Studies show that in elite level sports, mental skills are responsible for 50-90% of variance in performance. There are 5 mental/psychological factors that are used by Pro athletes that affects Pro athletic performance and they are mental techniques, self-compassion, mental toughness, achievement motivation and action and state orientation.
Mental Preparation
Mental techniques: using self-talk, imagery, goal-setting and other techniques to prepare yourself mentally before a physical challenge.
Your mind affects your body before you even start performing. Have you ever heard “get your head in the game”? This is what it relates to. Your mental switch of running your mind through your competition before it happens. How do you set goals for yourself before each performance? What do you think through before a perfromance?
Critisism
Self-compassion: does the athlete handle mistakes without criticizing themselves too harshly?
How you think of yourself affects your body more than you know. Do you break yourself down or build yourself up? Do expect perfection or a high standard? Do you allow yourself grace as you attain your larger goals?
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Adversity
Mental toughness: how well does the athlete persevere in adverse conditions, or when things go wrong?
It’s all about the battle when it comes to mind vs body. You are not always going to be winning. How does this push you to find an extra push? When you are losing can you fight to win? Can you break through until the last second to try and win?
Motivated Drive
Achievement motivation: does the athlete have a strong need for success or a strong drive to excel? Make sure you have a ‘WHY’!
This is what defines you as an athlete. Why you go to practice, train in the off season, and put your mind and body through it all! What is your why? Are you doing it just for fun or are you doing it to compete? Are you competing for something bigger than just yourself on that day? Why?!
Pointed Attention
Action and state orientation: does the athlete quickly re-focus after a mistake, or do they dwell on it?
Don’t let your mind affect your confidence which will affect your decision making. How do you hold yourself when you screw up? Do you keep count of how many times you mess up? Do you let bad plays go and keep confidence into the remaining performance?
You must set yourself up for success when performing in high level competition. You should really think about all of the key points if you want to seriously play at a high level at your fullest potential. Your mind affects your body more than you would like sometimes. Now that you know that you can get one step up on the competition. Go to https://sportsreelz.com/player-platform to get ahead of the competition in promoting yourself through video and you can get started building your highlight reel for free,