In the great scheme of things, mental performance coaching is a fairly recent occurrence. As with all things ‘new’, questions are often asked about their true impact or success.
For many years in the world of sport, there has been a big focus on both physical conditioning and technical learning and quite rightly so. Without being in tip top shape and having as close to mastery of your sport as possible, an athlete is never going to be able to compete at the highest level.
During this period however, there was a relative ignorance and lack of understanding surrounding the vast importance of mental skills. I am pleased to say that since the turn of the millennium, this faux pas has now been and continues to be rectified.
The vast majority of highly successful sports franchises or individuals surround themselves with the very best supporting casts imaginable, from strength & conditioning coaches to dieticians and from technical to mental performance coaches. Every base is covered.
It may well be the athletes who step up on the podium to receive their trophies or medals but it takes a ‘team’ for them to get there. More often than not, there is now a sports ‘psyche’ as part of it.
When you think about the huge toll of not only reaching but also remaining at the pinnacle of a sport, there is no doubt that the top six or seven inches of the body matter just as much as the rest!
When working with an athlete, there are normally two main areas of importance. The first is mental skills training - working with the athlete to utilise psychological skills. This can require concentration, emotional balance and anxiety techniques, to list a few among the very many.
The second is more therapy work. This would typically involve past, present and future matters - perhaps an issue arising away from the athlete’s actual sport, or an athlete returning from injury.
There are so many factors that can dictate an athlete’s success or failure and one of the key things to remember is that not all those factors may revolve around their actual sport.
Being able to work with both an athlete’s conscious and unconscious minds, understanding their behavioural and neurological patterns as well as their core values and beliefs are paramount to being able to help.
For me personally though, none of the above will matter if a coach and athlete have not already developed a good rapport and trust with each other. In terms of the mind, doubt is the root of all evil.
Rapport is so important as it enables the coach to understand an athlete’s underlying core beliefs about both themselves and the world around them. This is where a mental performance coach can really make in roads and help out.
As an industry, there are many people now performing the role of mental performance coach - traditional sports psychologists, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) gurus, neuro-scientists etc.
During initial client meetings I have sometimes found there can be a stigma attached to who or what you are and precisely what you can do. Whilst I can understand this, my answer is both firm and honest.
If a person can help an athlete to perform better and as close to their optimum as possible, then this must be considered a success.
I refer to my above remark regarding Rapport. Gaining a strong rapport and building a trustworthy working relationship (at the very least) is 75% of the task. Believe me, this is not as simple as it may seem.
The other 25% (no less important) is the ability to share and transfer vital knowledge and learnings, to implement techniques and interventions as necessary. At this stage, as with any other profession in life, you either know your stuff or you don’t.
More than any profession, mental performance coaching requires true people skills. Understand this, and one will be a success, fail to and one will fail with it.
A Game Changer says…
At the end of the day, the mind must work as optimally as the body to achieve top performance.
Mental performance gurus are gaining a lot more popularity than ever before. Athletes, coaches and team directors have started to realise the importance of the role and not before time.
I can count on endless fingers the amount of times I spot an athlete with immense technical skill levels and/or physical fitness who simply is not performing to the best of their ability, certainly not with any regularity anyway.
There can be only one reason for this - mental ineptitude. With the right person beside them an athlete can become a formidable champion in the field of mental strength.