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One of the most common questions I get from athletes is "but how do I train my mental skills?". It is a great question. There is a lot of information out there around how the mind impacts performance. The more educated athletes become the hungrier they get to improve. But when it comes to putting mental skills training into practice many feel they have no idea where to start.
There is plenty of ways for athletes to educate themselves on mental performance training, but the problem we face is that to grow and develop we must put this new knowledge into practice.
What you need is a training plan. Unless you have a structured mental skills development and training plan we can't expect much growth at all. Think about your work in the gym? You won't get stronger simply knowing the science behind strength and conditioning training. You need a training plan designed to support your on-field performance. And you have to stick to it.
So how do you take that education and put it into practice? Here I have outlined exactly how yow can begin to train your mental skills and give you a self-talk training program.
Mental Skills Training Is Not A Shortcut
Mental Skills training takes patience, consistency and dedication. I wish it were a switch we could flip but like anything in life that is not the case.
Like any new skill it takes time and consistency to develop strong mental skills. You wouldn't expect to master a new technique on the field in one session. You don't expect to put on muscle or lose weight in one gym session.
Be prepared to roll up your sleeves, be prepared to not be very good at it initially. It will probably feel uncomfortable and odd at times. But don't give up, have patience and remember that this is work your competitors probably are not doing.
Make A Plan And Make Time
You should treat your mental skills training the way you treat your technical skills and strength and conditioning training. Come up with a plan and commit to it. The beauty is that you do not need to commit to long session. 10-15 minutes a day or even 3 or 4 times a week is more than enough.
Long term consistency always beats short term intensity. Find a routine you can follow week in and week out. Identify one skill to develop and focus on that. Trying to do a bit of everything all at once is like trying to train for a marathon and a power lifting competition at the same time. Master one new skill then you can look to add to your arsenal.
In-Session vs Out-of-Session Mental Skills Training
Broadly speaking an athlete has two modes of practicing their mental skills, in-session or out-of-session. In-session training would be the practicing our new skills in a sports training session. Out-of-session training is time spent strictly on developing mental skills that is not during sport training.
Many athletes default to In-Session mental skills training. They take the knowledge they have acquired and apply it in a training session. This makes sense, we want to use our new skill in our sport afterall, and whilst it can certainly work, it is not where I would start with an athlete.
Let's say you are trying to add a new skill to your game. Would you first practice the skill in isolation on your own, or would you just start trying it in the middle of practice?
In practice your coaches are watching, you have goals to achieve and expectations to meet. You have team mates relying on you. You might have game plan specific things to focus on. There is a lot going on, and in those moments we defer to our habits and the skills we know we can rely on, not the new skill.
We want to build up a level of comfort with our new skill before we try to apply it in a training session. Some skills, such as visualisation and mindfulness are easier to practice as you might normally do these before performance or training. But skills like self-talk and pre-performance routines which you want to apply in performance can be practiced in isolation. See the self-talk training program below.
Clarify Your Goals
Quantifying mental performance is difficult. A lot of it comes down to feel. But just because it can be difficult to measure does not mean you don't have clear goals.
You want to know what you are trying to achieve. As an athlete you are not in the business of becoming a master visualiser. You are in the business of being a high-performer. Your mental skills training should be supporting your in competition performance. So how does it do that? That is what you want clarity on.
Is this skill improving your confidence? Is it improving your self-awareness? Is it improving your attention control? Is it improving your clarity? Is it improving your self-regulation?
Identify the problem you want to solve and be clear on how your mental skills will help solve that. For example, you might want to improve your pre-game confidence, so you choose to develop a visualisation routine. You visualise yourself executing in performance and the success that follows.
Are you feeling more confident before games after adding this visualisation to your pre-game routine for a while? You can even score your pre-game confidence out of 10 each game and see if it improves over time.
Don't just do mental skills for the sake of it. These are powerful tools to help you perform at your best, but you need to be intentional.
Self-Talk Training Routine
Self-talk is one of the most powerful mental skills an athlete can utilise in performance. We have over 16,000 thoughts each day and over 80% of them are negative. Self-talk is the weapon we use to counter the naturally occurring negativity we experience in performance.
Negative thoughts can distract us from the task at hand. They can undermine our confidence. When we have a negative thoughts we want to have a plan for how to deal with them so we can continue to be at our best.
Here is how you can train your self-talk.
Take 5-10 minutes following each training day to do the following exercise.
1.What were three things you did well in training today?
- How did you do those things and how can you bring them again next training?
2. What is one thing you would like to improve for next training?
- How can you do that?
3. What thoughts did I experience during training today?
- Was this thought helpful or unhelpful?
- If it was unhelpful what would a helpful alternative be?
- Do this one three times.
Your goal here is to develop your self-awareness around the common thoughts you experience during training and to plan out more performance productive responses.
If you are ready to take your performance to the next level check out the Peak Performance Method. And you can always get in touch with me via email at jack@birtwhistleperformance.com
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