Psychological Factors in Sports

One of the hallmarks of Mentally Toughness is the ability to perform well under pressure.  Whether you play golf or cricket, or enjoy gymnastics or netball.  It’s the same in your job if you have to stand up and deliver presentations at work.

So why do many people struggle with this? Why does thriving under pressure separate the great from the good on occasions?

Many things can prevent people to be able to perform in the manner they’d like to when the pressure is on for a host of reasons, including:

• Performance anxiety
• A failure to learn from past mistakes
• Focusing on the wrong things
• Making practice sessions too comfortable
• Personality traits, for example your Mental Toughness
• Off field pressures

Today’s short bite taken from episode 94 of Demystifying Mental Toughness, touches on this topic where Professor Adam Nicholls shares with you a few ideas to be able to improve the way that you perform under pressure.  Enjoy tuning in!

Key Learning Points:

• Mental Toughness is about an athlete’s ability to be able to perform well under pressure, so that their performance is not adversely affected by pressure.
• Typical signs that someone struggles with pressure are that their routines change, that they speed up or slow down or that they fail to carry out tactics and get caught up in emotion.
• Experience is an important factor in making good decisions under pressure.
• Simulating pressure in training and practice is another helpful approach to take.
• Seeking to improve your self-awareness, being open-minded to learn is also essential so that you can make smarter decisions at critical times.

Connect with Adam Nicholls

Book: Psychology in Sports Coaches: Theory and Practice

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Connect with David Charlton

Sign Up to The Mental Edge

Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub

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6 Relevant podcast episodes

Ep166: Mark Bennett MBE – How To Help Athletes and Coaches Reflect On Their Performances

Ep094: Professor Adam Nicholls – How to Develop Mentally Strong Rugby Players

Ep093: Dan Abrahams – How to Overcome Mental Blocks in Football

Ep091: Jarrod Leathem – How to Transfer Your Cricket Skills to Matches

Ep089: Will Shaw – How To Transfer Your Golfing Skills To The Course 

Ep050: Compilation – Mental Strength Does Not Guarantee Success

5 Relevant blogs

Blog: How To Play Well When You Aren’t Feeling Great

Blog: 5 Coaching Tips to Develop Mentally Tough Footballers

Blog: Mental Preparation for Combat Sports

Blog: Does Your Warm Up Influence How You Perform?

Blog: 3 Tips to Help You Overcome Setbacks

4 Valuable resources

Gibbs Reflective Cycle

Understanding yourself better – The 4Ts.  Timing, Thoughts, Tension and Temperature

Understand your mental toughness tendencies

Driscoll’s Model of Reflection

3 Great conversations to have with your kids to help them perform better under pressure

Conversations with Kids – Fixed Mindset

Conversations with Kids – Emotional Rollercoaster

Conversations with Kids – Bravery

Today’s guest, trainer, coach and author Andrew Simpson and I chat about the youth sport experience today for kids, parents and coaches.  We discuss pressures on kids, coaching and parental pressures and stressors.  We also look at parents who also coach and the difficulties involved in that role, in particular.  Common mindset traps kids fall into are also part of the conversation including the perfectionist kid who has high and unrealistic expectations of themselves and others, social comparisons and kids who carry their sporting identity so that it impacts their self-esteem.  Parents, and coaches in youth sport and teachers may find this episode helpful.

Key Learning Points

• Two big pressures that a lot of kids put on themselves in sports include trying to please others (coach and parents) through their performances.
• Between 9 and 11 years old children go from focusing on the task at hand to being more aware of others and their thoughts, emotions and behaviours.
• It is easy as a coach to lose sight of why you coach.
• Showing kindness and compassion as a coach and parent is a helpful way to help children regulate their emotions.
• For parents who also coach their children setting boundaries of when you’re a coach and a parent is vital.
• Children can find it difficult to regulate their emotions in sport due to performance demands.
• Parents can consider themselves as role models whilst standing on the sidelines.  If they get animated their children may follow suit.
• Bribery when parenting is unhelpful in trying to promote intrinsic motivation.
• Sports are what you do and are not who you are.

Connect with Andrew Simpson

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Website

Connect with David Charlton

Sign Up to Conversations with Kids

Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

Relevant Podcast Episodes

Ep154: David Charlton – How Do I Go About Controlling The Controllables To Help My Sport Performance?

Ep145: David Charlton – How Can I Help My Children Who Suffer With Nerves Before They Compete?

Ep141: David Charlton – How to Help a Child Who Wants to Quit Sport

Ep122: Camilla Knight – Helping Your Children Get The Most From Their Sporting Experiences

Ep082: David Charlton – Supporting Children in Sport with Positive Feedback

Relevant Blogs

Blog: Helping a Critical Child When You’re a Parent

Blog: How to Help Children Overcome Fear of Failure

Blog: How to Support an Angry Young Athlete

Blog: How to Help Kids Overcome Performance Anxiety

Blog: 9 Tips for Children from Olympians

Relevant Resources

Sports Psychology Resources for Youth Sport (Blogs, Podcasts, Video’s)

Sport Psychology for Children and Parents

Child and Youth Motivation for Sport Quiz

Parent Motivation for Sport Quiz

In today’s episode of Demystifying Mental Toughness we dip back into the archives and take a short bite from episode 13 where leading performance coach Karl Morris and I chat about emotional control an essential ingredient of Mental Toughness.  Karl goes on to share a very simple and effective strategy for those people who find it hard to let go of mistakes, stay calm and level headed. Or the golfer or athlete who gets too excited and finds they can think too far ahead when they’re performing well.  It’s a strategy for golfers however if you get creative this concept can be applied to any sport or setting.  Enjoy Tuning in! 

Key Learning Points

• Play a round of golf and look to observe your behaviour.  
• Make a note of your reactions to shots or how you you spend time between shots.
• Why not use a mental scorecard to engage your competitive side by scoring your reactions on the course? Tick if you remained present or cross if you could have handled things better. 
• If you train yourself to react well and you go on to swing it well, you start getting very close to playing to your full potential.
• Good players get ahead of themselves, everyone does. However good players are quick at noticing when their mind is stuck in the past or when they get caught trying to predict the future. They are then quick to move on after recognising it. 

Connect with Karl Morris

Website

LinkedIn

Connect with David Charlton

Sign Up to The Mental Edge

Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub

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To Listen to Relevant Podcast Episodes to Help You Lower Your Scores

Ep013: Karl Morris – How to stay present like a major champion

Ep099: Trevor Jones – How to Deal with Overthinking on the Golf Course

Ep160: Brian Hemmings – Golf Psychology: What You Can Expect and Why It Can Help You

Blogs To Improve Your Golf

How to Play Great Golf Under Pressure

5 Tips to Help You Perform Fearlessly When You Compete

Do you try too hard on the golf course? 

For More Resources so You Can Shoot Lower Scores on The Golf Course

Golfers Mental Scorecard

Golf Psychology FAQs

Psychology of Golf Library

Podcasts to Help You Manage Your Emotions Better

Ep092: Dr James Hegarty – ACT in Sport, Improving Performance through Mindfulness

Ep124: Dr Keagan Hadley – Long Term Injuries: How to Confront Difficult Thoughts and Emotions

EP136: Charlotte Potts – Overcoming Tough Times in Professional Women’s Football and Bouncing Back Stronger

Blogs to Help You Master Your Mind

Guided Mindfulness Meditation Practices with Jon Kabat-Zinn

Using ACT and Mindfulness to Improve Your Sporting Performances

Why You Should Meditate To Improve Your Sport Performance?

Many athletes and coaches understand that one measure of Mental Toughness, COMMITMENT, showing maximum effort, making promises and keeping them, setting goals and not getting to side-tracked is vitally important.  What this can also mean is a lot of athletes and coaches get carried away with simply being busy and trying to improve.  This often results in performance plateaus. 

Why is that?  A trap that many people fall into is a failure to learn from mistakes and performances.  This challenge is the motivation for creating this episode with leading performance coach, Mark Bennett MBE, where we discuss live decision making from an athlete and coaches’ perspective.  We also chat about individual sports and team sports, the differences, working with multi-disciplinary teams, hot and cold review processes and a lot more.  Enjoy tuning in!

Key Learning Points:

• Coaches are a huge influence on how athletes go on to make decisions and reflect on those decisions when they’re playing their sport in the moment.
• Helpful processes in decision making link to ensuring emotions are managed, environmental factors are controlled, being able to reflect live whilst understanding how choices in the execution of skills go on to influence the outcome.
• Helpful questions to ask yourself, start with – Am I in an effective state?
• Recognising if your ego gets in the way of your performance is essential for both coaches and athletes.
• Outcomes and too much though on technique can confuse a lot of golfers and impact their performance negatively.

Connect with Mark Bennett MBE

LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook

Performance Development Systems, PDS Coaching Website

Connect with David Charlton

Sign Up to The Mental Edge

Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub

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To Listen to Related Podcast Episodes

Ep069: David Charlton – David on Being Tough Vs Being Comfortable in Your Own Skin Part 1

Ep086 – David Charlton: Observations – How to Learn From Setbacks

Ep121 – Doug Strycharczyk and Dr John Perry What Is New? Developments in Mental Toughness Research and Practice

Ep140: Chris Cook – How to Improve Your Mental Strength: Secrets from an Olympian

Ep154: David Charlton – How Do I Go About Controlling The Controllables To Help My Sport Performance?

4 resources to read to help you make better decisions

3 Tips to Help You Overcome Setbacks

Make Better Decisions to Help Your Sport Performance

Resilient And Mentally Tough 9 Things You Can Learn From Tiger Woods

Driscolls Model of Reflection

3 Great conversations to have with your kids that relate to reflecting

Conversations with Kids – Values

Conversations with Kids – Emotional Rollercoaster

Conversations with Kids – Sports Coach

Goalkeeping is arguably the most difficult and mentally challenging position on the football or soccer pitch.  Common psychological challenges goalkeepers face include; dealing with pressure due to being the last line of defence, coping with mistakes, managing emotions, maintaining focus on the pitch in matches and in training, as well as communicating effectively with team-mates.

In today’s episode Andy Elleray, an author and goalkeeping coach, who has worked for clubs such as Chelsea and Bristol Rovers, and within the female game for the English and Welsh Football Associations joins me and shares some fantastic insights into the demands of goalkeeping as well as highlighting how to deal with the pressures better.

Key Learnings

• You will have difficult periods in your career as a goalkeeper.
• Making mistakes as a goalkeeper is inevitable.
• Goalkeeping coaching can test your communication skills, managing goalkeepers who are the preferred choice and those who are out of the team.
• Helping goalkeepers manage the controllables is important.
• Young goalkeeper’s brain is not fully developed therefore they can experience big emotions as a result of the challenges of the GK role, which they can struggle to deal with.
• Trigger words or physical triggers (using sweat bands or super-hero bands) can help goalkeepers move on more quickly from mistakes.

Connect with David Charlton

Sign Up to The Mental Edge

Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub

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Connect with Any Elleray

Website

LinkedIn

Twitter: @andyelleray / @lilys_goal 

Relevant Podcast Episodes

Ep08: Brendan Pearson – Academy Football, Professional Football, Injuries and Early Retirement

Ep087: Carl Bell – From Professional Football and Goalkeeping to Physiotherapy

Ep093: Dan Abrahams – How to Overcome Mental Blocks in Football

Ep146: John Nassoori – What Is The Role Of A Sports Psychologist In Football?

Ep151: Compilation – Football Psychology: 50 Ways You Can Improve Your Performance

Other Valuable Football or Soccer Resources 

Goalkeeping Psychology | Mental Skills for Goalkeepers 

Soccer Psychology | Mental Skills for Football

Youth Sports Psychology | Mental Skills Training for Kids and Parents

Frequently Asked Questions about Football or Soccer Psychology

Frequently Asked Questions about Goalkeeping Psychology

Trauma refers to a deeply distressing or disturbing experience or event that can overwhelm an individual’s ability to cope and potentially cause lasting psychological, emotional and physical effects.  In this bitesize episode, my guest, author and motivational speaker Steve Judge tells me about his inspiring journey.

In 2002, Steve was involved in a car crash near Sheffield, crushing both of his legs and very nearly losing his life.  The episode highlights how Steve learned to walk again, he also shares some advice on how he picked himself up from rock bottom.

Enjoy tuning in!

Key Learnings

• Steve highlights how setting short term goals helped him.
• Benchmarking and measuring his progress he found beneficial.
• Being kind to yourself during tough times is important.
• Social support is essential when we suffer difficulties.

Connect with David Charlton

Sign Up to The Mental Edge

Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

Connect with Steve Judge

Website

Steve Judge on LinkedIn

Relevant Podcast Episodes

Ep002: Steve Judge –  How to Deal with Adversity

Ep014: Alessia Bruno – The Yips, Crashes, Trauma in Sport there is hope for Athletes

Ep092: Dr James Hegarty – ACT in Sport, Improving Performance through Mindfulness

Ep131 David Charlton – How to Deal with Self-Criticism using Self Compassion – FINAL PART

Ep158: Dr Paul Gorczynski – How to Develop and Implement Mental Health Literacy Strategies

Relevant Blogs

Using ACT and Mindfulness to Improve Your Sporting Performances

Why You Should Meditate To Improve Your Sport Performance?

Mental Health Guidance For Coaches When Supporting Athletes

Bullying – The Dark Side of Sport

Creating a Mentally Healthy Sporting Environment