Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

Unquestionably, the mental side of sports is as important, if not more important than the physical side of sports. If you ask any coach what percentage of sports is mental, you almost always get an answer that’s somewhere between 50% and 90% mental. Rarely will you ever hear a coach with a significant amount of experience downplay the importance of an athlete’s mindset.

However, if you ask a coach what mental elements make up this 50% to 90%, you won’t get any agreement. You will get an answer that will focus on anything from motivation and confidence to mental toughness and faith. Often, a coach’s answer to this question will leave you with no more information than you had before and may leave you even more confused.

Well, let this list below clear up any confusion on what makes up the mental side of sports. Mental preparation that focuses on improving these areas make up 99% of what one needs to win the mental battle in sports.

What Makes up the Mental Side of Sports Summed Up in 10 Mindset Focus Areas

1. Directing one’s focus on the process of competing and training instead of the outcome.
2. Instinctively having positive/neutral thoughts and emotions instead of negative thoughts and emotions.
3. Eliminating any worries about expectations.
4. Identifying and having a process to get to one’s optimal level of intensity.
5. Having a meaningful “why” for everything one does.
6. Strategically using both real-time and post competition feedback to improve one’s approach.
7. Exhibiting self-awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses and then utilizing the strengths to overcome the weaknesses.
8. Establishing a source of self-worth and self-esteem that is task oriented and not ego oriented.
9. Consistent use of routines for both competitions and training that are customized to fit one’s unique personality and style. This includes warm-up routines, cool-down routines, visualization routines, self-talk routines, and tactical / technical routines.
10. Clarifying one’s mission/vision/goal for the day/week/month to direct focus on the most important things and avoid distractions.

I design my coaching programs specifically so you can customize the focus for one or more of these 10 areas based on your needs. Contact me here to learn more about how I can help you, your family, or your team win with these 10 mindset focus areas.