by Dariusz Nowicki, chief coordinator of psychological preparation for all Polish Olympic teams, author of Gold Medal Mental Workout
For many years outstanding athletes, coaches, and scientists have striven for greater sports mastery to ensure success in competition. Once the potential for improvement through better sports technique and methodology of training is fully exploited, those questing for the winning edge concentrate on sports psychology.
Because training methods, training loads, and methods of speeding up recovery used by leading athletes are very similar, based on the same widely accessible knowledge of physiology of effort, it is mental training that determines victory or defeat.
What is mental training?
Mental training is a collection of psychological techniques (mental exercises) and methods that, if systematically applied, improve control of emotions and behavior, quality of concentration, and increase endurance to stress, or mental toughness.
Mental training is tightly integrated with physical training. Both these forms of preparing athletes for competition complement each other and lead to peak form and record results.
Mental training falls into three periods:
1. Period of general mental preparation:
Athletes learn to achieve the relaxation state and to concentrate attention—foundations for making positive mental changes and for developing the skill of controlling emotions and behavior.
2. Period of sport-specific mental preparation:
Athletes learn mental exercises for developing the skill of ideomotor training (use of imagery to improve physical skills), sport-specific concentration of attention, and mental toughness. Athletes also learn how to include mental exercises in their regular workouts.
3. Period of mental prestart preparation:
Athletes practice programs of mental training preparing for competitions—ideomotor training for perfection of sports techniques and tactics, mental exercises for control of arousal during competition and for increased confidence, and a relaxation program for speeding up recovery during strenuous workouts and competition. At the end of this period athletes internalize one program designed to prepare for a particular competition.
Who should conduct mental training?
The brief answer is: the coach and the sport psychologist.
The coach knows the athlete best because of everyday contacts during workouts. It would seem, therefore, that the coach should conduct mental training too, but usually the coach is so occupied with other duties that he or she does not have time to learn all the required psychological skills. Of course, the well-prepared coach knows the fundamentals of mental training: how to use concentration exercises, ideomotor exercises; knows methods of mobilizing athletes and of releasing their mental tension. Any properly prepared coach can thus use these techniques in critical situations in training and in competition, but almost certainly will not have the specialized knowledge of a sports psychologist.
The sports psychologist works with athletes in close cooperation with the coach. The coach not only knows the athlete better but also the specifics of the sport. The sports psychologist should be a former athlete, know the methodology of sports training, and have extensive experience with mental training for sports. Being a former competitor helps the sports psychologist to understand athletes and their behavior in competitions, and to gain the trust of athletes and coaches.
So the sports psychologist is a consultant or adviser to the coach on matters of mental preparation for competition, while the coach directs the whole training process taking into account suggestions of all the collaborators, including the psychologist. It is essential that the athlete also treats the sports psychologist as a consultant or adviser and not become dependent on the psychologist’s presence and help. A good sports psychologist will discourage such dependence. An athlete’s improved performance is a result of mental exercises proposed by the sports psychologist and not a result of the presence of the psychologist.
Mental training in a macrocycle
The time needed for mastering particular mental skills varies from athlete to athlete. It should be long enough for the athlete to make the skill automatic. Its length depends on the frequency of mental practice. The majority of athletes practice mental skills 3-5 times per week, but some practice twice a day.
It is best to introduce mental training in a transition period (a period of relative rest following a competition period and preceding the next preparatory period) because lowered physical loads leave enough time and energy for mastering the basic skills of mental training. The exercises developing basic mental skills, such as relaxation, concentration, and positive thinking, help to deal with problems arising from the previous competitive period and increase an athlete’s willingness to train.
The basic mental exercises continue into the general preparatory period. Each session of the basic exercises of mental training takes from 20 to 30 minutes and should be done once or twice every day. During the 3-6 weeks needed to master the basics of mental training, the sessions are held in a silent, warm, and dark room, and the skills may be learned in a group.
During the sport-specific preparatory period, with the basic skills of mental training already mastered, athletes progress to learning mental skills more closely related to their sport, namely, the type of concentration that is specific to their sport, and the ideomotor training for speeding up the process of learning and perfecting technical skills. During this period athletes also learn short relaxation programs for speeding up their recovery after hard efforts, and they encode a connection of starts in competitions with positive emotions.
At this time each session of mental training takes from 5 to 15 minutes and athletes practice individually. Sessions are conducted in less comfortable conditions, occasionally even in the locker room, gym, or on the bleachers.
In the competitive period, most emphasis is on the sport-specific psychological training, meaning mental preparation for specific competitions. Athletes encode emotional states associated with being in good shape, self-confidence, and belief in success. Mental exercises for eliciting the optimal state of mind for performance become a routine part of a warm-up. As the main competition get closer, athletes develop a mental exercise program for preparing for this most important competition.
Many elite athletes use either the services of a sports psychologist or mental training programs developed by sports psychologists. You too can use such program—Gold Medal Mental Workout—developed by Dariusz Nowicki, a world-renowned sports psychologist.
This article is written by the author of Gold Medal Mental Workout for Combat Sports: A Step-by-Step Program of Mental Exercises to Make You a Winner Every Time.
Recommended reading
Do You Need Mental Training?
Can You Ever Stop Building Your Mental Toughness?
If you have any questions on training you can post them at Stadion’s Sports and Training Discussion Forum.