Coaching For Mastery:

Coaching For Mastery: 5 Powerful Thoughts for Adding Mental Performance Into your Coaching

1. Fun, Serious, & Hard Things Do Not Have to Be Opposites

A common misconception is that fun and serious in sport are at opposite ends of the continuum. When you can ensure your athletes find the fun in being serious and doing hard things seriousness can be enjoyable.

• They will find the deep focus required to compete.

• They will enjoy pushing hard through practices.

• They will enjoy the challenge of training/competing even when fatigued.

• They will enjoy battling against the best of the best.

Application - Reframe “serious” as moments of opportunity for growth, passion, and development.

2. Three Mindsets (or states) to Consider (Flow / Clutch / Effortful)

Athletes can use three states of mind or mindsets to compete every day. Each has the potential to unlock peak performance and develop confidence.

• Flow State (20% of the Time) - “In the zone” - completely focused and absorbed in the performance, hyper aware, feeling of complete control and you can’t do any wrong.

• Clutch State (10% of the Time) - “Perform in Pressure Moments” - Deliberate and deep focus, intense effort, heightened awareness, perform under pressure, rush of adrenaline. Making the clutch player at the right time!

• Effortful State (70% of the Time) - “Competing to Make it Happen” - Increased mental and physical effort, increased focus/concentration, consistent effort, takes on challenges, feels mentally drained after, requires high cognitive demands. This is the state coaches need to tap into more with their athletes!

Each mindset or state can lead to outstanding performance in the moment(s) you need to perform most.

3. Perception Shapes Reality: How Players Interpret the Game

In any given situation in sport athlete’s perceive the same events differently. One may see a “Challenge”, the other a “Threat”. Why the difference in perception? It’s often a combination of factors:

• Ability and confidence

• Mood and mental state

• Past experience in similar situations

• Anxiety, stress, pressure, and overall mental skills to cope

Recognizing which perception an athlete has can level up their learning and development fast and helps to reshape their mindset towards opportunity, not fear.

4. The Traditional vs. New Model of Competition

The traditional model for competition is to get your athletes into shape, master their technical skills, and learn a system to perform. In today’s game this leaves out the mental side of the game. When asked, athletes most of the time will tell you the game is 70% or 80% mental, and 20% to 30% physical. So why do coaches leave out integrating the mental into the physical when training or practicing?

A new model of competition includes:

• Each athlete has their own mental skills package to help them compete.

• The team has a shared mental model framework for teamwork and leadership.

• Mental skills and frameworks are included into each training session by coaches with the technical skills. For example, ask your athletes to use their focus cue before starting a rep in a drill.

5. Self-Control in Sport is about Building Skills

Self-control is not something you as a coach can force on your athletes. You can however build it through training key skills and competencies to better equip your athletes with the right tools:

• Self-Awareness - Understanding what is going on externally around you and internally inside you.

• Directing Attention - Being able to focus on the most important thing at any given moment.

• Task-Orientation - Staying locked in on specific tasks despite distractions.

• Self-Talk - Using positive, instructional, and motivational self-talk.

• Breath Work - Managing stress and tension in the body through breath control.

• Mindfulness - Staying present and focused on the moment.

The more your athletes train in these areas the more resilient they will be, and the more they will maintain their composure.

Summary

These five thoughts are designed to help you support mental performance, but also to empower your athletes to find the fun in the pursuit of excellence. Build your mental frameworks, build a solid high performance environment, and inject mental skills in your every day teaching.

Key Take Aways

1. Integrate mental skill frameworks into every coaching practice: Regularly incorporating mental strategies into practice sessions helps athletes build strong, adaptable mindsets that enhance their performance under pressure. Your athletes will then use them in games/competition.

2. Create a high-performance environment grounded in mental resilience: A culture that prioritizes mental skills alongside physical and technical training fosters a more complete and competitive athlete.

3. Infuse mental skills into daily routines: Consistently working on skills like self-talk, mindfulness, and focus in everyday practice prepares athletes to excel mentally during competition.

Self Reflective Moment

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