Mental Skills

Preparation for competition in sport can be viewed like a coin; it has two sides. One side of the coin is preparation in a physical sense (lifting, cardio, getting into shape, staying healthy, taking care of your body). The other side of the coin is preparation in a strategic sense (game planning, organizing, understanding roles). The ridge in the middle of the coin that brings the two sides together, is mental skills work. These mental skills help you connect together the physical and strategic preparation that you have done, which in turn hopefully with give the results you would like to see in competition.

Much like you would work on your free throws in basketball, you might work on practicing visualization to train that mental skill. Just as anything else in life, the more that you work at something the better you will become. I often tell those I work with, that by working on mental skills you are building up your mental muscles. Think about going to the gym and doing squats, the more that you work at squatting, the stronger you are going to get. But it has to be something that you keep up with because most likely you will not see results right away, as time and commitment are needed to progress.