Psychological Factors in Sports

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

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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

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

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

The “yips” is a term commonly used in golf.  It describes sudden and unexplained losses of fine motor skills which impact on putting strokes and golfers chipping action.  It is argued that somewhere between 32 and 47% of serious golfers have been affected by the yips at some point.  The yips can be a very complex challenge to overcome where many golfers simply change technique and equipment numerous times.  Sports psychologists are advocates of the use of hypnosis, relaxation and visualisation techniques, as well as carefully thought out practice routines to help golfers regain confidence and trust in their putting stroke. 

In this bitesize episode #163 of the Demystifying Mental Toughness Podcast, my colleague Dr Alessia Bruno tells you more about the yips, what happens in the brain as well as offering you some hope if you experience this debilitating condition, where she refers to techniques such as Brainspotting and EMDR as a way to help you enjoy your golf or sport again.

Key Learning Points:

• The yips is a type of performance anxiety where motor skills are impacted.
• Golfers tend to become very rigid and controlling when performing a skill.
• The yips is a serious problem which can seep into other areas of your sport.
• The yips can cause many athletes to quit their sport.
• When the yips occurs, a fight or flight or freeze response occurs.
• The limbic system is activated when we’re fearful, especially the amygdala.
• Brainspotting and EMDR are techniques that allow us to process the memory without getting activated when we play golf or sport.

Connect with Dr Alessia Bruno

Website

Connect with David Charlton

Sign Up to The Mental Edge

Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

To Listen to Other Useful Podcast Episodes

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

Ep012: Alessia Bruno – The Yips, Crashes, Trauma in Sport there is hope for Athletes

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

Ep101: Compilation – 25 Mental Game Secrets to Improve Your Golf

Ep156: Ruth Chiles – There is Hope: How to Overcome Focal Dystonia

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

10 Mental Game Tips from Leading Experts to Improve Your Golf

Do you try too hard on the golf course?

Psychology of Golf Library

Today in episode #162 of the Demystifying Mental Toughness Podcast I chat with Sun Sachs and Ed Gibbins, owners of Rewire Fitness about flow states.  When you have a sense of control, are at peace, have a quiet mind and an inner calmness about you.  We discuss the characteristics and importance of flow states, as well as touching on how you can find “flow.”

Key Learning Points:

• Understanding self-care can help perfectionist athletes.
• The perfectionist can be relentless in their pursuit of excellence impacting negatively on their relationships and other areas of their life.
• Taking yourself and situations too seriously can be a trap perfectionists fall into.
• A flow state is where your mind is calm, your awareness is increased and you make quick smart decisions.
• When you are in flow you aren’t thinking about the past or future, it is the here and now.
• A quality of flow is a loss of self-consciousness and a task only focus.
• Visualisation, Mindfulness and Sports Hypnosis are great ways to get into the Flow.
• What is your “flow trigger?” If you haven’t got one, create one!

Connect with Sun Sachs and Ed Gibbins @ Rewire Fitness

Website
Instagram 

Linkedin

Connect with David Charlton

Sign Up to The Mental Edge

Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

To Listen to Flow State Related Podcast Episodes

Ep002: Steve Judge –  How to Deal with Adversity

Ep007: Toby Flood – How Elite Athletes Mentally Prepare

Ep063: David Charlton – 7 Reasons Why Golfers Should Visualise

Ep 081: Stuart Wade – Mental Toughness in Combat Sports

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

Blogs to read to induce a Flow State

3 Ways to use Visualisation so that You are Mentally Prepared to Win

How to Quieten the Mind when Fighting

My Child Can’t Find “The Zone”

Using ACT and Mindfulness to Improve Your Sporting Performances

Why You Should Meditate To Improve Your Sport Performance?

3 Great conversations to have with your kids that relate with flow states

Conversations with Kids – Relax and Unwind

Conversations with Kids – Gratitude 1

Conversations with Kids – Gratitude 2