When I was competing leading up to the 2014 Winter Paralympics, I knew that I wanted to have someone in my corner to help me get through the challenging days where I wanted to quit, despite how close I was getting towards my ultimate goal. The journey to the Olympics/Paralympics is a long one, and you can't get there on your own. You need help from an expert, and that is why I knew in addition to my physical performance, I wanted support in my mental performance. When I sought out support from sports psychologists before, I found they were helpful but what ultimately helped me the most is building a long term relationship with someone that I vetted myself, that I knew, liked, and trusted. It was a game changer for me to take control of this into my own hands, versus relying on what my team's program provided.
For me, the benefits were:
- Consistency in support, despite changes in our team's program
- I also found we could go deeper in conversations since our relationship was long term
- I had more confidence in my abilities through visualization strategies I was provided
- Having the ability to talk through my problems with someone that understood my specific scenario
- Learning how to better manage my emotions and look at the big picture of my life and sporting experience
One of the most beneficial tools I learned was to "Take things 0.1 step at a time". Mentally painting a picture of how to break things down into smaller, micro, simpler steps gave me insight in how to become more resilient in pursuit of my goals. This type of work is important for athletes because it doesn't matter how good your equipment is or how good of physical shape you are in, if you mental operating system isn't performing at it's peak then you're not going to get the results you are looking for. At the end of the day, working with a Mental Performance Coach comes down to you having a practical and real conversation with an expert to help provide you with tools and guidance to shortcut your own obstacles that we can tend to put in our way, and deal with those that are external an presented before us. By making an investment of your time, money, and application of the practices provided, you will see results. It's worth the investment.