Champions Train, Losers Complain

Hey Guys, so for this post I am going to focus on the mental aspects of sport and what mental skills you require to be a successful athlete. Not only that but I will also discuss some ways of how you can leave your non-sport thoughts at home while training or competing so you can focus solely on the task in hand.

A room full of trophies is not what defines a successful athlete. A successful athlete is one who is committed to being the best they can be no matter what their circumstances are and what limitations they may have. Being the best and being the best you can be are two completely different things. It is important that you understand that. These athletes are successful because they are training and playing hard, enjoying their sport and working towards their realistic goals. They believe that what they are putting into their sport is worthwhile and it enriches their lives. 

There are nine learned mental skills that contribute to success in sports. These are all learned skills and can be improved with instruction and practice. 

1. Choose and Maintain a positive attitude: By having a positive attitude in your chosen sport allows you to train and compete at the highest of levels. Because if you believe in yourself you can do anything and I mean that. If nobody else believes in you but yourself, prove them wrong! "To be a great champion, you must believe you are the best." Muhammad Ali is a prime example because he believed in himself.
2. Maintain a high level of self-motivation: I think this is key to being successful. You need to be able to motivate yourself on good and bad days. You won't always have your coach shouting instructions at you and motivating you so this you will need to do yourself a lot of the time. 
3. Set high, realistic goals: Goals can be set individually or with the help of a coach and can be short term (1 year) or long term (2-5 years). Goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed). This technique of setting goals is often used by athletes across all sports and even in every day life. This way you can set yourself a specific goal, one that you can measure across the time length you have set for yourself to achieve the goal, as well as being realistic and of course achievable.
4. Deal effectively with people: This wouldn't be the most important skill in my opinion, but that is just my opinion. Being able to communicate effectively with other athletes as well as coaches is an important aspect of being a successful athlete. You need to be able to communicate effectively about your everyday feelings as this will affect how you train and play.
5. Use positive self-talk: Being able to talk to yourself in a positive way is an important factor in being a successful athlete because you sometimes are training by yourself and need to be able to convince yourself to keep driving on and working hard. It is for your own benefit after all!
6. Use positive mental imagery: This one can be important too because this would mainly be you picturing yourself with a happy ending, for example, reaching the Olympic Games if that was your main goal. Being able to provide yourself with positive images of what could be can really boost your self-esteem and drive to learn and work hard.
7. Manage anxiety effectively: Big competition coming up? Nervous? Being able to control your anxiety to an extent is what can stop you from letting the nerves get the better of you on game day. This is a tough skill but can be managed effectively once practised. I, for example, would listen to music during my warm up before a competition to try and ease my nerves. This is one of the most basic things to do and you would be surprised how much it can help. Having a ritual of what you do a day before competition right until the minute you step foot on the court or pitch is one of the most important aspects. And the best thing is, you are constantly learning what works best for you. 
8. Manage emotions effectively: Similar to the above skill, this can be learnt and you can constantly get better at doing this. Being able to control your emotions in intense situations, when the match is getting close is extremely important. Because if your emotions get the better of you and you jump to conclusions before you reach them this can be a turning point and can effect you in reaching your desired goals. 
9. Maintain Concentration: Possibly one of the most difficult skills to learn but as I said before you are constantly learning and can only get better. Maintaining your concentration is not only important in competition but also in training. You need to be able to concentrate 100% in training because it is then you are putting in the hard hours work to put into practice in competition. If your concentration lacks in training it will be hard to perfect this in competition as your concentration will probably dip here also. It's not always the case but it is definitely something to work on. 

So, what does all this mean? Well, each of these nine mental skills fall under a specific phase: long-term development, immediate preparation for performance and during performance itself. 

• Level 1: Skills 1-4 fall under this level which are known as basic skills. These skills are day-to-day skills that we use in everyday life not just our sporting lives!These mental skills constitute a broad base for learning, attaining long-term goals and sustaining daily practice. 
• Level 2: Mental skills 5 and 6 are known as preparatory skills which are skills used in the lead up to a competition.
• Level 3: Mental skills 7-9 fall under this level and are the skills we use during performance. 

All of these are important mental skills to acquire in order to be a successful athlete but not only that. We also need to be able to separate our lives when it comes to training and competition. So, what I mean is, are you able to leave your school and home life thoughts off the court or pitch? Because the minute you step into training or competition you should be able to focus 100% on your goal . But how best to do this? Well, of course it is different for everyone but I think that you should only be thinking about your goals in sport while you are training. Thinking about other things won't help you reach your goals. How do we do this? For me, I find it useful to listen to music before a training session because it tends to take my mind of everything else going on in my life. It gives you a chance to relax and reflect. Potentially even think about how your training session is going to go or how you want the competition to go. Everyone is different though and what works for me may not work for you. I would definitely recommend you find something that you can use as a method of preparing you for a training session or a competition.

Something I also find helpful is writing about my sport life and home/social life in a separate diary or notebook. This is a good way of separating your thoughts and feelings and can also be quite soothing. Again, this might not work for you but it is all about trying different things to see what suits you best.

I hope this post helped you understand some of the mental skills we need to acquire as athletes. And hopefully you can use some of my advice when you are trying to split your sport thoughts from your personal ones. This can be a turning point if you can do this effectively because it means that once you are at training you are 100% focused on achieving your goals. 

Don't forget to share with other athletes and leave a comment if you have any questions. Thanks!