Whenever I ask athletes how important mental preparation is, compared to physical and technical preparation, to achieving their competitive goals, everyone says either as or more important. But when I ask them how much time they devote to their mental preparation, they say, “little or not time.” Athletes in all sports spend many hours each week getting into their best physical condition and perfecting their competitive skills. Yet, despite its importance, the mental side of sports is often neglected, despite the fact that mental training doesn’t take much time and, in fact, much of it can be incorporated directly into your regular training regimen.
One of the biggest obstacles for you is simply not knowing how the mind affects sports performance and what techniques you can use to strengthen your “mental muscles.” To help you better understand, I offer the Prime Performance Pyramid. Prime performance is defined as performing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions. The Prime Performance Pyramid is comprised of six essential mental factors that influence athletic performance: motivation, confidence, intensity, focus, emotions, and pain.
Motivation
Motivation is at the bottom of the pyramid because without the desire to train and compete, all of the other factors would be unnecessary. The challenge is to find the determination to keep working hard in the face of frustration, pain, boredom, and the desire to do other things.
Set goals.
There are few things more rewarding and motivating than setting a goal, putting effort toward the goal, and achieving the goal. The sense of accomplishment and validation of the effort motivates you to strive higher. You should set clear goals of what you want to accomplish in your sport and how you will achieve those goals.
Focus on your long-term goals.
To be your best, you have to put a lot of time and effort into your sport. But training often goes well beyond the point that it is enjoyable. During those times, focus on your long-term goals. Remind yourself why you’re working so hard. Imagine exactly what you want to accomplish and tell yourself that the only way you’ll be able to reach your goals is to go through the Grind.
Have a training partner.
It’s difficult to be highly motivated all of the time on your own. There are going to be some days when you don’t feel like getting out there. A training partner is someone who can push you through those motivational lows. The chances are that, on any given day, one of you will be motivated. Even if you’re not very psyched to train on a particular day, you’ll still put in the time and effort because your partner is counting on you.
Daily questions.
Every day, you should ask yourself two questions. When you get up in the morning, ask, “What can I do today to become the best athlete I can be?” and before you go to sleep, ask, “Did I do everything possible today to become the best athlete I can be?”
The heart of motivation.
Motivation is not something that can be given to you. Motivation must ultimately come from within. You must simply want to train and compete. There are two things that should motivate you to compete. You should compete because you have a great passion for it. You should compete because you just love to get out there and do it.
Confidence
Confidence may be the single most important mental factor because you may have all of the ability to be successful, but if you don’t believe you have that ability, you won’t use it to perform your best. Confidence is about believing you can be successful when it gets tough, perform your best when it counts, and achieve your competitive goals.
Preparation breeds confidence.
Preparation is the foundation of confidence. If you believe that you have done everything you can to perform your best, you will have confidence in your ability to achieve your goals. This preparation includes the physical, technical, tactical, and mental parts of your sport.
Adversity ingrains confidence.
Your biggest challenge is to maintain your belief in yourself when you’re faced with adversity. To more deeply ingrain confidence, you should expose yourself to all experiences that take you out of your comfort zone, for example, bad weather and poor training conditions.
Success validates confidence.
When most athletes think of success, they think about having great results and reaching their competitive goals. But every day you train, you’re scoring little victories. With each of these small “wins,” your confidence steadily increases until you have the confidence to achieve a big “win.” After every training session, be sure to acknowledge the small victory—give yourself a pat on the back for your effort and remind yourself of the goal you are working toward—and allow them to accumulate.
All of the previous steps in building confidence would go for naught if you did not then experience competitive success. Success validates the confidence you have developed in your ability. It demonstrates that your belief in your ability is well-founded. Success further strengthens your confidence, making it more resilient in the face of adversity and poor performances. Success also rewards your efforts to build confidence, encouraging you to continue to work hard and continue in your sport.
Positive self-talk.
Perhaps the most powerful mental tool for building confidence is positive self-talk. The first step is to become aware of how positive or negative your self-talk is. Often, athletes say things like, “I stink” or “There’s no way I can do this” without even realizing it. The problem is that your negativity will become ingrained and will come out in competition. Positive self-talk is a skill that develops with practice. Identify the negative things you often say to yourself and figure out something positive you can say in its place. Then, be aware of when you’re negative and immediately replace it with something positive.
Intensity
When you’re in a big competition, it’s natural for your intensity to go up and for you to feel nervous. You have to take active steps to get your intensity back to a level that allows your body to perform its best. There are several simple techniques you can use to help you get your intensity under control.
Deep breathing.
The most basic way to lower their intensity is to take control of their breathing by focusing on slow, deep breaths. Deep breathing ensures that you get enough oxygen so your body can function well; you will relax, feel better, and have a greater sense of control. This increased comfort will increase your confidence, calm you, and improve your focus. Deep breathing should be a big part of your pre-competitive preparations. If you take a few deep breaths, you ensure that your body is relaxed and comfortable, and you’re focused on something that will help your perform your best.
Slow pace of pre-competitive preparation.
A common side effect of overintensity is that you tend to do everything faster. You can rush before the start of the competition as if you want to get the race over with as soon as possible. So, to lower your intensity, give yourself more time before your start and slow your pace as you get ready.
Music.
Music is one of the most common tools athletes use to control their intensity before competitions. We all know that music has a profound physical and emotional impact on us. Music has the ability to make us happy, sad, inspired, and motivated. Music can also excite or relax us. Many world-class racers can be seen listening to music before they compete. Calming music relaxes you and makes you feel good physically and mentally.
Smile.
The last technique is one of the strangest and most effective I’ve ever come across: Smile! As we grow up, we become conditioned to the positive effects of smiling. In other words, we learn that when we smile, it means we’re happy and life is good. Second, brain research has found is that when we smile, it releases brain chemicals called endorphins which have an actual physiologically relaxing effect. When you begin to feel nervous, simply smile and I promise you will feel more relaxed immediately.
Focus
The ability to stay focused is essential for you to perform your best consistently. Keywords in training and competitions can help keep you focused and avoid distractions. Come up with one or two key words that you need to focus on to perform well. For example, key words can remind you of proper technique (e.g., reach, straight body), staying relaxed (calm, breathe), good tactics (e.g., attack, patience), or staying motivated (e.g., be tough, hang in there). Key words are particularly useful when a competition gets difficult because they give you something you can grab onto and say to yourself, enabling you to remain focused when it really counts. Mental imagery—closing your eyes and seeing and feeling yourself performing the way you want—is another powerful focusing tool. You can use mental imagery before training sessions or competitions to block out distractions, focus on key aspects of your performance, and imagine yourself being successful.
Emotions
The emotions that you experience before competitions often determine how you perform. If you’re excited and happy, you will likely do well. If you’re fearful, frustrated, or feeling despair, you will probably not achieve your goals. There are no specific mental training techniques to improve emotions, but you can develop emotional mastery by learning to recognize what emotions you are feeling, what is causing the emotions, and then look for solutions to resolve the cause of the emotions. You should use opportunities in which you’re feeling bad to figure out how to change your emotions so they can feel good and perform better.
Pain
Perhaps the greatest obstacle you will face in achieving your athletic goals is the pain you experience in training and competition, particularly if you compete in endurance sports. Pain is your body’s message telling your mind that it is threatened and wants to stop. Pain has such a powerful influence because, not only does it hold your body back, but it also affects how you think and the emotions you experience. Unless the pain indicates an injury, if your mind listens to your body, you will ease up and you will not perform your best.
Research has shown that when you connect performance pain with negative thoughts (e.g., “I hate hurting this much!”) or negative emotions (e.g., frustration, anger, despair), you actually feel more pain. There are several mental techniques you can use to limit the pain you feel.
First, accept that pain is a normal part of sports training and competition—“no pain, no gain,” as the saying goes. The reality is that if sports weren’t difficult, they wouldn’t be very satisfying and you probably wouldn’t do them. Second, stay emotionally detached from the pain and use it as information to help you perform your best, for example, adjust your technique, pace, or body position. Third, realize that everyone else is probably hurting too, so if you’re the one who handles the pain best, you’re more likely to be successful.
Fourth, when you feel pain, your body braces to protect itself. Unfortunately, this actually causes more pain. You can counteract this tension by actively relaxing muscle groups and using deep breathing. Fifth, by connecting positive self-talk (e.g., “The pain means I’m working hard to reach my goals”) and emotions (e.g., pride, inspiration, excitement) with your pain, you’ll increase your motivation and confidence and trigger pain-killing endorphins so you’ll feel less pain. Finally, perhaps the greatest lesson I have learned as both a sport psychologist and an athlete is this: The physical pain you feel in training and competition in no way compares to the emotional pain you will feel if you don’t achieve your goals because you let the pain beat you.
Sidebar: How Strong is Your Mental Muscle?
One of the most difficult things about dealing with the mental side of sports is that its not tangible. Unlike physical testing which allows you to measure precisely your strength, speed, or endurance, your mental muscles aren’t as easy to assess. The following test will help you determine how strong you are mentally. By having a better understanding of yourself mentally, you can focus on the areas that need the most work. I have identified 12 mental and competitive factors that are important to athletic success. Rate yourself on a 1-to-5 scale based on how you usually feel before and during an important competition. Then follow the instructions at the end to determine how mentally strong you are and what you need to do. Rate yourself:
__________________________________________________________
Motivation – How determined you are to achieve your competitive goals:
Not motivated—1—2—3—4—5—Very motivated
Confidence – How positive or negative your self-talk is in competition:
Very negative—1—2—3—4—5—Very positive
Intensity – Whether your physical intensity helps (relaxed and energized) or hurts (get too nervous) your competitive performances:
Hurts/nervous—1—2—3—4—5—Helps/relaxed
Focus – How well you’re able to stay focused on performing your best and avoid distractions:
Distracted—1—2—3—4—5—Focused
Emotions – How well you’re able to control your emotions in competition:
Lose control—1—2—3—4—5—Maintain control
Pain – How well you’re able to handle pain in competition:
Not well—1—2—3—4—5—Well
Consistency – How well you’re able to maintain a high level of performance in competition and throughout the season:
Very inconsistent—1—2—3—4—5—Very consistent
Routines – How much you use routines in your competitive preparations:
Never—1—2—3—4—5—Always
Adversity – How you respond to difficulties you’re faced with in competition, for example, bad weather or tough conditions:
Poorly—1—2—3—4—5—Well
Pressure – How you perform in important competitions when it really counts:
Poorly—1—2—3—4—5—Well
Ally – Whether you’re your best ally or your worst enemy in competition:
Enemy—1—2—3—4—5—Ally
Prime Performance – How often you achieve and maintain your highest level of performance:
Never—1—2—3—4—5—Often
Scoring: Add up your scores for the 12 factors above. Use the evaluations below to determine how strong your mental muscles are:
45-60: Mentally tough as hell! Your mind helps you perform at your best consistently. Use the techniques in this article to maintain your mental strength.
30-44: Mentally solid, but vulnerable. Your mind generally helps you perform well, but you may break down in important competitions or when things get difficult. Pick a few techniques and work hard to strengthen your weakest mental muscles.
15-29: You never know who’s going to show up. You may have your good moments in competition, but mostly your mind lets you down and keeps you from achieving your goals. You should develop an organized mental training program using the techniques above to systematically improve your overall mental strength.
0-14: Call the sport shrink!: Your mind is your worst enemy in competition. It fails you at the worst possible times and you’re often frustrated because your head is such a mess. Find a good sport psychologist to work with.
