Any successful athlete – whether an Olympic champions or an NFL player – is always looking for new ways to achieve peak performance and be successful in their competition and that includes mental techniques to strengthen mental toughness and make adjustments to their physical sensations, emotions, feelings, thoughts and actions to improve their games.
But you don’t have to be a professional athlete with a room full of trophies to be a successful athlete. You, too, can use sports psychology and mental training to reach your fitness and health goals easier, faster and more efficiently, because everybody can achieve greatness in their chosen sport if they set high, realistic goals for themselves and train hard within the scope of their abilities and limitations.
Any successful athlete knows that sport can enrich your life in a variety of ways and knows that what you put into your sport, you will get out. Nowadays, there is a huge body of evidence that mental strength training techniques can vastly improve your sports performance and help you find newfound confidence, motivation and major breakthroughs in your fitness as well as your life.
Here are our TOP 8 mental techniques to achieve peak performance.
#1 Visualization
Visualization is the process of stimulating sensory experiences in our mind in the absence of external stimuli. It involves various factors such as body awareness, sound, psychological states, touch and a variety of other mental and physical experiences. Visualizing your sports performance can positively impact your performance outcome because you can anticipate and solve problems, mentally rehearse your movements and reinforce a positive outcome. You can visualize your sports performance individually or choose a guided visualization. However, you have to be consistent in your visualization practice to produce positive results.
#2 Self-Talk
Optimistic self-talk, mantras and positive affirmations are very popular and effective in today’s sports. There are a variety of ways you can use positive self-talk to improve your performance. There is ‘instructional self-talk’, which is effective in improving learning and muscle control. For example you can use phrases like ‘Keep your knees bent’ or ‘Keep your shoulders down’. On the other hand, there is ‘motivational self-talk’, which pumps you up and will get your energy flowing. Great examples are ‘I can do this’ or ‘Let’s go’. Positive self-talk is one of the most researched areas in sports psychology and is used by almost every professional athlete.
#3 Goal Setting
Goals are something we want to accomplish or achieve and give our energy a specific direction. Setting high, realistic goals allows us to get a sense of control over our actions and can move us beyond fears. Research shows that goal setting can dramatically enhance your performance while at the same time reducing anxiety. You will also significantly increase your purpose, understanding, confidence and motivation. Make sure to have a long-term vision and create short-term strategies to reach that long-term vision of what you want to achieve.
#4 Meditation
Meditation is a mental exercise that is growing in popularity within sports psychology, as just 15 minutes a day can help to improve your focus and concentration – two aspects of your mind that have a huge impact on your ability to achieve peak performance. It helps you to get into a flow state when you are performing your sport, meaning that you will be completely focused and highly energized to achieve your goals. If you want to train your mind to be focused, relaxed and in the zone, meditation is a must-do mental technique that will help you to achieve peak performance.
#5 Concentration Control
We live in a world full of distractions, whether we are in the gym or on center court at Wimbledon, so it is detrimental to develop concentration and attention control to stay focused on the task at hand and not let any distractions break your concentration. You can enhance your concentration and attention through strategies like learning to remain in the present, visualization, positive self-talk and joyful absorption of the moment. And when you do lose your concentration – which happens to the best of us – don’t beat yourself up, but find a way to regain your focus.
#6 Motivation
Motivation is what drives you forward to achieve your goals and the intensity you put in along the way. The best form of motivation is when you are motivated by the desire to learn, grow and improve, not matter the outcome. Your motivation is what makes you persistent when times get tough and keeps you pushing forward. Realize that the process is more important than the outcome, so enjoy the journey and your motivation will get a big boost.
#7 Attitude
Attitude is a choice, so choose to have a predominately positive attitude. Learn from your successes as well as your failures and realize that you aren’t really competing with anyone else, but only with yourself. Pursue excellence and not perfection and maintain a healthy balance between your sport and the rest of your life. Respect your sport and the other participants and choose to stay positive no matter what.
#8 Self-Confidence
Self-confidence is not what you hope to achieve, but what you realistically expect to accomplish. It’s all your emotions, feelings, sensations, thoughts and actions that reflect self-belief and the expectation of success. Be confident in yourself and help those around you improve on their skills, engage in positive self-talk and reward yourself for small successes to prop up your confidence levels. But keep in mind, overconfidence can sometimes be detrimental to your ability to achieve success, so find a healthy balance.
Sports psychology is an emerging field of study on how our minds can improve our physical and athletic performance. Elite athletes have been using those mental techniques for years to gain an extra edge. Now you, too, can improve your athletic performance and with that reach your fitness and health goals.
ACHIEVE SUCCESS IN SPORTS TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS IN ANY AREA OF YOUR LIFE
Joschi & Monika
#BoldNaked
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