Mental Toughness Helps Athletes Improve Sports Performance

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It’s exciting to watch athletes set new records. Elite athletes experience smaller gains than beginners. To improve sports performance at that level has greater impact.
Now if you were offered the option to immediately turn pro or to develop your mental game so you knew what it took to reach the top in your sport, which choice would you make?
Turning pro is the knee jerk response for most athletes. I agree that competing at the top of your game is a powerful vision. Our strong desire for immediate gratification influences our choice.
The second option is not as sexy. But it is the wiser choice. That’s because becoming an overnight success, without changing limiting core underlying beliefs, weakens your grip. You’d back slide, quickly losing ground.
As you consistently aim to improve sports performance, you also build your mental game. Athletes that fail to work on their mental game suffer from erratic performance. They’re hot one event then cold the next.
Change your set point to improve sports performance
The problem lies within your subconscious mind and related belief system. It’s like using the cruise control on your car. Your car brakes to reduce downhill speed, and accelerates uphill during the climb. It constantly adjusts to maintain the set point.
Lisa, a golfer, who describes herself as a “mid-70’s” player approached me regarding her erratic performance. She was frustrated by the range in her score when playing in tournaments. She’d shoot 73 one day and then 79 the next, averaging 76.
Her subconscious mind and her belief system, identifies with being a “mid-70’s” golfer. It’s her comfort zone. Each time Lisa moves too far away from her average then the cruise control in her subconscious mind kicks into gear. It adjusts her performance to maintain her set point.
She wondered why it was so difficult to maintain a competitive lead. Grinding it out wasn’t fun. Additional golf lessons and talking with her coach weren’t the solution.
The breakthrough to improve sports performance
The solution for Lisa to lower her score was to re-set her core beliefs. She’d unknowingly created patterns which supported her current average. Lisa’s programming required a tune-up.
3 strategies to improve sports performance:
• Awareness. Update your personal vision.
• Attitude. Uplevel by spending time with “go-getters.”
• Accelerate. Speed up progress by stretching yourself. Go beyond your comfort zone to improve sports performance
It was time for Lisa to break free of the “mid-70’s” golfer identity. The simple solution was to shift her approach. To improve her golf game she needed to act as if she had already improved.
Here are the changes:
• Calculated risk when appropriate.
• Consistent mental game routine.
• Commitment to each shot.
• Compete against better players.
It was time for her to play golf for herself, not for the approval of anyone else. She personally enjoyed the challenges that golf offered.
Freeing herself of that limiting belief, the one about the downside to winning, was the mindset shift she needed. Instead of avoidance, she now felt capable of playing a higher level of golf, owning her game and gaining something from each tournament. It was the shift she needed to reset her beliefs.
Her new image as a strong, competent golfer playing for the challenge to stretch her potential gave her the boost she needed. She was free of the subconscious limitations. And her performance improved the next season, lowering her average by 3 points.
What do you need to release so you can claim a new personal best, and maintain that level of play? Shifting your beliefs, your practice habits and the way you approach competitions gives you the tools to uplevel. It’s time to choose your beliefs so you’re in control of your game. Step up to what’s possible and know you’ve done the work to own it.
If you’re performance goes hot and cold, and you’ve made tactical changes with little improvement, then you may hold conflicting beliefs. Hidden subconscious beliefs always override the conscious ones. If you feel you could use some with your mental game contact me for a complimentary consult. loren@expertsportsperformance.com