What mental skills do you need for success in sport?

You don’t have to be a professional footballer or an Olympic athlete to succeed in sport. You don’t even need a room full of trophies or make the local news because of your sporting exploits. Successful athletes are people who achieve their own goals they set. If you set yourself a target to complete a half marathon and then go on to achieve that goal, you are successful!

So we explore a number of mental skills that can help achieve the goals you set yourself.

1. Attitude

To be successful you need to try to:

• Realise that your attitude towards anything is a choice.
• Choose a positive attitude towards your goals.
• View your sport as an opportunity to compete against yourself.
• Pursue excellence instead of perfection – also realise that coaches, friends, teammates and officials aren’t perfect either.
• Maintain a balance with other aspects of your life.
• Respect everybody you come up against and interact with.

2. Motivation

To be successful you need to try to:

• Understand the benefits and achievements that you can experience through participation.
• Persist through hard times and difficult situations – understand that the benefits and rewards may not be instant.
• Realise that you gain the benefits from participating, not only winning.

3. Goals and commitment

To be successful you need to try to:

• Set short and long-term goals that are realistic, measurable and that have deadlines.
• Be aware of your performance and are able to work on your weaknesses to help achieve your goals.
• Be truly committed in completing your goals.

4. People skills

To be successful you need to try to:

• Realise that you have friends, family, coaches and teammates who also want you to succeed.
• Communicate your feelings to your network when you need to, and listen to others as well.
• Manage conflict well – conflict arises from opponents, teammates and even from within.

5. Self-talk

To be successful you need to try to:

• Maintain your self-confidence when facing difficult times through positive self-talk.
• Talk to yourself as if you were your own best friend.
• Use positive self-talk to manage your feelings when taking part in competitions and regular day-to-day activities.

6. Mental imagery

To be successful you need to try to:

• Prepare yourself for training and competitions by imagining a good performance.
• Create mental images that are realistic, detailed and specific.

7. Manage anxiety

To be successful you need to try to:

• Accept that anxiety comes with taking part in sport.
• Realise that small amounts of anxiety can help you perform well.
• Know of ways to help reduce anxiety.

8. Concentration

To be successful you need to try to:

• Keep your concentration at all times.
• Learn how to maintain focus, even if there are distractions.
• Be able to regain focus when it is lost.