Mental training in sports is hard and long-term work. Just like when the athlete trains persistently and regularly to improve their technique. There are different methods and approaches, but it is particularly important to work in three areas of sport psychology when training the athlete’s mental strength.
The three areas are: Attention, Inner Dialogues and Process.
You steer in the direction you look
That’s one way of putting it. Working with your attention in mental training is first and foremost about becoming aware of how important your own focus is for your performance right now. And then to train your thoughts to become good at shifting your attention to the right thing.
And what is ‘the right thing’ then?
We call it ‘green field’. In the green field are the things you can influence yourself. For example, your attention, your thoughts and your movements right now. These are all things that you have the opportunity to do something about.
At the opposite end is the ‘red field’. These are all the things that may catch your attention but you cannot influence. It could be the weather or the mood of the crowd. And it may be a mistake you just made. These are all things that can catch and hold your attention and trigger emotions in you such as annoyance or irritation. The problem is that your attention shifts away from the things you can actually change.
Good mental training is especially about training your thoughts so that you become good at detecting when your attention is moving in the wrong direction.
Have a good talk… with yourself
We all do it. Talk to ourselves. You’re probably familiar with the feeling that thoughts emerge on their own and “fill your head”. Such thoughts do not look like a script for a play where different characters talk to each other, yet we call these thoughts an inner dialogue.
You cannot prevent thoughts from emerging. And the goal is not, as many people think, to eliminate all thoughts.
But if you want to perform better in sports, it is crucial that you train your inner dialogues.
There are two types of inner dialogues when it comes to mental training in the world of sports: “I Will” dialogues and “I Will NOT” dialogues. And if you train your inner dialogues in a good way, you can strengthen your good behavior and optimize your performance.
With the ‘I Will’ dialogue, you focus on what you want to do. The “I Will” dialogue is concrete, short and action-oriented. Imagine a situation where the pressure is high. You have made a mistake and your next action could be decisive. In that case you won’t have time for a long, warm chat with yourself. You need to focus on what you need to do now and only that. Therefore, an “I Will” dialogue is not about “thinking positively”. The “I Will” dialogue is simple and clear.
“I Will NOT” dialogue? You have already figured it out. The “I Will NOT” dialogue is the thoughts about all the things you don’t want to do. What you want to avoid, what you cannot do, what you want to omit. The “I Will NOT” dialogue can thus be about a bad thing that happened and you want to avoid happening again.
The tricky thing is that our thoughts very quickly turn into “I Will NOT” dialogues – especially when something has gone wrong or has affected us negatively.
But with the right mental training, anyone can get better at letting go of “I Will NOT” dialogues and move to “I Will” dialogues.
Focus on the process and the results will come
All sports are about achieving results. Even Little League teams want to win the match and are disappointed when they don’t. No one is in doubt when the win is secured.
But we must also remember that the athlete is not alone in producing a win – or losing the match. For example, it is obvious that a win or a loss also depends on the competitors’ performance. A performance goal can also be to score a hat-trick, achieve a certain save-percentage or perform in a certain time.
Performance goals are clear – but they don’t say much about how you will achieve the goal. And if you don’t succeed in achieving the performance goals you set, you may be hit by negative thoughts and feelings, which will be “noise” for the work ahead of you.
A successful athlete, both amateur and elite, therefore works not only on setting goals for their performance, but also for their process.
A process goal is a ‘how’ goal. The process goal is a goal that the athlete can influence themselves. For example, it can be a goal for how an athlete positions their body in a particular position, such as for a throw, a punch or a jump. It can also be a team that agrees on player positions for particular parts of the game.
A process goal is concrete and detailed and focuses on the process that will lead to the result.
A process goal makes you work focused and keeps your attention. And because the goal is short, concrete and precise, it is easier for you to actually do the action.
MASS helps you in three areas of sport psychology
The MASS app is a digital mental training assistant. Using the app, you can focus on three areas of sports psychology that are so important for achieving mental strength:
Attention. Focus the attention on what is important, namely the things that the athlete can influence themselves. In MASS, the tool is called Attention – Focusing (A).
Inner dialogues. Everyone has inner dialogues. “I Will” dialogues are useful. “I Will NOT” dialogues weaken the performance. In MASS, the tool is called Inner Dialogues (W).
Process. In sports, it is crucial to work on process and not just results. A process goal is concrete and detailed and focuses on the process that leads to the result. In MASS, the tool is called Process Goals (P).