Why (benefits)
A sport psychology (SP) professional can help athletes develop performance related psychological skills and/or enhance their personal well-being.
In addition, a SP professional can
In addition, a SP professional can
- assist athletes with off-court Issues (e.g., academic stress, relationships, time management, family conflict, financial concerns).
- help the coaching team with effective coaching methods to lead, motivate, and teach athletes (explaining, giving feedback, persuading, rewarding and reinforcing behaviour, communicating), integrating psychological skills into training.
- offer training sessions to management and admin teams.
Who can benefit (audience)
- Athletes
- Coaches
- Management / administration staff, and
- Athlete families
What are "Mental skills"?
These include goal setting, motivation, imagery, stress, time and energy management, performance routines, self-talk, communication, conflict management, team building, confidence, dealing with errors and with negative criticism, burnout, life balance coaching.
Find below a detailed list of psychological skills[1] which can give you an idea of the tools we use in the profession
1. Visualization skills: using your mental movies to imagine yourself at peak.
2. Positive self-talk skills: keeping yourself motivated and on a positive track.
3. Breathing techniques: staying relaxed and in the present, staying calm under fire.
4. Goal setting: staying focused, energized and on track.
5. Mental game journal: noting your dreams, observations about your performances.
6. Audio tapes: using off-the-shelf music/voice or customize your own for inspiration.
7. Affirmations: talking nice to yourself, inspiring and empowering yourself.
8. Video tape your performance: seeing yourself perform is golden.
9. Relaxation techniques: staying under control under stressful conditions.
10. Pre-performance rituals: having a comforting system for handling details.
11. Posture awareness: controlling your perceived image and your bodily energy.
12. Post-performance review: analyzing how you did and how to do better.
13. Anger management skills: handling frustration with goal-setting and centering.
14. Centering skills: staying grounded, focused, relaxed and tuned in, all at once.
15. Mistake management skills: dealing with inevitable errors by cognitive techniques.
16. Momentum skills: using a performance's ambiance to gain control.
17. Psych-out/heckler management skills: dealing with rude audience members.
18. Coach communication skills: having clear, open dialogue with your coaching team.
19. Contingency plans: having back-up strategies, in addition to a main plan.
20. Percentage thinking: thinking the way experienced performers see their discipline.
21. Pre-performance warm-up: having a system for being ready mentally and physically.
22. Practice performances: practicing gives confidence and makes skills automatic.
23. Time management skills: using your precious time to become more efficient.
24. Distributed practice: breaking up your practices instead of having one big session.
25. Concentration skills: learning how to focus, inward/outward and broad/narrow.
26. Awareness in-the-moment: being aware of yourself in the here and now.
27. Thought-stopping: saying STOP! to unwanted thoughts when they occur.
28. Pacing skills: controlling your energy and bodily movement.
29. Having a game plan: making a main and backup strategy for your performance.
30. Performance-charting: having someone analyze your performance real-time.
31. Interventions: any skill, technique or approach you use to improve performance.
32. Shaping: making progressively closer attempts to your ideal performance target.
33. Process vs. product focus: letting outcome take care of itself by focusing on process.
34. Reinforcement: giving yourself praise, rewards and strokes when you succeed.
35. Meditation: relaxing and focusing your mind so you have control anytime.
36. Modeling: observing ideal behaviors in others and making them your own.
37. Music: using the power of music to soothe, psyche-up and motivate yourself.
38. Self-hypnosis: using trance to program yourself for anything you desire.
39. The third eye: having an objective, observing part of the self to self-coach.
40. Role-playing: practicing as an actor how you want to perform in actuality.
41. Sense of humor: gaining perspective on a pressure situation by finding mirth in it.
42. Creativity tools: using your mind to see new possibilities, new perspectives.
43. Mentoring: having a mature, successful guide who has been where you want to go.
44. Daydreaming: using mind wandering as constructive, creative, synergistic time.
45. Assertiveness skills: seeking your rights without being aggressive or passive.
46. Reframing: seeing a situation in a different way, from another perspective.
47. Action-orientation: overcoming inertia to initiate and sustain a project.
48. Risk-taking skills: taking appropriate chances after careful consideration.
49. Perspective skills: keeping all things in strategic and tactical view at all times.
50. Balancing skills: maintaining center in one's life, under all conditions.
[1] From http://www.sportspsychologycoaching.com/articles/MentalTrainingSystemChecklist.html
Find below a detailed list of psychological skills[1] which can give you an idea of the tools we use in the profession
1. Visualization skills: using your mental movies to imagine yourself at peak.
2. Positive self-talk skills: keeping yourself motivated and on a positive track.
3. Breathing techniques: staying relaxed and in the present, staying calm under fire.
4. Goal setting: staying focused, energized and on track.
5. Mental game journal: noting your dreams, observations about your performances.
6. Audio tapes: using off-the-shelf music/voice or customize your own for inspiration.
7. Affirmations: talking nice to yourself, inspiring and empowering yourself.
8. Video tape your performance: seeing yourself perform is golden.
9. Relaxation techniques: staying under control under stressful conditions.
10. Pre-performance rituals: having a comforting system for handling details.
11. Posture awareness: controlling your perceived image and your bodily energy.
12. Post-performance review: analyzing how you did and how to do better.
13. Anger management skills: handling frustration with goal-setting and centering.
14. Centering skills: staying grounded, focused, relaxed and tuned in, all at once.
15. Mistake management skills: dealing with inevitable errors by cognitive techniques.
16. Momentum skills: using a performance's ambiance to gain control.
17. Psych-out/heckler management skills: dealing with rude audience members.
18. Coach communication skills: having clear, open dialogue with your coaching team.
19. Contingency plans: having back-up strategies, in addition to a main plan.
20. Percentage thinking: thinking the way experienced performers see their discipline.
21. Pre-performance warm-up: having a system for being ready mentally and physically.
22. Practice performances: practicing gives confidence and makes skills automatic.
23. Time management skills: using your precious time to become more efficient.
24. Distributed practice: breaking up your practices instead of having one big session.
25. Concentration skills: learning how to focus, inward/outward and broad/narrow.
26. Awareness in-the-moment: being aware of yourself in the here and now.
27. Thought-stopping: saying STOP! to unwanted thoughts when they occur.
28. Pacing skills: controlling your energy and bodily movement.
29. Having a game plan: making a main and backup strategy for your performance.
30. Performance-charting: having someone analyze your performance real-time.
31. Interventions: any skill, technique or approach you use to improve performance.
32. Shaping: making progressively closer attempts to your ideal performance target.
33. Process vs. product focus: letting outcome take care of itself by focusing on process.
34. Reinforcement: giving yourself praise, rewards and strokes when you succeed.
35. Meditation: relaxing and focusing your mind so you have control anytime.
36. Modeling: observing ideal behaviors in others and making them your own.
37. Music: using the power of music to soothe, psyche-up and motivate yourself.
38. Self-hypnosis: using trance to program yourself for anything you desire.
39. The third eye: having an objective, observing part of the self to self-coach.
40. Role-playing: practicing as an actor how you want to perform in actuality.
41. Sense of humor: gaining perspective on a pressure situation by finding mirth in it.
42. Creativity tools: using your mind to see new possibilities, new perspectives.
43. Mentoring: having a mature, successful guide who has been where you want to go.
44. Daydreaming: using mind wandering as constructive, creative, synergistic time.
45. Assertiveness skills: seeking your rights without being aggressive or passive.
46. Reframing: seeing a situation in a different way, from another perspective.
47. Action-orientation: overcoming inertia to initiate and sustain a project.
48. Risk-taking skills: taking appropriate chances after careful consideration.
49. Perspective skills: keeping all things in strategic and tactical view at all times.
50. Balancing skills: maintaining center in one's life, under all conditions.
[1] From http://www.sportspsychologycoaching.com/articles/MentalTrainingSystemChecklist.html
