Physical to Mental Preparation
The development of physical skills and competitive strategies is crucial to raising performance and are the cornerstone of any athletic training program. In many programs however, there is little emphasis on the development of the psychological skills necessary for improving performance and experience. Many researchers point out that development of mental skills can be very important for athlete development. The physical training component is the initial step of mental skill development (Jackson & Csikszentmihalyi, 1999, Wooden, 2005), but it is important to address the psychological portion as well.
Start off slow
How does the coach help?
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Start off slow
- The physical training component is the initial step of mental skill development (Jackson & Csikszentmihalyi, 1999, Wooden, 2005), but it is important to address the psychological portion as well.
- Being that this initial physical training component is important for the athlete to retain a positive mental attitude, it might be beneficial for the athlete to be given tasks that can be easily mastered to ensure that the athlete can gain confidence and enthusiasm for the sport.
- It is important for most athletes to be successful early on so they can 1) decide if they can be successful; 2) if it is worth it for them to put time in to reach a certain level of success; and in some cases 3) is this a good challenge?
- Most athletes are not interested in tasks that they immediately experience failure or completing tasks in which they have a low ability level.
How does the coach help?
- The coach assesses ability levels and helps each athlete improve in areas of need, whether physical or mental.
- The coach can dictate the rate at which an athlete is exposed to higher level skill training, allowing them to develop skills on their own pace and then move to higher level skills when they are ready
- The coach creates training for the athlete to achieve success early on and groups athletes with peers that are near the same ability level.
- The communicates performance and skill expectations to the athlete in order to give the athlete goals to achieve.
This takes us to the Practice Environment, follow the link below to move to that section.