In designing your practices whether as a coach for teams or for yourself as an individual athlete, you need to make sure that you develop your plan and your practice workout so that it is well rounded. There are four crucial elements toward planning and individual workout or a team practice. First, there needs to be some degree of sports skills that are improved and develop that parallel or worked toward what will happen in game situations that you will compete in.
Second, you need to work on athletic skills. You cannot make yourself taller but you can make yourself stronger faster and quicker. Every athlete needs to work on becoming a better athlete. Sometimes during the course of their practice sessions athletic skills include being in top condition so that you are ready to compete. No player or athlete can compete at 100% of their mental skills and their physical skills unless they are in top condition.
Third, you need to compete. Now as an individual when you practice alone, you are wondering how do I compete or we explain that in how you practice. Work on practicing with perfect mechanics at game speed for short intervals with rest periods in between. Make sure that you track your daily progress either how long did it take you to do the entire workout or how many repetitions did it take to complete and as you track your progress you can learn to compete against yourself.
Now if you are doing a team sport then you need to go and find places in ways to compete in team settings in the off season as well. If it is during the season you do it in practice by going as hard as you can. You need playing experience and competing experience working on specific skills that you have in order to get to the point of being mentally tough. Recognize as you go and compete that you will learn invaluable lessons from the times that you do lose.
Take advantage of those loses study and understand why you lost and use those weak areas to make you better and incorporate those into your individual practices. Now when we talk about competing that means that when you go to a play or race that it is competitive. That means not that you can go against people you would beat every time at you go against people to challenge you or that you cannot beat every time that is competing.
All three of these elements are vital to get to the point of being mentally tough as a competitor not just as an athlete. More games in competitions are lost due to lack of mental toughness and for any other single reason. You could be mentally tough as an athlete by working hard in these areas and doing more than most athletes are willing too but it will not make you tough as a competitor unless you also learn to compete.
As you practice when things become digressive and mentally tough to do you must become mentally tough and aggressive in your practice. Mental toughness is playing through pain and fatigue but never injury. By working through mental blocks you will develop to have it of mental toughness. The more you dedicate yourself to putting forth your best performance at all times then the more determined competitive and mentally tough you will become.
Mental toughness is a habit. It can be developed and it must be developed if you are to be successful in sports. You do not have to be physically strong to be mentally tough as a competitor nor if you are physically strong does not mean that you are mentally tough. You have to learn as you practice to become self competitive.
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