that you can go out there and play well. When such confidence is present, you will find yourself playing freely and aggressively.
When you are not confident, you will find yourself playing safe and holding yourself back. You may also find yourself hesitating and second guessing yourself during games.
Confidence provides you with the freedom to just play! Instead of trying to force a good performance you can let go and simply allow yourself to perform freely.
It is in such a state where you will find yourself unlocking peak performance.
Managing Mental Game Challenges
When you work on building mental skills, you will be equipping your mind with the tools it needs to fight off mental game challenges that work against your ability to play well.
Some of the most common mental game challenges athletes face include…
- Fear of failure
- Sports performance anxiety
- Poor focus
- Self-Doubt
- Perfectionism
- Social approval
- Negative self-talk
When any of these challenges are present, they keep you from playing with confidence and being focused in the present moment.
Anxiety is a prime example. Sports anxiety is the result of outcome-oriented thinking where you’re worried about what may or may not happen in the game. The more you think about the future, the more tense you will become in the moment.
When you learn how to control your thinking better and calm your nerves, sports anxiety will no longer hold you back.
That is the power of building mental skills.
All of the mental game challenges outlined above are overcome and managed through the development of positive mental skills.
Daily Mental Training
To build positive mental skills, we must approach mental training in a similar way to how we approach physical training.
Physical training is seen as something that requires repetition. However, it’s easy to get sucked into the idea that there should be a quick fix to building confidence or calming your nerves.
But you don’t view speed or strength as something that’s a quick fix, so we don’t want to see mental skills that way either.
We need to view developing mental skills as a process. A process much like the one you use to train your body. A process that requires repetition.
This is why daily mental training is key. It provides you, as the athlete, with the adequate amount of repetition to build mental skills.
There are many different tools and techniques you can use to build mental skills, and in this article I go into the different tools you can use to build specific skills.
However, what I have done below is provide you with a sample daily mental training routine you can begin using to strengthen your mindset as an athlete.
Sample Daily Mental Training Routine
Exercises to use:
- Mindfulness Meditation
- Self-Talk Routine
- Visualization
This routine is best performed in the morning, but can also be performed before practice or a competition.
What you’ll do first is rewrite a list of self-talk statements. This should be a list of positive statements, such as “I am confident in myself,” that you make once, and then rewrite each day.
Once you’ve rewritten each statement, go back and read them out loud to yourself. This exercise is working to retrain your automatic thought patterns. Something that works to build confidence and control over your thinking.
Next, perform ten minutes of mindfulness meditation. This will help you build the skill of a calm and present mind, while also increasing self-awareness and control over your thinking.
After you perform the meditation, perform visualization for a few minutes, seeing yourself succeeding in different situations within your sport.
Visualization is a fantastic way to build confidence within yourself and your game.
By using this daily mental training routine, you will begin to see your mental skills strengthened. But remember, it needs to be a consistent effort.
Final Thoughts
Building mental skills needs to be a priority of all athletes. The stronger your mindset, the better you will perform.
To develop high level mental skills, we must view mental training in a similar way to physical training…and that means consistency and repetition.
Mental training needs to become a daily habit for you. I recommend you begin by using the sample mental training routine outlined above, and then work on piecing your own together based on your needs.
If you are interested in a more in-depth approach to mental training, there are two resources I have available.
One is the Confident Competitor Academy. A 6-week course that helps you build confidence and play freely.
The second option is one-on-one mental coaching. If you’re interested in learning more about one-on-one coaching please click here to schedule a free intro call, or you can fill out the form below.
No matter what route you take, making mental training a part of your daily routine will have a positive impact on not just your game, but your life in general.
Thank you for reading and I wish you the best of success in all that you do.
