Pre-Season Mental Preparation

It’s that time of year again where the fall sport season is almost here and it is time to start honing in on how you can support your high performance athlete. Below in this article you'll find:

• Performance Concept of the week

  • Pre-Season Mental Preparation: How to support your athlete in getting ready for the upcoming season!

• Action plan

• Resource of the week

• Things to Explore

• Got Questions?

Performance Concept of the Week

Preseason Mental Preparation: How to support your athlete in getting ready for the upcoming season.

As parents of high-performance or competitive athletes, you're no stranger to early morning practices, out-of-town tournaments, and the thrill of watching your athlete push their limits. By now you’re likely watching them compete and perform at a level you may never thought was even possible.

While physical preparation, and skill development are often an off-season focus, the role of mental preparation is often forgotten.

As the season approaches, striking the right balance between physical and mental training can give your athlete the tools to take their game and more importantly their confidence to the next level. During the off season it is important to have some time off mentally from your sport, but as the season approaches it is time to ratchet your mental game back up. Here's why mental preparation is integral for athletes, and how you can support them in this critical aspect of their development.

Understanding the Mental Game

High-level sports are as much a mental battle as they are a physical one. Skills, speed, and strength are key, but without mental performance skills, athletes can falter in critical moments (succumbing to pressure). Pre-season mental preparation equips athletes with the focus, confidence, and psychological resilience needed to handle the stress and pressures of competitive or high performance sports.

The Importance of Mindset

Mindset is your approach or outlook towards something. Having a positive mindset is crucial. Carol Dweck's research on "fixed" versus "growth" mindsets reveals the impact of beliefs on performance. Athletes with a growth mindset see challenges as opportunities and are more resilient in the face of setbacks. When you see your athlete getting negative or “fixed” with their thoughts, remind them of the lessons learned, and be open to the growth that occurs from failure and focusing on the process.

Understanding the Importance of Mental Preparation?

Mental preparation encompasses all the skills and tools an athlete needs to have in their toolbox to manage that mindset! These tools help with mental health, managing load, dealing pressure, increasing focus, coping with anxiety, managing stress, finding peak performance, and most importantly building their CONFIDENCE!

Mental Preparation Strategies for Athletes

As pre-season ramps up, here are strategies you can encourage your athlete to incorporate into their routine:

Set SMARTER Goals

Understand what your athlete’s goals are! Not your goals, but theirs. Encourage them to set Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, Evaluate, Reward (SMARTER) goals. Goals should be challenging yet attainable and broken down into short-term objectives for a sense of progress, and long term goals for a sense of vision and purpose. Goals can be broken down into yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals.

Establishing Routines

Consistent routine(s), including mental preparation, can enhance focus and concentration, reduce anxiety, and enhance performance. Remind your athlete to establish a structured schedule that includes time for completing their routines (this includes out of sport routines too). Remember a routine is just a bunch of good habits strung together!

Practice Mindfulness and Relaxation

Encourage your athlete to engage in mindfulness exercises or meditation to enhance concentration and present-moment awareness. Relaxation techniques like deep breathing can help manage pre-performance nerves. Athletes spend enough time dealing with the stressors of performing, they don’t need to stress out at home too!

Encourage Positive Self-Talk

Help your athlete become aware of their inner dialogue. Teach them to turn negative statements or doubtful thoughts into positive, constructive, and proactive ones, reinforcing their ability to overcome challenges and maintain self-confidence. Remember the first step to building confidence is taking action!

How Else can I Support their Mental Game?

Mental performance has become such an integral part of our hyper competitive world of sports the question begs……how else can you support your competitive or high performance athlete with their mental game?

Promote Open Communication: Encourage your athlete to express their thoughts, worries, and pressures, and be an active listener. Just them talking about it will help!

Foster Independence: Empower your athlete to take ownership of their mental preparation, reinforcing their autonomy and confidence. They must take action!

Provide Resources: Seek out mental performance coaches, or workshops that can give your athlete tools for their mental game.

Cultivate a Healthy Environment: Create a home environment that values effort and improvement over wins, and helps your athlete bounce back from errors, mistakes, & setbacks.

Be their Biggest Cheerleader: Show unconditional support and celebrate the small victories, not just the wins, to build their self-esteem.

At the end of the day the reality is just like sport specific training, mental training is very individualized and dependent upon the sport. We recommend you work with a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) to help develop their personalized mental performance plan!

Action Plan

This week’s action plan is a little different…….instead of looking at your athlete, let’s turn the tides and look at yourself.

Do you have a plan or a response for your athlete in respect to:

• Knowledge of their goals?

• What does your athlete value? Do you really know?

• What you will say/do when you see their routine(s) off?

• When you seem them overactive or not calm?

• When their self-talk seems overly negative?

Resource of the Week

One of the reasons athletes complete pre-season mental preparation is to prepare for games. This week’s resource of the week is our Gameday Preparation Resource Guide which is chalked full of ways athletes can prepare for games.

Things to Explore

• Read: Our Reading Library

• Download: Resource Guide Series

• View: Previous Weekly Performance Concepts

Got Questions?

Do you have a question, or want to know more about a topic. Let our team of experts help you. Ask your question here by clicking the button below. We will post answers to questions within future newsletters.

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