Train Your Mind Like Muscles

Psychological Skill Techniques to Enhance Performance

When endurance athletes begin training for an event, they usually make sure that they dedicate a lot of time to their physical training. This proactive approach allows them to gradually build upon their base levels and become more specific with their training components, allowing them to peak at the right time leading to their actual event. Physical training can be intense, not just on an athlete’s body but also on an athlete’s mind. Many times athletes call upon psychological skills training after a problem arises. Without implementing a solid psychological skills training plan, endurance athletes are doing themselves a disservice. 

The truth is, implementing mental skills training should be included with physical training proactively! Getting started can sometimes seem overwhelming, especially if the athlete doesn’t know where to begin. There are numerous professionals who can assist in developing mental skills training programs for athletes, but many athletes can also work on specific techniques to help themselves along the way.  

What Are Psychological Skills?

Before identifying specific techniques to include, it’s important to understand psychological skills. Mental skills are components of athletes included in training programs to focus on enhancing elements such as confidence, focus, and resilience. Most importantly, these skills assist athletes in becoming more self-aware of their cognitions, emotions, and physiological responses. By becoming more self-aware of these responses, an athlete can implement specific mental skills as coping mechanisms during performance. 

So, where to begin? It’s important to understand that every athlete will have a unique response to each psychological skill. For example, what might work for one athlete might now work for another, and that’s okay! Trial and error is a big component! 

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4 Mental Skills To Improve Performance

1. Goal Setting: Establishing goals might be a concept endurance athletes understand regarding sticking to a specific training schedule, but there’s so much more involved! Strong goal setting involves establishing outcome, performance, and process goals while utilizing the SMART principle. The secret sauce is setting action steps to complete each day. These action steps can include any element of the athlete’s life that takes them one step closer to achieving their goals. Without a solid goal-setting plan, athletes might struggle to connect to their goals and be motivated. 
2. Diaphragmatic Breathing: Breathing is an involuntary response in the body. Our breath provides an athlete with a lot of intel. Athletes might notice their breathing becoming shallow and rapid when stressed, nervous, or anxious. When relaxed, an athlete might notice their breathing becomes deep and slow. Diaphragmatic breathing aims to allow athletes to control their breathing rate by training themselves to breathe from their diaphragm instead of from their chest. Learning to breathe from the diaphragm allows breathing patterns to shift into the deep and slow method, which assists an athlete in lowering their heart rate, reducing their blood pressure, increasing the amount of oxygen in the blood, and helping in relaxation.  
3. Positive Self-Talk: The dialogue between an athlete’s two ears is more potent than dialogue with another person. An athlete’s thoughts connect to their emotions. When an athlete hears negative self-talk patterns, the following emotions are usually feeling down, lacking confidence, anxiety, etc. Also, negative self-talk usually comes in waves. Once this pattern begins, there will usually be additional self-talk following. The goal is to become aware of self-talk patterns. When an athlete notices negative self-talk, implement a strategy to shift the talk into the positive.  
4. Imagery: Imagery is a psychological skill requiring athletes to incorporate all their senses to create a vivid mental rehearsal. There are numerous benefits for endurance athletes in implementing imagery practices. One advantage is that imagery assists athletes in focusing on their strengths and not giving much attention to their weaknesses. Imagery can help regulate emotions, especially anxiety, that an athlete usually experiences by helping rewire their vision to see themselves performing confidently. Another benefit is that imagery can enhance motivation throughout training seasons.  

Trust The Process

When an athlete incorporates psychological skills into their training program, being patient with the process and approaching it with a non-judgemental mindset is essential. For example, practicing a skill might take a few times before it clicks! Also, if an athlete tries a skill and finds it might not fit best for them, that is okay! An essential element with psychological skills is to practice, practice, practice!! The athlete should consider when they first started their sport. It took practice and willingness to trust in the process to get to where they are today. This is the same for psychological skills training. Most importantly, an athlete should have fun learning about themselves as they work towards reaching their true athletic potential!

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