Achieve Better Focus Through Applied Sports Psychology

We all know that the mental part of our game is important; coaches and athletes usually tell me about 75 percent of their game is mental. Yet, when they run into problems like the ones I just mentioned, they’re often incapable of solving them. Mental skills training, or “mind practice,” is a woefully underutilized component of athletic performance.

Several years ago I worked with a tennis player, Jenna, who was having some issues with her performance in matches. She was frustrated because even if she did well during practice, she couldn’t replicate the same level of skill during games. The only solution she knew was to keep pushing herself harder and harder in practice, consequently stressing herself out even more when her competition performance still lagged behind.

Sometimes I wonder how we ever get anything accomplished with the number of enticing distractions that face us every day--checking email, phone messages, the newest episode of the must see TV show, etc. Everyone has their own favorite distractions when they’re in the mood to procrastinate, and it works the same in athletic competition. There are certain common situations that take an athlete’s attention away from important and relevant performance cues.

Our thought process usually takes the form of questions and answers. Even if the questions aren’t obvious, we still use them to guide our thinking. One answer leads to another question, and that to another answer, and your thoughts follow this path in a specific direction. This is why The WIN Method is based on asking questions-- it’s the simplest and most natural format for your mind.

OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE

When you look at that phrase, which do you see-- opportunity is nowhere? Or opportunity is now here?

I didn’t come up with that catchphrase to test your personality. Rather, it illustrates an important tenet of mental skills training: that our perception of events can affect our response to those events. We may choose to see “opportunity is now here” from a jumble of letters. Likewise, we have the ability to choose how we perceive events. It’s so incredibly important to remember that. Although we may not be able to control many events in our lives, we can control how we think about those events. Those events, contrary to what many think, don’t have to define us.

Recently, I had an athlete call me to help him get ready for a “big match.” He kept referring to it that way. Not a match, the match. The big match. I was curious why he kept giving it so much importance, and I pressed him for more details. He explained that they would be playing the toughest team in the league-- but, if they played well, his team actually had a decent chance at victory. His team had been talking about this match for weeks now, hyping it up, excited at the possibility that they could win this year. The match’s level of performance grew in their minds each day.

As an athlete, you are inundated with information every day. Tips, techniques, criticisms, and suggestions— in the heat of competition or during a strenuous practice, how can you process all this information? And furthermore, how can you separate helpful feedback from distracting messages?

How do you handle mistakes? Do you get angry and beat yourself up for being “stupid”? Do you blame someone else? Do you hope it won’t happen again? Or do you just chalk it up to another bad day and give up? The key to a successful performance is to expect that mistakes will happen and learn how to manage them when they do.

First and foremost, your goal needs to be created for the most important person: you. It’s so easy to spend time and energy striving for achievements that others want us to meet. Making and meeting goals is difficult in the first place; it will be much harder to achieve a goal that’s not rewarding or meaningful to you. 

As a parent, you have the potential to tremendously influence your child’s level of confidence and success. On and off the field, what you do and don’t do will carry some weight. I don’t say this to scare you-- it’s also an opportunity to grow closer to your child. You can use The WIN Method as a strategy to help guide your decision-making and make sports fun for your child.