in competition.
As you practice and compete, you face all kinds of pressure. Being a great athlete is about being able to perform your best when the pressure is on. In Chapter 10, you learn about Tool #5, “Handling Pressure,” where we give you specific strategies for improving your ability to do exactly that.
And, because mistakes are a regular part of the sports world, in Chapter 11, we offer you Tool #6, “Handling Adversity,” and we give you lots of advice for becoming more resilient. From simple mistakes in competition to longer slumps, we show you how to move on from the mistakes of your past and focus on performing your best in the present.
As an athlete, you have to manage your energy levels before a competition to harness the mental and physical energy you need when it counts. In Chapter 12, you learn about Tool #7, “Sharpening Your Awareness.” There, we explain how to calm down and pump yourself up, so your energy resources are always there for you when you need them.
Knowing the Hot Trends in Sports Psychology Today
Mental health issues are one of the hottest topics discussed in the field of athletics today. Anxiety and depression aren’t just battled off the court or field — athletes have to battle them on the court, too, and we discuss this topic in greater detail in Chapter 13.
We get so many requests from parents and high school athletes to help them navigate the ever-changing recruitment process from high school to college athletics that we devote a whole chapter about it — Chapter 15. It is a complicated process, and we believe that this chapter simplifies the process.
Ever wonder how the skills in this book can be applied outside of sport? Well, wait no longer, because Chapter 16, “Using Sports Psychology Skills in Daily Life,” is written just for you!
Since writing the first edition of this book in 2010, the field of sports psychology has expanded so dramatically in popularity that we get requests on a weekly basis from students interested in the field asking us for direction and career advice. What a wonderful development! Thus, we dedicated an entire chapter — Chapter 17 — to exploring the career path of a sports psychologist. If you are a student with interest in this field, this chapter is written with you in mind.
Becoming a Sports Psychology-Savvy Coach
Coaches are constantly looking for that extra edge that will put them over the top in the ultracompetitive sports world. With that in mind, they frequently turn to sports psychology to learn better ways to understand their players, motivate their teams, and get more from the talent they have at their disposal.
Every day, coaches see athletes with incredible talent who can perform in practice, but who can’t carry that performance into competition. They know and understand that the mindset of their athletes is often what determines their success.
If you’re a coach, you’ll find plenty of advice throughout this book that you can use to help your athletes be their best. But we devote Chapters 18 and 19 in particular to you. There, you find strategies for helping your athletes improve their focus and perform under pressure, as well as mental drills you can utilize with your team to enhance and improve their mental development alongside their physical development.
Chapter 2
Starting with the End in Mind: Know Your Ideal Athlete Mindset
IN THIS CHAPTER
Knowing your ideal mental state is a critical step in building your mind for consistent high-level performance. Most people habitually criticize themselves for even the smallest of mistakes. It becomes a bad habit that they don’t know how to break. When asking athletes, performers, and everyday people about their past negative experiences and mistakes, they can usually quickly recall a long list of them. These are the experiences and incidents that stand out in our brains. Our “default” mental state, unfortunately, is usually negative. It is an almost automatic response. As a culture, we are trained to focus on the negatives in our everyday lives. There is an evolutionary and biological reason for this fact as well (i.e., fear kept people alive thousands of years ago — because without focusing on the possibility of danger around them, they could have easily been attacked by a hungry animal).
Think about it for yourself. Do you focus on the positive things you are doing in terms of your performance? Or do you focus on the negative? What are your thoughts about this response from one of our professional athletes, who had just made the World Cup Soccer Team:
“I cannot believe I had such an awful practice today. Why did they even keep me on the national team?”
He did not even take a few seconds to celebrate his accomplishment of making the World Cup Soccer Team for his nation! Clearly, the battle to stay positive in our brains is a very real one.
