Sports Performance Mind-Coaching
I really want (and need!) to excel in my chosen sport
I meet many competitive sports people, some of whom are professionals, but for many more like me, they pursue their chosen sport as a hobby and as part of a serious leisure strategy.
Like me, most of you spend huge amounts of time, effort and money on getting as good as you can possibly get. However there are times we all seem to go off course, and lose the plot.
Sometimes, sports trainers, great though they are at the technical aspects of your chosen discipline, fail to make their clients feel really confident and able to succeed. This is especially true in equestrian sports where the focus is often on the horse’s performance, or the horse-and-rider combination, but all to often sports trainers give little or no thought to the riders’ emotional state and their consequent behaviours… especially when things start to unravel in during the pressure experienced in a competition.
I recently had the pleasure of working with Jan Booghaerts, international Reining Judge and competitor (member of the Belgian team). He reckoned that the mind is fundamental to success… most of what we need to do is to learn to use our brains and emotions in the right way, to then support the behaviours that give rise to the correct physical performance.
SUCCESS-4-ME Sports Performance Mind-Coaching can help you with:
- developing techniques for increasing your ability to focus
- stepping up a gear, managing the butterflies and worries that come with moving up into a different league
- developing a ‘plan’ for each competition, or sports outing
I don’t much believe in ‘luck’ in sport. What I do believe is that ‘luck’ is more to do with preparation meeting opportunity! Mind-coaching is absolutely no substitute for sheer hard physical practice in order to master the techniques of your chosen sport. However technical + mind and emotional control can give you an incredible edge on the competition.
Did you know that you could learn to use your brain just like a TV monitor, and play the video YOU want of your greatest performance? Guided visualization or internal imagery as I call it is absolutely great if you cannot physically practice your chosen sport as often as you’d like due to work or family commitments, bad weather or shortage of cash.
Did you also know that your brain cannot distinguish between vividly imagined states… and actual reality? With my help however, I can teach you how to practice a new and desired reality in your mind. This in turn trains your body and emotions to respond in the right way to a variety of challenging circumstances, helping you develop the right kind of ‘unconscious competences’ or ‘muscle-memory’ for your sport.
The will to win is undoubtedly important, but consider the difference between winning against others and winning against yourself? One has an external focus the other an internal focus, a really important distinction especially in single-person sports performances.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What is your ULTIMATE DREAM achievement?
- What do you want to achieve by the end of tHIS SEASON?
- Who is your ROLE MODEL and why? What can their achievements teach you? (I have President Obama, and Reiner Matt Mills up on my office wall)
- Do you understand your own motivations?
- Can you VISUALISE these clearly?
- Have you set yourself GOALS that are tangible, exciting, timely (ie diarised), and measurable?
- Can you get into gear and put your plans into action NOW?
SUCCESS-4-ME Sports Performance Mind-Coaching can help you learn new techniques for mental and emotional control, vital for putting those technical skills into successful practice:
Relaxation techniques
- Breathing exercises 7:11
- Identifying your favourite music for anchoring positive states
- Utilising mental photo shots of you performing at your best
- “Happy recalls”
Mind-focusing techniques
- Counting backwards
- Simple multiplications
- Focusing on minute (very small) details for 90 secs
- Working on your pre-performance routines
- Developing positive post-performance reviews
Emotional control techniques
- Reality check (body, intellect, emotional review)
- Controlling and dispersing negative emotional states (being aware of the symptoms of negative self-talk)
- Using constructive inner dialogue, and imagery to close off self-doubt
- Developing methods for maintaining clarity, confidence, and consistency
- Utilising positive self-talk to energise oneself
Overcoming a slump in performance:
It’s often said that we’re only as good as our last performance, which is rather harsh and can really lead to unnecessary loss of confidence if we judge ourselves as athletes on the basis of one performance.
What is useful, however, particularly as a rookie or amateur in any sport, is to look at your performance on a seasonal basis and take the average performance score and compare that with the previous season’s performance, or the one after it.
When you combine this approach with also looking at the detail of your ‘highs’ in any individual performance you get a more accurate picture of how you are doing.
If necessary take a bit of time out to allow for some quality reflection rather than letting undue stress warp your analysis of what’s going wrong.
Work for increasing the overall average of each season’s performance by setting out a detailed plan of dedicated training building on your strengths and any gaps in your technique, combined with sports mind-coaching. It will pay dividends!
Remember to always be a great team player, have a ready smile, congratulate others and support them in their distress as well as their triumphs.
And never ever be afraid to share advice or a kind word, on the basis of what goes round, comes round… in bucketfuls.
Live your life with some real passion, and pursue your chosen sport with panache and an inner energy… make it something that really ‘lights you up’.
Henry Ford once said: “Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait. The grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas.”
DETERMINED TO SUCCEED? If this sounds just up your street and you’re ready to make the changes you need in order to be more successful in your chosen sport then call me now on 07760 270 392, or to email me . There’s never been a better time to get a greater return on your sports training investment.
And remember, I am a mind-performance coach. I am not a substitute for a specific sports trainer, however I will complement your technical training by being a member of your team! And as a bonus, I compete successfully myself so understand what you may be going through.
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