WHAT IS MENTAL PERFORMANCE?

Mental Performance addresses the psychology of sport performance.  Mental performance plays a key role within the high performance sport environment for all those involved from individual athletes and teams to coaches and support staff.  Considerable evidence gathered over several decades has demonstrated that a performer’s mental state has a vital impact on performance; training the mind for success is an essential ingredient alongside the physical, technical and tactical training and preparation to achieve high performance goals in competition. 

Mental performance is about training and developing ones mental approach in the same way that a performer trains the body.  The body and the mind don’t exist in isolation.  As the demands of competitive sport require the athlete to push towards their limits of physical preparation and exertion for competition there also needs to be consistent advances in the mental skills required to perform to ones best in the competitive arena.    Mental training, when incorporated into the overall sport science program, creates athletes who are mentally tough. 

Mental toughness is a frequently used term.  Often on the day athletes may refer to their mental toughness as being the deciding factor often because at the highest level very little physical, technical or tactical components separate the very best.  Mental toughness can be described as the natural or developed psychological edge that enables you to cope better, than your opponents, with the training, competition and life demands as well as being better and more consistent in remaining determined, focused, confident and in control under pressure;  and consist of six key components: Belief, Motivation, Focus, Handling Pressure, Dealing with Physical and Emotional Pain and Lifestyle (Jones et al., 2002). 

The aim of mental performance consultancy is to appropriately educate and support the development and enhancement of mental skills to increase mental toughness.  Mental performance consultants will develop the areas of mental toughness through the use of a variety of mental skills and interventions which best support the individual athlete, coach or team to enhance their on-going effectiveness in training and competition.    This approach goes beyond the dealing with the ‘problem’ and aims to support and enhance the performance of individuals as a whole person in their training and competitive environments as well as addressing the challenges and factors in decision making for the demands of life outside of sport which can impact performance.