Three Elements of a Strong Mental Game

By focusing on these three elements, you will give yourself a greater chance of having a strong mental game when you compete.

The three elements include:

1. The mindset you want to have going into the competition.

2. What you’re going to do in order to create that mindset.

3. Understanding what could pull you out of that mindset when you compete — and having strategies in place to manage those.

That’s what we’re going to cover in today’s article.

Knowing the Mindset You Want to Have

The first part of this is knowing what mindset you want to have when you compete. There are many different types of mindsets that we can have as athletes.

• We could go into a game wanting to dominate the competition.
• We could go into the game wanting to be relaxed and just have fun.
• We could also go into the game wanting to prove other people wrong.

But you need to know what is the right mindset for you — and what is the mindset that helps you play your best.

A simple way to figure that out is to think back to some good games or competitions you’ve had in the past.

• What was your mindset like?

• What were you focused on or thinking about?

• Were you present? Having fun? Relaxed?

• Were you high energy and really looking to dominate?

• Were you focused on proving someone wrong?

Think about how you were feeling — your mood, your emotional state — because that’s also part of your mindset going into the competition.

You can also consider what you were focused on within the game. Were you focused on the process, the result, or staying positive after mistakes?

Spend some time analyzing your recent good performances because those give us a ton of insight into the actual mindset you want to have going into competition.

How to Create That Mindset

Once you’re clear on the mindset you want, now we want to think about what you need to do to create it.

This will involve preparation throughout the week and on game day — all working to instill the mindset you want.

This could include mental exercises like mindfulness meditation, visualization, reading a self-talk list, or reviewing recent good games as reminders of what you’re capable of.

It could also involve going through a great warm-up so your body feels loose and ready to compete. Or finding whatever it is that motivates you for that competition — maybe thinking about being the underdog and proving everyone wrong.

Once we know what mindset we want to be in, we want to think about actions we can take that lead to being in that mindset during the game.

If we know the actions that help instill the right mindset, there’s a much greater chance we’ll actually be in that mindset during competition.

It’s not enough to just know what kind of mentality you want. You also need to understand what it takes to get into that mentality.

Part of my one-on-one coaching involves helping athletes uncover their best mindset and then creating a pregame routine — and even a daily mental training routine — to give you a greater chance of being in that mindset on game day.

Managing What Pulls You Out of the Mindset

The third part of this is examining what could pull you out of your mindset when you compete.

Let’s say you’re working to be relaxed and present. You go through a great pre-competition routine with breathing and visualization to develop calm confidence.

But then you make a mistake. You beat yourself up — and now you’ve lost that mindset that helps you play your best.

We have to figure out what you can do to get back into that mentality, or what you can do to reduce the chances of being pulled out in the first place.

This is where we start incorporating in-the-moment strategies.

One of the most common challenges athletes face during competition is making mistakes. So think ahead of time — what can you do when you make a mistake to get reset, refocused, and back into your mindset?

Or maybe it’s a distraction, such as your coach or another player saying something that pulls you out of your mentality. Again, we want to anticipate those challenges and put strategies in place so you can refocus yourself quickly.

Putting It All Together

These three areas — knowing your mindset, creating it, and managing distractions — will greatly increase the chances of staying in a good mindset throughout competition. And that will lead to more consistent performance.

Let’s take a basketball player as an example of how this will work.

She thinks through what her mindset needs to be going into the game: calm, confident, and present.

The night before the game, she reviews her self-talk list to instill positive thinking and visualizes herself playing well.

The next morning, she performs mindfulness meditation to ground herself in the present moment and a calm mentality.

Before the game, she focuses on her warm-up and reminds herself of her controllable objectives to stay present.

Now she’s entering the game in the right mindset.

But she also knows that when she misses a shot, she tends to beat herself up. So she incorporates a thought-stopping phrase: “Forget about it. Reset. Refocus.”

She repeats that every time she misses.

She also knows that when she’s pulled from the game, she overthinks it — so she creates a strategy for when she’s on the bench: briefly analyze her play if needed, but then let it go and focus on cheering on teammates.

When coach calls her back in, she quickly reviews her objectives again to stay process-focused and present.

Developing a Strong Mental Game for Yourself

That’s how this whole strategy works.

1. Think about the mindset you need to have.

2. Identify what you’ll do to create it.

3. Prepare strategies to handle the challenges that could pull you out of it.

If you go through these steps, you’ll give yourself a greater chance of competing in the mindset that allows you to perform your best.

If you’re interested in learning more about my one-on-one mental coaching program, click here to schedule a free introductory coaching call, or fill out the form below.

I’ve also created two online mental training courses for athletes:

• The Confident Competitor Academy
• The Mentally Tough Kid

And if you’re more of a reader, check out my books:

• Mind Games
• Athlete Mental Training

Thank you for reading and I wish you the best of success in all that you do.