Potential Mental Skills Program Structure
I just came across a great post on LinkedIn by Alex Auerbach — a performance psychologist from Tucson/AZ — and I want to share its content here with you (I asked him for permission to do so…).
Alex shared what a basic mental skills program might look like if we were working with a COACH:
- Mindfulness
- Goal-setting
- Confidence-building
- Energy management
- Self-talk
- Preparation
- Resilience
Here’s what that would look like in practice:
1. Mindfulness
This isn’t some airy-fairy exercise all about “letting go.”
This is attention training. And it only takes 12 minutes a day for maximum impact.
So, set aside 12 minutes.
Turn down the lights.
Focus on your breath.
Come back when distracted.
Repeat.
2. Goal-setting
Each individual on your team has something they’re working toward. Honor that. You can have team and individual goals.
Meet with them 1:1.
Ask them what success looks like for them this season.
How will they know they’re making progress?
What do they need to do daily?
You’ve given them outcome, performance, and process goals.
3. Confidence-building
Confidence comes from 4 sources:
- Mastery experiences
- Vicarious experience
- Self-talk
- Appraising our physiology
Ask your athletes to reflect on what they’ve done well in the past, and how it can help them today.
Ask them to catch their teammates succeeding.
Have them fill out a confidence resume (https://perform.alexauerbach.com/p/confidence-resume-7c97 → there are a lot more great docs on his website so it’s really worth visiting the website!)
4. Energy management
You need to know when to ramp up or ramp down.
Long exhale breathing = ramp down
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Short inhale/rapid breathing = ramp up
Teach basic tools to control physiology.
Teach them how to recover in short bouts in game.
Teach them when to take a break.
5. Self-talk
You need good self-talk to stay confident and focused.
Good doesn’t mean all postiive.
Good means helpful.
Teach them how to:
- self-motivate
- self-start
- stay up
- cope with adversity
All using how they talk to themselves.
Then, teach them framing.
Nerves are:
- Excitement
- A sign you care
- A sign you’re determined
- Enhancing your performance
Changing the frame changes perception. Changing perception changes performance.
Bonus: Lesson: How you talk to them will be how they talk to themselves.
6. Preparation
Pair purposeful practice:
- repetition
- variation
- representativeness
With psychological preparation
- Goals for the game
- Competition plan
- Imagery
Players need a goal for each game. It gives them something to focus on. It should be something they can control.
Develop a plan. What should they do if they hit an obstacle? How should they execute? Plans build confidence.
Imagine success in execution. Get in mental reps.
7. Resilience
No plan survives first contact.
How can they respond when the chips are down? What should they actually DO to be resilient?
Summary
I believe this provides an excellent overview of how to structure mental skills training without succumbing to the pitfall of solely addressing immediate concerns and constantly switching between various skills.
Perhaps you employ different approaches and structures in your practice as well? If so, could you please share them with me?
