get mental: erika carlson
Times have changed. Coaches, parents and athletes better understand the need for mental training more than ever before. The field of sport psychology has worked diligently to overcome many of the myths and stigmas related to doing this type of work. Back in June, I discussed the Top Four Myths of Mental Training. You can read all about those myths by visiting the SportStarsOnline. com link at the end of this column. A quick reminder: ›› Myth #1: Good physical training is enough ›› Myth #2: Good focus means, “really pay attention to the game.” ›› Myth #3: If you can see it (visualize it), it will happen. ›› Myth #4: “I play better mad.” ›› Myth #5: “We lost because we were over confident.” — This is a common statement, especially in team sports like soccer. It generally infers that we had too much confidence. The truth is, when a team feels they were “over confident,” it’s more likely they had false confidence. They thought they were prepared and therefore confident, but they were not. You can’t have too much confidence when you’re talking about real, true confidence. ›› Myth #6: “I already have goals, so I don’t need to set them.” — If you’re like most of the athletes I see, you already have outcome goals. These include wins, times, cuts, making a team and earning a scholarship. However, you probably don’t have performance and process goals. These are the “how-to” goals you need to achieve your outcomes. A detailed goal plan helps get athletes engaged and accountable to developing their best preparation and performance every week. ›› Myth #7: “If I think more carefully about how to execute properly, my performance will get better.” — The correct answer here is, sometimes. This holds up in training (learning mode) but not in game performance. Many decades of sport psychology research tells us that best performances are strongly correlated with less thinking. Having to think through how to properly execute skills slows down response time. Under the pressure of the game, you need to switch to right-brained, autopilot mode to perform your best. This is a skill that great athletes know how to do well. Great athletes train physically, technically, tactically…AND MENTALLY!! ✪ Erika Carlson is a certified mental trainer and owner of Excellence in Sports Performance in Pleasanton. Visit her first column on mental training myths at SportStarsOnline.com/columns/Mental/ Myths-1
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October 2014
SportStars™
33