Train your mind for athletic success : mental preparation to to achieve your sports goals

405 Pages·2017·2.48 MB·English

by  Jim Taylor

Train Your Mind for Athletic Success
Train Your Mind for Athletic Success
Mental Preparation to Achieve Your
Sports Goals
JIM TAYLOR, P .D.
H
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-
Publication Data Names: Taylor, Jim, 1958– author.
Title: Train your mind for athletic success : mental preparation to achieveyour sports goals / Jim Taylor.
Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., [2017] | Includes bibliographical
references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017002827 (print) | LCCN 2017028193 (ebook) | ISBN 9781442277090 (electronic) |
ISBN 9781442277083 (hardback : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Sports—Psychological aspects. | Athletes—
Psychology.
Classification: LCC GV706.4 (ebook) | LCC GV706.4 .T39 2017 (print) | DDC 796.01/9—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017002827
™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard
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Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Contents
Introduction
How Important Is the Mind to Athletic Success?
How Committed Are Athletes to Mental Training?
Why Isn’t Mental Training Treated the Same as Physical and Technical
Training?
Should Peak Performance Be Your Goal?
What “Game” Are You Competing In?
What Are You Preparing For?
What Does It Take to Achieve Athletic Success?
Make Mental Training a Priority in Your Sport
Physical Testing for the Mind
The Vocabulary of Sport
Not Just about Sports
What Lies Ahead?
1 PrimePsyche: Five Attitudes
Ownership
Process
Challenge
Long-Term
Risk
2 PrimeHeart: Five Obstacles
The Power of the Unconscious
What Was Once Functional Is Now Dysfunctional
Removing the Obstacles
Overinvestment
Perfectionism
Fear of Failure
Expectations
Negativity
3 PrimePrep: Five Approaches to Quality Training
Perspective
Train Like You Compete
Consistency
Experimentation
Quality
4 PrimeMind: Five Mental Muscles
Motivation
Confidence
Intensity
Focus
Mindset
5 PrimeTime: Five Mental Tools
Emotions
Imagery
Routines
Breathing
Trust
6 Prime Topics for Athletic Success
Perform Your Best in Big Events
Overcome Performance Slumps
The Psychology of Injury
7 Prime Sport: The Payoff
Seven Reasons Athletes Don’t Do Mental Training
Three Goals for Athletic Success
Develop a Mental Training Program
Prime Sport Challenge
Notes
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
About the Author
Introduction
Athletic Success Begins and Ends with the
Mind
It’s become almost a cliché. Everyone seems to agree with legendary New York
Yankee Yogi Berra, who said, “Baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is
physical.” Although certainly lacking in logic and math acumen, this statement
seems to encompass what most athletes believe, that the mind plays a vital role in
sports success. But how important is it really to athletes and coaches? Let’s find
out by asking several essential questions.
HOW IMPORTANT IS THE MIND TO ATHLETIC SUCCESS?
When I speak to athletes or coaches, I ask them how important the mind is to
athletic success compared to the physical and technical aspects of sport—less
important, as important, or more important? There are always a few in the
audience who have the chutzpah to challenge me by saying that the mind isn’t
that important. What matters, they say, is natural talent, physical fitness, and
practiced skills. Gratifyingly, most members of the audience say the mind is as
important as fitness and technique. And a surprisingly large number believe that
the mind is actually more important. While I appreciate this last sentiment given
that my life’s passion is sport psychology, I don’t believe that the mind is more
important. Why? Because you may have all the mental strength in the world, but
if you don’t have the physical and technical capabilities to execute in your sport,
you have no chance of success. You have to be able to hit the tennis or golf ball;
throw the baseball or football; sink the basket; or run, ride, or swim at a certain
pace to be successful. The reality is that the physical, technical, and mental are all
important. But the mind is undoubtedly an essential piece of the sport
performance puzzle that is often undervalued and neglected.
Consider the best athletes, male or female, in any sport. Are they all physically
gifted? Absolutely. You don’t get to such a high level without a remarkable set of
genes. In fact, I would argue, to get to the highest levels of sport, they have to be
genetic freaks of nature. Are they in exceptional physical condition? For sure.
Would Lionel Messi be considered the best soccer player in the world if he wasn’t
in peak physical condition in terms of strength and stamina? It’s quite simple.
Athletes couldn’t perform at the highest level of sport unless they had the
requisite fitness to meet the grueling demands of their sport. Are the best athletes
in every sport technically exceptional? Undoubtedly. Would Serena Williams be
one of the greatest tennis players in history if she had major technical flaws in
her serve, forehand, or backhand? Any sport that involves skills—which means
just about all of them, whether golf, tennis, baseball, hockey, track and field, or
soccer—makes development of those skills mandatory for success. Do they have
the best equipment? Undeniably. Could the 2015 Formula One driving
champion, Lewis Hamilton, have emerged victorious in a 1972 Chevrolet
Impala? Of course not. Without the best equipment, extraordinary performance
in a sport is simply impossible. In fact, at the highest level of sport, everyone has
it all. And, at any level of sport, whether collegiate, youth, or even rec league,
everyone has generally similar fitness, skills, and equipment. So, on the day of a
competition, what separates the winners from the also-rans? These other factors
being equal, it must be what goes on between their ears.
I will also add that, in the greater scheme of life, I could argue that the mental
side of sport is vastly more important than physical fitness and technical
prowess, at least for young athletes. Why? Because, realistically speaking,
relatively few athletes will make it to the top of their sport. But, the attitudes,
mental tools, and life lessons that athletes learn from their sport, for example,
motivation, confidence, focus, perseverance, resilience, the ability to handle
pressure, the list goes on, will serve them well in all aspects of their lives when
they enter adulthood.
The thing about the game at this level [MLB] is that there is very little difference in physical
skills between players; the real difference between them is upstairs. It is what is “in your
head” that makes the difference.
—Clete Boyer, two-time World Series champion1
HOW COMMITTED ARE ATHLETES TO MENTAL TRAINING?
Having established that the mental side of sport is at least as important as other
contributors to athletic success, I then ask these same athletes how many hours a
day they spend on their conditioning or technical training. If they are at all
serious, they will answer with anywhere from two to six hours a day. I then ask, If
the mind is so important, are they also spending that amount of time on their
mental training? In every case, a silence falls over the group as they are
confronted with this obvious contradiction. To ease their discomfort, I tell them
that they do mental training all the time without even realizing it, for example,
they motivate themselves, think positively, and attempt to focus. But they have to
admit that their efforts at mental preparation pale in comparison to the time and
energy they devote to other aspects of their sport. And this imbalance can hold
them back from performing their best and achieving their sports goals.
WHY ISN’T MENTAL TRAINING TREATED THE SAME AS PHYSICAL AND TECHNICAL
TRAINING?
This question has been a source of frustration for me and others who work in
sport psychology for years. If everyone in sport says that the mind is so
important, why does it receive so little attention?
To be sure, sport psychology does have a presence in most sports. Sport
psychologists and mental trainers work with many professional athletes and
teams, as well as Olympic and collegiate teams. And many others work with
youth programs in many sports throughout the United States and the world.
Yet, when compared to its physical and technical counterparts, sport
psychology clearly has second-class status. While serious sports programs and
teams at every level of competition have full-time technical and conditioning
coaches, few have full-time sport psychologists or mental trainers. Moreover,
when sport psychology is offered to athletes, its presence is usually vastly
different from the rigorous physical conditioning regimens and sophisticated
technical regimens that athletes at every level of sport routinely benefit from.
Let’s consider what makes physical conditioning and technical development
effective and then compare it to the use of mental training in most sports settings
today. Three key elements come to mind.
First, physical and technical training programs don’t just touch on a few areas
that impact sports performance. Rather, they are comprehensive in design, aimed
at ensuring that every contributor to sports success is addressed and developed
maximally. For example, conditioning programs include strength, agility,
stamina, and flexibility. Technical progressions include, depending on the sport,
stance, balance, upper-body position, footwork, and much more.
Second, when athletes work out, they don’t just walk into the gym and do
random strength or agility exercises. Instead, they engage in organized workouts
based on a structured program that coaches believe will result in optimal physical
preparedness for their sport. Similarly, when athletes go onto the field, court,
course, hill, or whatever their performance venue, they don’t just play around
and hope to improve. Rather, they follow a technical progression based on their