Gareth J. Mole, Sports Psychologist

Mental Resilience: What Is It and How To Get Some!

Mental Resilience is a term that is getting used more and more at the moment both in elite sport and everyday situations. In this short article by Condor Performance sport psychologist Gareth J. Mole he unpacks the concept of Mental Resilience for the education and enjoyment of the followers of the Mental Toughness Digest.

**Mental Resilience** is about the right ‘mental skills’ required to bounce back from setbacks.

What Exactly is Mental Resilience?

Mental Resilience is a term we hear a lot at Condor Performance, but actually don’t use that much. Those who enquire about and use our sport and performance psychology services will often ask us to help them boost their ‘mental resilience’.

So we will oblige without actually uttering the words ‘mental resilience’ that much. One of the reasons for this, which I feel will inspire a whole new blog on the subject in the near future, is that you don’t need to talk about an outcome to get there. There is no need to talk about winning to increase the chances of it happening. Mentioning team unity is optional in the work we do to boost it. And there is no need to actually talk about mental resilience whilst developing and implementing a process to develop it.

The other reason we don’t use the term ‘mental resilience’ that much is that from our point of view ‘mental toughness’ is a slightly better description of the work we do. My elevator pitch when anyone asks me what I do, and I say I’m a sport psychologist, is something like this. “We help performers improve their mental toughness and mental health. When combined, this goes a long way to allowing them to fulfil their potential as people and as performers”.

Mental Resilience vs. Mental Toughness

So our psychologists are basically using ‘mental toughness’ as a synonym of ‘mental resilience’. Note that this is a major issue in modern-day sport psychology. There are dozens of terms used by different practitioners that are closely related or identical to other terms. For example, focus and concentration refer to exactly the same psychological concept. One thing, yet two words (labels) at least.

But maybe mental toughness and mental resilience are not exactly the same.

For readers who are either current or past Condor Performance clients, or just avid followers of our regular Mental Toughness Digest posts, may know that we try to keep mental toughness as simple as possible. This is another ‘issue’ in modern-day sport psychology that we are trying to address. It can often be too complex for its own good. The research is often highly academic and theoretical, forgetting that end users almost always need and want simple, practical solutions to common performance challenges. Again, a whole article could be created on this very topic.

The Metuf Big Five

Our team of psychologists generally break mental toughness down into five smaller, more manageable areas to work on. These are motivation, emotions, thoughts, unity, and focus, and they spell out the word Metuf. With this in mind, how does resilience fit into the Metuf Big Five? Is it something separate? Have we stumbled across a sixth? Should it be Metuf-R?

Will come back to these questions later.

It’s hard to find anything close to a consistent definition for either mental toughness or mental resilience, but if we ditch the ‘mental’ part beforehand, here is what the words ‘toughness’ and ‘resilience’ mean according to Cambridge’s free online dictionary.

Toughness refers to “the quality of being not easily defeated or made weaker”.

Amazingly, the two examples listed are:1) She has a reputation for toughness and resilience, and 2) He demonstrated the skills and mental toughness that are crucial for a goalkeeper.

Resilience means “the ability to be happy, successful, etc. again after something difficult or bad has happened”.

And the origin of the word is even more interesting and revealing.

resilience (n.)

1620s, “act of rebounding or springing back,” often of immaterial things, from Latin resiliens, present participle of resilire “to rebound, recoil,” from re- “back” (see re-) + salire “to jump, leap” (see salient (adj.)). Compare result (v.). In the physical sciences, the meaning “elasticity, power of returning to original shape after compression, etc.” dates to 1824.

So resilience, it appears, requires someone unfortunate to occur before the bounce back. Whereas toughness doesn’t. In sport and performance, the five most common setbacks are probably these:

1. The Mental Resilience required to come back from injury

The physical effort needed to recover from a serious sporting injury is obvious. But what about the role the mind plays in this often overwhelming task? Consider motivation alone. That rehab program, which is so important but can be so frustrating (as it reminds you of your injury moment by moment), doesn’t get done without strong internal commitment. For more on the psychology of injuries, read this blog by my colleague David Barracosa.

TWICKENHAM LONDON, 27/02/2010. Ireland team captain Brian O’Driscoll is carried off on the stretcher during the RBS 6 Nations rugby union match between England and Ireland at the Twickenham Stadium.

2. responding after getting dropped

By ‘dropped’, I refer to not being selected for reasons other than an injury. In team sports, this has become more common as more coaches adopt rotation policies. Regardless, it’s not easy to be told that you’re not playing this weekend after a week of solid effort. The message we often give our sporting clients in these situations is to use the disappointment to their advantage. In other words, emotions are ‘energy in motion’, so use the frustration of being deselected to improve your preparation. Take your emotion out on the rowing machine, not your coach.

3. Keep training during a pandemic

Most people will agree that the COVID-19 pandemic and related issues counted as a setback. I was quite shocked at the number of athletes and coaches who ‘just stopped’ during the pandemic. “There is no point in me working hard when I don’t know when my next competition will take place” is something we are hearing a lot at the moment. Really? So you don’t want to get the jump on your rivals when you have a lot more influence over all aspects of your preparation? The most challenging of times allow those with the best mental toolkit to rise to the top. And boy, those were challenging times.

4. The Mental Resilience required to perform well when life gets in the way

When life gets in the way refers to what happens to your immaculate training program for the week when you get gastro, for example. This phrase was first coined by our colleague Chris Pomfret. The ideal response to this kind of challenge is to focus as quickly as possible on what you can do. What you can’t do is typically obvious and unchangeable. Using the example of a sudden stomach bug, maybe you need to switch from actually ‘hitting balls’ to ‘visualising hitting balls’. If you have no idea how to visualise, then read this separate article first.

5. Immediate psychological recovery – Bouncing Back whilst competing

There is one kind of setback that is especially common in competitive sport. To my knowledge, it doesn’t have an official name, so let’s just call it In-Game Setbacks. Although I’m very respectful, many sports don’t actually use the word game to refer to their competitive situations. In-game setbacks refer to something going wrong in the heat of battle. Imagine a fullback in rugby league or union dropping the first high ball they try to catch. Consider the ice hockey player missing an open net with 5 minutes to go while her team is one goal behind. Imagine a clay target shooter missing the first four targets on the day.

The mental skills that are most effective in these situations are those that allow the performer to ‘move on as quickly as possible’. Accept and act, basically. The best way to go about this will depend on your sport and just how much your performance is actually impacted by setbacks. This is where we come in …

If you are an athlete, sporting coach, sporting official or non-sporting performer and would like the assistance from one of our growing team of sport psychologists/performance psychologists, then the best place to start is by completing the applicable Mental Toughness Questionnaire here. Once done, one of our team members will then get back to you with your results and, if you have asked for it, detailed information about our sport psychology services.

Conclusion

Earlier, I posed the question of whether mental resilience is a part of mental toughness or separate? At this stage, I feel it can fit under The Metuf Big Five. If you look at the suggestions above, you’ll find that they all involve motivation, emotions, thoughts, unity, and focus. And maybe a good way to think about resilience needing setbacks is that both sport and life are full of them.

Too Many Chefs (Coaches)

Too Many Chefs (Coaches) is an article by sport psychologist Gareth J. Mole on the perils of having too many advice givers.

Too Many Chefs, Too Many Sporting Coaches.

Too Many Chefs In the Sporting Kitchen!

In my work, I don’t actively seek any controversy. However, as other trailblazers will be aware, when you push the envelope regarding the work you do, it comes with a certain amount of contention. An area that I have always believed in but have really written about is this one.

The topic of too many athletes having too many coaches. I use the word “coach” as a label for anyone who helps or gives advice in an “official” capacity. So, although your grandfather would not count as a coach if chatting to you about some recent performances over a family dinner. He certainly would if he followed you down to the bowling alley twice a month and started giving you tips.

Let me start with the end in mind and work backward. For team-sport athletes, I feel the ideal number of official coaches is 1. For those participating in individual sports, the ideal number long-term is zero!

Let me explain …

The school system has it more or less correct. Teachers are generally aware that they have limited time to do their jobs. So, although a maths teacher might be very proud of his or her contribution to someone who goes on to be a world-renowned engineer, the maths teacher would not be involved past a certain point. This should apply to developmental sporting coaches as well.

But unfortunately, it doesn’t happen that way very often.

In sport, the more successful an athlete becomes, the more coaches they tend to attract. Many of these coaches will be well-intended but problematic nonetheless. The primary issue with having five or six official advisers (which is common nowadays) is that many of their suggestions will be contradictory.

This puts the athlete into a real predicament because he or she probably wants to trust all of them. But they soon find out this is not possible as different suggestions clash. I could write an entire book on one reason why the advice tends to be so contradictory. But suffice to say, it’s because sports coaching is still mainly based on personal experience rather than good science. If you ask most coaches why they’re doing something, the most common answer is this. “That’s what my coach used to do”.

What’s The Solution To Too Many Chefs / Coaches?

The answer is very different depending on whether you play a team sport or an individual sport. In team sports, there is no getting around the need for a head coach. Ideally, the head coach serves as the go-between for the players and all other experts involved. In other words, you may have a technical coach who is observing the players from a technical standpoint (biomechanics). But to ensure that any messaging around biomechanics does not accidentally get in the way of the bigger picture, that message needs to come from one person – the head coach.

The same would apply to a sports psychologist working with a sporting team. Having a sport psychologist deliver mental skills training without the head coach being involved is absurd. Sport psychologists sometimes get into a huff when they hear this for fear of breaches in confidentiality. Or they feel the head coach is not qualified to deliver the mental skills. All these potential issues can be nullified by proper communication and agreements before the start of the contract.

This head coach can still work tremendously hard to make themselves irrelevant on match day, but ultimately, the nature of team sports will still require them to be there before, during and after the match.

Coachless Individual Athletes

Did you know that the great Roger Federer often went months between having a coach, essentially coaching himself?

This is not the case with individual athletes such as tennis players, golfers, surfers, and boxers. These sports do not require a coach to be there during competition.

If you don’t have to have something at this important time, why would you want it? Central to sporting mental toughness is a low reliance on factors that we have little or no influence on. Other people, even the most reliable and well-intended, are partially influenceable. What does this mean? It means that athletes who depend on “certain” things or people are risking their mental health. Why? Because you can’t guarantee these things, or people will be there when you want them to be.

This philosophy, in part, explains why our team of sport psychologists and performance psychologists spend very little time with our clients whilst they are competing. Don’t get me wrong, if a client insists on having a session the night before a competition, we will certainly oblige. But we are trained to assist our clients in improving in such a way that they would not feel like they needed such a session.

Too Many Coaches

From a systems point of you I’m not sure what the answer to that too many coaches dilemma is. What I do know is this. If you are a developmental-aged elite athlete (13 – 17) and you have already had close to 10 official coaches, then the system has failed you. Unless, of course, in the unlikely event that all of those coaches are singing from the same songbook. And they are unbelievably good at communicating with one another. Until that happens, less is more when it comes to the number of coaches and formal advice-givers you have.

If this article has piqued your curiosity about the potential impact of working with a qualified sports psychologist, then get in touch by completing the quick form on our Contact page, and one of our fantastic New Enquiry Officers will get back to you within a day or two with detailed information about our one-on-one sports psychology services.

Burnout Prevention

Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress, typically resulting from an unmanaged workload. It is characterised by three main dimensions: overwhelming exhaustion, feelings of cynicism or detachment from the job, and a sense of reduced efficacy or accomplishment.

Yes, You Can Try Too Hard!

I have not counted, but I am guessing that by now we have written more than a hundred articles for our increasingly popular Mental Toughness Digest (links to the 10 most recent here). One of the most challenging parts is coming up with themes that are (or close to) universally applicable and that we have not already covered.

The more articles we write, the fewer of these concepts remain. Often, my ideas are a direct result of my 1-on-1 consulting. When making a suggestion to one of my monthly clients, I’d think, “Is there an article I can send after the session to support this idea”?

If it’s a no, I create one.

This is exactly what happened with the new article on Burnout Prevention.

I recently started working with an international cricketer who has making a comeback. She retired from all forms of cricket 12 months ago as she had “fallen out of love with the game”. There was no original intention to play again.

However, as is often the case, absence made the heart grow fonder. The time away from training and competing allowed her to realise she did want to try another stint to get closer to her potential.

The sabbatical and her internal motivation combined in such a way that she wanted to start taking the mental aspects as seriously as the physical and technical. She had never worked with a qualified sport psychologist before, and therefore, my contribution would shape some of the key aspects of the “comeback”.

It was obvious from our very first session via Webam that she was at risk of burnout. To some degree, all elite athletes are due to the demands of training and competing. But this athlete clearly wanted to get back to her best in a timeframe that was neither realistic, sustainable, or sensible.

Balance

Finding the right balance between downtime and due time is absolutely crucial for all human beings, particularly those with a burning desire to get to the top. My friend and colleague Chris “The Gun” Promfet has already written a fantastic article all on this topic, which I would highly recommend you read alongside this one to get a really clear overall picture of how to prevent burnout.

Baby Steps

The philosophy of baby steps was introduced as the guiding light. Baby steps is really just the notion that most meaningful achievements and progress are best attempted via small steps. Like the steps a baby might take when first learning to walk.

I think it’s important to actually define what a step is in this analogy.

First and foremost, a step, like the action attempted by a one-year-old, is an action; it’s not a thought, and it’s not a feeling. This article goes into greater detail on why we want to separate the three and treat actions differently from the other two.

Achievements – such as winning a green jacket (if you win the Men’s US Masters golf tournament) or waddling the full length of the living room without having to hold onto anything – are not actions. They are the consequence of hundreds of other little actions.

So, for me, Baby Steps are unapologetically about training and how to do it.

The cricketer I was referring to earlier wanted to hit the gym hard and do 5 tough sessions a week to start with. I suggested she start with two and increase later. She also wanted to do 4 net sessions a week, again, I suggested two. You get the point, I hope.

Less is Often More

Often, a performer’s desire to train a lot is born out of insecurity more than good sports science. They are doing too much for all the wrong reasons. A common myth in high-performance sport is that the best do the most.

This is not true.

Those who do (or did) the most are long ago and go nowhere near the top. But their use of the time they do dedicate to improving is typically higher in quality. It’s more intentional and more varied. Lots and lots of mental training to balance the physical, for example. The very best often set aside time after every session to reflect and journal.

Sporting results can be very misleading and disruptive to the Baby Steps mindset if we are not careful. You know the deal. Winners are grinners, so when the results are favourable, we carry on, but when they are not, we are tempted to ditch the plan.

The baby steps concept is mostly used to suggest taking smaller steps towards meaningful values and goals, but there is a secondary reason I love it.

What does the toddler do when they take a few steps, then fall flat on their face? Yes, they might cry a little (expressing real emotions is very healthy), but they pull themselves up and carry on. Do you do this when you stumble?

If you need some professional guidance when it comes to implementing some of these ideas into your sport/performance endeavours, then use the Contact Us form on our Get in Touch page, and one of our new enquiries officers will be in touch with you normally in less than 48 hours.

Body Language for Sport and Performance

Body Language for Sport and Performance is a free article by internationally renowned sport psychologist Gareth J. Mole from Condor Performance.

Working on **body language** is a key component of sport/performance psychology.

A Quick Introduction to Body Language

The first and most important aspect of improving your body language is to accept/believe that the way you look on the outside doesn’t always need to match how you feel on the inside. Before reading the remainder of this article, I would like you to reflect on the following question for a few minutes.

If you don’t buy into this fact, believing that certain strong emotions are always going to come out (“I couldn’t help it”) through your facial expressions and the rest of your body, then there is no point in moving on to some of the strategies below until you have worked out a way to prove yourself wrong.

Suppose you have no idea how, then hire an acting coach for a few hours and ask them to teach you. Alternatively, please email us to request to work with performance psychologist Brian Langsworth, an expert in this area due to his background in the performing arts. Alternatively, please scroll to the bottom of this blog, where I have added two of my favourite body language improvement videos from YouTube.

If you’ve been reading some of my colleague Madalyn’s excellent recent sport-specific articles, you’ll be aware that actions, thoughts and feelings are more separate (independent) than most people believe. Body Language movements are actions and actions alone. They are neither thoughts nor feelings.

But if you are already a believer, then read on …

Body Language is best broken down into three main areas.

First, we have the face (eyes and mouth), then the head, and finally the rest of the body (the parts below the neck). Generally, Body Language doesn’t incorporate other nonverbal forms of communication, such as tone of voice or grunts. However, this is undoubtedly another aspect that can be improved. Think about how important communication is in team sports and how little non-verbal communication is targeted for improvement in such teams (not the ones we work with, of course).

A nice, gentle introduction to improving your body language is to go through these three areas and mix them up. Many athletes and performers who take body language seriously (typically, the most successful ones … surprise, surprise) use a mirror or record themselves whilst doing this, but it’s not essential. Why not try right now? Make a happy face, then a sad one, then a calm one, followed by an angry one.

The Next Step …

The next step is to try and identify what you believe is the Optimal Body Language (face, head position and rest of body) for certain predictable situations that are common in your sport/performance area.

For example, you may be a tennis player and recognise that immediately after the conclusion of each point is a key opportunity to display a particular form of body language. It can also be helpful to identify destructive body language in these situations.

Remember, one of the most significant disadvantages of feeling that you have no control over your body language is that you are providing a considerable amount of unnecessary information to your opponent. If you and I are playing a competitive match against one another, I will want you to be as unaware as possible of how I’m travelling. From the outside (to my opponents), I would like to appear neutral.

The template for this would look something like this (which you can copy and paste):

In situation X, I would like my face to appear A, my head B, and my [replace with the name of body part] C.

Here is an example for a tennis player;

In a situation where my opponent is arguing with the umpire, ideally, my face would appear calm with a slight smile, my head upright, looking towards the crowd, and my hands behind my back. What would be counterproductive is to approach the chair and look frustrated by putting my hands on my hips and shaking my head.

🤫 Expert Tip: Neutral Body Language is almost always better than Positive Body Language.

Now It’s Your Turn …

Once you have established your Body Language preferences, it’s time to practice them. At this stage, using a full-length reflective surface or a recording device is highly recommended. How you think you look from inside your body might not be what you’re looking for, so you can adjust before the actions start to become second nature (via repetitions).

The final stage is to determine whether you can replicate the situations through more mentally demanding practice. In other words, in the above example, this tennis player would first practice Optimal Body Language in any setting and later conduct practice sessions in which, during a practice match, their hitting partner intentionally stops to argue with the umpire. And of course, any other situation previously identified in which displaying the appropriate body language may be challenging.

The final part is to embed this body-language practice in everyday training contexts. There is rarely a substitute for repetition, and, as explained in a previous blog, in the end, Practice Makes Permanent, not perfect.

Get In Touch

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Webcam-Based Sport Psychology

The sport psychologists and performance psychologists at Condor Performance are increasingly adopting a Webcam-Only Sport Psychology approach. Here are some of the reasons why. Agree or disagree? Use the comments section at the bottom to express your views.

Is This The Best Terminology?

Before I get into the core premise of this article, which is to compare and contrast the process of receiving and delivering sports psychology sessions via WebCam versus in-person sessions, I want to spend a few minutes just discussing terminology and labels.

You may want to put on your hard hat for this, as it’s a minefield 🪖.

The term most commonly used in scientific research is sports cyberpsychology. You’ll see this term commonly referenced at the bottom of this article, where I’ve included numerous references showing the effectiveness of sports psychology sessions via WebCam. Big thanks to my colleague, Dr Michelle Pain, for helping me with the research for this article.

And perhaps it’s just my personal opinion, but the word “cyber” immediately makes me think of the movie “Terminator 2” and antivirus software on your PC.

It goes without saying that at Condor Performance, we will not adopt this label to refer to our primary webcam-based mental toughness training.

ChatGPT made these suggestions:

❓Video-Based Sport Psychology [Sessions]

❓ Webcam-Based Sport Psychology [Sessions]

❓Virtual Sport Psychology [Sessions]

❓Remote Sport Psychology [Sessions]

❓Online Sport Psychology [Session]

It would be fantastic if you could use the comments section at the bottom of this article to pick the one that you think is the most appropriate and provide a quick rationale for why ⬇️ .

Without wanting to influence you, my favourite is ‘webcam-based Sport Psychology’. In the fewest possible words, this literally describes the work that we do most of the time. In fact, one of our sport psychologists has such a strong preference for delivering sessions this way that she no longer conducts any in-person consultations. And therefore it would not be incorrect to refer to her as a webcam-based Sport Psychologist (yes, she has the endorsement). If we were looking to start an acronym for this type of mental training, it might be wbSP.

For those who think that, eventually, the term Performance Psychology will subsume Sport psychology (listen to this Podcast for more on this), it would simply be Webcam-Based Performance Psychology (wbPP).

When Did It All Start?

I can’t recall the exact date, but the first session I (and, by extension, anyone at Condor Performance) delivered, in which the client was not in the same room, was a phone session with a New Zealand-based weightlifter.

It was around 2006, and although Skype was available, it was too unreliable compared with a phone connection. This New Zealand athlete found me (it was just me then) online (no idea how) and asked whether phone sessions were possible. I say fine, and we have never looked back.

So you can imagine the euphoria when, a couple of years later, we (2 or 3 of us by then) started delivering our first sessions via webcam. Although Skype was far from perfect at the time, it did the job. It’s almost as if the technology was invented for sport psychology and for sport psychologists.

As the years passed and we grew, and as technology improved, it became increasingly clear to us that we needed to deliver sessions (a core part of our monthly approach to mental training) this way.

Which Platforms Are Best?

Zoom is the most widely used video conferencing platform globally and at Condor Performance.

Google Meets and Microsoft Teams would be the silver and bronze medalists at this stage. Although we’re not at that point yet, our preference is to ask the client which platform they are most comfortable with and use it.

I imagine a time when, in training the next generation of Sports Psychologists, it will be necessary to become highly proficient with all the leading platforms (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Webex).

Pros and Cons

There is one genuine and unavoidable advantage of a session that takes place when the performance client and the performance psychologist are in the same room (we call these Same Place Sessions). The psychologist can observe the individual’s entire body language.

By this, I mean they can see their arms and legs. Typically, webcam-to-webcam images show only the upper body, so facial expressions are visible, but overall body language is obscured (out of view).

How important is it for a sports psychologist to observe a client’s body language during sessions? Answer: not that important.

The face will provide us with almost everything that we need to know in this regard. Don’t get me wrong, we are fascinated by both understanding and helping our clients improve their body language, but not so much within the consulting process, and much more so when they’re under the pressure of sporting competitions. I would much rather receive video footage of my client’s body language whilst they are competing than ask them to sit further away from their WebCam so that I can see them from head to toe.

Psychological Safety

Some clients, especially new ones, may feel slightly more comfortable in a consulting room with the door closed. However, a highly skilled practitioner (we only allow such practioners to join our team) should be able to recommend various ways in which sports psychology sessions via WebCam can provide the same degree of psychological safety.

And of course, there are advantages to doing everything with a webcam.

Arguably, the biggest is the unbelievable convenience of this approach. Given the nature of our work, a significant portion involves consulting with elite athletes who spend considerable time “on the road”.

Imagine this scenario. One team member is working with two professional cricketers, each playing for a different IPL franchise. The sessions take place seamlessly from the comfort of these players’ hotel rooms. Neither athlete knows that the following day they will be competing against a fellow Condor Performance client. Further benefits include:

No travel required by either party
Use of screensharing and online whiteboards
Very easy to record sessions if required/requested.

One Advantage That Trumps Them All

In terms of the number of qualified sport/performance psychologists we have, I gather we are now “top 3” in the world. By Feb 2026, we will have a consulting team of fourteen. Although most of them are still based in Australia, we do not have a single geographical home or headquarters. With the addition of Alexandra Mapstone, based in Liverpool (Merseyside), we now have consultants across six different time zones.

We are now contacted by about eighty potential clients per month (if you want to be one of them, contact us now). And most of these performers have preferences. Some want to work with a psychologist of a specific gender; others prefer someone who ‘really knows their sport’. And then the biggest request of them all. When the sessions can and can’y take place.

Now imagine the above, and on top of this, they want Same Place Sessions in Brisbane (for example). We now have an excellent performance psychologist in Brisbane, but he’s unavailable at that time and may be the wrong gender.

So when the enquiry comes through, and there is a willingness (or even preference) for a Webcam-Based Sport Psychology sessions, it becomes far easier for our New Enquiries Officers to book them in with a sport or performance psychologist based on their preferences.

Let me give you an example:

If the potential client is based in Sydney (NSW, Australia) and wants sessions at 7 pm on a Thursday, their time, this will be difficult for most of our East Coast (of Australia) psychologists. But if the sessions are via webcam, it is 5 pm for Jack (starting in 2026) in Perth and mid-morning for Alexandra in the UK. Happy days.

Evidence Brief: The Efficacy of Online Sport Psychology Consulting

Historically, face-to-face interaction was considered the “gold standard” for psychological support. However, a growing body of academic literature indicates that online delivery (telehealth/videoconferencing) is not merely a substitute but a distinct modality that offers equivalent therapeutic outcomes and, in specific contexts regarding accessibility and consistency, superior benefits for athletes.

1. Equivalence in Outcomes and Skill Acquisition

Research confirms that delivering mental skills training (MST)—such as imagery, self-talk, and anxiety regulation—is highly effective in digital formats.

Effectiveness: Studies indicate that digital and remote interventions yield significant improvements in psychological skills and performance outcomes, comparable to traditional methods (Ong & Chua, 2021).
Continuity: General reviews of telemental health (TMH) consistently show that clinical outcomes across various settings are equivalent to in-person care (Hilty et al., 2013).

2. The “Therapeutic Alliance” Remains Intact

The primary predictor of successful consulting is the therapeutic alliance—the trust and bond between athlete and practitioner. Sceptics often fear this is lost through a screen, but evidence suggests otherwise.

Building Trust: Qualitative research on the lived experiences of athletes and practitioners shows that the “building blocks” of the alliance (trust, safety, and empathy) are consistently maintained in online settings (Williams, Lugo, & Firth, 2022).
Focus on the Work: The medium of communication is less critical than the practitioner’s ability to facilitate a person-centred environment.

3. Advantages: Accessibility, Flexibility, and Reduced Stigma

Online consulting addresses barriers unique to the sports environment, including travel schedules and the stigma associated with seeking help.

Stigma Reduction: Athletes, who often fear being perceived as “mentally weak,” may be more willing to engage in online counselling due to the privacy of accessing services from their own space rather than walking into a public clinic (Bird et al., 2018).
Crisis Management & Travel: Post-pandemic analysis of high-performance sport psychology shows that online consulting allows for immediate “crisis” access and continuity of care while athletes are travelling for competition—support that was previously impossible with a rigid face-to-face model (Oblinger-Peters et al., 2023).

Conclusion

The academic evidence supports the use of online sport psychology as a primary service delivery method. It maintains the same high standard of care for the therapeutic relationship and skill development while providing greater consistency for athletes with demanding schedules.

References

Bird, M. D., Chow, G. M., Meir, G., & Freeman, J. (2018). Student-athletes and non-athletes’ stigma and attitudes toward seeking online and face-to-face counselling. The Sport Psychologist, 32(3), 202–211. https://doi.org/10.1123/tsp.2017-0063

Hilty, D. M., Ferrer, D. C., Parish, M. B., Johnston, B., Callahan, E. J., & Yellowlees, P. M. (2013). The effectiveness of telemental health: A 2013 review. Telemedicine and e-Health, 19(6), 444–454. https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2013.0075

Oblinger-Peters, V., Krenn, B., Moesch, K., & Håkansson, A. (2023). Lessons learned: Sport psychology practitioners’ experiences of working in performance sport during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Applied Sport and Exercise Psychology, 5(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1026/2941-7597/a000001

Ong, N. C., & Chua, J. H. (2021). Effects of an app-based mental skills training intervention on psychological skills and sports performance. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 19(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2020.1739110

Williams, J., Lugo, R. G., & Firth, A. M. (2022). Exploring the therapeutic alliance and race from sports psychologists’ and athletes’ lived experiences: A pilot study. Heliyon, 8(1), e08736. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e08736

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