014 Observations: Improving Your Mental Preparation

David Charlton helps people to reach their goals, faster. Supporting footballers, golfers, rugby players, motor cyclists, triathletes, cricketers, boxers, gymnasts, tennis players, swimmers, surfers and many more highly motivated athletes and coaches. Some of whom are motivated youngsters, others are dedicated amateur athletes and others are at the top of their sport at elite professional level, playing in the Premier League, European Golf Tour and Rugby Premiership. As well, David supports business professionals and executives who are looking for a mental edge in order to improve their performance and/or well-being. David is a fully approved Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist with the BPS and a HCPC Practitioner Psychologist.

In this episode, a bite of Mental Toughness, David Charlton shares 3 tips to help you mentally prepare better and overcome mental game challenges that you encounter. Frequently he refers back to discussions in previous episodes and other case studies to get his point across. The strategies are very simple, yet practical and can help athletes of all ability levels.

Essential Learning Points From This Episode

• In supporting athletes with mental preparation developing self-awareness is key.

• Ask yourself the question: How do I enhance my self-awareness?

• We all get comfortable and fall into bad habits, reminding yourself of the controllables is a skill that you can develop.

• Having a good support team around you can help you challenge faulty expectations and unhelpful stories that you tell yourself causing havoc with your self-confidence.

• Most athletes visualise in one way or another, though often it isn't much help.

• Systematic visualisation or imagery in a controlled manner seeking to improve the vividness of images can help you in many ways. Examples include:

• For commitment - intensifying your focus on tasks (passing, shooting, driving, putting, batting) or daily routines in practice or when training in the gym.

• For confidence, improving your self-talk, body language, rhythm and timing.

• For control, seeing yourself bounce back from mistakes in a calm and composed manner.

• For challenges, when your B or C game shows up helping you deal with those situations in advance freeing you up when they occur.