The Growth Mindset
How To Effectively Teach Mental Performance Skills
As a young coach I recognized the value of Mental Skills pretty quickly. I dedicated a significant amount of time to learn about Sport Psychology and how it could help my athletes. The more I learned the more excited I became. This stuff could really help! I set aside time and taught my athletes about different Mental Performance Skills and how they could help them be their best. The results were always disappointing at best. The most compliant would try out whatever skill we were working on and might find a bit of benefit. The majority of my athletes would try the skills out once and find no benefit and never try it again. “That stuff doesn’t work.” “I don’t do that stuff” “It’s a waste of time” were all comments I heard frequently from my athletes. I knew it was not a waste of time, I continued to see the best athletes in the world comment on the role that Mental Performance Skills played in their greatness. I finally realized that it wasn’t my athletes that were the problem it was that I wasn’t effectively teaching these skills.
I talked to lots of coaches who shared similar stories of frustration trying to teach Mental Performance Skills. This lead me to start to take a look at things from a different perspective. The key to helping athletes use these skills is to treat them the just like the skills athletes use in their sport. Athletes do not utilize new skills in competition, they first master them in practice with repetition. I feel this is where the disconnect has occurred with the use of Mental Skills, coaches need to have drills and techniques to help their athletes master the use of these techniques.
There is also a secondary takeaway for athletes use of these skills that cannot be discredited, many of these skills will help athletes away from their sport for the rest of their life. The same skills that help athletes be Mentally Tough in their sport will help them be mentally well away from sport. Anxiety and depression are at an all time high and are a real problem for youth. This is an opportunity to help young athletes understand why anxiety happens and provide them with tools to help them deal with it.
The key to teaching Mental Performance Skills to athletes is to utilize effective teaching. At Evolution Mental Performance the 3E’s are the foundation for our curriculums to insure that there is a blueprint for coaches to effectively teach mental skills. The three E’s are Educate, Embrace and Embed
Educate: This is the first step and it involves teaching the theory and rationale of the Mental Skill. It is important to talk about the benefits of using the skill. Like myself, lots of coaches do a great job of teaching their athletes why Mental Skills are beneficial. However this is often where the disconnect occurs, athletes need to be taught how to practice them.
Embrace: Teaching your athletes any skill is the first step toward mastery and not the last. Coaches need to provide athletes opportunities to get reps with these skills in addition to reviewing the key concepts. The more time and attention coaches spend on these skills the better their athletes will become using them. Providing athletes feedback and assessment of their use of these skills is vital to them using them effectively. The more you as the coach embrace these skills the more buy in you’ll see from your players.
Embed: As a coach you can embed Mental Performance Skills by providing opportunities in practice to work on these skills, include them in your pre and post game speeches and timeouts. Question your athletes about how they are utilizing the skill they have been taught and provide them with alternative ways to employ them. You will know that the skills are embedded when the players start to work through the skills together and hold each other accountable without you. When you start hearing the terminology and lingo associated with that skill within your team you should start to see improvements in their performance.
All of this takes time and you will need to carve out a dedicated spot in your practice and season plans. I also think that coaches need to starting by teaching one mental skill at a time. Just like in skill development you do not want to overload the athlete with new skills. Allow proficiency before moving on to introducing a new one. In a high school or university setting the athlete has four years to develop a complete Mental Performance Skill set. Giving the athlete time to master the skills will allow them success and they will be more likely to incorporate it and be excited to learn about the next skill.
All the curriculums I am creating will focus on how to teach the Mental Skills using the 3 E’s to focus on how get the most out of your athletes. They will include material to educate you the coach, material to help you teach the skill. It will include exercises to help you and your athletes embrace the skill and get the reps needed for mastery. Lastly, it will include tips and tools to help you embed the skills across your program. The first curriculum on how to teach Positive Self-talk will be ready in mid-May and we are excited to start helping your athletes.
If you have made it this far I have one favour to ask. I am trying to gauge what coaches feel would be the most effective way to deliver instruction and materials. I have set a very brief Google survey and would really appreciate if you could take two minutes to fill it out.
