Is It All Just Physical ?

Over many years of competing as a high performance athlete, I have seen many athletes succumb to the chronic stress associated with the incredibly high expectations to perform. The added pressures of performance on the precarious balance of meeting academic demands, a healthy social life and overall well-being, will inevitability cause many young athletes to succumb to this immense psychological weight.

I have seen improvements through increased education and active advances towards developing athlete’s mental toughness (a term in athletics used to define the combination of athletic psychological well-being through confidence, beliefs of self-efficacy, resilience and perseverant abilities, and a control over the existing pressures) through the introduction of sport psychology. Sport psychologists and team trainers teach athletes to envision goals, success, and to let go of mistakes after quickly learning from them. But what happens when they can’t let them go? What happens when the scales are tipped and the once well-oiled machine begins to fall apart?

The answer may lie in continually assessing the athlete’s mental toughness through routine psychological evaluation.

While some athletes develop a natural coach-ability and have pre-existing mental strategies, it will greatly improve the extended care, performance, and quality of life of many. Routine assessments can help athletes see other key aspects of athletic performance such as self-confidence, self-efficacy, stress management techniques, and the control of performance anxiety, in order to improve both their mental and their physical game, on and off the playing field. I have heard time and time again how many sports come down to 20% skill and 80% mental faculty and I truly believe this. By employing these regular tests and checkups, athletes can find specific areas of improvement that can help them take their game to the next level when physical capabilities are not enough.

The standardization of a routine psychological assessment structure will help to increase the effectiveness of a general education, into a valuable and essential personal tool. Ultimately, it will lead to a healthier psychological state where athletes can both drastically improve their performance and enable them to recapture a greater sense of balance in their life. Athletes, who once struggled to maintain control, would now be able to strike a greater balance between high performance and psychological well-being.

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