mental training
in sport
The Mind - the essential piece in the athletic puzzle
People can train three areas in their lives – body, craft, and the mind. As an athlete, you probably put countless hours into mastery of your body and tactics of your sport. Where athletes lack pracctice is their mindset and mental skills that allow the body perform to its full potential. Here, you can explore what mental training for sport is, why it is an important piece to the athletic puzzle, and what such mental training looks like.
Recognize your potential
Push the limits - train your mind
Why to train the mind?
Imagine a swimmer that prepares for national championship and does exceptionally well in the practices, outperforms his teammates, executes each task perfectly, pushes his body in the gym, prioritizes recovery over fun with his non-athletic peers.
He knows his preparation must be – and is – perfect for the championship about which he cares so much. His coach, friends, and family constantly remind him how talented he is, and that he has a great chance to rank on a medal position. Everything looks perfect.
What isn’t as obvious? Feeling of pressure from his environment to succeed. Urging to get the preparation and sacrifices paid off. Desiring success as a source of ultimate happiness and satisfaction. Defining self-worth based on the outcomes (“If I loose, I am nothing.”). These are few examples of mental processess disrupting the optimal performance.
Mental training prepares an athlete for such intense situations. It toughens athlete’s mindset up and makes him resilient against highly stressful events so that he performs at his best when it matters most.
Mindset in numbers
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“Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.”
Pat Riley
Explore your potential
Self-exploration is a crucial part of the process towards mastery. Learning the technical components of a sport is an essential part of developing within a particular domain.
Looking at one’s mindset from a similar perspective helps uncover mental processes that influence learning and task execution.
A quality self-reflection is a basis for acknowledging and working on strenghts and areas worth improving.
Potential mental training topics
Define and develop a positive attitude
Attitude is a choice. Develop a positive, productive, learning long-term mindset needed for enhancing your performance development. Pursuit excellence, not a perfection.
Define short-term and long-term goals and strategize your plan
Develop a productive approach towards your emotions, prepare for their presence, respond effectively when they occur.
Define your optimal physical and mental state and train for it
Develop a solid, long-term confidence
Change your unproductive thoughts and habits
Improve and maintain concentration
Maintain high self-motivation
Strategize your recovery between / during / after your performance
Manage your nerves effectively
Manage better your professional / personal relationships affecting your performance
THE TWO-WAY PROCESS
It is all about finding the balance.
Based on athlete’s individual goals, the consultant creates a periodized mental training plan (a plan for season / time period) and suggests optimal frequency of consultations.
Consultations
Consultations are the main vehicle towards one’s self-exploration and development. Consultation is a meeting of two experts – the expert on mental performance (the consultant) and the expert on life (you).
Through scientifically proved methods and constructive collaboration, the consultant and the client strategize their work into a fully individualized, most effective way.
Mental training
Mental training is like the strength conditioning for the mind. It focuses on planning and practicing mental skills, which are trainable and can be improved.
Pre-, during-, post-performance routines, stress-management, techniques for optimizing physical/mental activation and emotions, concentration, and motivation are all few skills that can be implemented into mental training program.
Options of our services:
Every human being is also a social being, which means there are external aspects that have a radical effect on athletes’ performance. By constant living / functioning in the same environment, athlete’s mind shapes accordingly, which reflects in his/her performance.
Services might include:
- Practice observation with implementation of mental training
- Competition observations
- phone / video conferences
- Cooperation with the athlete's / team management
FAQ
most frequently asked questions
The client typically meets the consultant once a week for a 50 min to hour-long session. Some clients feel they reached their goals after 3 sessions, some after a year, some work with the consultant for several years on a constant basis to not only reach but also maintain and continuously improve their mental skills.
In the first stage, the consultant asks a lot of questions to assess a client’s situation, which then leads to an execution and ongoing adjustment of their work.
A client is one who leads most of the conversations. The consultant is one who offers expertise on what / how can affect clients situation. A client reflects on it, and both, the consultant and the client search for an effective solution.
There is a strict rule of confidentiality across all psychological professions. The consultant will keep all the content discussed with the client private unless 1) the client himself would like the consultant to share it, and 2) the consultant needs to protect you or the public from serious harm, to report abuse or neglect of children, the elderly or people with disabilities, or to respond to an order from a court.
No. There is nothing in the psychological field that would define someone as a “head case”.
Even though it is better to visit a professional later than never, the most effective mental training happens at a time a client has space for self-exploration, testing mental skills, and practicing them.
That is not true. Working on one’s own potential is a strength. Acknowledging current obstacles, discussing them, and learning new skills is a highly courageous act most likely supporting the fact you care about what you do and are open to new possibilities.
Handling the nerves is not the only thing with which you can come see a professional. Improving concentration, strategizing mental recovery, and working on performance enhancement itself are the most common examples clients like to work with the consultant. In addition to handling the nerves, the problem itself might be an expression of disbalance in other areas of a client’s mindset or life.
That is something to discuss with the consultant before you start working with the consultant. First of all, the consultant will explain to you a typical consultant-client’s relationship with emphasizing how much it actually depends on the situation, possibilities, and goals of each client. Based on these aspects, the consultant will suggest the most effective way for the client how to reach their predefined goals. From there, all is set based on mutual agreement and possible to change based on momentary situations.
Absolutely not. The consultant will give you full freedom in terms of what you would like to share with her. In fact, you will be the leader of the discussions for the most part of the consulting process. The consultant-client relationship is solely a relationship of collaboration and mutual respect of boundaries of both.
That being said, opening up might be a step towards self-exploration and acceptance leading to solving a certain situation. The consultant will remind you on that.
It all starts with a conversation...
Please, leave any question you may have related to our services or your performance. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
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help you build a strong mindset
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Contact
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- b.kijasova@gmail.com
- (720) 378-8844
- Barbora Kijasova
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