2. Sport Psychology Consulting
the last 30 years
Soccer coach for 35 years

3. SPC provides a service which melds mind and
body into an optimal relationship. Working
closely with athletes, coaches and
parents, programs are specifically designed for
the athletes’ age, competitive level and
personal needs.

4.  SPC’s educational program is for healthy
athletes who are striving for excellence in their
sport. There is no magic answer- just sound
mental training to optimize athletic
performance.

5.  Top level athletes spend hours working on their
skills, on fitness or on speed training. At some
point we have to ask, am I doing everything from
a mental point of view possible to help insure my
success?
 Mental Training is this missing component. At
every level, a major determining factor between
success and failure involves how we mentally
prepare for competition.
 Learning how to be successful as well as how to
cope with failure are the mental building blocks
needed to reach for your potential.

6. Sport Psychology Consultants
TheMental-Game.com
An Educational Experience……… dedicated to an
athletes’ long-term understanding of how best to
perform to their potential.
Skills such as relaxation, concentration, coping
behavior and imagery rehearsal can be taught. This
is why SPC takes an Educational Approach to
working with athletes.

7.  Mental skills are the same as physical skills in
that they can be taught, learned and practised.
 Performance can be radically improved by
employing psychological skills training.

8.  Programs can focus on one or more principles,
depending on which areas need improvement,
and these might include:
- goal setting
- arousal
- mental rehearsal
- confidence building
- concentration

9.  It is best if psychological skills become automatic
via overlearning
 That athletes make them an integral part of their
training
 That skills are practised to replicate real game
scenarios

10. Goal Setting
Visualisation Concentration
MENTAL
Anxiety and
Positive self-talk TRAINING arousal control
TECHNIQUES
Relaxation
Centreing
Techniques
Focusing

11. Every action begins first with a thought.
Every result originates from an action.

12. Attitude
What is Attitude?
Where does it come
from?
Do you have the
Fury?
Do you have
passion?

13. The Mind
Conscious
Sub-conscious

14. The Mind
1. Sub-conscious mind never sleeps
2. Your mind is like the soil
3. Your mind can only hold one thought at a time
4. Your mind will move your body in the direction of
your dominant thought
5. Your mind cannot distinguish between what’s real
and imaginary

15.  What is it?
 How do you develop it?
 It may not be what you think it is!

16. Based on research rather than invention
mental toughness may be defined from
simple to complex
Starting with simple
 PPR- Perseverance Persistence
Resilience

17.  1. Unshakable self-belief in your ability to achieve
your competition goals.
 2. Unshakable self-belief that you possess unique
qualities and abilities that make you better than
your opponents.
 3. Insatiable desire and internalized motives to
succeed.
 4. Bouncing back from performance set-backs as a
result of increased determination to succeed.
 5. Thriving on the pressure of competition.
 6. Accepting that competition anxiety is inevitable
and knowing that you can cope with it.

18.  7. Not being adversely affected by others’ good
and bad performances.
 8. Remaining fully-focused in the face of personal
life distractions.
 9. Switching a sport focus on and off as required.
 10. Remaining fully focused on the task at hand in
the face of competition-specific distractions.
 11. Pushing back the boundaries of physical and
emotional pain, while still maintaining technique
and effort under distress (in training and
competition).
 12. Regaining psychological control following
unexpected, uncontrollable events (competition
specific).

19.  1. Sense of urgency without panic.
 2. Wanting the responsibility when the game is
on the line.
 3. Ability to respond positively to criticism.
 4. Establish the will to work to win.
 5. Self-motivated
 6. Having a never quit attitude.
 7. Having a killer instinct.

20.  Has been shown to increase work output by up to
40-50%
 Goals need to be set for both training and
competitions

21. There are three types of sporting goals:
 Outcome goals focus on end result, times, finishing
place or medals
 Performance goals focus on comparing present
performance levels with those attained
previously, and are independent of other
competitors
 Process goals focus on actions such as physical
movements and game strategies that athletes must
execute during a game in order to maximise their
performance

22. Short-term goals:
 continually provide a more manageable focus
point for athletes
 act as the stepping stones for achieving long-
term goals
 bring about improved performances

23.  The acronym SMARTER is an effective way of goal
setting:
Specific – clear goals
Measurable – assess progress
Action based– Do something
Research Based- Realistic – achievable
Time bound – within a time frame
Exciting – challenged, inspired, rewarded
Recorded – written down- yes you can use a computer

24.  The importance of belief is really important-
 So tie in as many senses as you can
 Ask yourself-
 When I reach my goal it will
 Taste Like? Look Like? Feel Like?
 Smell Like? Sound Like?
 When you attach a sense it is more real!

25.  Athletes can attain optimal arousal and
concentration levels by trying to imagine
themselves performing skills before actually
doing them
 This is known as - mental rehearsal
- mental imagery
- visualisation
- hypnosis

26.  Effective imagery involves a lot more than simply
“seeing” how a performance should be executed
 It calls on as many senses as possible during the
rehearsal stage, typically:
* kinaesthetic
* auditory
* visual
* even smell & taste

27. Imagery improves performance by:
 Improving neural pathways between the brain and
the muscles
 Providing a mental template of rehearsed sequences
 Enabling athletes to prepare for a range of events
and eventualities
 Working in conjunction with other psychological
skills
 Allowing athletes to pre-experience the
achievement of goals that build confidence

28.  Is carried out by making the physical training
environment as similar as possible to the game
setting
 Thoughts are actually taken through to the
physical application stage

29.  The relationship between arousal and
performance is commonly referred to as the
“inverted-U” hypothesis
 It is possible to experience situations of: *
under-arousal
* optimal arousal (in the “zone”)
* over-arousal

30. Level of arousal changes based on:
 Skill
 Situation
 Activity
 Gross motor or fine motor skill

31. Arousal reduction techniques include:
 Controlled breathing
 Progressive muscular relaxation
 Biofeedback
 Stress-inoculation training (SIT)
 Listening to calming music
 Using routines

33. Arousal promotion techniques include:
 Rapid breathing
 Acting energetically
 Positive talk
 Energising imagery
 Pre-game workout

34. Choking – a situation where performance deteriorates
because a heightened sense of pressure or importance is
placed on an upcoming event or action
Often caused by:
 Negative self-talk
 Thinking about past performances
 Thinking about the future
 Environmental distractions
 Muscle tension
 Fatigue

35. Consists of three parts:
1. Focusing on relevant environmental cues
2. Maintaining attention focus over time
3. Having awareness of the situation

36. There are four types of focus:
1. Broad-internal focus – on thoughts and feelings
2. Broad-external focus – outwards on opponent’s
actions
3. Narrow-internal focus – thoughts and mentally
rehearse upcoming movements
4. Narrow-external focus – on very few external
cues

37. Concentration can be improved by:
 Use of cue words
 Selective attention training
 Routines
 Over-learning
 Confidence

38.  Confidence levels and performance attainment
closely reflect the inverted-U shape
demonstrated by the arousal theory
 It is possible to lack confidence
 Be over-confident
 Be in “the zone”

39.  Confidence levels remain high if athletes feel
that they are adequately trained to succeed in
the activity being undertaken – both physically
and psychologically
 Knowing what to expect by having practised
many physical and mental scenarios, and
knowing how to respond to them, removes
uncertainty and ensures optimal performance
levels

40. Building Unwavering
Self- Confidence
 Use words wisely
 Believe
 Set internal achievement mechanisms
 Focus on the Positive
 Celebrate success

41.  From Darwin-
Ignorance begets confidence more than it does
knowledge
 From the Oracle of Delphi
Know Thyself
 The critical factor:
Constant Reliable Feedback
 The major problem-
Occasional Delayed Ambiguous Feedback

42.  Most people overestimate their performance
 Discrepancy between perception and reality
 Over placement: people tend to place
themselves higher or with more skill than reality
 Information Deficit- lack of real information
 Performance ill defined- no measureable goals

43.  Adaptive function- The one positive especially at
early stages of development is that
overconfidence leads to optimism to take on new
challenges

44. 5 Rules for Success
 If you can’t name it, you can’t claim it. Set Goals
 Success requires direct action.
 Success is always preceded by discomfort or failure.
 You, and only you, are responsible for what you get.
 Have Passion for what you do.

46. ~ The greatest waste in the world is the
difference between what we are and what we
could become. ~
Ω
~ Most people have so much more potential than
where they are right now ~
Ω
~ Success or Failure is dependent
on one thing ~
YOU
Ω
~ Are you the player you want to
become? ~

47. (425) 241-6539
margolies@TheMental-Game.com