Mental strength training is an important, albeit underrated, contributor to athletic success.In this final episode of the series Erin McGuire reviews previous episodes and presents a game day strategy. Mental strength training is akin to physical strength training- you don’t go to the gym once and become fit overnight. Likewise- you build your mental strength by applying skills in real-time. Build your self-awareness, implement tools, see what works, try again. Start with your goals, think about what you need to do to achieve them. Think about what you can control, and act upon it as you pursue your goals. When it’s crunch time, block out negativity by visualizing yourself performing to the best of your ability. How many years have you trained? How many hours of practice have you logged? How many times have you drilled a skill? You CAN do this. Clear your headspace, and coach yourself like the athlete you are by using positive, instructional, and motivational cues. Building mental fitness starts with YOU!
S1E5 "Mental Rehearsal"
On episode 5 Erin McGuire discusses mentally rehearsing your performance. Visualization has several names: mental rehearsal, imagery, guided imagery- are just a few of the interchangeable terms used to describe this skill. Visualization refers to imagining yourself performing, as if you were real-time in the moment, executing your play perfectly, exactly as planned..
Visualization incorporates all senses to create the most realistic image in the athlete’s head. Start by finding a comfortable place with limited distractions, you can close your eyes if that helps. Bring your attention to your breathing, slowing your breaths signaling your body to relax and clearing your headspace. Then, step into your playing field. What are you seeing? Hearing? Feeling? Even smelling or tasting come into play in certain sports. Once you’ve created your playing field, rehearse your performance. You are imaging yourself executing your skill perfectly, confidently, from start to finish.
S1E4 "Positive Self-Talk"
How an athlete talks to themselves plays a key role in their success on and off the field. Positive self-talk has been linked to increased self-confidence and overall emotional well-being. Negative self-talk gives insight to self-depreciating tendencies, decreased motivation, and negative emotional consequences. Talk to yourself the way you’d talk to a friend.
S1E3 "S.M.A.R.T. Goal Setting"
On Episode 3, Erin chats about SMART goal setting: how to set goals of all shapes and sizes that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Mental skills are an important, albeit underrated, contributor to athletic success and goals play so many roles in an athletic setting. They’re challenging yet motivational, they contribute to confidence and rewarding once achieved. Goals are not one size fits all: they can be set in many shapes and sized. Result goals refer to a specific outcome; a ribbon, placing, or score. Result goals are quantitative. Performance goals are the process: your personal best, skill execution. Short-term goals take days, weeks, or months to achieve while long term goals take months to years, though the actual length of the goal is relative. We can also set BIG goals- goals that are going to take a lot to achieve, career accomplishments, and smaller goals- stepping stones towards our bigger goals.
Goals are a necessary tool for any athlete, but they’re not a free-for-all. Goals should be set with an accountable standard, just as they hold their athlete accountable. Enter the S.M.A.R.T. Model. S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time bound. Specific: what do you want to achieve? Measurable: How will you track your progress. Achievable: is this goal within your capability? what steps will you take to achieve this goal? Relevant? Why does this goal matter? Time-bound: what’s your deadline?
It’s one thing to set a goal, it’s another thing to follow through. The SMART model is a great way to determine if your goals are worth achieving. This model can be applied to all goals: performance goals, result goals, long and short term, big and little.
S1E2 "Control Based Thinking"
On this week's episode Erin focuses on Control Based Thinking. Control is an essential part of clearing your headspace: thought control, emotional control, and physical control are all parts of mental strength training. What about specifics, what about controlling the ball? controlling your horse? Controlling your opponent, or your environment, or your outcome? How many of these things can you actually control? And if you can’t control something what does that mean for your performance? On this episode, we chat about what is within an athlete’s control and how they can use this way of thinking to shape their performance.
S1E1 "Solution Based Thinking"
S1E1 of “Bit by Bit” with Remarqueable Athletic Solutions LLC’s own Erin McGuire
On Episode 1, Erin McGuire chats about solution-based thinking: how to “not say not” and focus on what you DO want to do.
Mental skills are an important, albeit underrated, contributor to athletic success. Bit by Bit is a collaboration between WISP Sports and Remarqueable Athletic Solutions LLC creator, Erin McGuire. Over the next six episodes Erin will teach you how to think efficiently and effectively then give you tools to leave your nerves in nerves in the locker room and hit game time ready to win. This is episode one of six: thought replacement strategies solution-based thinking.
Solution based thinking: think in terms of the solution not the problems. If I say “don’t look behind you!” What’s the first thing you’re going to do? Right. Whip your head around to see what you missed! Even though I told you “don’t look!” even though there were endless things you could have done; you could have looked forward, up, or down, you could have closed your eyes, or even stayed the same: yet it is likely your initial reaction to do the one thing you were told not to do. What should I have said? Rather than instructing you to refrain from what I didn’t want you to do, I should have instructed you to do what I actually wanted you to do. I could have said “eyes on me” or “look ahead.”
The same thing goes for coaches. Coach what you DO want not what you DON’T want.