Have you watched interviews of players in the last year? One thing that has stood out, is mental health and the mental side of sports has become more important to the game and player development. These are pro athletes, who are at the top of the game, giving insight into something they do to put themselves at an advantage.

Mental health and mindset training for athletes goes into deep levels of discovery of self, acknowledging hard truths and rewiring of thoughts. You can find it in any sport – those who keep their cool and have an unbreakable foundation of positive thought, usually become champions and overcome great challenges. How do they do this?

It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, but not forever. You can start today and notice differences by next month if you stick with it. One of the first things I have athletes do, is practice unconditional positive thoughts. For my defensive backs out there, we call this having “next play” mentality, or “short term memory” when something goes south. Here is an example:

The corner is lined up across from the wide receiver, and has spent hours in the last week watching film on this guy. Coach calls the exact play that was rehearsed time and time again in practice , so the corner knows exactly what he is doing. When the play starts, the corner slips on his break to the ball and misses the tackle.

What thought do you believe are going through his head?

What are is coaches yelling from the sideline?

It is probably feeling like all eyes or judgement are on the corner now. The difference in the next play comes here:

• He can feel bd for himself and affect every aspect of himself in a negative way and increasing the chances of another faulty performance. “I just got toasted. Coach is going to be pissed and probably take me out for the next series.”

OR

• He can have short term memory. “I know what I did wrong. Next time I can keep my feet under me to make a play. This is a new play.”

The difference in those two mindsets will not only take pressure off of you but also calm your nervous system enough to actually make a play. Obviously you don’t want to start doing that in the middle of a game, but you can practice through the week and in any aspect of life to build that foundation for your thoughts.

When and where can you begin to apply unconditional positive thinking? And what for?