Copyright © Ohio Center for Sport Psychology. Suite Beachwood, Ohio Phone: Home Our Services Staff Nine Mental Skills Workshops Products Location Resources Contact Us. The Nine Mental Skills of Successful Athletes Jack J. Lesyk, Ph. A Brief List of the Nine Mental Skills Successful Athletes: Choose and maintain a positive attitude.

Maintain a high level of self-motivation. Set high, realistic goals. Deal effectively with people. Use positive self-talk.

Use positive mental imagery. Manage anxiety effectively. Manage their emotions effectively. Maintain concentration. Mental Skills Training These nine mental skills are necessary for performing well in sport as well as in non-sport performance situations.

At the Ohio Center for Sport Psychology: We believe that these skills are learned and can be improved through instruction and practice. We begin our work with each individual by assessing his current proficiency in each of the skills.

We develop a plan for teaching and enhancing the specific skills that need improvement for the individual. The Performance Pyramid Although each of the nine skills is important, its primary importance will occur during one of three phases: long-term development, immediate preparation for performance, and during performance itself.

Level III - These skills are used during actual performance behavior. This form of mental imagery works to increase confidence, cope with pressure, and decrease anxiety.

Another type of mental imagery involves imagining a calm and relaxing scene. This helps to relax yourself before competition and train your ability to calm your mind. There are two main ways mindfulness helps when training your mind.

Mindfulness strengthens focus and increases emotional control. Possessing the ability to center your attention and drown out the many distractions that pull at your mind.

Which is why you must train your ability to concentrate. Mindfulness is the act of bringing your awareness into the present moment. You work to center your attention, and by doing so, you gain control over your attention.

Through the practice of mindfulness, you strengthen your mind's ability to focus, no matter the distraction.

Another way mindfulness helps with training your mind is by granting you emotional control. Managing your emotions and reactions is a key piece to success. Through mindfulness, you gain more understanding over your thoughts and emotions, which therefore provides you with more control over them.

That voice in your head, constantly speaking to you, can either be your best friend or your worst enemy. Within mental training, self-talk is used to restructure the way you speak to yourself so that the voice in your head can be turned into an asset.

The basis behind self-talk is that thoughts drive feelings. Meaning, what you are thinking impacts your emotional state. To increase confidence, reduce anxiety, or increase motivation, you must speak to yourself differently.

Self-talk is the practice of identifying your current negative thoughts and replacing them with positive alternatives. Then, repeating those positive alternatives to yourself on a consistent basis.

A fourth mental training tool is setting process goals for yourself. One of the worst frames of thought, that will only distract you from what you need to do, is outcome-oriented thinking.

To counteract this, you need to turn your attention onto the process. Well, in order to turn your attention onto the process, you need something to focus on. When it comes to mental training, just as with training any other skill, your goal should be consistency.

First, you want to make a list of your current strengths and weaknesses. Think in terms of your mindset and personality. On a piece of paper, make two separate categories: one labeled strengths and one labeled weaknesses. Now, brainstorm what your strengths are in terms of your mindset and what are your weaknesses.

Here is a list of traits to think about:. Once you have your list compiled, you want to first pay attention to the weakness side. What characteristics stand out the most? These are the skills you want to give the most attention to right now.

What you want to do is choose the mental training tool that will work best for building that skill. For example, if you want to build confidence, visualization and self-talk are a great pair.

If you struggle with sports anxiety , mindfulness, along with process goals are great to use. Next, look at your strengths and ask yourself what mental training tool would help you to continually improve your strengths.

When you want to improve a certain aspect of your game, or want to get stronger in the weight room, what do you do? Either you, or a coach will put a routine together. As with anything, consistency is what will make the difference between you really making a change happen, or simply spinning your wheels and staying the same.

By setting yourself a schedule, you are creating the opportunity for consistency. So, take the mental training tools you chose and decide when you will train them each day.

Learn more about our two main mental training courses for athletes: Mental Training Advantage and The Mentally Tough Kid. It's time to take control of your mindset and unlock your full athletic potential!

Get one-on-one mental performance coaching to help break through mental barriers and become the athlete you're meant to be! Mental Coaching From Anywhere in the World Click Here. Benefits of Mental Training for Sports Whenever you train, it is the skills you are after.

There are many mental skills that can be developed by using mental training, with some of the main ones including: Confidence Focus Motivation Self-Awareness Self-Management Self-Talk Staying Calm Under Pressure Resilience Staying Composed After a Mistake As these skills are developed with mental training exercises, they will work to improve your play on the field or court.

Reducing Mental Game Challenges Mental game challenges involve things such as sports performance anxiety , fear of failure , perfectionism , and high expectations that work against your ability to perform your best. Mental Rehearsal Mental rehearsal is also known as visualization and is a way for you to train your skills in your mind.

Sit down and close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths to calm yourself down and bring your attention into the present moment. Create your scene, going into as much detail as possible. Feel calm and confident while you perform and any other emotion you want.

Feel successful after you see yourself perform your skills well. Self-Talk Self-talk is a mental skill you can develop but is also an exercise you can use. Here are the main mental skills self-talk can help you build: Confidence Focus Motivation Self-Awareness Self-Management Resilience Staying Calm Under Pressure Keeping Your Composure After a Mistake Self-talk is an incredibly powerful exercise because we are all constantly thinking.

Repeat the new statements to yourself each day. Writing At first glance, writing may not seem like a mental training exercise, but it can be very beneficial when it comes to understanding yourself better.

Here are the main mental skills writing helps you build: Confidence Motivation Self-Awareness Self-Management I recommend doing this either in the morning or at night, depending on your schedule and preference.

And there are very few better ways to do that than mindfulness meditation. Here are the main mental skills mindfulness meditation will help you build: Focus Self-Awareness The Ability to Stay Calm Under Pressure Keeping Your Composure After a Mistake Here is a guide you can use to practice mindfulness meditation: Choose a specific amount of time I recommend five minutes to start.

Get into a quiet location and sit in a chair with your back straight. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Now you want to focus your attention onto your breath.

As you get distracted or attached to a thought, pull your attention back onto your breath. That means you are training! Daily Objectives Daily objectives are specific targets you set for yourself going into training sessions, practices, and games.

Here are the main mental skills daily objectives will help you build: Confidence Motivation Focus Staying Calm Under Pressure Keeping Your Composure After a Mistake The objectives you set need to be completely in your control.

Use them for both practices and games. Evaluate yourself based on whether you stuck to your objectives NOT the outcome. Set objectives based on what you want to work on improving. Final Thoughts As an athlete, the development of specific mental skills will help you overcome mental game challenges and enhance the physical skills you already have.

To build these mental skills, there are certain mental training exercises you can use. Nathan Chen, the U. Self-efficacy is the unshakeable belief of an athlete that they can meet the challenge they are facing.

It is arguably the cornerstone for any great performance. Self-talk is a strategy that can positively influence self-efficacy and performance.

Self-talk is the internal dialogue we have with ourselves. In a given day we have over 50, thoughts. Such talk can include affirmations of their strength, and cue words that pump them up or manage their nerves. It can include simple reminders of where their focus should be and what it is they need to execute.

Successful Olympians manage their thoughts effectively, ensuring they are their own best friend at the top of the slope or stepping out onto centre ice. Ultimately, this process has the incredible ability to make an athlete feel confident, in control and ready to face any challenge.

Imagery can be one of the more difficult skills to learn but, when well executed, it enables an Olympian to envision performing their discipline from start to finish as if they were doing it in real time. Imagery involves visualizing the actual action an athlete would like to execute and engages all of their senses.

What is most incredible is that when it is well practised, the muscles involved in the activity in real life will fire in the same sequence and rate — as if the activity was actually being performed.

In my preparation for competition, I would spend hours envisioning what I wanted to execute and how it should feel. I would even create bad scenarios that could occur, feeling the pressure and discomfort, and rehearse what my appropriate response would be.

When it was time to compete, I felt ready for any and every situation. This was easily the hardest area of my preparation but something critical to perform well when it counted most.

In the sliding events like luge and bobsleigh, we see athletes practice imagery the most. The gravitational force these athletes are subjected to poses a health risk and limits their ability to physically practice their discipline. It helps me find my calm and be able to perform when the pressure is on.

Just like your arms and legs, the brain is a muscle. With the Restoic App, it's easy for athletes at any level to have this resource at their fingertips. If I had access to the Restoic App, I can imagine how much quicker I would have gotten to my best self.

Restoic is committed to supporting game-changing organizations that help the next generation of athletes. Close search. Scientific Methods.

Proven Results. MENTAL TRAINING FOR ATHLETES Increase confidence Decrease anxiety Perform better. MOBILE APP.