No matter what sport you play, the mental side of the game will be a huge part of your success.
If you have strong mental skills, these will elevate your performance. However, if you struggle with mental game challenges, these will hold you back.
That’s why it’s important for you as an athlete to develop strong mental skills. But how is that done?
To improve your mental game, just as with your physical game, you need to work at it.
That’s where sport psychology training comes into play.
What is Sport Psychology Training?
Sport psychology involves how psychological factors impact sports and athletic performance.
Sport psychology training is the actionable application of sport psychology principles to actively strengthen an athlete’s mindset.
You can make use of sport psychology training on your own, but for it to have the greatest impact, it’s best to work with a professional.
“Sport psychology training is the actionable application of sport psychology principles to actively strengthen an athlete’s mindset.”
Sport Psychology Professionals
Professionals who work in the field of sport psychology can go by a few different titles, including:
- Sport Psychology Coach
- Sport Psychology Consultant
- Sport Psychologist
- Mental Game Coach
- Mental Performance Coach
- Mental Coach
- Mental Toughness Coach
Now, it may seem confusing for you as an athlete, looking at all these different names.
Just know that each of these professionals will work with you on identifying your current strengths and challenges when it comes to your mental game and show you how to build high level mental skills that will increase your performance.
The one distinction that needs to be made is with a sport psychologist. While a sport psychologist does work with athletes on their mental game, they must have a doctorate in the field and be licensed to practice psychology.
All the other professionals do not need to have a doctorate (though they typically have a master’s in psychology).
Benefits of Sport Psychology Training
The reason athletes work with a sport psychology professional is to improve their mental game. This is because a stronger mental game means increased performance on the field or court.
Specifically, here are the main benefits you can expect from sport psychology training:
- Increased Confidence
- Improved Focus
- Reduce Sports Anxiety
- Stronger Resilience
- Increased Motivation
- The Ability to Manage Pressure
- More Positive Self-Talk
- Stronger Mental Toughness
- Increased Self-Management
How Sport Psychology Training Works
Sport psychology training works like all training does, through consistency and repetition.
When it comes to training your physical skills, you’ve put in a lot of effort to fine tune your mechanics. That same kind of effort needs to be put into training your mind.
I offer sport psychology training for all sports and athletes of all levels. The structure I use is broken down in a way that leads to the greatest impact for you in terms of your mindset and translating your new mental skills into games.
It begins by identifying your current strengths and challenges and continues as we have weekly coaching sessions to learn how to apply specific tools and strategies. Let’s dive into the structure of the program in a little bit more detail.
Identifying Your Strengths and Challenges
To begin, we first need to identify what your current strengths and challenges are in terms of your mental game.
The reason we identify your strengths is to leverage them to see some performance improvement in a short period of time. And the reason we need to identify your challenges is to get to work on turning them into strengths.
To identify both, I use an assessment. After you complete the assessment, our first coaching session is a deep dive where we’ll get a clear picture of your mindset that will help as we move into the second part of the training.
Putting Together a Plan
With the information gained from the assessment and our first session, I will create a custom mental plan for you.
This will include the main mental game challenges that need to be improved, and the top mental skills we will work to develop.
My philosophy is that to overcome specific mental game challenges, there are positive mental skills and characteristics that must be developed. This makes the coaching we do moving forward very proactive.
Applying the Plan Through Coaching
The actual sport psychology training takes place during a weekly, 50-minute coaching session. This is done virtually, so you have access to sport psychology training no matter where you are in the world.
Now, it’s not just during the coaching sessions where the training takes place. It also occurs during the days between calls. That’s where the weekly action steps come into play.
Each week you will be given action steps to complete. These will involve the skills we are working to develop and are a way for you to begin applying the tools you are learning.
Getting Started with Sport Psychology Training
If you are ready to master your mental game and have your mind be an asset leading you to peak performance, rather than something that keeps holding you back, then it’s time to move forward with sport psychology training.
Please fill out the form below to learn more about the program I offer, or you can go ahead and schedule a free introductory call.
Whether you work with me or not, I encourage you to make use of sport psychology training. Your mental game is crucial to your success as an athlete, and so you want to be sure it’s as strong as it can be.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Thank you for reading and I wish you the best of success in all that you do.
