Sunday, February 11, 2018

Sports Psychology - Mental Toughness Preparation

A few thoughts by some practitioners

1) Patrick Cohn

  • Stop going down with a negative past, stop catastrophising, stop focusing on all the wrong things
  • Develop a highlight reel (video of your best moments, put to music, visualise)
  • Know why you deserve to be confident (the work you put in, your strengths etc)
  • Only think of positive outcomes
  • Stop focusing on the game until an hour before the game
  • Focus on how to prepare to give your best, how to get ready for the game


2) Top 5 Skills - Mental Toughness for Sports


  • Mental practice - visualisation (the key lies in detailed and specific visualisation)
  • Get present - be aware through the day, all 5 senses, to the moment
  • Use a mantra - 'I can do this', 'I never give up', 'I am the best', 'I will always find a way out', 'I work harder than anyone else' etc
  • Letting go - Verbally forgive yourself
  • Practice ability to focus - Pick something to focus on without other thoughts creeping in
  • In sports you need short focus periods
3) Mental Game Checklist - How Coaches Motivate Athletes to Win

  • Vision - Clear, vivid, compelling vision
  • Meaning - Personal - get personal
  • Outcome - What is the pay off for the effort
  • Conflict - Remove conflicts / distractions from goal
  • Results - Immediacy - short milestones
  • Influence - Who can influence positively
  • Support - Show them support
  • Time - Time management 
  • Illusion - You don't need to know everything, you need to know what is important
  • Influence - Can we influence the outcome

5 Routines
  • Feedback
  • Repetition
  • Approach - out of comfort zone
  • Motive
  • Effort

4) Vince Lombardi 
What do you expect of yourself?
What matters to you?

Your expectations shape your reality.

Principle 
  • Be driven by a pursuit of excellence
  • Commit to a focused plan of action without tolerance
  • Develop and maintain self confidence
 
Routines
  • Practice focused breathing
  • Monitor your self talk - if negative stop, change, sing
  • Practice thought stopping
  • Take charge of your life  
  • Discover Hope out of Hopelessness
  • Practice perseverance
  • Obstacles - lack of commitment, talking instead of doing, waiting for the perfect time

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