How Do Top Athletes Mentally Prepare
“Mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally prepared.”
How do athletes mentally prepare? This is the #1 question athletes ask when they understand the importance of the mental game in sport. Getting your mind right is the key to improving peak performance in sports and giving yourself the best chance for success. Successful athletes such as Lebron James, Alyson Felix, Serena Williams, Gabby Douglas, Mia Hamm, Chris Paul, the late Kobe Bryant, Floyd Mayweather, Tom Brady, Deshaun Watson, Richard Sherman, Usain Bolt, and others have all talked about the importance of mental preparation in sport.
The top athletes use several methods to prepare for competition, and even in daily training. The target areas of mental preparation include:
Identifying Short Term Goals
You must identify, assess, and set realistic short and long term goals so that you do not grow frustrated with the setbacks and obstacles that come while you are on the pathway to success. Be honest about your current performance levels so that you can develop a plan to reach short term results and ultimately exceed your long-range desired results.
Setting Long-Range Goals
Long-range goals are you stretch goals; they are the outcomes that you truly desire, whether that is being drafted, starting for your college team, receiving a D1 scholarship, or becoming an all-pro player. The short term goals and actions will propel you towards the long-range goals.
Motivation levels
Very rarely can you attain unprecedented success without a sincere motivation and desire that is different from most of your peers and the population. To get the necessary motivation, you must develop your WHY. Why, why, and why are you willing to do the daily work? What is it that is motivating you? Your why must be more reliable than the obstacle or willingness to quit.
Attitude
This is the easiest and the hardest characteristic of mental preparation because it does not require talent. The only requirement is optimism and a positive outlook. You must have the faith to know that you will reach your goal. Attitude is a daily and minute-by-minute choice.
Visualization
Mental imagery and visualization are critical in your ability to reach your desired result. Create a picture in your mind of you playing well, winning games, and reaching your goals. You must visualize yourself doing the specific actions in your sport at a high level of success. Lastly, create pictures in your mind of you standing in your dreams.
Positive Self Talk
The most important conversations you can have are the conversations you have with yourself. Maintaining self-confidence during adversity is done by what you tell yourself and how you see yourself.
Proverbs 23:7 says, “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”
What do you think about yourself? Tell yourself amazing things, and you will go on to accomplished feats beyond what you imagined.
Learning to Thrive During Adversity
To thrive in adversity, you will need to push through the pain. This does not mean ignoring difficult times or being indifferent to people, but it does mean that you must be able to do the tasks necessary to reach your desired result during difficult times. It is as simple as just making sure you do not stop the daily actions because of unforeseen circumstances.
Even as everyone is quarantined during the COVID-19 pandemic, you must still work out at home, watch film, have positive self-talk, and take care of your body. Don’t let adversity interrupt your program.
Ignoring Criticism
In the world we live in, everyone is now a critic. You must most be able to ignore the noise. And conversely listen to the trainers, experts, and people that are investing in you.
Focus and Concentration
To increase focus and concentration, you will need to focus on your tasks; you must stay in the moment. Don’t make the game more significant than what it is. Don’t become obsessed with fans, media, and others outside of your game. Concentrate on the specific task at hand and not the results or the noise surrounding the game you play.
Why is mental preparation essential in sport?
Mental preparation is essential in sport because an athlete that is mentally prepared has a better chance of performing well and reaching peak performance state, which will ultimately increase the chances of winning. A mentally prepared athlete will usually be able to maximize their physical abilities versus being limited by lack of preparation and understanding of the games.
The best athletes will mentally prepare before games, and they can maintain more extended periods of peak performance versus players that do not take mental preparation seriously. This is especially true for athletes beyond the youth level. Younger athletes can get away with using primary physical athletic gifts.
But as athletes move up the competitive charts, mental preparation is essential. In many cases, at the professional level, mental training is more important than the physical because the athletes have very similar physical attributes.
Our team recommends that athletes spend an equal amount of their training time on mental training that includes game film, tendency study, positive self-talk, visualization, and walking through the many possible scenarios of the game so that they are prepared.
Athletes now realize that the mental approach to the game is at the center of maintaining and achieving peak performance, as well as to have a career at all. If you are not serious about the mental game of sport, you may need to reconsider your profession.
How do you stay mentally focused in sports?
You stay focused on the sport by knowing what you need to focus on, which is accomplishing your sport-specific skills at a high level. Remaining relaxed by breath, repetition, positive self-talk, and using visualization. You stay focused on sport by focusing only on what you can control.
Do not focus on cheers, fans, critics, mistakes, trash talk, and bad calls by referees. Concentrate your energy on such things will cause you to become distracted by something outside of your control.
Then what you must do is assess how you performed. How well did you accomplish your sport-specific goals, such as free throws, defensive assignments—assists, turnovers, and other sports measurables?
Additionally, you will assess how you reacted to bad calls. Did you engage in unnecessary trash talk and interactions with competitors that broke your focus? Did you allow fans to bother you? Was there ever a point when you participated in back and forth with fans?
What is the most mental sport?
I have played three sports beyond the D1 collegiate level and, in my personal opinion, these are the toughest sports mentally.
- Free Solo Rock Climbing
- Gymnastics
- Motocross and Supercross at the professional level
- Decathalon
- Formula One
As you can see, all of these sports have a high-risk factor. You must have your mind right to compete and succeed at the elite level.
What does it mean to prepare mentally?
To be mentally prepared for the sport, you must be ready for all aspects of the competition. You are ready tactically, strategically, and physically. Being mentally prepared means you are prepared for unexpected challenges, and you understand the tendencies of the opposing team or player. Additionally, mental preparation for sport includes anxiety and stress management. You should have stress and anxiety under control.
Lastly, being mentally prepared involves your effort and efficiency; you, as an athlete, will give maximum effort through competition and will show appropriate sportsmanship and self-control in all circumstances.
How do you mentally prepare? And How do I mentally prepare?
You prepare by practicing, visualizing, using positive self-talk, preparing for unexpected circumstances.
I prepare mentally by doing everything possible to succeed in the sport within the rules. My personal preparation includes mental, physical, emotional and spiritual preparation.
Find out how to be a better athlete.