Once again welcome to our regular update on the Prepared ATH project and reflections on the journey. This past week saw activity on both the Prepared ATH front and the sister initiative Informed Practitioner in Sport. The latter involves a highly enjoyable collaboration with Volleyball Canada, working with the team to consult on the rebuilding and return to performance process for a member of the women’s national team. The major update with respect to the Prepared ATH project that I can now report, is an exciting joint venture with The Workshop Performance Clinic based at their location on East Georgia Street in Vancouver, which is due to commence imminently. More details to come on that as everything becomes finalised…

The theme I chose for this week’s post is coaching the mind. An athlete I have worked with for the past couple of years during her successful transition to elite-level bobsleigh kindly shared a testimonial for the site recently. Aside from being gratified that she took the time, it was also interesting to see that the part she focused on was how our sessions had helped with the mental aspects of performing and athlete life in general. And so I decided to follow Mackenzie’s lead, and take a deeper dive on a critical element that can easily be overlooked.

THE MENTAL SIDE OF ACQUIRING (AND REFINING) ATHLETIC SKILLS…

There are some fundamentals such as choice and free will that we need to factor in when coaching athletes. This is the case particularly when it comes to relearning existing skills. If the athlete is not fully on board on the need to make a change, or persuaded that the proposed solution is the best way forward, then this is not a viable proposition. The athlete needs to first make the decision that they want to make the change, and agree on a way forward. Only once the decision has been made and agreement is reached will they be able to fully commit to the process. So my first job when working with an athlete, or proposing a new intervention with an existing client, is to outline the case and explain the reasoning behind what I propose, in order to secure agreement prior to moving forward.

The athlete also needs to be convinced that I am the person to help them. I could be the greatest coach in the world; it matters little if the athlete is not convinced about the input I’m giving or the training programme I am providing. To that end, I must first demonstrate to the individual that I am credible before I can expect them to buy into the ideas and solutions I am selling. By the way, this also applies to physical preparation. The training response to a strength training programme is in part determined by how the individual rates the coach and their faith in the programme. These perceptions affect the athlete’s mindset going into each training session, their experience during the session and how they perform the workout, and in turn the training adaptation that results. A convincing coach can get great results with a sub par programme, as long as the athlete believes in it.

Once the athlete is enlisted and committed to the process, providing them with a clear understanding of the physics of what they are trying to do is an important jumping off point. Having armed the athlete with this understanding, I then need to provide them with a mental representation of the task. Essentially, this involves painting mental pictures in the performer’s mind, using whatever means necessary. Finding what resonates with the individual is the fun part, and this often involves being creative! The objective is that the individual not only has a clear concept of the key features of the athletic skill, but also a sensory template of what it feels like to execute the movement.

Throughout the process there is a need to account for the contribution of the mind to each training and practice session, and related considerations that shape both motor learning and the adaptations that occur. The critical elements are how the athlete invests and directs their attention, what their intention is as they perform the activity, and what mental effort they invest. Getting their head around the training task or skill is the starting point, and a key objective thereafter is to encourage the athlete to harness these respective mental aspects during every training session.

AUTONOMY…

Having enlisted and engaged the athlete in the process from the outset, the process thereafter remains a shared endeavour, to which the athlete contributes a great deal. The athlete has the choice in how much of themselves they invest in the process from moment to moment. This power remains with the athlete throughout; as the coach I am merely the guide. I might make suggestions on what I think the athlete should do, and how I think they should operate, but ultimately this is entirely under the control of the individual. Athletes have free will, and as such it is always a choice. This underlines why it is so important that the individual is an active partner and feels ownership over the process (after all it is all down to them).

By extension, as the athlete gets a more refined feel for the movement with practice, my role as the coach is to help them acquire the ability to detect errors. This does of course require the athlete to be dialled-in and mentally present as they practice and train. Over time, the aim is that the athlete becomes more adept at troubleshooting, so they are ultimately able to correct errors as they occur. Equally importantly we are seeking that the individual is able to do this increasingly independently of external input, so that they are less and less dependent on the coach. The ultimate objective of the coach is to ensure the athlete can deal when they are not there.

PREPARING TO PERFORM

We can harness the athlete’s feel for the movement to engage in mental imagery training, which it turns out is highly effective in mobilising the same parts of our brain as when we physically perform the skilled movement. We can employ this during practice sessions, by encouraging the athlete to rehearse the movement in their minds before they perform each repetition. This is a cool trick, as it allows us to log additional repetitions without physically performing the movement. As a tool, this is hugely beneficial when athletes are not fully able to perform the movement, such as when injured.

Another application of mental imagery training is developing a pre-performance routine. This works particularly with ‘closed skill’ tasks, where the athlete has time to consider the movement before they execute it - an example is a free throw in basketball. With even a simple mental routine, we can effectively improve execution and the accuracy of the output.

TOOLS TO HANDLE PRESSURE…

How we appraise whatever situation we face, and what perspective we take, has a huge bearing on how we experience feelings of stress, and what emotions and mental turmoil (or lack of) we feel as a result. For example, we can either appraise a situation as a threat, as a challenge, or as an opportunity. The thought processes and what emotions we feel as we anticipate and go through the experience will be very different in each scenario, simply as a result of how we perceive an identical situation. The plus side is that given how malleable this all is, we can hack the process simply by reframing not only how we view prospective events, but also how we interpret the sensations we feel in our body. The same physical ‘symptoms’ can be experienced as either anxiety or excitement, depending on our internal narrative and our interpretation.

A hallmark of mentally tough performers is the ability to perform under pressure. What is described as ‘clutch’ performance is the ability to rise to the occasion and elevate our performance when it matters. This is an effortful process that involves deliberately dialling in, to actively engage and direct attentional resources, and doubling down on the mental effort invested. The respective aspects that underpin clutch performance can be developed during practice and as part the training process for performers who choose to invest in this endeavour.

So there it is, the myriad ways the mind is integral to coaching athletes, acquiring skills, and preparing mentally and physically to perform!

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Readers who are local to Vancouver can also enquire to find out more about the coaching provision on offer, and how to arrange an initial assessment via the ‘Enquire’ link at the top of the page, or email us direct at PreparedATH@gmail.com.