aMental toughness is a needed trait for all athletes. It’s what allows them to perform with confidence, bounce back from failure, and keep pushing when challenges present themselves. But in terms of athlete mental training, how can it be used to boost mental toughness?

Well for starters, there must be a decision that mental toughness can be built. It’s easy to think that having a strong mind is a skill some of us are born with while others aren’t so fortunate.

That’s simply not the case.

Having a strong mindset can and must be cultivated through the use of athlete mental training tools and exercises.

Let’s take a look at four strategies any athlete can use to boost their mental toughness.

Strategy #1: Increase Self-Confidence

The first strategy is to work on increasing your self-confidence. When discussing mental toughness, there needs to be an understanding that having a strong mind requires a base level of self-belief.

Without this trust in yourself and your skills, it’s quite difficult to be mentally tough.

One of the key characteristics of a strong mind is self-confidence. It helps you push towards your goals and aids in the ability to be resilient.

To increase self-confidence, one of the best strategies is setting small goals for yourself.

When you set a goal, and most importantly…accomplish that goal, your self-confidence will grow. The more you see yourself succeed, the greater the trust will be in your skills and your ability to succeed again in the future.

Strategy #2: Improve Your Self-Talk

A vulnerability to outside influences decreases mental toughness.

Now, we all are susceptible to adopting certain ways of thinking due to what we hear other people say. However, if you want to be mentally tough, you must take control of the way you speak to yourself.

Within athlete mental training there is an exercise which works to alter your internal dialogue. That way, you take back the power to determine the thoughts in your head during practices and games.

Here are the steps you can follow:

1. List out all the negative/doubtful thoughts you have.

2. Create a list of positive/productive alternatives.

3. Repeat the new list to yourself twice every day.

Strategy #3: Improve Your Self-Awareness

To strengthen your mind, you must first understand your mind.

Throughout my years playing baseball, mental toughness was likened to those who could handle setbacks, believe in themselves, push through challenges, and perform under pressure.

What happens when right now you struggle with one of those/all of those areas?

Well, clearly work needs to be done. This type of work can only be fruitful if it comes from a place of understanding.

For example, if you struggle to perform under pressure, what is it you’re thinking at that moment which leads to you choking? How do those thoughts make you feel and subsequently impact your play?

All of this information can be gathered through improving your self-awareness.

One of the best exercises for increasing self-awareness is writing in a journal once a day. Simply explore your thoughts and you will begin to understand yourself on a deeper level.

Strategy #4: Be Non Reactive

After you make a mistake, how do you respond? Are you quick to get upset, maybe even throwing something or slamming down your equipment?

Hey, I get it. Many times after I got out in baseball I would slam my bat and curse at myself. But that never showed real mental toughness.

To truly gain a strong mind, you must work to control your emotional reactions. To do so, you must practice being non reactive.

Another exercise within athlete mental training is to choose one situation a day where you will work on being non reactive. It could be during practice or when you’re having a conversation with someone.

The important thing to remember is to try and pause and separate yourself emotionally from what happened.

Final Thoughts

Mental toughness is a highly valued trait among athletes and performers. Many coaches look for players who already possess a strong mind.

But no matter whether you think you currently are mentally tough or not, this is a trait that can and must be developed.

Through the use of athlete mental training, you can increase confidence, improve self-talk, improve self-awareness, and learn to be non reactive. All of which will work to boost your mental toughness.

A performance psychologist works with athletes and performers to help facilitate peak performance.

That’s a powerful statement right there.

No matter whether you’re an athlete, or any other type of performer, how incredible would it be to consistently perform at your peak?

This means going out there and performing at the top of your game not once or twice, but repeatedly!

While that sounds pretty amazing, it’s not magic. In fact, one of the greatest benefits of working with a performance psychologist is the continual growth you will make.

Their aim is to facilitate peak performance. But this is not done through continually focusing on the outcome and obsessing over statistics. It’s done by taking a different approach.

By working through different areas of the mind that influence your performance, they will help you turn your mindset into an asset rather than a liability. In doing so, your physical talents are able to shine through and you put yourself in the best position to reach peak performance.

The way an individual professional goes about doing so varies. Though, there are specific benefits that you can expect and areas that are worked on which make the greatest impact in improving your performance.

These include: building confidence, overcoming anxiety, increasing focus, and finding motivation.

Let’s dig into each one of these a little deeper.

Benefits #1: Increased Confidence

One thing all athletes and performers need is confidence. You have to have the belief in yourself and your abilities. Yet…that can often be difficult to come by.

Many doubts and negative forms of thought creep in which work against your ability to believe in yourself.

What a performance psychologist near me will do is help you understand what is keeping you from being confident and simultaneously show you mental training tools and exercises you can use to increase self-confidence.

Benefit #2: Overcoming Anxiety

Living in the performing world, nerves are natural. But nerves taken to the next level turn into anxiety which distracts you and leads to fear.

As you perform anxious, you will be timid. Instead of focusing on success, your mind will be completely fixed on the idea of not making a mistake. While subtle, that makes a huge difference in your approach.

What a good performance psychologist will help you do is realize what factors are playing into your anxiety. What are you thinking before a performance? What are you focused on during a game?

Then, they will show you certain skills that will work to cultivate a calm mind, rather than one overwhelmed with worry.

Benefit #3: Increasing Focus

There are two types of focus I’m referring to here: in game focus-such as your ability to concentrate on a specific play, and process vs outcome focus.

Through the use of daily exercises, you will be able to strengthen your focus. That means, when the ample amount of distractions present during a performance work against your attention, you will have the mental strength to reel your focus back in.

Process vs outcome focus refers to how you approach games and performances. While every performer wants a certain outcome, focusing on that outcome is not the best option for obtaining it.

Instead, you need to be more process focused. That is something you will learn, which will have a direct effect on you reaching peak performance.

Benefit #4: Finding Motivation

Motivation is interesting because oftentimes it’s not motivation you need but discipline.

But let’s say you just had a really bad game. How do you normally feel?

Some may say that they feel incredibly motivated to get back to training and prove that it was merely a fluke. However, many others will point to a drop in motivation caused by the disappointment of performing poorly.

A performance psychologist will help you understand why you play, why you perform, and what your motivation is to continually improve.

This makes handling setbacks easier and keeps you on a direct path towards your goals.

Final Thoughts

The mind plays a large role in your success, no matter what you do. With athletes and performers it can often make or break their career.

You can have all the physical talents in the world, but if your mind turns out to be a liability you will always perform below your potential.

A performance psychologist will work with you to cultivate a strong mind, one that is an asset on your path to peak performance.

When looking for a mental coach for athletes, it’s important to know what to expect once you begin the work.

While the actual structure of their program varies from coach to coach, their guiding principles will be the same.

For example, some coaches make use of assessments in the beginning to gain greater insight into your mindset and your current challenges. While others prefer an approach without an assessment and one which relies heavily on conversation.

Another example is a coach who likes to utilize handouts, while someone else may prefer more practical exercises.

The fact is, the way any individual coach goes about working with you may vary. However, no matter what program they use, these four elements are what you can expect when working with a mental performance coach.

They Will Listen To You

One key aspect of any good mental coach for athletes is their ability to listen.

A lot of times there are underlying factors which are causing you to play poorly, feel anxious, or lose interest in the game. It is the job of a mental performance coach to listen carefully to what you say and seek to understand.

They are not simply there to tell you what to do. Yes, they will guide you and support you, but first they must understand you. And that takes being able to listen to what you’re saying on a deeper level.

They Will Help You Understand Yourself

A great way to think of a mental performance coach is someone who helps you understand yourself better.

This idea can best be explained using an example:

Let’s say you’re really struggling with performance anxiety. Every time you show up to the field or court, you are overcome with dread. In order to change that, you have to change the way you’re thinking.

A coach will help you understand what you’re saying to yourself which is driving the anxiety, and then guide you towards finding a different way of speaking in that moment.

Deeper than that, however, they will help you understand yourself to a point where you will notice when those negative and anxious thoughts are happening. That way, you can then exchange them for more confident and calming thoughts.

They Will Challenge You

No good coach will let you coast. They will work to challenge your current beliefs and push you to a point where change can occur.

When we’re talking about frames of thought, it’s not always the most comfortable process to work through them. Overcoming self-doubt, perfectionism, anxiety, or anything else is not a walk in the park.

When you work with a mental coach for athletes you can expect that they will challenge you to stay consistent with your effort even when things get uncomfortable.

They will also challenge you to face difficult discussions and frustrating situations head on, rather than allowing you to make excuses and blame external factors.

They Will Believe In You

When you’re thinking about working with a mental coach for athletes, you can expect that this individual will believe in you.

I’m not just talking about your physical talents, either. They will believe that you can change. They will believe that you can be a confident player. They will believe that you have the talents necessary to succeed.

Even if you don’t believe in yourself right now, you can guarantee that your mental performance coach will.

Final Thoughts

Before you work with a mental performance coach, it’s important to understand what to expect.

Now, the way they structure their program will be unique to each individual coach. However, these four elements will remain constant: they will listen to you, they will help you understand yourself, they will challenge you, and they will believe in you.

A mental coach is a valuable resource for athletes and something I suggest you look into. Whether you’re currently struggling or simply want to add an additional asset to your game, a mental performance coach will help.