PUSHING THROUGH THE MENTAL BARRIER

Bill Mountjoy, Retired high School and College Coach 

Often there is a very fine line between a winning and losing effort. More often than not, this is due to the athletes’ mental concentration. This concentration cannot be developed in the span of a few days or hours before the contest. It must be worked on weeks and months during the training season to develop sound habits.

Athletes must be prepared to compete in a variety of situations. Namely:  (1) heat,  (2) cold,  (3) wind,  (4) fatigue,  (5) falling behind,  (6) hurt,  (7) angry, etc. All these situations require that they show a little more class and concentration than the opponent. How do we prepare for maximum concentration? Let’s start with the basics.

First, have a goal. Second, have a plan to achieve that goal. Third, begin the plan and follow through. Every good athlete is and should be ready to mentally follow his plan. Every time you give in to not doing your workout correctly, you lose some of your ability to achieve! When a situation arises in an athletic contest that is tough, you must know that you are capable of NOT giving up because you have faced tough situations in a workout session. 

Here are some guidelines:

1-Be mentally alert to begin workout.  Don’t wait until halfway through to “wake-up”.

2-Concentrate even on the smallest detail. Do everything exactly as taught by the coaches.

3-Take pride in everything you do --- Be a leader!

4-Mentally visualize all day long doing things correctly.

5-Don’t hold back. Push yourself beyond your mental limits. Often the mind holds back what the body can do. You can do it! A good example is weight training. Get strong! Challenge yourself on how much you can handle. Mental concentration can make a 10-15% difference with what you can move. This could be the winning edge.

6-On conditioning work, learn to push yourself through the pain barrier. Pain is a part of athletics;  you must often compete when tired. If you have not faced and conquered pain in practice, you will not be able to in a contest!

7-Don’t associate with people who don’t want to work and pay a price.  Associate with winners who ALWAYS want to improve. Losers try to find people who they can loaf with --- Be a winner! 

ANYONE CAN LOSE.  ONLY SPECIAL PEOPLE CAN WIN.