Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

What percentage of sports is mental? This is the age-old question in all of sports. It doesn’t matter if the sport is wrestling, football, soccer, baseball, basketball, tennis, golf or one of the other 99 worldwide sports. There is only one right answer to this question.

However, if you ask any coach what percentage of sports is mental, you almost always get an answer that is somewhere between 50% and 90% mental. The truth is when a coach gives an answer like this they’re guessing.

Simply stated, playing sports is 100% mental. Sports psychologist almost universally agree with the evidence that supports this as the only right answer. This evidence encompasses how an athlete’s performance is impacted by how they manage goals, motivation, confidence, mental toughness, emotions, faith, and belief. 

Indeed, each of these areas cover critical mental skills that make physical skills possible. But to make the case that playing sports is 100% mental I want to focus on two mental skills in particular: intensity and focus. Nothing significant can be accomplished in sports if an athlete does not manage their intensity and focus. Thus, it’s these two mental areas above all that prove that playing sports is 100% mental.

Intensity and the Mental Side of Sports

Intensity is a multidimensional mental state that encompasses stress, anxiety, relaxation, pressure, worry, nervousness, and energy. In general, the way intensity works is that as it increases performance improves, to a point. Once that point is reached performance decreases with more intensity.

This important observation was first made by psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson in 1908. More recent research shows that not only does intensity have a peak point that turns performance negative thereafter, but this peak point is also variable. This is what makes intensity so unique. A given level of intensity is not always good or bad. Any given level of intensity could drive peak performance or poor performance depending on the circumstances. In addition, each athlete has an optimal level of intensity unique to both their individual personality and their circumstances.

Athletes must have the right amount of intensity to perform their best. Too little or too much will decrease performance. Therefore, finding one’s optimal intensity level must be the goal if an athlete wants to perform their best. But how do you find this balance?

Since the emotions that drive intensity are mental, finding this balance requires mental training. This mental training starts with increasing self-awareness, and may also require visualization, deep breathing, and mindfulness techniques among other mental skills.

In short, there is no question that intensity plays a critical role in both good and bad performances. However, the role it plays is unique to every individual athlete. This is clear evidence to support why playing sports is 100% mental.

Focus and the Mental Side of Sports

Focus is the ability to direct one’s attention to what matters while at the same time blocking out distractions. The ability to focus is one of the characteristics that separates average, good, and great athletes from one another.

In sports, it’s not uncommon to see an incredibly talented athlete who consistently loses close competitions due to making mistakes at the end. Sometimes people call this choking. What’s more, these failures in clutch moments are often punctuated by mistakes due to a lack of focus. On the other hand, those athletes who we consider great are the athletes who are at their best in the clutch. These athletes rarely lose focus when it counts, even when they’re physically exhausted.

Unquestionably, the ability to focus on the right thing at the right time is critical in sports. However, some athletes are better at focusing on some things and not others. Specifically, there are four ways to direct one’s focus.

1. Analytical athletes focus their thinking internally around a broad array of factors like a boxer or wrestler thinking about their movement, attack plan, and conditioning.
2. Strategic athletes focus their thinking externally around a broad array of factors like a quarterback reading the defense or a point guard setting up an assist in basketball.
3. Tactical athletes focus their thinking externally on one or two details like a batter in baseball preparing for a pitch or a sprinter preparing their starting blocks to run a race.
4. Meticulous athletes focus their thinking internally on one or two details like a weightlifter doing a deadlift or a marathon runner concentrating on their pace and breathing.

Most athletes tend to be good at only one of these four types of focus. The best athletes can change their focus across these four areas depending on the circumstances. This requires mental training just like it does to master intensity.

Again, there is no question that focus plays a critical role in both good and bad performances and preparation. Without it, it’s impossible to develop one’s physicals skills in a coherent manner. This is even clearer evidence to support why playing sports is 100% mental.