Sport & performance psychology combines evidence-based research with applied strategies to help athletes, coaches, and performing artists learn how to perform at their optimal level consistently, increase enjoyment and improve overall mental wellness.
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Using Imagery to Reduce Stress, Overcome Injury and Achieve Your Optimal Performance Level
At some point in your career, you will experience an athletic injury. Every runner does eventually. Athletic injuries that disrupt your training routines and prevent you from running regularly are unavoidable. What many runners fail to realize is that an athlete’s mental outlook and stress response during the physical rehabilitation process significantly impacts both the recovery process and the risk of reinjury. Using sport psychology techniques to supplement your physical therapy process will result in more motivation, improved communication with your physical therapist, a better understanding of your injury, increased control over your recovery process, and ultimately a reduction in injury susceptibility.
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The Confidence Continuum
How do you build your confidence in sports? Athletes often come seek out sport psychologists because their confidence is too low. Many athletes, especially female identifying athletes, express concern that they will be perceived as ‘arrogant’ or ‘not a team player’ if their confidence is too high? The gender confidence gap is real, and it impacts many female athletes and women’s sports teams today.
One of the biggest misconceptions about confidence in sports is that most athletes and coaches think confidence is simply the belief in one’s ability to win or succeed. The problem with this definition of confidence is that it’s too narrow and often leads to a simplified “yes or no”, “you either have it or you don’t” type of thinking, when in fact confidence is much more complex.
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Imagery: The Action Happens in Your Mind
Imagery is a mental skill that allows athletes to mentally rehearse in their minds using their five senses to imagine or replay the desired experience . The aim of imagery is to train your mind and body to feel calm under pressure situations and influence the outcome of events. Athletes can use imagery to picture what it will look, feel, and sound like to compete under pressure in front of loud spectators and in specific competition arenas. The action happens in your mind.
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How to Control Your Energy Level in Competition
Got players that are feeling anxious and stressed? There’s certainly no shortage of things to be stressed out about in today’s world, but sports should be a stress outlet rather than a stress trigger – especially for young players. Unfortunately, that’s often not the case. Now more than ever before, we are seeing a rise in rates of anxiety, depression, suicide, and self-harm among teenagers. The New York Times has coined the term “the inner pandemic” to describe today’s mental health crisis among youth and adolescents.
Athletes and coaches alike experience a fight-or-flight response when their sympathetic nervous system is activated. Physical symptoms of stress can include increased heart rate, stomach nausea, shortness of breath, muscle tension, and unwanted arousal. There are evidence-based muscle-to-mind techniques that you can use to help athletes reduce their levels of performance anxiety and stress.
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