Come championship time doing the extra sprint, extra pushup, or extra double-leg no longer serves as a basis for building your conditioning. You and your competition are so well trained physically, that these “extra miles” serve you more from a mental standpoint. The question then becomes how do we have our mental conditioning mirror our peak physical conditioning. Wrestlers can do this by managing their emotional energy effectively leading up to their match.

Things that can drain our emotional energy include stressful situations in one’s personal life, getting hyped up too soon before a match, or being around people that are trying to dictate your energy for you. In turn, things that can help us conserve our emotional energy may be doing some visualization in a quiet place by yourself, staying away from people that may be a distraction (i.e. parents, significant others, etc) and listening to light soothing music hours before competition rather than one’s typical rock or hip hop that may cause one to get too excited too early. I often watch scholastic or youth wrestlers pacing back and forth attempting intimidation an hour before they wrestle. The wrestler sitting in a corner, who is calm and collected going over focus cues or listening to the piano tribute to U2 is who I place my confidence in.

When a young wrestler is competing under the bright lights of the biggest stage they have ever competed in, it’s easy for emotional fatigue to set in. As coaches and as athletes we have a great deal of control over how we can prepare and dictate our emotional gas tank. In the New Jersey state finals you will see more times than not two evenly matched athletes when it comes to physical and technical prowess. It will be the athlete who is best prepared mentally, and who has done the right things to conserve his/her emotional energy that will be in the best position to capture gold.

Blog written by:
Jon Gregory was an NCAA All-American wrestler at Ithaca College and NJ State Place winner at Phillipsburg High School. He worked on mental training with Dr. Jarrod Spencer and Dr. Greg Shelley throughout his career, and advised on the development of the ai-Performance Wrestling program. Jon currently works in athletics at Ithaca College and is an assistant coach for the wrestling team.

At the core of mental toughness training is the recognition of what is within the athlete’s control and what is not.  Athletes must control what they can (e.g., breathing, muscle tension, emotions, thoughts, and what they look at and listen to) and let go of everything that is not within their control (e.g., the weather and playing conditions, officiating, opponents words and actions, what someone thinks, or a play just completed).  In short, athletes must learn to “control the controllables”.  They must prepare their body, train their mind, and sharpen their focus.

Preparing the body means to control one’s responses to stress and anxiety.  Competitive stress is common and most athletes are all-to-familiar with what happens to their body when faced with performing under pressure.  All athletes must get “ready to perform” as they experience various changes in breathing patterns, heart rates, and muscle tension.  With that said, athletes must also remain in control of their breathing and heart rates, coordinated muscle movements, and overall body tension.  When out of control, performance stresses cause muscle tightness, a loss of needed oxygen, and a decreased ability to move in a smooth and “fluid” manner.

Training the mind entails controlling one’s thoughts, images, and emotions.  Regardless of the situation or outcome, athletes need to consistently manage how they think about and how they respond to various situations.  All performers “move in the direction of what they think”.  Athletes must understand this and realize how the mind and the body work together.  Dwelling on a previous mistake or a recent loss generally leads to a similar mistake or another loss in the immediate future.  In the same way, focusing on strengths and what to do to be successful . . . moves that person in the direction of success.  In short, it is important for all athletes to control the mind and “think right”.

Sharpening focus is all about developing and improving one’s focus on relevant performance cues.  Athletes must learn what is relevant (when attended to these cues help the athlete perform the task) and what is irrelevant (when attended to these cues lead to distractions, mistakes, and choking).  Obviously, focusing on the right cues can be difficult.  But focus can be improved.  First, determine the appropriate and relevant cues given the current role to be performed.  For a baseball hitter (in the box), the only appropriate cue might be the ball.  For a basketball free-throw shooter (on the line), a relevant cue might be the front of the rim.  Second, develop cue words to focus and stay focused, as well as refocus after a mistake.  Cue words are words or phrases, that when stated, help an athlete to mentally and visually focus on the appropriate target. For example, a cue word (or phrase) might be “top right” (for the top right corner of a soccer goal) or “serve receive” (to help a volleyball player refocus after a missed serve.  Whatever the cue, it must be meaningful to the performer and relevant to focusing the athlete toward reaching a successful outcome.

So, who needs mental training?  To be a consistently good performer, all athletes need it.  However, only the best will take the time to prepare their body, train their mind, and sharpen their focus.  Be one of the few to be one of the best.

Material summarized from Dr. Greg Shelley’s new book (release date Spring 2013) entitled,

Coach Up:  50 Rules for Building Committed, Confident,  and Motivated Athletes and Teams

Greg A. Shelley, Ph.D.

Rise Above Performance Consulting

Trumansburg, NY 14886