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Coaches want athletes to be mentally
tough, but how do we accomplish that?
To help coaches go from "what a
textbook says about psychological skills
training" to "what to do today
at practice," a series of articles
on "Training Your Athletes
To Be Mentally Tough"
begins this month, and will continue
in subsequent issues of pelinks4u.
This month's article will introduce
readers to the topic of mental training
skills and tools for athletes. Subsequent
articles will assist coaches in training
athletes in specific mental training
skills and tools. Drills included in
future articles will be practice ready,
so that coaches can move easily from
teaching athletes about the skills and
tools, to incorporating them into the
day's workout.
MENTAL
TRAINING SKILLS AND TOOLS FOR ATHLETES
TRAINING YOUR ATHLETES TO BE MENTALLY
TOUGH
by Dr.
Christine Lottes  Mental
Toughness is the ability to play one's
best in any situation, particularly
when encountering problems, adversity,
or failure. Mental Toughness is the
result of using mental skills in a way
that brings out the best in athletes
when they have the most at stake.
As coaches we get athletes' bodies
ready by doing off and preseason physical
conditioning. We also drill athletes
on techniques (skills) they need for
their sport and the tactics and strategies
of their sport. But how do we get athletes'
minds ready? The research shows that
sport is 50-70% mental. So how do we
make them mentally tough? When it comes
right down to it, how often have we
found ourselves asking an athlete to
do something mentally that we haven't
trained the athlete to do? Have you
ever said or heard some other coach
say anything like the following to an
athlete? "Relax, you're too keyed
up." "You're dragging, pick
it up." "Get your head in
the game." "Let it go- forget
it and get back into it." "What
were you thinking?" "Hey,
leave everything off the field, deal
with it later." "We've been
over this again and again, now where
were you supposed to be?"
Mental errors, made by mental rookies.
Sport is a test of athletes' physical
and mental skills,
and learning to master both the physical
and mental game is the best way to maximize
athletes' chance of success. The mental
skills needed for success in sport and
life are just like physical skills that
can be identified and improved upon
with systematic practice. Athletes need
to learn to take personal responsibility
for their own thoughts and actions.
Athletes can learn that they can't always
control what happens to them, but they
can control how they respond to difficult
or untimely events. Many coaches do
some mental training with their athletes.
At a minimum, coaches have athletes
set goals. But is there a more comprehensive
way to approach mental training? Yes!
Mental skills training can be and needs
to be a systematic process for developing
important mental training tools, skills,
and plans. Doing mental workouts with
athletes will result in mentally tough
athletes.
How do athletes learn mental skills?
The same process is used as in the learning
of physical skills of a sport. We teach
the mental skills to the athletes, we
have them practice them through mental
drills within practice and on their
own, and then athletes try out the mental
skills within competition.
Drs. Damon Burton and Thomas Raedeke
in their book Sport
Psychology for Coaches (2008) present
all of the skills athletes need to learn
to be mentally tough. Getting them from
the book and into practice can begin
in preseason where athletes will appreciate
a classroom session each day to balance
off their physical training. Using Burton
and Raedeke's materials, I have developed
one hour sessions where athletes use
a workbook during sessions to learn
the mental skills, followed by the incorporation
of the skills in practice sessions outside
of the classroom with the goal being
to produce mentally tough athletes.
And for those of us who think we don't
have time to teach and practice mental
skills with our athletes, because practice
is already so packed, the research shows
that athletes who are educated in, and
who practice and implement skills in
actual performance situations, not only
improve their sport performance, but
make better use of practice time spent
in physical conditioning and when they’re
learning sport-specific techniques and
tactics.
Allow me to share an example of how
this plays out from when I was working
with two H.S. field hockey goalkeepers.
Amy was a freshman who was a recruited
field player because the J.V. didn't
have a goalkeeper. Rebecca was a sophomore
who was fairly skilled and an outstanding
athlete. They had gone through mental
training with me in preseason, and a
few weeks of mental training in-season.
They were dragging at practice one day.
It was a waste of time to continue,
both for them and for the forwards who
were working with them. So I stopped
the drill, asked the keepers on a scale
of 1-10 what each one's physical and
mental arousal level was, and then,
what it needed to be for this particular
drill.
I then told them to go to two different
spaces and come back to me when they
were at the proper energy level for
the drill we were doing. Within 3-4
minutes each returned and went back
into the drill - at speed, game-like,
effective. They would not have been
able to do this if they had not previously
had the mental training. We can't ask
athletes to do what they have never
learned, yet many coaches continue to
do so.
As can be seen from the goal keeper
example, we have time to do mental skills
training because it makes the rest of
our athletes' training and their performing
more efficient and effective. A side
benefit in mental training in sport
is that it will carry over to other
areas of their lives: friends, family,
job, school, etc. Let me share an e-mail
as an example of this that came to me
near the end of the same high school
field hockey season quoted above. It
was near the end of the season, and
we had just played a team who consistently
defeated us year after year:
Hey Christine,
While driving home from the game tonight
I was thinking a lot about the past
season. When my thoughts came across
pre season I thought of you and our
mental sessions. I realize that they
have helped me tremendously. On many
occasions I catch myself doing slow
breathing and saying 'relax'
to calm myself down, and it actually
works! (One more point for the coaches
haha).
Tonight for the Oley game I had to
physically psych myself up, so I did
the rapid breathing and used my energizer
word, intense; it helped.
Like you said, the mental training
stuff was not only for sports but
for life. I lessen my stress level
because I learned to calm down quicker,
and not freak out over things I couldn't
control (that one helped me a lot).
After talking with you after that
one game, it also helped me stay focused
during games and practices.
I just wanted to say thank you so
much for coming and helping out with
the team this season. I really appreciated
it, and I know the things I have learned
will help me with more than just my
athletics; they will help me through
life. Sincerely, Naomi
To be successful with mental toughness
training, what has to happen? Be as
sold out to Mental Training as you are
to the rest of your training program:
get comfortable with the information
and practice it yourself. Decide if
you're going to teach all the mental
skills, or if you are going to select
one or two to start with the first year
and then add others the next year. Then
begin teaching mental skills when you
begin required practices where everyone
is present. Introduce these skills as
important to success as ___________
(throwing or kicking or passing a ball).
Let athletes know that "some will
be better at the skills than others
if they've done them before; all will
learn how to do them; we'll practice
them all season..."
Introduce one skill at a time and use
examples from your sport. Each day,
use at least one of the mental skills
by integrating it into practice. When
the competitive season for your sport
starts, integrate the skills into warm-ups.
Remind athletes how to use them during
the competition and/or during a stop
in play, etc. And, if you have multiple
coaches with your sport, make sure all
coaches sit in on all sessions of mental
training and are committed to training
athletes in mental toughness. Bottom
line, treat mental skills training the
same way you treat all other training
- introduce skills, practice skills,
consistently review skills all season,
and make mental skills part of training
and competition.
Dr. Christine Lottes
is a professor at Kutztown University
of Pennsylvania, where she teaches Coaching
Education, Sport Psychology, Sport Sociology
and Sport Ethics.
She volunteers with youth and college
athletes in the area of mental training.
It was through this work that she became
interested in helping coaches to present
mental training to their athletes in
the pre-season and then have athletes
continue to "work out mentally"
throughout the season as part of practice
and competitions.
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