During the 1992 NBA Finals, Michael Jordan hit seven threes in a row against the Portland Trail Blazers, scoring 35 points in the first half alone. By his seventh shot, he could only shrug, a performance so far above expectations that even Jordan seemed stunned by it (Bell, n.d.). Sport psychologists call this a flow state. Most athletes just call it being in the zone.

In 2015, 18-year-old Katie Ledecky broke her own world record in the 1500-meter freestyle at the World Championships in Russia. Afterward, she casually described the race: “To be honest, it felt pretty easy. I was so relaxed” (Duckworth, 2016). That’s what flow state looks like. As Duckworth (2016) put it, “Flow is performing at high levels of challenge and yet feeling ‘effortless,’ like ‘you don’t have to think about it, you’re just doing it.'”

Bill Russell, who won eleven NBA championships with the Celtics, described that same feeling in his memoir: “Almost as if we were playing in slow motion. During those spells I could almost sense how the next play would develop and where the next shot would be taken.”

Csíkszentmihályi (1990) first described the flow state as one where the internal chatter goes quiet, movement feels effortless, and time seems to bend. It’s the experience of losing yourself completely in what you’re doing.

“Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one…” Csíkszentmihályi, 1996

One of the biggest misconceptions about flow is that it’s random, a stroke of luck that either shows up or doesn’t. In reality, flow has conditions. You can build the circumstances that make it more likely to happen, even if you can’t force it directly.

It’s also easy to read stories about Jordan, Ledecky, and Russell and conclude that a flow state only happens to Olympians or superstars. That’s not true. You don’t need to be an expert in your craft to experience flow. Csíkszentmihályi (1990) found the experience is universal across ages and experience levels. It shows up in sport, music, gaming and gardening.

Understanding the science behind flow, and what makes it more likely, gives you something to train for, not just hope for.

The Nine Characteristics of a Flow State

Flow researchers break the experience down into nine core characteristics: three that set up the conditions for flow, and six that describe what it feels like once you’re in it (van der Linden, Tops, & Bakker, 2021; Jackson & Csíkszentmihályi, 1999). You don’t need all nine present at once to be in flow, but the more that show up together, the deeper the state tends to feel.

What sets up the conditions:

1. A balance between challenge and skill. You’ve evenly matched.
2. Clear goals. You know exactly what you’re aiming for.
3. Immediate feedback. You instantly know whether what you just did worked.

What flow feels like:

4. Total concentration on the task. You are entirely focused on the moment.
5. Actions and awareness merge. You stop judging your performance and just play.
6. A feeling of control. Not control over the outcome, which you can never fully control, but a sense of control over your own ability and performance.
7. Loss of self-conscious rumination. Your self-doubt dissolves away.
8. A transformation of time. Time either speeds up or slows way down, the way Bill Russell described above.
9. The experience is intrinsically rewarding. You’re doing it because it feels good to do, not for the outcome attached to it. In otherwords, it feels good and you enjoy it.

The Flow Channel

Sport psychologists often picture flow as a channel running between two extremes, based on the relationship between the challenge in front of you and your skill level to meet it.

Anxiety. When the challenge outweighs your skill, you tighten up. Your thoughts race ahead to the outcome, your body stays tense, and you play defensively and tentatively instead of aggressively.

Boredom. When your skill outweighs the challenge, your attention drifts. Without enough to engage you, your mind wanders off the task in front of you. You lose focus and motivation wanes.

Flow. When challenge and skill are in balance, something shifts. Action and awareness merge. You stop thinking about what you’re doing and simply do it (Jackson & Csikszentmihalyi, 1999).

It is not a realistic goal to eliminate anxiety or boredom from competition entirely. The goal is to increase awareness of which side of the channel you’re on and adjust: raise the challenge when you’re bored, or narrow your focus when you’re anxious.

What Makes an Environment That Supports a Flow State

Flow doesn’t happen in a vacuum. There are specific conditions make it far more likely occur (Jackson & Csikszentmihalyi, 1999):

Clear and specific goals. Vague goals like “play well” give your mind nothing concrete to lock onto. Flow depends on knowing exactly what you’re trying to do in this specific moment, this next play, this race. Specificity matters.

Immediate feedback. You need to know, in real time, whether what you’re doing is working. That might be as simple as watching the ball land where you want it to, or being mindful of your split times as you race.

A challenge that matches your skill. Not too hard, not too easy. You need to be pushed, but not beyond your capabilities. This is the same balance that defines the flow channel above.

A sense of control. Athletes drop into a flow state more easily when they trust their preparation and feel in control of their performance.

Feeling safe. Athletes who are worried about being watched, judged, or criticized, whether by a coach, a crowd, or their teammates, have a much harder time letting go enough to find flow. You need to believe that you belong.

Coaches and teams should strive to build team environments that support all five of these conditions.

Obstacles to Acheiving a Flow State

Just as certain conditions invite flow, there are also predictable patterns that block it.

Overthinking. The moment you start judging your own performance in your head, overanalyzing your form, or beating yourself up over the last mistake, you pull yourself out of the moment.

Outcome focus. Thinking about whether you’ll win or lose, will look shifts your attention away from the task directly in front of you and onto something you can’t control in the moment.

Fear of judgment. Worrying about how you’re perceived by your coaches and teammates, whether you look confident enough, aggressive enough, or “team oriented” enough, pulls attention inward in exactly the way flow requires you to let go of.

External distraction. Ruminating on your personal statistics, your playing time, sideline noise, and past conversations all compete for the same attention that flow depends on. They are all threats to your attention.

Physical or mental fatigue. It’s hard to lose yourself in a task when your body is depleted or your mind is already exhausted from poor nutrition, a stressful week, or poor sleep.

Recognizing which of these tends to show up for you the most is often the first step toward managing it.

How to Train for Flow

You can’t force flow into existence on command, but you can build the habits that invite it.

1. Set SMART goals you can actually track and obtain. Pick one or two specific, observable targets for a specific competition or performance.
2. Build a short, consistent routine before you compete. A pre game ritual signals to your brain that it’s time to narrow focus and readiness your body for peak performance.
3. Quiet your inner critic during competition. Practice negative thought replacement strategies or mindful awareness in the moment to silence the negative self-talk.
4. Log your flow moments after the fact. So many athletes forget this step. Keep a quick note of games or practices where everything clicked: what led up to it, what you were or weren’t thinking about, what your routine looked like that day. Over time, this becomes a personalized map of the conditions that work for you. You can use this to customize your precompetition routine.

Flow, focus, and confidence are all intertwined with each other. Athletes who trust their preparation, who’ve done the work of building genuine confidence, have an easier time letting go of outcome and dropping into the task in front of them. You can’t think your way into flow and it’s not about luck. You can try to create or re-create the conditions to maximize your chances.

If you’re ready to build a mental training plan that helps you find your zone more consistently, reach out about mental coaching for athletes. I love helping athletes figure out how to reach their potentional and achieve their goals.

Further reading:

• Find Your Zone, Association for Applied Sport Psychology
• Finding Flow: The 9 Dimensions, Dr. Susan Jackson
• Go with the Flow: A Neuroscientific View on Being Fully Engaged, European Journal of Neuroscience
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Duckworth (affiliate link)

References

Bell, R. (n.d.). Find your zone. Association for Applied Sport Psychology. https://appliedsportpsych.org/resources/resources-for-athletes/find-your-zone/

Csíkszentmihályi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row.

Csíkszentmihályi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. HarperCollins.

Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Scribner.

Jackson, S. A., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1999). Flow in Sports: The Keys to Optimal Experiences and Performances. Human Kinetics.

Russell, B., & Branch, T. (1979). Second Wind: The Memoirs of an Opinionated Man. Random House.

Van der Linden, D., Tops, M., & Bakker, A. B. (2021). Go with the flow: A neuroscientific view on being fully engaged. European Journal of Neuroscience. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7983950/

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Performance errors and setbacks are a part of a every sport, for every athlete, at every level. We all understand this concept and yet oftentimes have a difficult time recovering from the previous play and shifting the focus to the next one. If you find yourself worrying about the future, or dwelling on past mistakes during games, try this.

After making a performance error, it is common to re-play the event in your mind. The mental re-replay will either reinforce the impact of the error by dwelling on it, or help you recover and prepare for the next play by visualizing the correction and engaging in positive self-talk. Mentally fixing the error will prepare you for the next play and help you return to focusing on the present moment.

This “fix-it” and “play forward” mentality encourages athletes to control their reaction to error by re-directing attention towards the next play. Rather than responding to a mistake with a barrage of negative self-talk, try correcting the error in your mind and returning to the present moment in preparation for the next play.

Errors do not have to be catastrophic. The goal is not to never make mistakes in games or tournaments. The goal is to mentally recover from mistakes faster and move on to the next play. The question athletes need to answer is: how quickly do you move from an emotion focus to a task, problem-solving focus in competition? (Lodato, 2022).  By creating intentional, consistent, and repeatable routines for handling errors in competition, you will learn to let go of the past and mentally prepare for the next play.

Practical Strategies

Here’s a few examples of practical and tangible strategies to embody the “fix-it” mentality and mentally move on to the next play. 

• Step away from the baseline in tennis or service line in volleyball
•  Redirect attention to a focus point or cue to clear the mind.
• Take a big inhale and mentally release the error on the exhale.
• Make a physical movement to symbolically “wipe it away”. Some volleyball players will wipe the sweat off their forehead or beach volleyball players may pick up sand and throw it to get rid of the error.
•  Imagine flushing the away and going down a drain (Ravizza).

References

Lodato, V.A. (2022). Imagery and Visualization Week 7 [PowerPoint slides]. Sport Performance & Psychology, University of Western States. 

Lodato, V.A. (2022). Handling Competitive Stress [Handout]. Sport Performance & Psychology, University of Western States. 

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Sport & performance psychology combines evidence-based mental health care with mental performance training for athletes and performers. It’s the field that sits at the intersection of how you think and how you compete. As a sports therapist and Certified Mental Performance Consultant in Denver, CO, I work with athletes on both sides of that intersection every week, and I want to give you a clear, direct answer to what this work actually involves.

This article will walk you through what sport and performance psychology is, who provides it, and what to expect during sessions. It will also cover who this kind of support helps and the misconceptions that keep people from reaching out.

What is Sport & Performance Psychology?

Sport and performance psychology has two main areas of focus, and most practitioners work in one or both. Mental performance skills are the tools that help you compete at your best. This includes imagery, confidence building, focus techniques, communication strategies, and competition routines.

Mental health support addresses the psychological challenges that show up in and around sport. This includes anxiety, depression, disordered eating, sports trauma, and identity concerns tied to your athletic career. Both matter. Your ability to execute under pressure and your overall mental well-being are deeply connected, which is exactly why this field exists.

Why Both Areas Matter

Both matter, and they’re more connected than most people realize. An athlete dealing with untreated performance anxiety often can’t fully access the mental skills training that would otherwise help them, because the anxiety itself is the barrier. Likewise, an athlete working through a mental health concern often benefits from performance-specific tools.

A grounding routine before competition, for example, can work alongside their clinical care rather than replacing it. This is why so many practitioners in this field are dually trained to move fluidly between both sides rather than treating them as separate lanes. You can read more about the role sport psychology plays in athletic performance and how the field of performance psychology is defined more broadly.

Who Actually Provides This Care?

If you’re searching for a sports psychologist in Denver, CO, this is where title accuracy matters, and it’s worth being direct about it. Anyone can call themselves a “mental coach,” but the actual scope of what someone is qualified to do depends entirely on their license and certification, not the title on their website.

• Licensed sports psychologists hold a doctorate in psychology and a psychology license, which allows them to diagnose and treat mental illness under that specific license.
• Sports therapists and licensed professional counselors are trained in clinical mental health counseling and can also address mental health symptoms, often alongside specialized sport-specific training.
• Certified Mental Performance Consultants (CMPCs), credentialed through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, focus primarily on the performance side: mental skills training rather than diagnosis or clinical treatment.

Some practitioners hold more than one of these credentials at once, which adds to the confusion. It’s worth asking directly what someone is licensed and certified to do rather than assuming based on their job title alone. A quick question about credentials at the start of a consultation can save you from starting work with the wrong type of provider for what you need, whether that’s clinical treatment for a mental health concern or performance-specific skills training.

My Own Credentials

I hold an EdD in Sport Performance Psychology, I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Colorado, and I’m an AASP Certified Mental Performance Consultant. That combination means I’m trained to support both the mental health and mental performance side of an athlete’s experience, without claiming the specific title of psychologist.

 Whether you’re searching for a sports psychologist, a sports therapist, or a mental performance consultant in Denver, CO, the important thing is finding a provider whose credentials actually match. That match should reflect the specific kind of support you need.

For a deeper look at how this field supports performance, Cune University has a solid overview of the role of sports psychology in athletic performance, and the American Psychological Association outlines the field further in its guide to performance psychology.

What Does This Work Actually Look Like?

A lot of athletes come in expecting something vague, like a Ted Lasso style motivational pep talk or a generic worksheet. That’s not what a sports psychologist in Denver, CO does. Sport and performance psychology is built around specific, teachable mental skills, the same way strength training or footwork drills require technical training and repetition. Instead of talking about your mindset in the abstract, you’re practicing tools you can use the next time you step onto the field, court, or track.

In practical terms, sessions teach specific, learnable skills. Here’s what mental performance consulting sessions look like:

• Imagery and visualization to mentally rehearse performance and prepare for competition
• Confidence and self-talk work to quiet the inner critic and build a supportive internal dialogue
• Team communication and dynamics to strengthen how athletes work with teammates and coaches
• Performance and competition anxiety management to turn nervous energy into focused execution
• Goal setting that goes beyond writing down outcomes and builds an actual roadmap

If you are seeking sports counseling, sessions will also directly address clinical mental health concerns that show up in athletic populations, including depression, anxiety, disordered eating, and sports trauma, which can look like reliving an injury or feeling scared to return to play. This is exactly why sport and performance psychology as a field includes clinically trained providers, not just performance coaches, a distinction Faulkner University breaks down well.

How Do Sessions Work?

Whether you’re working with a sports psychologist in Denver, CO or elsewhere, sessions can happen either in person at an office space, the training environment of the athlete or performer, or virtually. The format feels similar to talk therapy. It’s a confidential, conversational space, not a lecture. You’re not sitting through a presentation. You’re working through the mental barriers you experience in competition, with someone trained to help you build skills and process what’s underneath them. The specific approach is always personalized.

Depending on what you need, sessions might draw from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Internal Family Systems, psychodynamic approaches, or somatic techniques. There’s no single formula because no two athletes need the exact same thing. Team sessions work a little differently from individual sessions. Instead of focusing on one athlete’s internal experience, we focus on group communication, role clarity, conflict resolution and the dynamics between athletes and coaching staff.

How Sport & Performance Psychology Helps Athletes

The specific concerns that bring athletes to a sports psychologist in Denver, CO vary widely but they tend to fall into a handful of common categories. Here’s a direct look at how sessions help with each one.

Returning to Sport After Injury or Trauma

Injury recovery isn’t just physical. Imagery helps athletes mentally rehearse their return to play before they’re physically ready for it. Sessions also help process the traumatic experience of the injury itself, not just the rehab protocol, so athletes can prepare themselves mentally before stepping back onto the field or court.

Building Confidence and Self-Esteem

Real confidence gets built from preparation and process, not just from winning. Athletes who tie their confidence solely to results tend to feel great after a win and shaken after a loss, which makes performance unpredictable. Confidence work includes addressing self-doubt and negative self-talk, directly and replacing it with something instructional and grounding. Sessions help athletes build a more stable foundation, one rooted in effort, preparation, and evidence of their own growth over time.

Managing Performance Anxiety and Stress

Competition day anxiety is one of the most common reasons athletes reach out. Sessions teach specific tools to manage the physical and mental symptoms of stress, both in the moment and in the buildup to competition. This can include breathing techniques, grounding exercises, and pre-competition routines designed to create a sense of control before the pressure sets in. The goal isn’t to eliminate nerves entirely, since some activation can improve performance, but to keep anxiety from tipping into something that gets in the way.

Strengthening Team Dynamics

This includes athlete-to-athlete relationships and athlete-to-coach communication. Teams that communicate well and hold each other accountable tend to perform more consistently under pressure. Sessions can address specific conflicts within a roster, help clarify roles that have become a source of tension, or simply give a team the tools to communicate more directly instead of letting frustration build beneath the surface.

Working Through Perfectionism and Outside Expectations

Parental pressure and self-imposed expectations can quietly erode an athlete’s relationship with their sport. Sessions help athletes separate their own values from the expectations placed on them, so they can compete with more freedom. This often means learning to distinguish between healthy high standards and perfectionism that leaves no room for mistakes, since the two get confused easily and require different approaches.

Preventing and Recovering From Burnout

Mental fatigue is a legitimate, trainable concern. It’s not a personal failing, and it’s not something you just push through. Sessions help athletes build sustainable habits and build a balanced athletic identity before burnout takes hold or recover from it if it already has, including finding balance outside of sport and reconnecting with the parts of competing that felt enjoyable before the pressure took over.

Navigating Retirement and Athletic Identity

For many athletes, sport becomes central to their identity. When that ends, whether by choice or circumstance, it can trigger a real identity crisis and stages of grief. Sessions help athletes process that transition and learn how to translate the skills they built in sport, like discipline, focus, and resilience, into their next chapter. American Public University covers more on this in its piece on how sports psychologists help athletes.

Work With a Sports Therapist in Denver, CO

You don’t have to navigate performance anxiety, burnout, or a difficult return from injury on your own. Sports counseling and mental performance consulting can help you build the mental skills to compete with confidence, process what’s been weighing on you, and reconnect with why you love your sport in the first place. Whether you’re facing a specific challenge or simply want to strengthen a mental game that already feels solid, support is available at every level. As a sports therapist and Certified Mental Performance Consultant in Denver, CO, I’m here to help, whether you’re just starting to notice a pattern or have been carrying this for a while.

To start building your mental game, follow these simple steps:

1. Schedule your complimentary 15-minute consultation to talk through what you’re navigating.
2. Meet with me to begin building a personalized plan, whether that’s individual sports counseling, mental coaching for athletes, or team mental performance workshops.
3. Start training your mind the same way you train your body, with tools that help you compete with confidence and stay connected to your sport long term.

You don’t have to figure this out alone. Reach out to Headstrong Mindset today to take the first step toward a stronger mental game.

Other Services at Headstrong Mindset

Sports counseling and mental performance consulting aren’t the only support we offer at my Denver, CO practice. I understand that athletes, coaches, and performers often navigate more than one concern at a time, and I’m here to help with those as well. Other services offered at Headstrong Mindset include mental coaching for athletes, mental coaching for teams, and individual counseling and therapy.

I also provide LGBTQ counseling in Colorado, offering an affirming, trauma-informed space for clients exploring identity alongside their athletic or personal life.

About the Founder

Dr. Brooke Rundle is the founder of Headstrong Mindset, offering sports counseling and mental performance consulting in Denver, CO. A former NCAA Division I All-American and professional volleyball player, she holds an EdD in Sport Performance Psychology, is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado, and is an AASP Certified Mental Performance Consultant. She works with USA Volleyball’s National Team Development Program and NCAA teams across a range of sports, bringing both her clinical training and her own competitive experience into every session. Dr. Rundle lives in Denver with her wife Hannah and their dog, Stevie Budd, and spends her downtime skiing the Rockies, playing guitar, and catching live music at Red Rocks.

References

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Performance psychology. https://www.apa.org/education-career/guide/subfields/performance

American Public University. (n.d.). How do sports psychologists help athletes? https://www.amu.apus.edu/area-of-study/health-sciences/resources/how-do-sports-psychologists-help-athletes/

Concordia University Nebraska. (n.d.). The role of sports psychology in athletic performance. https://www.cune.edu/news/role-sports-psychology-athletic-performance

Faulkner University. (n.d.). What does a sports psychologist do? Understanding this exciting career field. https://www.faulkner.edu/news/what-does-a-sports-psychologist-do-understanding-this-exciting-career-field/

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Whenever you do imagery it’s important that you are clear on the purpose of the exercise. A survey among teams at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs found that 90% of Olympic athletes use some form of visualization or imagery in their sport.  80% used it to prepare for competition, 48% used it to correct technical errors, 44% used it to learn a new technique or skill and 40% used it for relaxation.

Benefits of Imagery include:

• increased confidence in sport;
• increased concentration in sport;
• arousal control during pressure situations;
• preparedness for specific competition scenarios and matchups;
• extra mental repetitions using perfect technique;
• and error correction.

This is also a great tool for athletes to use when you’re injured. Injured athletes can use imagery while they are sidelined to picture past performances and imagine future performances. Injured athletes can also use imagery to envision their body healing itself and becoming stronger.

Imagery Script

An imagery script is the story you tell yourself when you’re mentally rehearsing. Writing your own, personalized imagery script to prepare for high pressure competition can be extremely powerful. Here’s a customized imagery script for volleyball players that you can modify and make your own. However, first I want to talk to the difference between an internal and external imagery perspective.

Internal vs External Imagery Perspectives

In an internal imagery perspective, you see the action as it would unfold through your own eyes as if you were playing on the court. In contrast, in an external perspective, you view the action from outside of your body as if you were watching yourself perform on tape. There is no right or wrong way to engage in imagery. The goal is to get clearest image of yourself possible, therefore you should use whichever form of imagery (external or internal) that provides you the clearest image.

A Few Final Tips

The use of imagery is different than visualization because visualization only uses the athlete’s sense of vision, while imagery applies multiple senses such as auditory and tactile sensory information. While practicing imagery, it is most effective if you engage as many senses as possible. Ask yourself questions such as: What will it feel like in my body? What will it sound like? What will look like? What will it taste like? What will it smell like?

If at any point while practicing imagery or guided visualization exercises you notice yourself distracted by thoughts that derail you from the intended purpose, don’t beat yourself up.  Just recognize your thoughts and redirect your attention to the visualization.

Resource

Sample Imagery Script

Reference

Burton, Damon & Raedeke, Thomas, D. (2008). Sport Psychology for Coaches. Human Kinetics.

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One of the most effective mental performance strategies to help athletes adjust to discomfort and dysregulation that comes with playing away is for athletes to develop a pre-competition routine. A pre-competition routine or systematic ritual serves to increase athlete confidence and improve concentration (Vernacchia, McGuire, & Cook, 1996). To mentally prepare athletes for away competition, it can also be helpful to ask questions such as: What do you miss the most when you are competing away from home (Gardner & Moore, 2004)?

Traveling to compete in environments that athletes are unfamiliar with and have not had the opportunity to train or familiarize themselves with extensively is an integral part of competition in sports. The “home court advantage” offers athletes access to familiar training and competition facilities, pre-game meals, more sleep (depending on the time zone differential of the competition site) and typically increased spectator support. Away games and travel tournaments require traveling outside of an athlete’s comfort zone causing disruption to conscious and unconscious competition routines. The result of these unavoidable travel disruptions often result in disrupted pre-game routines, decreased warm-up times, and competition jitters, all of which ultimately reduce an athlete’s ability to perform optimally.

To combat these distractions and disruption to competition preparation, it is highly recommended that athletes engage pre-competition routines when traveling to compete. Sport specific mindfulness strategies can include controlled breathing techniques, mindfulness of nonathletic task execution, body-scanning, mindful pre-performance stretching, and mindful sport related warm-up drills (Gardner & Moore, 2004).

Other pre-competition routines can be a simple as traveling with your favorite pillow or blanket, consistent pre-game snacks and meals, or warm-up music that you know and love. All the above-mentioned strategies can be executed on the road in nearly any environment that an athlete can expect to play.

I would love to get more ideas on how to help athletes adjust and mentally prepare while playing on the road. What strategies and techniques do you use to help athletes cope with the discomfort of travel and playing away?

How to Use Routines to Mentally Prepare for Competition

Want to learn more about how to use routines to mentally prepare for competition? Check out these two videos from Dr. Kenneth Ravizza, Ph.D – an internationally acclaimed sport psychology consultant and the greatest mental coach for athletes of all time (in my opnion).

The Research

Based upon previous research studies including Gardner and Moore (2004), Lutkenhouse (2007), Wolanin (2005), Hasker (2010), and Schwanhausser (2009), there exists substantial empirical research evidence that mindfulness and acceptance-based interventions improve athlete performance (Gardner & Moore, 2004). The research study performed by Wolanin (2005) indicated a 37% increase athlete performance based upon coach ratings (Gardner & Moore, 2012). The 2007 research study conducted by Lutkenhouse, Gardner, and Moore resulted in a 20% athlete performance improved of at least 32% of the athletes (Gardner & Moore, 2012). And the research study by Schwanhausser (2009) produced findings of increased athlete mindful awareness, attention, flow and competitive drive among athletes (Gardner & Moore, 2012). In addition to improved performance results in athletes, research studies also indicated that mindfulness reduces anxiety and worry (Roemer & Orsillo, 2002), decreases levels of verbal-linguistic activity in the left-hemisphere of the brain (Crews & Landers, 1993), and increased self-awareness (Roemer & Orsillo, 2002), reduces depression (Hoffmann, Sawyer, Witt, & Oh, 2020), enhances well-being (Chiesa & Serretti, 2009).

References

Burton, Damon & Raedeke, Thomas, D. (2008). Sport Psychology for Coaches. Human Kinetics.

Gardner, F. L., & Moore, Z. E. (2004). A Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment-Based Approach to Athletic Performance Enhancement: Theoretical Considerations. Behavior Therapy, 35(4), 707–723.

Gardner, F. L., & Moore, Z. E. (2012). Mindfulness and acceptance models in sport psychology: A decade of basic and applied scientific advancements. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 53(4), 309–318. https://doi-org.uws.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/a0030220

Stewart Cotterill, Neil Weston, & Gavin Breslin. (2017). Sport and Exercise Psychology: Practitioner Case Studies. Wiley-Blackwell.

Vernacchia, Ralph, McGuire, Rick, & Cook, David. (1996) Coaching Mental Excellence. Warde Publishers, Inc.

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One of my favorite quotes about MJ, is from the documentary The Last Dance, in which Mark Vancil, the editor of Rare Air, describes Michael Jordan’s mind… “Michael is a mystic. He was never anywhere else. His gift wasn’t that he could jump high, run fast, shoot a basketball. His gift was that he was completely present.”

So, how did Michael do it? And how can you can learn to block out distractions and focus completely on the present moment? To answer these questions, I want to first define the term Mindful Awareness.

What is Mindful Awareness?

My favorite definition of mindful awareness or mindfulness was coined by Jon Kabat Zinn. Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally.

In other words, mindfulness is the practice of turning attention towards oneself in the present moment and away from the everyday stresses and distractions of the world. Mindful meditation has his roots from ancient Buddhist meditation techniques and there are many contemplative practices that explore the concept of consciousness through meditation. However, today the practice of mindfulness has become a common practice among elite athletes.

The members of the US women’s soccer team practiced mindfulness in preparation for winning 2019 World Cup Championship. Misty May & Carrie Walsh won 3 Olympic gold medals in beach volleyball for the United States. They are widely known for practicing mindfulness throughout their Olympic Career. And many professional surfers have a mindfulness meditation practice.  In fact, mindfulness and surfing go hand in hand as Kelly Slater is famously quoted for saying, “It’s all about where your mind’s at.”

So why do all these pro athletes practice mindfulness?

There’s lots of benefits to mindfulness awareness:

• Reduction in stress levels and anxiety
• Improved mental & emotional wellbeing
• Mood regulation
• Better access to your intuition
• A higher level of empathy
• A stronger connection to your team, community, and environment

The list goes on and on. There are many compelling reasons to adopt a mindfulness awareness practice as athlete. And now I am going to give you a tool to help you do that.

As athletes and coaches, the practice of mindfulness often takes a backseat to physical endurance and technical training. As a result, athletes don’t often experience separation between the mind’s activities and awareness of thoughts.

For example, as an athlete, if you make a mistake in competition, you might act out on your impulses of frustration without even being aware of your actions. Or your mind might wonder-off during a time-out or a break in the action and get lost in a memory. Those blips in awareness during competition can cost points and even championships.

However, when athletes operate in a state of mindful awareness you become aware that you are more than just the activities in your mind. You understand that there is a space between stimulus and response that you can exist in. And in that space, you have the power to choose your response.

Learning to develop a practice of mindful awareness will help athletes reach their optimal potential under pressure in competition. Remember being in the flow and competing at your optimal potential is all about where your mind’s at.

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When you have a negative, fear based, shameful experience or an insecure thought, your mind wraps around it like velcro. When you have a positive experience, for example – when you receive a compliment or somebody affirms and congratulations you, it slides off like melted butter on a teflon skillet.  Our brains are hardwired to remember negative experiences and quickly forget positive experiences. 

The human mind is attracted to the negative. It’s why we get so caught up in gossip. It’s why bad news is good for ratings. Humiliation sticks with us for days.  Shame can stick with us for years.  But we are not nearly as affected by the positive feedback we receive.

Think about it in your own life.  If you get 10 positive emails in a day and 1 negative email, which email do you ruminate over?

Consider a volleyball practice.  If you get 5 compliments from your coach and 1 piece of criticism that day, what’s the 1 thing that you remember above all else from that practice?   It doesn’t even matter if the criticism was constructive criticism!

If you don’t consciously focus on the positive, if you don’t look for it, and listen for it, then you are not going to hear it.  And you’re definitely not going to absorb it. Maybe it comes in the form of a compliment from a teammate or you receive praise from your coach.  Or maybe it’s just a moment of gratitude about something you are thankful for.

My point is that you have to deliberately and consciously concentrate on positive experiences in order for them to really sink in. Research says that it takes 5 positive interactions to make up for a single negative interaction in a relationship.  The same is true of self-talk.

Now more than ever, there is so much suffering in the world.  The negative news is overwhelming and it drowns out heroic stories every single day. It’s so easy to fall into a funk and feel sorry for yourself with the situation you’re in.  There’s some days where everything bothers you, your parents are driving you crazy, your siblings are being annoying, and maybe it feels like your friends don’t seem to really understand what you’re going through. 

You have to choose to look for the positive.  You have to choose to be thankful.  You have to choose to lift each other up instead of cut each other down.  You have to choose to lift yourself up, instead of tear yourself down.

This is one of the most practical lessons I can possibly teach you on or off the court. It’s called the Velcro & Teflon Theory.  We’re attracted to the negative like velcro, but positive thoughts slide off like teflon. You can actually build your confidence on or off the volleyball court by focusing on positive thoughts or memories for at least 15 seconds.

Here is the Takeaway Tool: One of the keys to confidence building to dedicate time to remembering and focusing on positive thoughts and experiences. To absorb a positive experience, a piece of praise or comment from a teammates or coach, you need to focus on it for at least 15 seconds.  If you do not focus on the positive, it won’t stick. Give it a try!

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In other words, about every 40 seconds most people get distracted and switch actions. Consider your own cell phone habits. Now picture the following scenario: You’re writing an email for work or a paper for class when you receive a phone notification from on Facebook (or TikTok, Instagram, Whatsapp, etc). Next you open the message and click on the link that you received from your friend and before you even realize it you’re trying to buy toilet paper from Amazon!

(Helpful tip: Turn off all your phone notifications and silence your phone completely when you’re performing a task that requires your undivided attention.)

These patterns of unconsciously getting sucked down the rabbit hole are so common. What most people don’t realize is that the over-usage of cell phones combined with the typical cell phone habit of incessantly jumping from one app to the next can negatively impact ones ability to sustain the heightened level of concentration required in volleyball. Obviously screen time concentration doesn’t directly transfer to volleyball, but if you’re training your mind to focus for 40 second increments, it is going to have a negative impact on your ability to focus for an extended period of time on the court.

Now consider that the average length of a volleyball rally in NCAA Division I typically lasts anywhere between 13 and 60 seconds. Rallies for Division II and III teams tend to last even longer. Just check out this 1.55 minute rally won by North Texas back in October of 2019. Or this 1.12 minute rally between Nebraska and Illinois in 2015 deemed the Big Ten’s longest point ever. Collegiate volleyball matches are filled with rallies lasting longer than 40 seconds. The point here is that volleyball players need to train themselves to concentrate for short bursts of time for an extended period time.

The good news is that concentration is a skill that you can develop, just like passing or setting. The key is learning how to adjust your attentional field so that it only includes performance-relevantinternal factors and external factors.

Internal factors are thoughts, emotions or feelings.  These are things that an individual player experiences during a game but her teammates and coaches can’t see or hear. External factors are external sights and sounds, such as a coach yelling or the fans cheering. The most successful athletes know how to block out irrelevant and harmful distractions during competition and zero-in on only the factors that matter in the moment.

Learning how to adjust your focus under pressure takes practice, but with dedication you’ll find you can improve your concentration over time. My book covers practical strategies that you can implement during practices or games under pressure. The Headstrong workbook also includes activities that you can do to improve your concentration, as well as a ton of free resources to help you improve your concentration on the volleyball court.

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