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I have been a mental trainer for over 30 years.
I have coached athletes, parents and coaches in over 55 sports,
including world-class sports stars at many of the most famous sports
venues in the world: Wimbledon, The U.S. Open, Davis Cup and many
other professional events.
Recently one of my clients, Miriam Nakamoto, won her fourth world
kickboxing championship, and became the first U.S. woman to hold
the WBC Muay Thai World title. I have been mental trainer to athletes
in all the mainstream sports, and also in some very unusual ones,
such as a nationally-ranked roller figure skater, a national champion
in airplane gliding, the Mexican national champion in water skiing,
numerous high-ranked competitors in rodeo roping, and even a world
class bridge player. When I was the mental trainer for the Stanford
Baseball Team they were ranked number one in the United States.
I also was the mental trainer for a world-class dance team. I have
also been a mental trainer for actors, musicians, salespeople and
public speakers.
No matter who I coach, I begin as a mental trainer by focusing on
the dreams and vision and hopes my client has for their sport. This
is a higher level than goal setting. I want to get them talking
and suggesting possibilities. That will get them excited. That fuels
the energy for our work together. Next, I focus on what they want
to achieve right away from a mental perspective. Then we go to work
and get immediate traction and velocity on their mental game.
Read some quotes from famous golf stars about their views of the
mental approach.
"At the end of the day golf is more mental than anything. If
you feel confident, if you believe in what you are doing, if you
believe in yourself, the technical side is easy. If you have a little
doubt, the body contracts and doesn't react as freely."
—Sergio Garcia, PGA tour star
"You have to think effectively. Seeing the negative side of what
happens on the golf course is not effective thinking."
—Tom Kite, First professional golfer to win $9 million
on tour, with 19 PGA wins, 7 Senior PGA wins and 1 major, the US
Open.
"It's a compromise of what your ego wants you to do, what experience
tells you to do, and what your nerves let you do."
—Bruce Crampton, with 14 career wins on the PGA Tour and a
runner up finish in four major championships – one Masters,
one U.S. Open, and two PGA.
You can see that even athletes who play for a living realize that
having a strong mental approach is key to their success. How about
you? Do you have a mental process and approach you trust? Does your
mind work for you, or against you?
Here are eight major ways you can utilize a mental trainer to help
you improve faster, and create sustainable success in your sport.
1. A Mental Trainer Helps You Navigate Sports Speed Bumps.
Any sports career has lots of curves, roadblocks, switch-backs,
and detours. An experienced mental trainer helps you avoid slow-downs
and set-backs and keeps you on track mentally.
2. A Mental Trainer Helps You Create Exciting Dreams. Your
dreams come from you, but your mental trainer helps you shape them,
and bring them to life.
3. A Mental Trainer Helps You Think Right. Champions think
differently than athletes who don't win. A mental trainer helps
you adjust your thought process so you can align it with proper
championship thinking.
4. A Mental Trainer Helps You Focus. Attentional control,
or how and where you place your concentration, is perhaps the most
important performance secret you can know. A mental trainer guides
you in knowing these, and making them consistent.
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5. A Mental Trainer Helps You Handle Stress. In sports
we really refer to stress as pressure. A mental trainer helps you
identify the pressure, how it affects you, and how to manage it.
6. A Mental Trainer Helps You Visualize Success. When you
go to the "movies of your mind", you program yourself for success.
Too many people have random mental movies that are negative, but
they don't know they are operating. They are practicing "accidental
mental training". A mental trainer helps you tweak these movies
so they work for you, not against you.
7. A Mental Trainer Helps You Stop Self-Sabotage. Everyone
blocks themselves in some ways. The trick is to discover these and
devise ways to overcome them. A mental trainer helps you discern
these, and create mental strategies for reaching more of your potential.
8. A Mental Trainer Helps You Make Sense of Your Sport Experiences.
A critical role your mental trainer plays is to help you understand
what you are going through in your sport. A mental trainer also
helps you deconstruct your performances so you can resolve errors,
and become more consistent.
If you hired a mental trainer, what would be some of the first areas
you would want to improve? What weaknesses would you want to solidify?
If you are reading this I know you want to improve your mental capabilities
in your sport. I want to help you do just that, as your mental trainer.
Let's get started today.
For a comprehensive overview of your mental abilities you need an
assessment instrument that identifies your complete mental strengths
and weaknesses. Here is a free, easy-to-take 65-item sport
psychology assessment tool you can score right on the spot.
This assessment gives you a quick snapshot of your strengths and
weaknesses in your mental game. You can use this as a guide in creating
your own mental training program, or as the basis for a program
you undertake with mental trainer
Bill Cole, MS, MA to improve your mental game. This assessment
would be an excellent first step to help you get the big picture
about your mental game.
876 words
Copyright © 2010 Bill Cole, MS, MA. All rights reserved.
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Bill Cole, MS, MA, a leading authority on sports psychology, peak performance,
mental toughness and coaching, is founder and CEO of William B. Cole Consultants, a consulting firm that helps sports teams and individuals achieve
more success. He is also the Founder and President of the International
Mental Game Coaching Association, an organization dedicated to advancing
the research, development, professionalism and growth of mental game coaching
worldwide. He is a multiple Hall-Of-Fame honoree as an athlete, coach and school
alumnus, an award-winning scholar-athlete, published author of books and articles,
and has coached at the highest levels of major-league pro sports and big-time
college athletics.
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