What is Sport Psychology?

Confidence/Motivation/Energy/Control/Leadership/Visualization​/Balance

/Focus​/Consistency/Communication​/

 

Have you ever been playing a sport and told yourself, "You can do it," seen yourself performing a skill well in your head, played music to get you pumped up, or took deep breaths to calm your nerves? Then you have been using sport psychology mental skills!

 

Sport psychology is the study of how the mind affects performance and how performance affects the mind. But what does that mean exactly? Athletes talk to me about their sport and how they perceive their performance. This helps raise awareness and make connections for the athletes between their actions and the thought process behind it. As a mental performance consultant, I help athletes maintain performance and overcome a range of obstacles including, but not limited to: regaining and maintaining focus, increasing motivation and self confidence, raising and lowering energy levels, staying in control, setting goals, defining team roles, and how to effectively communicate with teammates/coaches/parents. I incorporate mental techniques for the athlete to practice during difficult moments. In other words, the athlete changes how he/she thinks and perceives a situation in order to perform well. 

 

 

Let's walk through a scenario:

 

A high performing athlete was recently asked to play for a competitive club team. She is a great player, but ever since the switch, she has struggled with her skills. Her coaches recommended private training, which has slightly helped performance at practice, but she still underperforms in competition. She is discouraged by this and questions her ability to play. 

 

The athlete reached out to Fit Mind Consulting and found she is highly nervous with this team, which affects her touch because her focus is elsewhere. Her thinking is fixated on being good enough for the team and on comments made about her playing. She learned to monitor her thoughts and body language and how to change them and regain control of her game. She uses empowering cue words as well as visualization to work through tough moments and has seen a positive change in her performance. After collaborating with Fit Mind, the athlete knows how to not only overcome challenging moments, but also how to maintain a consistent performance.