I’ve been working with coaches for years to help teach the mental side to players. While I think it’s always good to educate, it is hard to tackle the factors that are not exactly our forte. Coaching the mental side of sport can be a challenge when your specialty is coaching the physical side. And, let’s face it, there’s only so much in a practice to do everything that needs to get done.

My goal is to educate and develop simple, effective mental training tools that coaches can use and incorporate into teaching physical skills as part of their program. Incorporating these two skills at the same time is a great way to see how they work hand in hand, and when and where the magic happens.

With a growth mindset, I am always conscious about how I can continue to grow and develop my presentations and workshops in a way that is simple and applicable for coaches. Coaching mental and physical skills can be a challenge because it’s not typically what players or coaches are used to; however it is fast becoming the most important part of my work. I realized this when I watched the results of my second presentation during an on-court talk in the UK during the Wimbledon.

Scope of practice

As a sport coach, your scope of practice is to coach the physical skills. You probably know a lot about nutrition or physical therapy, however most of the time it may not be your specialty as is teaching physical skills and the science behind it. As would be the case with mental skills.

I get that training athletes on mental skills is not your expertise nor should it be. However, since mental skills are so critical to the success of your job and your athlete’s success, it is critical that you have an understanding and some tools for helping athletes with their mental skills. There are ways to teach the mental side that aren’t outside of your scope of practice and that are different then what I do daily with elite performers. 😉

Role modeling speaks volumes

I started a second presentation in the UK talking about being a good role model because if you don’t do anything else to educate the mental side to players, you can model the thoughts and behaviors that elicit optimal athletic performance.

What does that look like? It starts the moment you walk onto the court or field and doesn’t end until practice ends.

• The number one goal is to get to know your athletes as people. That carries a lot of trust and respect that’ll go a long way.
• A big part of showing confidence is in having positive body language – head up, shoulders back, and walking tall. A slight upturn of the corners of your mouth are always good too. 😊
• You can model resilience by bouncing back when things don’t go your way.
• Internal motivation is important and can easily be obtained by getting your athletes to think about developing their own small, realistic practice goals.
• Help athletes develop more positive language around their abilities – I can’t do this right now, but if I keep working, I will get better.
• Promote effort, intent and growth; instead of promoting winning, zero mistakes, and perfectionism
• Show that you are having fun at practice and allow your athletes to have some fun.
• Get out of the habit of telling and in the habit of asking and allowing your athletes to be part of the decision-making process.

Why is role modeling helpful?

This makes coaching easier for you because your athletes will be more bought in. They will feel empowered and they will take responsibility for their growth and learning. Athletes also flourish and want to be in environments where this kind of coaching exists. The #1 reason people play sports is fun. #2 is to be social. #3 is to learn a new skill.

In this process, they don’t want to be bystanders, they want to be participants so if you can figure out how to make that happen via role modeling, you’ve already made a huge impact. Players will always look to their coach for ‘the right thing to do.’

This may sound like a huge challenge, or maybe not, but this is what being a professional in any field requires. I understand that there are days when other things in life are happening and impact us in a negative way. This makes it harder to be the role model you know you should be, but learning to compartmentalize is again good for you and for your athletes.

Taking it to the court

The second part of my presentation in the UK took mental skills to the court to teach the mental side of play in the moment. I taught a couple of easy drills that help to specifically train mental skills. One was specific to focus and one for negativity. I used volunteers to teach a couple of variations so coaches could see the drills and see the development and change in mentality.

As part of this, I talked about my Beating the Tennis Demon System – pre-performance routine, pre-serve routine, and a between point routine. This demonstrates how important it is to train the brain to be a competitive athlete, how the demons pop up to sabotage in these areas for tennis players, and ways to begin to train them on what to do in these critical moments.

I took the coaches through some ideas and ways to help them help their athletes develop the necessary routines. As I was talking through this in my first presentation, a coach asked me, aren’t routines specific to each individual? Good question and the short answer is YES but that doesn’t mean that tennis coaches can’t start to help tennis players understand these moments and understand what to do with these moments.

Every practice should include

Make sure to include and teach the mental side to players in practice.

Every practice should include fun, social-ness, and learning. Some coaches seem to think that fun and being social can’t exist in a learning environment, but in fact they are a necessary component of learning. People learn much better when these elements exist and on a consistent basis.

I frequently hear, my child doesn’t play like she practices. Yeah that’s because many coaches don’t think enough about the differences between practicing and playing a match. Teach the dynamics of how practice and a match are different and incorporate more deliberate practice into what you are doing.

For example, thinking about technique is important in practice but it’s not an important part of playing a match. In a match, there should be very little thinking. In practice, a tennis player can make mistakes and correct them and practice the growing serve technique over and over but that can’t happen in a match. Unfortunately, coaches don’t talk enough about that difference, so overthinking happens in a match because a tennis player hasn’t been taught not to think in a match.

Bottom line, we should do what we do best and instill that into our players. The physical side of sport is of course, very important. And, the mental side of sport is SO critical to your success as a coach and your athletes’ success, there are some small things you should do to create a positive, confident, resilient environment.

Last note, observation is a critical skill for a coach. Observe and when you see something, stop practice and ask questions about what is happening? What is the athlete thinking? How are they feeling? Be confident and flexible enough to think critically about how to train your athlete through that moment.

Teach the mental side and make the magic happen

Start small. Try one thing and build from there. It really is magic when a player gets both aspects of physical and mental skill to work together in practice, and more exciting in a match. I understand the challenges of making this magic happen, so please feel free to reach out any time – drmichelle@drmichellecleere.com.