Train Your Mind for Athletic Success Podcast: Episode #44-Prime Sport Challenge
Episode #44-Prime Sport Challenge is the last of four episodes that will explore what is preventing you from committing to mental training and how you can develop a comprehensive mental training program to support your athletic goals.
Ultimately, just like with other aspects of your sport, you have to decide how important the mind is to achieving your goals. If you truly believe that it is essential to your athletic success, you must then do what is necessary to weave mental training into the very fabric of your training and competitive efforts. You want to get to the point where it is simply what you do to be the best athlete you can be, just like physical conditioning and technical training.
In my Train Your Mind for Athletic Success podcast, I have attempted to convince you that mental training is worth the investment of your time and energy. But perhaps you remain a bit skeptical. Let me now present you with my Prime Sport Challenge and start with a question. How much better would I need to guarantee you would improve for you to commit to doing mental training consistently? Often, when I ask this question to groups of athletes, someone will blurt out something like “25%”. Let’s consider that number. This means that, for example, a miler who runs a five-minute mile would need to improve by 75 seconds to achieve that goal. Well, I think mental training can help you improve, but mental training can’t enable you to make those kinds of big leaps in your performances. But what if I could promise you that you would improve by just one percent? One percent doesn’t sound like very much; would it be worth it? Returning to the example of the miler, a one percent improvement translates into being three seconds faster. Three seconds in the mile is an enormous improvement!
Now, consider the time and effort you put into your sport, in the gym and during training, to get your sport’s equivalent of those three seconds better. I’m guessing that you devote several hours or more every day to your conditioning, training, and other activities related to your sport. Why do you put in that much time and effort? Because you know that it is necessary for you to have the kind of success you want. I hope that listening to Train Your Mind for Athletic Success has convinced you that a commitment of time, effort, and energy to mental training is equally important.
