What percentage of a performance’s success do you believe to be mental? Physical? Technical? Tactical? Cultural? Take a couple of minutes and write down what you believe those percentages to be. No wrong answers!
No matter what percentage you believe the breakdown to be, each area contributes to an individual and a team’s success. Too often players, parents, and coaches invest their time and money into technical training only. A high performing person takes all of these factors into consideration when training. The goal of mental performance is to systematically train you through the mental aspects of the game. We are working through important concepts in order to be our best when our best is required. My vision is that when you are consistently working through these mental performance topics, you will be able to think in a way that will help unlock your greatest potential. These concepts can help you be a better version of yourself in and out of your performance. Here is why a huge part of our mental performance is our thoughts. Our brain is wired to protect us when we are under stress. The amygdala is an almond shaped mass of gray matter in our brains. The amygdala has a role of interpreting stressful situations and will shut down critical thinking in order to put all brain power toward survival. We can see how this is problematic when we need to perform. Our thoughts affect our emotions, our emotions affect our bodies response, and our bodies response affects our performance. This is why it is so crucial to be able to think correctly during a performance.
One of the pushbacks I get as a mental performance coach is “I don’t want to work with a sports psychologist because there is nothing wrong with me”. This is a “fix it model”. This mindset is tied to feeling like we don’t need help until a major issue arises. It is possible to operate within this framework, but it is harder to make meaningful and long lasting changes when we are under high stress. An ideal model of mental performance is a “build it model”. Consider this, we know that in life, storms are coming. We are here to help build you a shelter. It is much easier to build a shelter before the storm comes. We can easily build when the weather is calm and we are in a healthy mindset to work. We can still build a shelter in the middle of a hurricane, but the intense weather will be a huge barrier to our progress. We also parallel this “build it” mindset to the strength and conditioning model. All athletes go to strength and conditioning to build up their physical strength, not just the weak ones. In fact, those that spend extra time in the weightroom are often seen as the most dedicated. We want to work within the “build it model” to build mental skills because the storm is coming. We want to meet the storm with preparation and tools to thrive.
Let’s start with a few terms that are very important in mental performance. “Metacognition” is defined as thinking about your thinking. This is critical because there can be no growth without awareness. And why does thinking about our thinking matter? It is so important that it bears repeating, our thoughts affect our emotions, our emotions affect our body’s response, and our body’s response affects our performance. Consider this, you walk to the plate and tell yourself “I can’t strike out”, or “ I’m freaking out right now”. These negative thoughts lead to feeling anxious and nervous. When we are anxious and nervous, our body responds with being tense and our heart rate climbs. Feeling tense is not helpful in any performance situation. You are far more likely to strike out when you have these negative thought patterns.
But on the flipside, you walk to your at bat and say, “ I am so ready for this.” you are feeling confident and excited. Your body responds with a steady heart rate and your brain is open to receive critical information. You are putting yourself in a far better situation to have a quality at bat. Our thought life is the foundation of performance.
Our next term is “neuroplasticity”. This is the fascinating concept that our minds can change our brains. Our thoughts not only affect performance, they literally affect the structure of our brains. A common theme among people is “this is just the way I am” or “I’ll never be able to do blank”. The concept of neuroplasticity calls that out to be false. We CAN change.
Our last term is “entropy”. This is a borrowed term from physics that means without care, all things move toward dysfunction. Sound familiar? Culture takes effort. Physical fitness takes effort. Mental strength takes effort. A former professor of mine said it this way, “People are not mentally tough. They are trained or untrained”.
What problem does a focus mental performance solve? As we learned from the term entropy, we do not drift towards excellence. We drift toward being comfortable, and being comfortable is average. Using a system to train mental excellence puts us on a path to achieve all that we are capable of.
Let’s take a look at the notes you took earlier on the percentage of performance being mental, physical, technical, tactical, and cultural. Now answer what amount of time you spend in these areas TODAY. Take an honest, non-judgmental look at what percentage of time you spend training these areas.
Then write down your plan of what you will do to support growth mentally, physically, technically, tactically, and culturally.
No matter what percentage of your success you believe to be mental, it IS a component of success. The brain isn’t a muscle but it sure acts like one. Invest time into creating thought patterns that will help you grow into the best version of yourself.
Among other things, neuroplasticity means that emotions such as happiness and compassion can be cultivated in much the same way that a person can learn through repetition to play golf and basketball or master a musical instrument, and that such practice changes the activity and physical aspects of specific brain areas.
Andrew Weil
