Igniting Your Best Game Through Mental Training
Every successful athlete knows that there is both an inner game and an outer game.
The outer game is visible: Forehands, backhands, serves, tactics, point development and statistics … skills that most players know about and continue to work on.
Many of us know that, in spite all of this work, there is no guarantee that our best level will be ignited when in counts … in the heat of competition. It is the inner game, the part that very few work on, that separate the ordinary player from the extraordinary competitor. This is the game that is invisible: confidence, optimism, attitude, focus, perspective, persistence, resiliency, acceptance and spirit. Development of this part of the game is loosely called “mental training” and it is the mental, emotional and spiritual work that is done before, during and after competition. It is this mental strength that the greats develop in order to deal with the ongoing challenges of competition.
Every single thing that a player does, thinks, says, feels and believes has a consequence. Each thing either increases or decreases a player’s mental skills.
There are four areas of “the mental game” and each can be trained for an athlete to ignite their highest levels in competition:
â–ºPhysically: Players must be strong enough to go the distance. To this end, nutrition, hydration and sleep must be taken seriously. Yes, this is part of the mental game.
â–ºEmotionally: Players must train to access emotions that increase mental strength: Pleasure, joy, excitement, wonder, confidence, hope and fun. These emotions support high levels of performance. Negative emotions drain players and take them out of their games: Frustration, intolerance, worry, threat all lead to difficulty in finding our top level of play. A player that is playing with negative based emotions is carrying baggage that can only hold them back from their best.
â–ºMentally: Players must build focus that is of the highest quality. Focus increases mental energy. Multitasking decreases energy (players who think about how they are playing or about winning and losing are multitasking. They are only partly where they need to be.) Positive self-talk increases energy. Self-criticism decreases it. Perspective increases it. Distortion decreases it. A player lacking in focus is sure to lose their way time and again during competition.
â–ºSpiritually: The greatest impact of mental training comes from developing spiritually. Players, to get the most out of their talent and skills need to train to compete for more than just the win. They need to train in the qualities of champions: character, courage, conviction, persistence, perseverance, acceptance and a welcoming attitude about challenges. Champions love battles, and many of the greats say they love to compete even more than they love to win.
And the great news
Each of these parts the mental game is trainable, just like a forehand and backhand, and just like strategy and footwork. Mental training is more than just words. A player must work at it and improve at it. By doing repetitions and increasing the stress on each of these, we end up improving, just as we improve strokes and strategy.
In the same way that we treat a muscle that we are trying to grow, these mental strengths grow. Each one, as a muscle and as a stroke, becomes stronger, more enduring, more flexible and has greater resiliency.
Today is the day to begin to train mentally. Welcome the challenge and believe that you can be a Rafael Nadal, not only a great player, but also an extraordinary competitor.
The pathway from ordinary to extraordinary, the key to igniting the very highest end of your talent and skill in competition, is through the investment of time and energy in developing your mental game.
