It’s the bottom of the 7th inning and the game is on the line. You step up to the plate with the winning run on third base. How do you handle the pressure of this situation? Many athletes would have increased stress and anxiety, due to the pressure they put on themselves. This is where mental coaching comes into play. An Athlete that has worked with a mental coach will know how to take the stress and anxiety and turn it into their advantage.
They will learn to embrace pressure and treat each at bat, or serve, or race, etc. the same. Mental coaches play a huge role in the success of athletes. Today’s athletes have so much pressure on them. With social media building them up, failure leads to a lot of negative press. Every athlete needs to learn how to handle all of the pressure that comes along with playing high level sports.
Ethan Miller Mental Performance offers a wide variety of mental coaching options. Coach Miller told me in an interview, “People think that the mental game is just another thing to add to their plate. It is the plate. It is what holds everything together.” I think it would be money well spent for colleges and even high schools to have a mental coach on staff. Professional sports teams, as well as many college and high school teams have mental coaches that work with their athletes.
Having the ability to handle stressful situations while remaining calm is a competitive advantage. According to Peak Performance Sports, “Athletes invest a lot of money, time and energy practicing, working hard, lifting weights, conditioning, changing diet, working on technique and buying the best equipment. All these physical training routines help improve performance. Working on all the physical aspects of your game are not enough to achieve peak performance. Peak performance requires a sound mental game.” Mental coaching helps athletes take that next step to greatness.
Winning The Mental War
Many athletes have low confidence, fear of failure, or performance anxiety. Mental coaching gives athletes the ability to overcome these challenges. They help to take negative thoughts and turn them into positives. Techniques such as self talk help athletes to approach competition with a clear mind. Mental coaches also help athletes with stress management skills like controlled breathing, mediation, tapping, and detailed routines. These skills can help athletes to be focused and allow them to be mentally prepared during competition.
Becoming Mentally Tough
Building mental toughness is a defining skill of top level athletes. Mental coaching helps build mental toughness by teaching athletes how to take on adversity and make it your friend. Mental coaches also help athletes learn from their losses and learn from them. When athletes develop mental toughness, they can gain motivation and high levels of performance, even during the hard times. According to Performance Anxiety the five symptoms of performance anxiety are emotional symptoms, cognitive symptoms, physical symptoms, behavioral symptoms, and interpersonal consequences.
“Anxiety that could have been performance boosting, becomes damaging or debilitating.” Mental coaches keep this from happening . Sports Performance Anxiety says that the physical signs of sports anxiety are tremors, racing heart, hyperventilation, muscle tension, and bathroom troubles. Some mental signs are intense fear of failure, disrupted focus, over thinking, and reduced self confidence. All of these things can lead to self-defeating, lashing out, and poor performance. One successful technique is setting process-oriented goals rather than focusing on results. This technique helps athletes stay involved in their journey rather than becoming consumed by the pressure of winning.
The Mental Advantage
Sports today are as much a mental game as they are a physical one. Mental coaches help the athlete to have the ability to stick to their routines, stay relaxed, focused, confident, and calm in pressure situations. How athletes handle these situations can be the difference between winning and losing. Mental coaching uses routines, mediation, goal setting, and relaxation, to help athletes develop these skills.
Using mediation and routines can help athletes to view how they want their games to go. If they can see it, this will help to build confidence and help them perform when they need to. Ethan Miller Mental Performance stresses to his athletes to control what they can control. If you focus on what you can control it makes the rest of the things that can distract you meaningless. He also teaches his athletes to have a focal point to go to when they need to refocus when things get stressful.
W.I.N.
It is very important for athletes to be physically ready for their games, but it is equally important for them to be mentally prepared. Mental coaching gives athletes the competitive advantage over those who do not have it. Mental coaching gives athletes the mental skills needed to achieve great performances, to handle stress and anxiety, and to achieve their goals.
According to Ethan Miller Mental Performance if athletes have the W.I.N. or What’s Important Now philosophy, it will help to keep them focused on the present and not dwell on the past. Athletes need to be where their feet are and not think about things that happened earlier in the game or days ago. You can’t fix the past, he stresses to live in the present. If you are a top high school athlete or a professional, having a mental coach can give you the advantage to take your game to the next level. Being physically ready is not enough, a mental coach can help you achieve great success.
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