Gareth J. Mole, Sports Psychologist

Sport Psychology Myths

Some of the most common myths about sport psychology and mental toughness are debunked by leading Sport Psychologist Gareth J. Mole

Sport Psychology Myths – Where To Start?

I am sure all professionals feel like this to some degree. That their working world is full of myths and half-truths. But given the nature of the work we do and the relatively newness of our profession, I believe sport psychology is undoubtedly up there in terms of misconceptions. Below are some of our favourites – in no particular order. I use the word ‘favourite’ because of the combination of how often we encounter them and the potential benefits of debunking them.

Myth 1: Sport Psychology Is Like Counselling, Therapy

This is a classic half-truth, as it is literally half correct.

Some elements of the work we do are similar to those of counsellors, therapists, or clinical psychologists. For example, the confidential nature of the relationship, and we can help with mental health issues if required. But the other half of the process is much more likely to resemble a coach. For this part, we’re more likely to be talking about goals and how to achieve them.

Obviously, some performance psychologists will tend to be more like a therapist, whilst others will lean more towards the coaching approach. This is one of the most significant advantages our clients enjoy. With such a strong and varied team of psychologists, we can literally allow our clients to tell us what they’re looking for. And with very few exceptions, we can ensure their psychologists are the right kind. If you want to book a 20-minute chat with one of our New Enquiries Officers, you can do that directly here.

Myth 2: The ‘Natural Talent’ Myth

This is a humdinger of a myth. The notion that we are born to be potentially excellent at something, regardless of the amount of effort we put in. In my view, people confuse what they regard as “natural talent” with biological and genetic variation.

The classic example is when young athletes hit puberty, and some suddenly become taller and heavier than their peers. Although there is no doubt these growth spurts play a role in influencing the outcomes of sporting contests, they should not (yet often are) be regarded as natural talent, as there is nothing talented about your genetic makeup.

In fact, I try to get my sporting clients to stop using the word “talent” altogether. Quite simply, there are performance variables that are either controllable, influenceable or uninfluenceable. What you inherited from your parents falls into the last of these three categories. Simply put, you cannot influence your genetics, and therefore, they should occupy as little of your attention as possible.

⬇️ Do you disagree? Argue your case below in the comments section ⬇️!

Myth 3: The ‘Best Time to Start’ Myth

Mondays, or the 1st of the month or the old favourite January! Don’t get me wrong, in much of the work we do, we use time as reminders. For example, using Sunday night as a cue to plan the next seven days. However, these time point myths are often used as an excuse to delay effort.

We know this firsthand from the number of enquiries we get for our Sport Psychology services at different times of the year. We still get about the same number of enquiries in December compared with any other month. However, unlike other months, most people who decide to start working with one of our sport and performance psychologists delay it until January.

The best time to start improving your mindset is now, or as soon as possible.

Myth 4: The ‘Thoughts Can Be Controlled’ Myth

As current and past Condor Performance clients know, we often encourage our clients to consider the level of control or influence they have over different aspects of their performance.

Just over 15 years ago, when clients of ours added ‘thoughts’ to the controllable column, we didn’t challenge it. But recent research suggests that although we can influence our thoughts, we can never control (guarantee) them. This is not to suggest that traditional thought improvement strategies (such as reframing) are a waste of time. It suggests that thoughts (rather than actions) should not be relied on as an essential ingredient in your performance plans.

A classic example of this is the work we do around pre-performance routines in start-stop sports. In the old days, we constructed short routines with both actions (put on my glove) and thoughts (“focus on just this shot”). But in recent times, we have removed the thought component, so our clients’ routines are now all action-based.

⬇️ Do you disagree? Argue your case below in the comments section ⬇️!

Myth 5: The ‘You Have To Feel A Certain Way To Perform Well’ Myth

Same as the above basically. In fact, as humans, we have even less influence over our emotions than we do over our thoughts. Consider extreme emotions like grief. Sure, there are several things that you might be able to do to lessen the experience of grief if you lost a loved one. But these kinds of interventions are only going to make a slight difference. Those that imply you can control your emotions (an unfortunate number) or suggest that you can actually make the grief go away entirely through your own volition.

As per this outstanding article by our colleague Madalyn Incognito, it’s better to accept your emotions and commit to the required action.

Myth 6: That ‘sport psychologists’ are similar to ‘mental skills coaches’

This recent and brilliant article by our colleague James Kneller covers this in the kind of detail that this myth deserves.

Myth 7: That a ‘sport psychologist’ only works with athletes

Not true.

We have been operating long enough now and have tracked enough data to answer this categorically. Yes, the majority of our monthly clients are still athletes (70%).

But the rest are a multitude of performers, including politicians, dancers, students, and emergency workers. One of the most significant groups of non-athletes we work with is a sporting coach.

A lot more detail about this kind of work can be provided in this separate blog post and this one.

It is my hope and belief that as time passes, a greater percentage of our work will be with coaches. Helping mentally astute coaches become even better, they are working with someone genuinely qualified in this area. If you are a coach and interested in improving your mental coaching skills, this is the best place to start.

Myth 8: ‘Face-to-Face Sessions Are More Effective’

At Condor Performance, we were delivering sessions via video conference technology long before the coronavirus hit and made it normal.

Furthermore, we measure client satisfaction and can say with empirical confidence that there is no difference between “face-to-face” and “telehealth” sessions. In fact, according to our numbers, clients who have all sessions via video conference do slightly better on mental health and mental toughness outcomes.

Myth 9: The ‘Experience Is Everything’ Myth

This sport psychology myth is the easiest to believe or understand. But it’s still wrong. The issue with the concept of experience is that it assumes the superior number of hours was spent in the right way. It is also thought that the performer can learn from mistakes. As both of these assumptions are rare (in my experience), experience is, at best, overrated and often detrimental.

If you’d like to bust some more sport psychology myths, have a listen to the answers to our FAQs here. Do you know of any other common sport psychology myths that are not covered above? If you do, please add them to the comments section below, and we’ll then add them when we update this blog. If you disagree with any of these sport psychology myths, please present your argument in the comments below.

Process Goals

This article by sport psychologist Gareth J. Mole is about the beauty of having an unwavering commitment to the process (effort) regardless of the outcome (results).

What Are Process Goals?

The best examples of real Mental Toughness happen well away from the spotlight. But we rarely hear about them.

Even as sport psychologists and performance psychologists, the bulk of the time we spend with our clients is focused on their potential mental improvements, not so much on their past achievements.

At a recent social event, I was part of a conversation that contained one of the best examples of Mental Toughness I can remember in a long time. And I will use this anecdote to explain what might be the most essential ingredient for performance success ever discovered.

The father of a five-year-old boy told of his son’s sudden interest in fishing. So the father decided it would be a great idea to take the young lad on a fishing trip. This, despite neither of them knowing anything about the sport. After buying some basic equipment and getting some tips from the guy in the tackle shop, the plan was to head out the very next day to see what they could catch.

So the father and the son woke before dawn and headed out, all excited. All day, they fished, improving their casting technique and enjoying each other’s company as the hours ticked by. But no fish were caught that first day. So they decided to try again the following day. But once again, they didn’t pull a single fish from the water.

This Continued For 14 Days Straight …

Each day, they’d wake before the sun came up and try their best to catch fish. And at the end of every single one of these 14 days, they came home empty-handed. Well, empty-handed from a number of fish points of view.

When the father finished telling the story, the obvious question had to be asked.

How did you maintain your enthusiasm/motivation day after day despite catching no fish?

The father thought about this for a while.

After some careful reflection, he replied. His son seemed to be almost entirely satisfied with the actual process of fishing. In other words, sitting on a riverbank holding a fishing rod with his old man. He quite literally was not doing it to take home a whole lot of dead fish. Any potential outcomes to this magical process would be considered a bonus or just an occurrence. This young five-year-old boy, without anyone teaching him, had what we would call an Extreme Process Mindset.

A Lesson for Performers

There is an incredible lesson to be learnt here for those involved in sport and performance.

Although “results” are essential, if you’re not enjoying the actual process, then ultimately you’re not going to get very far. The reason for this is relatively simple.

Results are only somewhat influenceable.

Imagine the number of factors beyond your influence in trying to get a fish to bite a tiny hook. It is even possible that the fishing spot chosen by the youngster and his father contained no fish.

Results are only somewhat influenceable. Imagine the number of factors beyond your influence in trying to get a small white ball into a four-and-a-quarter-inch hole in the ground. If you are unable to get some level of pleasure from the process of attempting to get the little white ball into the hole, then you are in trouble.

If this sounds like you, get in touch, as helping athletes with these kinds of mental challenges is precisely what we do.

Examples of Process Goals

There is a subtle difference between a process and a process goal. A reasonable explanation of a process is just an action or a task. Brushing your teeth is a process. Doing some visualisation is a process. Planning your meals ahead of time is a process. Taking an ice bath is a process.

But none of these examples qualify as process goals. Having the intention of brushing your teeth twice a day for at least two minutes in the way the dentist showed you. Now that, my friends, is a process goal.

Process goals are slightly different. They essentially take these actions and tasks and ask, “How are you going to commit to them?“

Repetition is the essence of success. Stop expecting miracles from activities you only do once or twice.

Imagine a soccer goalkeeper. She has identified a desire to improve her ball distribution. She knows what processes are required. Practice hitting targets through both throwing and kicking the ball. A commitment to one weekly 60-minute ball-distribution session is scheduled in the goalkeeper’s calendar.

This is the process goal.

The goal is to spend 60 minutes improving this particular motor skill. If this session is forgotten or done poorly, then the goal is not achieved. If the goalkeeper manages 60 minutes of very high-quality practice in this area, then this process goal is achieved.

Even if her actual ball distribution does not improve, the process goal is still achieved!

Is she enjoying this practice session, or enduring it?

Be Careful of Outcomes

Let’s be honest: a highly motivated goalkeeper who spends an hour a week specifically working on their ball distribution is very likely to improve it. But as we learned from the young fishermen, this cannot be the main reason behind the exercise.

If this goalkeeper were one of my clients, I would try to ensure that the actual process was rewarding and fun. Rewards can come in many shapes and sizes. Maybe she loves the idea that she is working on something important. It might be that she is particularly fond of the person who is feeding the balls back to her. Or maybe she is just one of those people who would much rather be outside on a sunny day than sitting in front of a screen.

If an obsession with outcomes dominates your performance landscape, try putting processes and process goals first. Put the horse before the cart, so to speak. As the great Bill Walsh said, “Let the score take care of itself”.

And if you need a hand, we are here to help.

Rest as a Key Ingredient to Optimal Performance

This is a free sport psychology article designed to bring greater awareness about the vital role rest plays in performance. To support the continued publication of free content by our team of Sports Psychologists please share the article with your network.

No rest is putting you on a fast track to Burnout

Rest for Performance And Mental Health

Rest is one of the more interesting areas in sports psychology. There is actually very little agreement on what exactly we mean by ‘rest’ (a true working definition). And although there is growing scientific evidence that rest, as we define it, is a key ingredient for performance consistency, there’s still considerable debate about just how much and when.

There are a couple of essential points to clarify at the beginning of an article that focuses on the concept of rest. First, we have to acknowledge that rest is not the same as sleep. For it to count as rest, you need to be awake; otherwise, it’s a different thing! If you’re resting and fall asleep, you switch from one type of process to another.

Another crucial aspect for us to acknowledge is that rest is not always easy for many high-performing individuals. If you logically think about this, it makes complete sense.

Rest Is Hard For Many Elite Performers 😬

Individuals who excel in their particular sport or performance area often do so because (in part) they tend to be uncomfortable with stillness and downtime. They fill their waking hours with all sorts of things that can make them far better at their particular sport than the other 99% who partake in it.

I stopped counting the number of individuals I’ve assisted since I began working as a sports psychologist in 2005, but it must now run into the thousands. It is common for many of our sport psychology clients to struggle with finding a level of calmness and rest, due to the high ratio of “doing” and “improving” time.

If you’re reading this and you’re like that, then rest assured, you are in the majority. As is the case with many mental training techniques, we aim to harness the beneficial aspects of natural occurrences while minimising any negative aspects. This is an excellent example of trying to do that. Of course, we want our clients to be “busy little bees” when it comes to preparation, but what if this goes too far?

Burnout Central – That’s what

Like an electric car, humans are designed to go, rest, go, rest and not go, go, go and go some more.

The research suggests that the younger you are, the more likely you are to be able to get away with this to some degree, but it is far more important to schedule a certain amount of rest.

For those who are extremely time-poor, resting is a simultaneous activity to some form of active recovery. I don’t mind the idea of my client watching a Netflix show whilst at the same time doing some very gentle stretching exercises. Especially if this means that they do both rather than one, or even worse, neither 😬.

If you need a helping hand with this, then step one is to complete one of our four MTQs here, which will assess the impact of the amount of rest you have or lack on both mental toughness and mental health.

A Better Definition of Rest

That brings us to the question of what exactly we mean by rest. If I were on a committee tasked with developing a universal working definition, I would opt for something like this.

Rest is the human state in which the individual is awake but not attempting to achieve anything.

This is a fundamental idea because if we focus too much on the concept of stillness, we would miss out on the possibility that, for example, a leisurely walk is often very restful for many individuals. However, as a qualified psychologist, it needs to be relaxing if it has no purpose, no objective, and no goal; therefore, it can simply be a period of respite between two quite contrasting sessions geared towards productivity.

It is tempting to list a whole range of activities that my clients have often suggested when I insisted that they include some form of rest in their weekly schedule. The issue with this and why I’m going to resist the temptation to list anything here: what one person finds genuinely restful, another person finds anything but.

Start with some Really Simple Mindfulness

For those who are genuinely uncomfortable with scheduling a certain amount of rest into their week, a reasonable place to start is by following a mindfulness audio guide. There are hundreds available online, but I’ve included below one that I created in 2023, which is free and does a pretty good job. It’s 11 minutes, and you can download your own copy, so you are not dependent on being connected to the Internet to listen to it over and over again 😇.

How Much Rest and When

To conclude, it is only fair for me to offer some insights into the amount of rest that is likely needed and how often it should occur. I liken this question to one about how much sleep is the right amount. Although I’m always tempted to answer this question with “as much as possible”, the fact is that we now know that for virtually every human, less than seven hours per night and more than nine hours per night is problematic.

Here are my tips on Rest as a Key Ingredient to Optimal Performance.

Try to have one, ideally two resting blocks per day.
Schedule these in, like other activities, otherwise they can vanish in the fervour of your productivity.
Be mindful of individual differences. Some people will find socialising restful, others may need to be alone.
As you approach a competition, the amount of rest (in terms of duration and frequency) you need increases.
Finally, if in doubt, too much rest is probably a better planning error than too little.

It All Starts With Commitment …

Commitment is arguably the most critical aspect of Sport Psychology and Performance-related Mental Toughness. This article is worth reading twice!

“Desire is the key to motivation, but it is determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.”
Mario Andretti

Commitment is the foundation of mental toughness

Commitment: The Foundation of Mental Toughness

As regular readers of our Mental Toughness Digest articles will know, we often talk about the challenge that comes with the interpretation of words. How important are words? Surely from a psychological flexibility point of view, it’s only the actions that matter, no?

Kind of. Yes, there is no doubt that “actions speak louder than words,” but certain words, especially when we view them more meaningfully, may help us.

One of the best examples in the English language is replacing the word ‘problem’ with ‘challenge’. A straightforward swap of just one word can help. About ten years ago, I was working with an international sporting team, and we were playing an away game in Indonesia. The team’s humans were all complaining that the heat and humidity would be a problem. I asked them all to see this as a challenge rather than a problem. I actually went so far as to ban the word ‘problem’ from the moment we set foot on Indonesian soil. It’s always hard to know just how much impact a psychological intervention actually has, but it certainly felt like it really helped.

Commitment vs Motivation vs Other Words

As a qualified sport psychologist with more than 20 years in the trenches, I have always been drawn to the word commitment more than motivation.

Why? There are a few reasons, actually. First, the word ‘commitment’ is embedded in the title of the framework most commonly used by our team of sports psychologists here at Condor Performance.

We lean heavily on Acceptance and Commitment Training in the group and individual consulting we do. It’s worth clarifying that ACT is the process and that Psychological Flexibility is the outcome:

Psychological flexibility is the goal and core concept of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is the therapeutic approach or set of principles and techniques used to develop psychological flexibility. In short, you can think of psychological flexibility as the capacity or skill, while ACT is the method for building that skill to live a more meaningful, values-based life, even with difficult experiences.

The other reason why I love the word commitment is that it feels like we can do something about it if it wanes. In contrast, motivation seems much more rigid. Variations in motivations seem more feelings and mood-related. But commitment and determination seem closely linked to actions.

Committed Performance and Sport Psychologists

Since founding Condor Performance in 2005, I have welcomed many psychologists to our team. I don’t keep a count, but I would estimate the number is close to 40 or 50 by now.

Yet only about a quarter of these ‘starters’ remain. What is it about our current team that separates them from the dozens that have come and gone? Apart from some prerequisites, such as outstanding knowledge across Sports and being qualified up to the eyeballs, it is their commitment that shines through. Their willingness to do sessions very early or very late. Their determination to improve their sporting knowledge of a sport that is not one of their historical strengths..

Due to the client-focused monthly options our clients choose from, which encourage shorter, more frequent sessions at times that suit them (not necessarily us), real commitment is tested from the get-go.

Nothing questions commitment in our line of work quite like sitting in traffic for an hour to deliver a 30-minute session, or getting up at 6 a.m. because of a time zone difference. The cracks tend to start appearing early for those who are not really committed to helping others improve.

Do You Want To Improve Your Commitment?

Although the current Condor performance team is almost at full capacity and we are in the process of bringing on board two or three more psychologists to be ready for the start of 2026, there is still some availability within the current team.

Therefore, if you would like to have a non-obligatory 20-minute phone or Google Meet conversation with one of our two New Enquiries Officers (Tara or Lizzie), then send us an email to info@condorperformance.com with details (names, sport, mental challenges 😜, location and phone number) about you or the person you are enquiring for. Typically, we respond within 24 hours.

Motivation and Delayed Gratification

Motivation is about more than a subcomponent of sport psychology and mental toughness. This article looks at delayed gratification and more.

Child eating two marshmellows — “If you don’t eat this marshmallow, you’ll get two later on”

Too Many Theories

I have long held the view that an overabundance of theories plagues most areas of psychology. Don’t get me wrong, I know we need research to support our professional decision-making. However, in my view, there are too many subpar theories, models, and papers out there. Google Motivation and sport psychology theories, and you’ll see what I mean.

This then significantly increases the workload of applied sport and performance psychologists, such as the current Condor Performance team. We try to read as many peer-reviewed journals on sport psychology as possible. Unfortunately, we have to sort through the mountain to find the gems.

Oh, and there are some real gems.

One of these is the work done on delayed gratification via the Stanford Marshmallow Experiments. Starting in the 1960s, Walter Mischel conducted a series of studies that provided a significant clue about the motivational requirements of successful people.

One Marshmallow Now Or Two Later?

In these studies, children between the ages of four and eight were offered a choice. Each child, in turn, could pick between one small reward immediately or two later. One marshmallow now or two later, you decide? If the child chose to have two marshmallows later, then it would be on the condition that the single treat was still there when the experimenter returned. This was usually after about 15 minutes.

Remarkably, in the majority of the tests, about half the children devoured the one marshmallow almost immediately. The other half would exercise great willpower and wait for the experimenter to return.

In follow-up studies, the researchers found that children who were able to “delay their gratification” tended to have better life outcomes. For example, these high-powered youngsters went on to achieve better exam results. They were happier and more likely to have good relationships. They ended up with much better jobs than the kids with lower willpower.

Below is a 6-minute TED talk that provides a more detailed explanation of the concept and experiments.

Here is the video link to Joachim de Posada’s 2009 TED talk, which we frequently reference in the context of delayed gratification as a key mindset for peak performance. Enjoy.

Although I assume that Professor Mischel had little interest in the specific field of sport psychology, I can’t imagine another branch of psychology where the concept of delayed gratification is more relevant.

Delayed Gratification and Performance

Delayed gratification is really just “doing something difficult now in the hope that it will prove worth it later on”.

Of all the hundreds of theories on motivation in sport psychology, this is, in my opinion, the most useful. Quite simply put, one of the chief reasons why so few succeed is that they can’t link their short-term struggles with their long-term aspirations.

Most athletes and coaches try to find shortcuts. They throw in the towel when the rewards for their effort are not immediate and obvious. They gobble down the single marshmallow instead of waiting for two. Very few people naturally love getting up at 4 am to do laps under floodlights. But the champions and champions-in-the-making do it anyway.

In the defence of ‘most athletes’, it’s unlikely that anyone has taken the time to explain to them one of the most essential and overlooked ingredients to success: patience.

Doing the hard yards in the preseason so the rewards can come during the season.

What If The Kids Had Been Coached First?

What would have happened if all the Marshmallow experiment participants had been coached beforehand? Imagine a performance psychologist had been allowed to spend time helping the kids mentally prepare first. How about the impact if a sports psychologist shows pictures of other kids succeeding?

Imagine if all the subjects had been taught proper mindfulness techniques, thus allowing ‘urges’ just to be noticed.

However, elite sport, especially at the highest level, requires a bit more delayed gratification than 15 minutes. On many occasions, the significant “payoff” for effort might only be 10 or even 20 years down the track. That’s a long time to wait for that second marshmallow! Consider the young athletes who sacrifice time with friends and family during their teenage years, only to reap the rewards in their twenties and thirties.

Remember, the experiments centred around one marshmallow now or two later. The children were not left with a brussell sprout for 15 minutes. This is a super important point. There was nothing mean about leaving the kids alone in a room with one marshmallow. The only difficulty some of them experienced was the tussle between their own strength of mind and their own temptations.

Applied Sport Psychology

At Condor Performance, one way we help those we work with embrace delayed gratification is by encouraging them to track their progress.

Key Performance Indicators can “bridge the gap” between the daily and weekly grind and possible moments of glory. These monthly checks act a little like licking the marshmallow but not eating it. They help remind us about what we might get later on down the track. They remind us about why we’re doing what we’re doing, even if it’s uncomfortable. The proper monthly checks, in my opinion, are the most potent motivators available when you can’t actually use marshmallows.

Easier said than done? If you’d like to receive details about our one-on-one sport psychology services, you can get in touch with us in several ways.

Fill in the form via our Contact Us page
Complete one of the MTQs via this link
Send a regular old email to info@condorperformance.com

Mental Blocks

Mental blocks are common in sports like gymnastics. Sport psychologist Gareth J. Mole explores what they are and how to overcome them.

Mental Blocks In Sport

In this article, we will explore the concept of mental blocks. Specifically, the kinds of mental blocks that we commonly encounter in a sport and performance context. Without a doubt, some sports are likely to produce more mental blocks than others. Which ones? Those that require manoeuvres such as gymnastics, surfing, and all equestrian sports, to name a few. For the rest of this article, I will use gymnastics as the primary example.

This is what the situation typically looks like when we discover the mental block. A young gymnast is preparing for a major upcoming competition. For the uneven bars, she is confident about the whole routine except for The Def (see below).

The Def (bars)

Description: The Def is a Gienger release move with an extra full twist. In simpler terms, the Def is a skill completed on the uneven bars where the gymnast releases the bar, completes a back salto layout with one and a half twists (540°) before catching the bar again.

In the mind of this hypothetical gymnast, The Def is a mental block. It’s a skill that is so challenging that she can barely imagine being able to do it in training, let alone in competition.

So, how do we know it’s a mental block as opposed to a different type of block? Is it enough to take this athlete’s word for it? Not really.

What are the other kinds of blocks?

The main ones are physical and technical blocks. A physical block occurs when the body prevents the skill from being executed at this time. This might be due to injury or the athlete’s physical size. Think about a junior basketballer who wants to dunk the ball. She knows how, but is just not tall enough (yet) to get anywhere near the ring.

A technical block, on the other hand, occurs when an athlete currently lacks the “muscle memory” to execute a specific skill. A great example of this is when, in golf, a few years back, they allowed long-handled putters. For the non-golfing readers, this is a putter (used on the green) that is much longer than normal ones. The technique required to use this new type of putter differs from that used for a standard, shorter putter.

Many players tried it, encountered technical issues, and then reverted to the old style.

Finally, We Have Mental Blocks

Or maybe we should call them genuine mental blocks. A genuine mental block occurs when the performer genuinely believes they will be unable to perform the skill. And it’s this belief, and nothing else, that is actually getting in the way of them doing it.

Therefore, there are no physical or technical reasons why they should be unable to perform this skill. One of the most compelling pointers that it’s a mental block is if the performer has already done the skill in the past.

Let’s go back to our example of the gymnast. If she has executed The Def before but can no longer do so, this suggests a mental block.

Some sport psychologists may want to investigate whether there is a reason for this. Was there a nasty fall once? Maybe she saw another gymnast try and fail? Perhaps someone has told her it’s impossible. Personally, I prefer to spend the majority of the mental conditioning time on helping them overcome the mental block.

And these suggestions, below, are likely to be the same regardless of the cause. And remember, there is not always a cause. This is mainly due to the limited time we have without our sporting clients. On average, via our monthly approach to consulting, we spend between 90 and 120 minutes “in session” with our clients per month. So, it’s not that we are uninterested in the causes of things (such as mental blocks); it’s that we don’t have time to really delve into them.

Baby Steps

Baby steps refer to simply breaking down the skill into smaller, more manageable parts. Of course, this is usually the domain of coaches, but not all coaches are mentally astute.

Competence (in actions) precedes confidence (a feeling) is the key here. Competence before confidence means that an athlete needs to be able to do something competently before they can feel confident. In other words, telling them “you can do it” is not very effective. Taking baby steps is a great way to overcome mental blocks. If done correctly, there is never a significant leap in difficulty.

For example, let us imagine that The Def is a 9/10 in terms of perceived difficulty. What does a 7 look like? And 5 or 3? Once these have been established, the gymnast can then return to the number at which they feel competent. Let’s say 4/10. With some patience, they can then work their way slowly up through the numbers. Do not, under any circumstances, jump from a 6 to 9 for example.

Separate Actions from Thoughts from Emotions

Another way to overcome mental blocks is by realising that actions, thoughts and emotions are not the same. By this, I mean separating actions, feelings, and thoughts into different types of stimuli. This can be done away from training to start with. Through processes like Really Simple Mindfulness, anyone can learn to observe their emotions and thoughts and therefore not let them stop specific actions from taking place.

As some of my clients are aware, I often demonstrate this during sessions. For example, I will ask them to tap their head whilst saying to themselves, “I am tapping my thigh”. Once the athlete understands that their actions are genuinely independent of their thoughts and emotions, they can utilise this knowledge in training. Using the current example, this means accepting that thoughts such as “I will never be able to do this” are fine. Feelings of panic are to be accepted, and they don’t have to stop you from taking the first step (literally).

And when you combine these two ideas, the result is often very effective.

As always, if you need a helping hand, please let us know.

Emotional Intelligence and Management

Emotional Intelligence. Can we control our emotions? Sport psychologist Gareth J. Mole takes a deep dive into the topic of emotions.

Sport psychology and its big sister, performance psychology, are minefields when it comes to terminology. What I mean by this is that related terms are often and easily thrown around. Some of these words are more common than others. For example, ‘mental toughness’ and ’emotional intelligence’ are used and misused more frequently than ‘team unity’ and ‘flow’.

Those of you who are familiar with Condor Performance (the psychologists) will likely know that for a long time we have tried hard to define such terms. For example, we see mental toughness as an umbrella term that pertains to the mental side of sport/performance.

Emotions are, without a doubt, a part of this. Especially given how emotionally charged high-performance sport can be.

Some Recent Examples

Let me use an example to explain how confusing the associated wording can be.

Recently, on social media, I saw a screenshot of a presentation that contained the words “controlling their emotions under pressure”. It was a bullet point next to the phrase composure, one of “six keys to being resilient” (according to the slide).

I added this comment: “It is not possible to control emotions, only influence them. It is psychologically dangerous to imply you can”. I will not go into detail about the back and forth that took place after this initial comment, other than to say this. It would be handy if there were a census on how emotions work and what we mean by emotional intelligence.

With that, I will give my professional opinion and expand on my “it is not possible to control emotions” comment. As an applied sport psychologist, it’s not really my job to prove that the below is correct or scientifically robust. Having said that, at Condor Performance, we collect a vast amount of internal data as part of our mission to improve constantly. Some academics might argue that because our data is not converted into scientific articles and then submitted for peer review, it is meaningless. I will save my counterargument to that assertion for another time/blog.

Our Guide to Emotional Intelligence

First and foremost, we want to agree on what emotions are. They are feelings. Many of these feelings are enjoyable, like joy and excitement. Many are not that fun, such as fear, nerves and frustration. Then there is the feeling of not feeling anything at all – often called apathy. Some recent studies suggest there are 27 primary emotions that most humans experience. This “feels” about right. Especially if you remove the ones that sound like emotions but are actually thoughts (like worry, for example).

In browsing the list of these 27 emotions, I have picked eight as very common for athletes, coaches and other performers:

Anxiety
Calmness
Confusion
Envy
Excitement
Fear
Satisfaction
Triumph

With these in mind, we turn our attention to the question of what your relationship (as a person) is to these and other feelings. Is it useful to find the cause of your excitement (for example) so you can replicate it at will? Are strong feelings of anxiety and fear bad? Are they to be stopped like some emotional disease? Do we control our emotions, or do they control us, or neither of these?

This Is How I Explain It To My Clients

Emotions are just part of the human experience. Internal feelings are one of seven sources of information (stimuli) available to most of us most of the time. The others are sight, sound, smell, thoughts, touch and taste. All of these groups of stimuli vary in terms of their pleasantness. For example, drinking fresh and sour milk activates different taste buds, but both are taste sensations nonetheless. You can apply the same to all seven. We experience fear and excitement very differently, but both are emotions, nothing more, nothing less.

The first and most important part of being emotionally intelligent is just becoming better at noticing and experiencing different emotions. Yes, both the pleasant and the unpleasant ones. There are many ways to approach this, but a couple of rules can help ensure it’s effective.

😬 Don’t try to change the emotion directly.

Whether it be via mindfulness, meditation or moonwalking, your task is to “increase your awareness of your feelings with decreased judgment”. I often like to do this by going through all the senses so that there is no real difference between the internal two and the external five. This is one way to go about this:

Technology – Friend or Foe?

You can certainly use one of the myriad apps (too many now to list), but remember this. Mindfulness, like exercise, shouldn’t cost you anything. You do not need a gym membership to improve your cardio fitness. You don’t need to pay for the Premium version of an app to practice mindfulness. Even our “Really Simple Mindfulness” audio recording above is only really designed as ‘training wheels’ until you get the hang of it by yourself.

So becoming better at observing your emotions is the first part of emotional intelligence. But it’s not the only part.

The second part is about realising that although you can never control your emotions, you can sometimes influence them. And that choosing to do this might assist with what you’re trying to do (achieve, etc).

For example, you might decide that you would like to feel as calm as possible before competitions (exams, performances, etc). In your attempt to influence this (NOT CONTROL), you might design a pre-competition routine that is full of tasks you find relaxing. With practice (repetition), the likelihood of you feeling calm the hour before kick-off or tee-off will increase. But real emotional intelligence comes with knowing that there will never be a guarantee (synonym for control) that you will feel calm and relaxed.

Real Emotional Intelligence is Acceptance

And not even here are you trying to change your emotions directly. If you relaxation tasks are actions (preferable) then you’re really influencing your preferred pre game actions and hoping they make you feel calm. This is very different from trying to calm yourself down.

How do we deal with this? We’ve just noticed these unexpected feelings alongside all the other sights, sounds, and thoughts of the situation. Which, if you’ve been doing this on a daily or weekly basis (see above) as part of your training, will be child’s play.

For those of you who stumbled across this article in search of an applied definition of emotional intelligence, then copy and paste this.

“Emotional intelligence is the ability observe and label your own human emotions and to know when and how to influence them”.
Gareth J. Mole, Sport Psychologist @ Condor Performance

If You Need A Hand

You can now book a 20-minute Google Meet with one of our fantastic New Enquiries Officers using this link. Pick a date and time when you’re free and use the time to explain more about how we can assist you with the mental aspects of your performance. At the same time, Tara or Lizzie will give you a quick rundown of exactly who we are and how we go about our 1-on-1 sport psychology consulting. Want to get started right away? They also know which of our Sport and Performance Psychologists have availability to take on new clients and which are currently waitlisting those interested in working with them.

Choking In Sport

Sport psychologist Gareth J. Mole looks at the main reasons why many athletes can easily perform in training but struggle on competition day.

Choking in Sport – What Exactly Is It?

Choking is one of those interesting terms that is commonly associated with sport psychology but less commonly found in the scientific literature. In other words, it was first used colloquially to describe ‘falling apart under the pressure of competition’. Since then, it seems to have ‘stuck’ as the term used most often to describe mental disintegration.

In this 2013 journal article, choking is defined as follows:

“In sport, choking under pressure is a negative athletic experience that may have psychologically damaging effects. The media recognises that choking is a dramatic drop in performance, whereas researchers have labelled choking as any decrease in performance under pressure. This discrepancy between the media’s and researchers’ perception of choking leads to ambiguity among terms and confusion among researchers, applied practitioners, and the general public.“

As a practising sport psychologist, I typically don’t use the words ‘choke’ or ‘choking’ at all. I prefer to describe the same challenge in a little more detail. For example, underperforming in competition due to pressure. Or maybe due to poor concentration?

Can You Help? I Keep Choking …

There are literally hundreds of reasons why people contact us here at Condor Performance. One of the most common, however, is the athlete/performer who excels in practice situations but struggles to reach anywhere near this level during actual competitions. Most of the time, they’ll refer to this as choking. “I keep choking” or “I am a choker”.

It’s worth mentioning that there is always a risk when writing about the psychological aspects of anything of oversimplifying matters. This is certainly the case here. Be aware of this when I suggest that although there are potentially hundreds of causes of choking, most can be attributed to one or a combination of the following.

A practice environment that is mentally far too easy (for that person).
A competition mindset that is far too taxing (for that person).
The perfect storm – a combination of both of the above.

And In This Lies The Solution

Quite simply, most individuals who excel at executing their skills in practice are better at doing so because they are in a false environment.

One where, more often than not, there are little or no consequences involved. Go to any golf driving range in the world and you’ll see dozens of golfers smashing balls into the distance without caring about where they end up. Take the same golfers and plonk them onto the first tee with three other golfers watching, and see how suddenly smashing this particular ball into the distance makes them tighten up and duck hook it straight out of bounds.

Even those who practice smartly and try to replicate the mental demands of competition in their preparation often struggle, as they tend to fall short of being able to mimic the feelings of extreme pressure. The result is that they then have to try to execute their skills in competition while experiencing feelings of extreme nerves or stress that were not present during practice. To add insult to injury, they then fuse these feelings with their actions, unaware that feelings and actions can be separated.

There are several tried and tested ways to approach this. Although reading this blog should never replace working one-on-one with a qualified sport psychologist, the information below might be enough to at least get the ball rolling.

1. Make Your Practice Mentally Harder

By harder, we mean mentally harder, not physically harder. The easiest way to try this is by replicating situations that you dislike or find challenging.

For example, you might prefer to practice in the morning, so you intentionally switch some practice sessions to the afternoon. Or you might enjoy practising with others, so you do more and more training alone.

To get the sweet spot is not easy.

You’re looking for the practice session(s) to be psychologically demanding but not too demanding. A great analogy for this is weight training. If the weights are too light, then not much will happen. If they are too heavy, they might cause injury and long-term harm. It’s the same with mental demands. Too little means no growth, too much means damage. British sports psychologist Dan Abrahams refers to this as stretch and support. Too much and too little stretch are what we’re trying to avoid here.

If you are not confident at being able to create your own sweet-spot mentally harder practice session(s) then please contact us here and so we can lend you a hand.

2. Make Your Competition As Relaxed As Possible

Is it possible for an athlete to be too relaxed whilst competing? Not really (don’t confuse tiredness with being relaxed), so we suggest you do what the great Usain Bolt used to do.

He only “worked” on things in training.

This freed up his competitions to just exist, enjoy himself and let his training express itself without a worried mind getting in the way. In particular, he didn’t worry about being anxious. Easier said than done, many might say. I often use the analogy of driving a car (apologies to our younger readers). Manoeuvring a vehicle safely is a challenging motor skill with significant consequences if you get it wrong. Yet, most of us (who drive) do a great job of trusting our muscle memory. We quickly reach a level of expertise behind the wheel where we don’t have to try hard to drive well; we do. What if you approached sporting contests in the same way?

Arrive, ready, relax, and trust your training.

3. Use Performance Routines

Action-only pre-performance routines can be a great way to stay grounded at key moments, both in practice and during competitions. The reason they work so well is that they’re built using the most influenceable aspect of performance – present actions.

This means they should remain both easy to do and consistent regardless of the thoughts and emotions of the current situation. You didn’t really think that Rafa Nadal sweated that much, did you? Rafa’s use of the towel is a great example of a mentally astute athlete using the action of wiping as a reset between points.

If you’d like to read more about routines, you can refer to this blog or this one. And as always, please use the space below to let us know your thoughts and/or questions on the topic of Choking in Sport.

Goal Setting – Done Right

Goal Setting is one of the best known of all mental skills – but we have come a very long way since the old days of S.M.A.R.T. goals.

Goal setting and goal getting are **not** the same

Goal Setting Basics

There are roughly 5000 separate searches for the term ‘goal setting’ every 24 hours around the world. This is the same number of searches for the term ‘sport psychology’. This suggests that athletes, coaches, students, bored teenagers and performers have heard of goal setting, want to do some, but don’t know how.

Before we help you out with this, let’s remind ourselves of something important. It’s helpful to separate processes (methods) and their intended outcomes. In other areas of sports science, this is much easier. For example, in physical training, one of the intended outcomes is cardio fitness. I assume you could list dozens of activities (processes) that would help improve cardio fitness. Moreover, you would never confuse skipping (for example) with the outcome of cardio fitness.

The Same Applies to Mental Training

The same framework can and should be applied to mental training, but rarely is. Goal setting is the method. It’s a process, but what are the intended areas we’re trying to influence when we do some goal setting? Furthermore, just like skipping, which can be done well or poorly, not all goal setting is the same. Most of the goal setting I have seen is the skipping equivalent of doing it once a year, and hoping this will have a long-lasting impact on cardio fitness 😬 .

Many sport psychologists will tell you that goal setting is all about improving motivation. But I would argue that it’s much broader than that. If done correctly, goal setting can become the entire foundation of your personal and sporting/performance endeavours.

Goal setting the Condor Performance way is really “goal getting”. Setting long-term outcome goals is the easy bit. It’s the stuff required to get you there where the magic happens – so to speak.

Start With Your Preferences

The scientific literature mentions outcome goals, performance goals and process goals. It also suggests that ideally, you’ll have all three types as part of your “goal setting” plan. I would agree.

Preferences are a much better label than outcome goals. The complex reality of elite competitive sport is that very few will achieve their long-term goals. Preferences will soften the blow if you don’t make it without impacting your motivation. Preferences want to be long-term, between one and five years from now. They also want to be about both life and sport (performance). A simple 5 x 2 table of future preferences works well.

This is nothing revolutionary. The highly overrated S.M.A.R.T. Goals might get you to the same place as the above exercise. One of the key aspects missing from many goal-setting systems is the concept of influence. The person coming up with their long-term preferences must know this. We only have some influence on these futuristic outcomes, sometimes less.

When working with my clients on goal setting, I typically start by exploring their preferences. However, not always. If I sense that focusing on preferences will be most beneficial for the individuals in front of me (on the screen), then I do just that.

Fit Young Man Sitting on his Mat and Using his Tablet Computer After Doing an Indoor Physical Exercise.

Progress – The Key To Effective Goal Setting

Let’s assume for the sake of simplicity that you have started with your long-term preferences. You have done your 5 x 2 table and have ten sporting and personal achievements clarified on paper. What next? The research calls them performance goals.

These are performance aims and indicators that we have more influence on compared with our long-term preferences. Typically, we have a lot of influence on these key performance indicators. And here is one of the secrets of many of the world’s best athletes. Due to having more influence on their KPIs compared with LTOGs, they value the former more than the latter. Most competitive athletes do the opposite and wonder why they spend so much of their time frustrated.

Examples of performance goals might be statistics from competitions. For example, you might track ‘greens in regulation’ for all rounds of golf in February and compare the results with March. Or maybe you focus on training progress instead. Perhaps you can see if all that skipping is doing anything by repeating a heart rate recovery test at the start of each month.

Processes – The Secret Mindset of The World’s Best

The final piece of the goal setting puzzle is arguably the most important. What processes (activities) are best right now for you? By ‘right now’ I mean today and this week. There are two keys to doing this effectively. First, realise (know) that you have even more influence on your processes than you do on your progress and preferences. I would say ‘a huge amount’. You have a tremendous amount of influence on how to spend your time. Secondly, focus on what you can do. Good process planning doesn’t even consider what you can’t do, or what you used to be able to do.

If you’d like some professional help to set and then achieve some goals, then get in touch. You can request a Call Back (form to the right on computers, below on smaller devices). Even better (as it gives us more background on you) is to complete one of our questionnaires, in which you can ask for info on our 1-on-1 sport psychology services.

Mental Health Challenges for Athletes

Are athletes and coaches more or less likely to experience mental health issues compared with the general population?

Sport psychologist Gareth J. Mole addresses this and other related questions.

Mental Health And Mental Toughness Are Not The Same

All too often, sport psychology is misconstrued as therapy for athletes. If you watched the wildly popular Ted Lasso series, then you’d be forgiven for believing this. On the other hand, sometimes “mental coaches” overlook the human elements and focus entirely on the mental aspects of performance.

Both approaches are wrong, ineffective, and, at times, dangerous and unethical.

Competitive Athletes Have Three Layers

When it comes to the increasingly popular concept of performance psychology, it can be helpful to view the “performer” as having three layers. Each layer is better off by the strength of the layer or layers underneath.

The bottom layer is 100% related to the person, not the performer. We could refer to this as the COPING layer. If there are problems here, then these are genuine mental health concerns. Mental Illness lives here.

The severity of the mental illness is related to how they function as a person interacting with their society. If this person is an elite athlete, then, of course, it will impact their performance. However, it’s likely to hinder them in several other areas as well. By way of an example, let’s consider a competitive athlete who has clinical depression. This serious mental disorder may well decrease their motivation to train in their chosen sport. But if it’s a genuine Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), then their motivation will be down across most (all) areas of their life, not just their sporting commitments.

The most extreme cases result in the sufferer being institutionalised, for example, having to spend time in either a hospital or a mental health recovery facility.

The Middle Layer

The middle layer is all about mental well-being. Mental well-being and mental illness are not the same despite obviously being related to one another. Somebody can have poor mental well-being but still cope very well as a human.

For this reason, we would label these middle layers CONTENTMENT. Again, this layer remains entirely related to the person, not the performer. The scientifically suggested methods to improve contentment should focus on humanistic factors relevant to everyone, not just those in performance situations. For example, areas such as socialising, getting into nature and sleep hygiene strategies.

The Top Layer

The top layer is all about the mental aspects of performance. We could dedicate the following 20 blog articles to explaining precisely what this refers to, but as many of you know, at Condor Performance, we prefer to keep things simple.

This layer could be labelled as mental toughness. With a much better understanding of the humanistic aspects underlying it, it creates the freedom to be unapologetically focused on optimising performance through psychological means. Improving this layer helps drive CONSISTENCY.

Behind the scenes at Condor Performance, we are conducting our largest-ever research project to identify the exact subcomponents of mental toughness and the processes best suited to boost them. (Our current and future clients will be the first to benefit from these findings, so if you want to have a chat with Tara about working with one of our performance psychologists or sports psychologists, then book yourself directly into her calendar here.)

One of the many benefits of working with a qualified sports psychologist is that we can and do work across all three layers. Although in extreme situations (in the coping layer at the bottom), we may prefer to refer clients to other specialists, we are qualified to help them cope, be more content, and be more consistent (the byproduct of greater mental toughness at the top layer).

Mental Issues Common In Sport

Back to that bottom layer for a moment.

If you’re looking for some cold, hard facts about mental health issues common in sports, I have added a couple of articles at the bottom of this article. But this is how I see it. Athletes are human, too, so as humans, they are susceptible to all the usual psychological risks that the general population faces. However, the world in which they find themselves might increase the chances of facing specific mental issues.

One great example is stress. Eloquently described in the below TEDx video by volleyballer Victoria Garrick. High-performance circles are breeding grounds for stress. This is especially true for those involved in low or non-paying sports. The demands of training and competing, in addition to a job and/or studies, can be highly stressful.

A recent TED Talk about The Mental Health Challenges faced by Athletes.

Some excellent questions are being debated at the moment around all of this. One is, ‘Surely everyone would want to be mentally tougher, not just performers?’ Not really. First, building genuine mental toughness is very hard. So, although everyone can attempt it, it’s probably not worth it if you’re not likely to encounter ‘extreme mental challenges’.

An Analogy

Think of it as being similar to physical health and physical strength. Everyone could try and work towards being able to lift 150 kgs, but how useful is it for most of us? Where is the ‘return on investment’? Maybe using the equivalent training time to practice mindfulness would be more sensible. However, if you are a weightlifter, rugby player, bodyguard, or defensive tackle, for example, then developing the muscle strength to be able to bench press that amount of weight has a payoff in your performance areas.

Suppose you’re a librarian, on the other hand, not so much—no disrespect to librarians intended. I am sure many librarians are elite performers in their field. However, upper body strength is not that beneficial in pursuing librarian excellence.

Developing Mental Toughness works the same. Although everybody would probably be happy to process extraordinary levels of focus (for example), is it worth investing the time required to get there if you’re never really going to need it?

What Does The Data Tell Us?

Are athletes and coaches more or less likely to experience mental issues compared with the general population? Luckily, work has been done to answer this question. As mentioned in this excellent article by Joshua Sebbens, Peter Hassmén, Dimity Crisp and Kate Wensley, “A study of elite athletes in Australia reported almost half were experiencing symptoms of a mental health problem, and the proportion meeting caseness cutoffs for mental illness were deemed comparable to community data (Gulliver et al., 2015). More broadly, Rice et al. (2016) conducted a systematic narrative review and also suggested the prevalence of mental illness in elite athletes was comparable to the general population.

It’s Not Just About Problems

The Positive Psychology movement exists because many psychologists sought to do more than just address mental health issues. Traditional psychotherapy tends to get people back to ‘just functioning enough, ’ and that’s it. It’s like leaving someone mid-way through their journey.

Sport psychology and her focus on mental toughness were, in many ways, the original positive psychologies.

Additional Reading Related To Mental Health Challenges for Athletes

MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES IN ELITE SPORT: BALANCING RISK WITH REWARD Download

Mental Health in Sport (MHS): Improving the Early Intervention Knowledge and Confidence of Elite Sport Staff Download