WHAT ARE MENTAL SKILLS?

Mental skills describe the tools for the mind that individual athletes can learn and develop to help them perform at their best and to reach their full potential.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MOST COMMON MENTAL SKILLS?

Some of the most commonly recommended mental skills for athletes include:

Visualization: Visualizing or mentally rehearsing successful outcomes and scenarios can help athletes prepare mentally and increase their confidence.

Focus and Concentration: The ability to maintain focus and concentration during training and competition can help athletes stay in the moment and avoid distractions.

Resilience:

If you’ve reached the point where you’d like some sport psychology support, the first step is to find an accredited sport psychologist. An accredited practitioner is someone who has completed rigorous training through a ‘governing body’ such the British Association of Sport & Exercise Science (BASES) or the British Psychological Society (BPS). They are practitioners who adhere to high standards and work under their governing body’s code of conduct.

So where do you look?

Word of Mouth

When searching for a sport psychologist, you may be able to get recommendations from people

What is it?

Sport Psychology can be described as the study of how psychology influences sports performance. Our thoughts, feelings and behaviours can all have an impact upon the way we approach sport, but quite this area of sports performance can be left unchecked.

Traditionally, there is a focus on the technical, tactical and physical aspects of sport. For example, teams and individuals might spend hours improving fitness, technical ability and tactical aspect of performance. But…how much time do we allocate to improving our mental fitness to perform?

There’s an urban quote that suggests:

“Sport is 90% physical and 10%