American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - AAHPERD

 Issue: March 2005

Integrating Mental-Skills Training into Everyday Coaching
Mike Voight

Abstract:
There are coaches who feel that mental-skills training is too time consuming, should be used only with athletes in slumps or with the most elite athletes, or that mental-skills training is simply not effective. The objective of this article is to present examples of fundamental methods of training mental skills, which coaches might already be using without being aware of it. Coaches who are “hard sells” may become more open-minded to mental-skills training when they realize that what they are doing on a regular basis is the same thing. Challenging their belief system in this way enhances awareness of the time-efficient and economical nature of mental-skills training. The six mental-skill methods reviewed include imagery, goal setting, preperformance routines, concentration training, intensity regulation, and confidence enhancement.

Article category: Coaching