What is Mental Training & How Can It Help You?
Just like training our muscles, honing our technical climbing skills, and conditioning our bodies, we must also train the brain. Mental Strength Training is the practice of growing mental skills to help our brains better perform in sport, as well as in life. Mental skills such as focus, confidence, goal setting, positive self talk, visualization, and motivation will enhance an athlete's best performance by helping the body perform better. As athletes, it is easy to focus solely on one component of your training. For an athlete concentrating on physically training their body to its peak fitness, it is easy to forget to train the mind until a poor performance acts as a reminder. When it comes to a competition or game day, training the mind is just as, if not more, essential to a good performance. Mental training is a routine where an athlete utilizes the practice of building focus, resiliency, and confidence to support and demonstrate the highest performance in an athlete's physical abilities. As a team, the athlete and mental training coach work together to build and strengthen these skills by routinely exercising the mind to achieve the performance goals that an athlete sets. When it comes to performance training, the mind is just as essential as the body.
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How mental training can help you
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Sport psychology techniques can support an athlete in a variety of situations. Some common areas of improvement are:
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Performance anxiety
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Injury recovery
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Confidence
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Fear of failure
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Fear of falling
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Team building
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Concentration
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Visualization and imagery
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Goal setting and attainment
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With Summits of the Mind, a typical mental training program will look something like this:
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Initial consultation
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Interview, survey, and observation
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Personal and specific Mental Training Plan Outline
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3-12 weeks of one-on-one mental training including activities and assignments for the athlete to complete outside of sessions (on-going training also available)
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Final Evaluation
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