'Sports Psychology' Is A Type Of 'Sports Science'

Sport/Performance Psychologist vs Other

With an exponential increase in the awareness about the importance of the mental side of performance it is harder than ever before to work out who to go to for advice. This 2025 article by Sport Psychologist James Kneller provides some, but not all, of the answers.

Who is the best person for me to work with to improve the mental side of my performance?

Like the proverbial “How long is a piece of string?” (exactly double the length of its half), this question doesn’t have a universal, clear, and agreed-upon answer.

Listen to any post-match press conference. You will universally hear about mental preparation, focus, motivation, attitude, dealing with pressure, resilience, and many other things related to mental preparation and the processes involved and required for elite performance in the most demanding competitive environments.

So, if we accept the premise that the mental side of performance is essential and that improving it leads to more consistent and better overall performance, the question then turns to how to do this and who can help us.

Disclaimers And Recognitions

As a fully registered and endorsed sport psychologist with Condor Performance in Australia, I’ll be biased towards sport and performance psychologists over others. I’ve tried hard to be fair to all groups/professions mentioned here.

My mum loves reading Choice product reviews, so in honour of her, I’ve tried to use a similar approach for each group involved, with pros and cons for each.

There is always a range of abilities in every group. There are people in each group who are outstanding at what they do and offer; equally, there are those who are not. The descriptions here are general, with no references to specific individuals.

Many of the observations come from my experiences meeting, working with, and seeing clients, athletes, coaches, parents, etc., who have worked with people from various groups.

While in this article I’ll speak about athletes, this also applies to coaches, teams, performers, or anyone in a high-performance/pressure position, such as CEOS, corporate board members, surgeons, traders, armed forces or anyone else who sees themselves as or wishes to become a high performer.

Who Is Out There?

The number of people and organisations eager to work with athletes is mind-blowing. For easy comparison, I’ve grouped these individuals into these general groups:

Parents and coaches
Ex-players
Mentors
Mind coaches
Psychologists with no specialisation in sport and performance
Sport and Performance psychologists (such as those at Condor Performance) who have undergone specific additional training and higher learning focused solely on sport and performance work.

Parents and Coaches

Parents are the first and foremost influence on athletes developing their skills. The hope is that they are the greatest supporter they’ll ever have, but at the same time, this support can lead to blind spots and/or avoidance of truths that need to be told or addressed. Often, they have few skills in the sport, little training in instruction, communication skills, mental support, and good intentions, which can lead to issues later for the athlete.

There is also the danger of those horror parents for athletes that many of us can name.

Coaches range from the weekend parent who helps out on their kid’s side to local representative coaches with minimum accreditation levels, up to the highest-level coaches of the stars. They typically have excellent knowledge of the sport and a passion for their athletes.

Pros

High level of contact and passion for the athlete, good skills around the sport, and time available to understand the person.
Depending on the level, can have brilliant support teams and systems around them and their athlete/s.
Improving an athlete’s technical skills will often improve their mental skills. Think about the concept of Competence Before Confidence.

Cons

Significant variation in the levels of skills in and understanding of the mental side of performance
Variable communication and interpersonal skills
Highly vested interests in performance can impair judgment and decision-making, leading to decisions that are in the best interest of the coach or parent rather than the athlete.

Personal Comment

Every athlete needs at least one of these involved, and at the elite level, many athletes will laud the coach’s skills as a mentor, teacher, and communicator. In short, the best coaches have the best people management skills and mental awareness. Interestingly, these same coaches also strongly tend to have sports and performance psychologists on their team, or they refer to themselves. Don’t take my word for it, take it from the current champions of English Football:

Ex-players, Mentors, Mind coaches

Ex-players are obvious. Mentors may be high-profile sportspeople from other sports or high-profile people from different areas, such as business, politics, or the armed services, who are now assisting athletes in dealing with the pressure of performance. Mind coaches can have many different names or titles, as there’s no universal term and no restriction to applying any description of themselves, except for the legally protected term of psychologist or sport psychologist.

Pros

Ex-players and mentors bring lived experience of situations like those the athlete may face.
Often, they have a narrow focus on which sports and areas they will or can work with, leading to a minimal number of athletes, so there is potential for greater one-on-one time with the athlete.
There is often an obvious credibility with someone we know who has been there and done it themselves.

Cons

With no regulatory body or board, they are not accountable to anyone for their actions and have no ethical framework to which they are held. They often have no or little direct, accredited psychological training.
This group is not regulated like psychologists. There is no insurance requirement, restriction on advertisement, restriction on testimonials, restriction on making guarantees to clients, an ethical framework they must adhere to, and no underlying explicit expectation to put the client’s needs first and do no harm.
If they have pictures with athletes, or testimonials or endorsements from them on their website, or make grandiose promises like “results in one session”, then you can be confident they are not a psychologist.

Personal Comment

I’ve met, worked with, and listened to many operators from this group who are skilled, knowledgeable, and excellent for their clients. Often, they will talk about their own experiences and highlight their work and what they’ve learned from their work with sports psychologists in their careers. They are now using that knowledge to help others. I have happily worked alongside these previously and still do currently, using a team approach to achieve the best results for the athlete.

In my opinion, the good ones know where their level of knowledge and competence ends and defer to psychologists or other specialists when the client needs more than they can provide.

Those in this group that I would not work with as an athlete tend to follow a couple of similar, consistent actions:

They tend to have one framework for how things should be dealt with, either through having only one method or system or using a “this is what I did when I…” approach. Then, if the athlete cannot fit within this framework, they often blame the athlete for being unable, unwilling, or not wanting it enough to succeed.
They tend only to want to take on clients who are already well on the path to elite and seem to bask in the reflective glory of “their” athlete.
They tend to ignore, avoid, or even shame individuals with personal problems that may impact their sporting performance. In doing so, they treat the person like they should be robots with their sport rather than human beings.

Psychologists with no specialisation in sport and performance

In Australia and New Zealand, where all the current Condor Performance psychologists are based and trained, to become a fully registered psychologist, you must complete a minimum of 6 years of approved, supervised, and quality-ensured education before you speak to your first client independently. We are governed by a regulatory board that holds us accountable for maintaining standards of ethics, work quality, confidentiality and ongoing training to ensure the currency of knowledge.

If they are working with clients rather than in policy or administration roles, they are generally trained to work with mental health issues in what we can call mainstream life circumstances.

Pros

You know they are trained and competent as a psychologist
They work under a transparent framework and are accountable for their actions
Trained in dealing with people, relationships, pressure, grief, and mental health issues

Cons

Often, there is no or minimal training around performance enhancement techniques or theories.
They may not understand the sporting environment, the associated pressures, or the motivations of those involved, including the established hierarchies in sports teams, clubs, and competitions.
Psychologists wanting to ‘dabble’ in sports often underestimate the importance of passion and knowledge of specific sports. They incorrectly assume that the interventions to help a pro golfer perform under pressure (for example) are the same as those for a CEO. They are not!

Personal comment

Like the other groups, I have worked alongside and met many good operators in this grouping. But I’ve also met many athletes who have worked with a general/clinical/health psychologist who tells me that “the psych was fine, but the solutions they offer aren’t relevant or appropriate for their sporting environment”. The athletes have also been frustrated with the psychologist’s inability to understand how their sport works, the language of the sport, or the unique problems of their sport.

Psychologists generally aim to have clients do well in their world and cope effectively, but in sports, just doing well isn’t good enough.

Sport and Performance Psychologists

These professionals have completed the same 6 years of minimum training as other psychologists, but I have specialised in sports and performance work. This is either through specific university coursework, Master’s, and PhD programs that often lead to the legally protected term “sports psychologist,” as many of the Condor Performance team have, or via focused ongoing development after their initial general registration as psychologists and continued work in the field with ongoing supervision by highly experienced current sports and performance psychologists.

Regardless of the pathway, we are subject to the same government regulatory body that ensures ethics, quality, confidentiality, and focused continuing professional development in sports and performance work.

Pros

All the same pros as psychologists who don’t specialise in sport and performance
Trained in numerous mental skills/performance enhancement techniques, along with mental health models, that apply to sport and performance, such as visualisation, self-talk, motivations, goal setting, etc – i.e. not one trick ponies and can switch approaches to match a client
Understand that athletes are different from the “normal”, and being good isn’t enough when you seek to be elite.
Understand the relationships within, the politics of, the pressure of, the sacrifices required, the dedication required, the expectations of self, teammates, coaches, and fans, and the language of high-performance environments.

Cons

Confidentiality for clients means they can’t tell you who they’ve worked with, they can’t use testimonials or endorsements from clients, and they can’t make promises to potential clients—all of which can leave potential clients wondering if the sports and performance psychologist has credibility in their sport or situation.
Not all sports psychologists work in mental skills (performance enhancement) and well-being.
Given the number of sports out there, they may not be strong in your sport. Condor Performance can overcome this issue more easily than most, with more than ten psychologists with varied strengths and sporting interests.

Personal Comment

Sport and performance psychologists are passionate about sport and performance, which often matches their clients. The environment they work in means that their relationship with clients and maintaining things like ethical boundaries can be a little different from that of a traditional psychologist. Not many conventional psychologists will join a client at their workplace. Still, a sport and performance psychologist will often want to get to the field, track, pool, course, and oval to see how things work for their client and truly understand their environment. Our knowledge for all our clients is expanded and enhanced through each session they do with any one client. I often bring knowledge from another sport or situation to a current client to help them understand and move them forward.

Final Word

Finding the right person to work with can be overwhelming and confusing. But they can make a difference to your overall performance once you see them. My advice would always be to consider what you are after and what you’re trying to improve for your sport.

If it’s primarily technical or tactical issues, my first suggestion would be a coach, mentor or ex-player in your sport. But if it’s mainly, or even somewhat involves, the mental side of your game, such as preparation, routines, performance anxiety, confidence, and performing under pressure. Or suppose it’s personal issues off the field that are filtering onto the field and impacting your performance. In that case, I’d recommend fully trained and regulated experts in the mind who share your passion for improving your performance.

To book a 30-minute Zoom meeting with our new Head of Client Experience, Tara, email her directly at [email protected]. She’ll reply with dates and time options for you to choose from. During the meeting, she’ll find out more about you (or the person you’re enquiring about) as well as give you a quick run-through of how we conduct our 1-on-1 consulting (including explaining our fees and charges).

Getting Into The Zone

Getting Into The Zone is something that sport psychologists have been helping athletes with for more than 60 years now. Our GM explores The Zone below.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – AUGUST 8, 2016: Olympic champion Simone Biles of United States competing on the balance beam at women’s all-around gymnastics at Rio 2016 Olympic Games

What, Or Where, Is The Zone?

Competing in sport, or even coaching it, brings with it a variety of emotions and mental experiences. Rightly or wrongly, the positive ones have often been called ‘the zone’. It’s not uncommon for athletes to say, “I was in the zone today.” One of our common requests is, “Can you help me get into the zone?”.

The Zone and its cousin, Flow, describe effortless optimal performance. In both, internal processes do not prevent us from executing our skills to the best of our abilities. And typically, consistency prevails.

These same internal experiences more commonly create barriers to effective performance. They can test individuals’ mental toughness by challenging their ability to self-regulate and manage these experiences constructively. Note the idea of “self-regulation” because we want our clients to develop the skills to do this independently. Relying on others (including us as their performance psychologist) is a short-term solution only.

Self-regulation is Psychbabble for Managing Your Emotions Yourself

The widely used Yerkes-Dodson Inverted U Stress Curve suggests that we should always try to be somewhat aroused. In other words, some nerves are better than others before or during pressure.

This theory has two major flaws. Firstly, it overplays the role that emotions play in optimal performance. It incorrectly implies that athletes must feel a certain way to perform at their best. We know this is not true. Both scientific and anecdotal evidence confirm that humans can be excellent across a huge range of emotions.

Secondly, the Yerkes-Dodson model suggests that being too relaxed before competition is bad. This is BS. Unless you’re asleep and miss the opening whistle, there is no downside to being very relaxed.

The Relaxed Competition Mindset

One way to begin developing a Relaxed Competition Mindset is to understand the Zones of Awareness. These zones suggest that we can attend to information through three different zones. Zone One is an inner zone (physiological sensations), Zone Two is the middle zone (thoughts), and Zone Three is the outer zone (the five senses).

When we function well and cope with our situation, our awareness across these zones is balanced. This allows us to respond very effectively and efficiently. This is very useful in high-pressure situations because maintaining a balanced awareness means we can respond quickly to stimuli. In other words, we can maintain good levels of focus during perceived chaos.

When we get too caught up in one of the zones, we can lose this balance. This can impair our abilities and cause distress, reducing the opportunity for optimal performance.

Being Outside Of The Zone

While each person is different, how we respond to adversity is universal. In such situations, people tend to become much more aware of their self-talk and physiological state. “Oh my, I can actually feel my heart racing,” for example.

When we first notice our thinking or physiology shifting unhelpfully, strategies such as mindfulness can prove effective.

When these experiences become too intense, trying to challenge our thoughts or become more aware of our bodies can feel like adding fuel to an already burning fire. This is where the third zone (the outer zone) can become useful in helping us manage.

The Five Senses

Individuals competing outdoors might consider pulling out some grass from the field for the sense of touch. Or tightly gripping a towel and noticing the feeling. What about taste? Eating as part of a pre-match routine can help, but instead of quickly consuming the food, notice the flavours more. For each mouthful or while chewing gum, try to notice the release of flavour with each bite. With the sense of smell, we notice any smells in our environment, such as muscle rub creams. For sight, individuals may ask themselves how many colours they can notice around them. Or how many people can they count wearing hats? Listening to music as part of a pre-match routine can really help get your head out of the way.

It’s Also A Matter of Timing

It should be noted that we don’t want to consider these things while trying to execute skills. In other words, the majority of the Relaxed Competition Mindset work should be done before we start competing.

Ultimately, that’s the key. We want to be able to shift our attention and focus where necessary to restore balance and composure to your internal state. In doing so, we remove some internal barriers to performance, which puts us in a position to meet our performance potential.

If you’d like our help Getting Into The Zone, then below are a few ways to contact us:

Via email at [email protected]
Via our Contact Us form here
By completing one of our Mental Toughness Questionnaires

Risk and Reward

Although risk and reward might not seem like obvious sport and performance psychology concepts, as this insightful article shows, it’s a significant mental challenge to get the balance right when we are under pressure.

“How do I stop hesitating?” It’s one of the more common questions we get asked as Sport and Performance Psychologists. Hesitation is a common mental block experienced by athletes across all sports and can be the difference between making it and not.

Why Do We Hesitate?

Hesitation is a growing topic of conversation in the world of performance psychology. In the many conversations I’ve had with athletes on the subject, it all seems to boil down to one thing: unrealistic expectations. The advancement of sport science in recent decades has allowed us to perform to levels we never thought possible. Coincidentally, expectations have increased as well.

We’re expected to start younger, train more, and train for longer. And because of this, we hope to see results quicker. Unfortunately, progress will never be linear, no matter how much science underpins it. Now, more than ever, we underestimate how long it takes to see improvement.

The Impact of Social Media

Social media hasn’t helped in this regard. In fact, it has skewed our perception of good performance looks like. We’re living in a highlight culture. Many of us opt to watch highlights over matches from start to end. This is often due to time constraints, but also because we’re more interested in watching the ‘good parts’.

The problem with this is that we’re only exposed to the most special moments of a performance, such as a goal being scored in soccer. But we don’t see the other 89 minutes on either side of this, during which athletes worked to set this moment up, made mistakes, and were forced to problem-solve.

Due to the rising popularity of platforms like TikTok, we’re constantly exposed to once-in-a-career moments. With enough exposure, we eventually perceive this as normal or ‘the standard’ when, in reality, it’s not. This is an especially tough challenge for young athletes who have grown up in the tech age.

Professional Statistics

So, what does elite performance look like in reality? Simply put, elite athletes mess up more than we think they do. Have you ever Googled who makes the top 10 most missed baskets in the NBA of all time? If you do, you’ll notice that many of the names on that list also make the list for the top 10 scorers of all time.

You will also see more interesting data if you search the UFC record book. For example, current middleweight fighters ranked in the top 10 for striking accuracy are between 55% and 62.5% accurate. Takedown accuracy is even less, with the top 10 athletes in the same division being between 40% and 54.5% accurate.

Essentially, almost one in every two attempts fails. Yet, these are the best of the best.

If the above data hasn’t given you insight into how imperfect elite athletes are, then hopefully, Roger Federer can convince you.

Federer won 80% of his singles matches in his career but only 54% of the points. To break that down, he’s lost hundreds of matches (approximately 300) and only won roughly 1 in every 2 points. So, is being the best really about chasing perfection, or does it perhaps have something to do with the acceptance of imperfection? And sticking to the process!

Mistakes vs Occurrences

To perform freely, we need to redefine mistakes. At Condor Performance, we have categories for different types of mistakes. The first category is a mistake that is our fault (we call this a ‘mistake’), and the second is a mistake that isn’t our fault (we call this an ‘occurrence’).

Mistakes are erroneous decisions based on our desire to feel good, comfortable, or safe, but they don’t pay off.

For example, I pass the ball to my teammate because I’m afraid to miss when I have a clear path in front of me to take a shot. If any soccer players are reading this, we’d love to hear some of your examples in the comments section below.

On the other hand, occurrences are times when we did everything to the best of our knowledge, stuck to the process, and made the best possible decision with the information we had available at the time. Still, the payoff wasn’t there on that occasion.

For example, I chose to keep the puck and shoot (ice hockey) because I knew I was in the best position to score, but the goalkeeper had the game of her life and saved it. Think about how many of your mistakes were actually mistakes and how many were occurrences—times when you did everything right, but it just didn’t work. For a whole article on this topic by my colleague Lauren, click here.

Willingness to Make Occurrences … Lots of Them

Understanding professional statistics helps us understand that elite performance isn’t as ‘perfect’ as we sometimes assume it to be. This is essential in helping us set realistic expectations about a good performance. These expectations should allow plenty of occurrences to minimise mistakes as much as possible.

For example, if I’m an amateur MMA fighter and the top 1% of athletes in my sport are landing roughly one in every two strikes they throw, aiming to have a striking accuracy of 80% will only lead to me becoming highly frustrated in the cage when I struggle to achieve this. Not that getting frustrated is a bad thing (if the fighter is psychologically flexible).

A Piece of Advice

Find ways to become more okay with occurrences. If you’re a young athlete, reflect on your long-term goals and clarify how much time you have to achieve them. If you’re a 13-year-old swimmer and your goal is to make the Australian swim team one day, you’ve got anywhere from 5-15 years to accomplish this. Not getting a PB at your next meet is okay, messing up your turn at a vital meet is okay, and slipping on your backstroke start is okay. Why? Because none of these things will significantly impact your long-term goals.

A Final Note on Risk vs Reward

As performers, we’ll always be criticised no matter what. It’ll either be for A) playing it safe and not taking enough chances, or B) taking lots of chances, in which half of those probably won’t pay off. Consider which kind of criticism will take you closer to your goals and commit to it. And as always, if you need professional assistance then get in touch.

Composure As A Mental Skill

“Composure is the ruler of instability”
~ Lao Tzu

What Exactly Is Composure?

Composure is up there when we consider some of the most important mental skills to develop as an athlete or performer. But how many consider composure a mental skill that can be practised and improved?

First, let’s work out what we mean when we say composure.

The dictionary definition is “the feeling of being calm, confident, and in control.” Searching for its meaning in sports suggests “whether emotions dictated how someone performed under pressure.“

I want to explore an example from the perspective of a spectator.

As I alluded to above, the context of the situation usually plays a role. In this example, let’s say we are watching an important match, the scorelines are close, and there comes a crucial moment in the competition where an athlete can influence the outcome. When we watch them, there is a sense of poise, their body language is confident, and their movements are precise and full of conviction.

The play is booming, and the audience applauds. We intuitively know there was pressure at that moment, but the athlete did not seem to waver in their appearance and execution. The assumption we usually make after seeing this is that the athlete must have felt calm to do this. However, in my experience as a performance psychologist, athletes are commonly stressed during these moments.

The answers lie not in how we control the experience of feeling calm but more in staying committed to our performance actions while the stress is present.

The Separation Of Actions From Emotions

Fundamentally, when we talk about building composure, is the expectation that we must change our emotional state or actions? The first step towards composure is understanding our openness to our emotional experience.

If we expect to change our emotional state before taking action, this creates a significantly limited approach to our performance. Essentially, we create a condition on our performance where if it works, then we can do well, and if it does not, then we can’t. Secondly, it shifts our concentration away from the present competition in front of us. We concentrate on an uncomfortable, natural human experience we have little control over.

I want to clarify that I’m not saying we have to give up on a calm state but more about having some psychological flexibility towards it to take the most meaningful actions with or without it.

This allows us to free ourselves from the conditions of our actions, creating the opportunity for the preferred psychological experiences. Have you ever had a moment in your sport or anywhere else where you noticed pressure or emotions building up? Instead of giving into the emotional reaction, you committed to a different, more meaningful action.

Even if the outcome didn’t go your way, did you genuinely regret doing it? There is something liberating about letting go of the emotional control agenda and acting in a way aligned with who you want to be.

If you want to read more about emotions in sports, my colleague, Madalyn Incognito, has written more about them in this article.

A World-Class Example of Sporting Composure

Roger Federer is the first athlete to come to mind when considering composure as a mental skill.

If you could create an example of someone who might have “managed emotions well” after 20 grand slam titles and the way he carried himself on the court, I would have picked RF to be that guy.

However, when you listen to his interviews, time after time, he openly discusses moments where he felt pressure, felt nervous, and noticed that he had thoughts about losing. Yet he manages his body language well, trusts his preparation and prioritises his behaviour on the court first.

Hear it from the man, the legend himself:

When asked about how to stay calm under pressure, his response contains three key elements:

Be passionate and love the sport (all aspects of it)
Accepting challenging circumstances and the outcome for whatever it is
On the court, give everything you have

Having A Process Focus

As I described at the beginning, composure has a situational component. We value it more in high-pressure moments. Part of the psychology of composure is how we interpret pressure. I define pressure as an expectation to create a result. How we perceive our ability to control the results influences what we focus on, which can then influence our performance.

Try answering the question: how much control do you have over the result? For the most part, in sports, so many factors outside our control influence the result. We can execute our abilities flawlessly and still not achieve the desired outcome.

Condor Performance’s founding sport psychologist, Gareth J. Mole, goes into more detail in this article, and I highly recommend giving it some of your time.

Where we place our focus during performance matters a lot. Overfocusing on trying to create a result that we can only partially influence will create an unstable foundation for composure.

Many of the world’s best athletes take a process-focused rather than a results-focused approach.

That means that when a high-pressure situation occurs, composure is maintained by a deep understanding of what they have influence over in that moment: their actions. We observe their ability to be present in their process.

A Summary Of Composure

To summarise, composure is about how we respond to our actions when we know it is essential. Often, a mix of human experiences, thoughts and feelings accompany these moments, which can be uncomfortable. Try to practice psychological flexibility in these moments, be open to those experiences and commit to your process. Our emotions do not have to dictate our actions. Meaningful actions unhooked from emotions are what create fulfilling human experiences.

Composure is an excellent topic I could discuss further, but it is a nice way to get the ball rolling. Please share some of your thoughts or personal experiences in the comments below.

If you are ready to start working one-on-one to develop composure and mental skills, fill out one of our four Mental Toughness Questionnaires, and one of our team will get back to you with your results and information about our services.

Culture and High Performance

It might be argued that culture is not the right word. Some in the industry suggest it’s more of a buzzword than a real concept. Let’s find out!

Culture and High Performance: The Basics

As more and more of my sport psychology consulting nowadays is with whole sporting teams, I have become increasingly interested in mental skills that relate to groups of individuals. One of these is to take a look at the culture of the team.

Examples of Poor Culture

The idea of culture and high performance was extensively explored in cricket in 2018. For those who do not follow this fascinating sport or who can’t remember, here is a quick summary from Wikipedia:

The 2018 Australian ball-tampering scandal, also known as Sandpapergate, was a cricket cheating scandal surrounding the Australian national cricket team. In March 2018, during the third Test match against South Africa at Newlands in Cape Town, Cameron Bancroft was caught by television cameras trying to rough up one side of the ball with sandpaper to make it swing in flight. Captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were found to be involved, and all three received unprecedented sanctions from Cricket Australia. Although he was found not to have been directly involved, Australia’s coach, Darren Lehmann, announced he would step down from his role following the scandal. Smith was replaced by Tim Paine as captain in all formats before Aaron Finch took over from Paine in ODIs and T20Is.

After the dust had settled and the individuals who were responsible for the act were handed down their punishments, a lot of questions were still being asked about how a group of highly regarded/paid professional athletes could have ended up in such a predicament.

What Was Going Through Their Minds

How did the locker room allow for such poor decision-making? As part of the reviews, the talk switched from individual motivations to team culture. Was it ultimately a cultural issue that existed within Australian Cricket at that time?

Culture is the collective mentality and values of a particular organisation and group.

The Right Culture Should Never Be “Assumed“

It can be inherited from those who were previously members of the group. But it can also be quite fluid as some individuals depart and new individuals join. The right culture should never be “assumed”. A culture of sorts will always exist when a group of people come together and form a team whether they’re active in creating it in their preferred way or by letting it happen naturally.

I’m of the opinion that it is something that should be named openly among everyone and worked on actively so each individual associated with the organisation can have a sense of ownership and pride over what they have created. Not only this, but a strong and positive sense of culture also gives the organisation an identity. It can provide a guiding light to the individuals that can both be used as a motivator and create a sense of accountability for everyone’s individual actions.

An intentional culture can promote the well-being of an individual as they can feel accepted and belong, and, maybe the biggest thing of all, gives everyone a chance to develop a strong sense of both the individual and collection mental toughness.

How To Start Improving The Culture of Your Team

If you are a leader of a team or even a member of one, start thinking about your organisation and what you can do to create a better environment.

My recommendation is that you waste no time creating a situation where people can begin to contribute to a discussion and the organisation’s shared values can be formalised.

From our perspective as sport and performance psychologists, one of the key things that should be kept in mind and included within the process is that we can only control our efforts and therefore the culture and pursuits of the organisation should focus on giving people the opportunity to achieve consistent and high-quality effort, rather than having an obsession with results.

People often talk about a “winning culture” within a team, but for us, if this idea of “winning” is only focusing on the results you attain, then you leave yourself and your organisation vulnerable when things are not going to plan. Maybe this is what happened to the Australian Cricket Team in 2018.

The team can have goals that strive towards certain achievements, but along the way, the true reward and meaning come from how the team and individuals within it worked towards their achievements, not what was reached at the end of the road. This classic article by my colleague Gareth on the Power Of The Process is essential if you want to explore this concept in more detail.

Summary

A big part of our role when we work with an organisation is helping them to create discussions and opportunities that drive the ideas of culture for themselves. Every organisation is different, and if you wish to discuss how you can achieve the right balance between culture and high performance, we would love to hear from you.

Feel free to email me directly at [email protected] to discuss our team consulting options in more detail.

Reframing Mistakes and Errors

Mistakes and errors can often be viewed as setbacks or moments of failure that we normally strive to avoid. However, what if we could shift our perspective and see these moments as valuable opportunities for growth and learning? Reframing our understanding of mistakes and errors can transform our approach to challenges and setbacks.

LONDON, ENGLAND – August 21 2013: Graeme Swann reacts after missing a catch during day one of the 5th Investec Ashes cricket match between England and Australia.

Understanding the Fear of Mistakes and Errors

Firstly, it’s essential to understand why we often fear making mistakes or errors. This is because mistakes and errors are often stigmatised and associated with failure, and we know that our thoughts and feelings are not always the truth.

In many cultures, we are taught to aim for perfection, which can lead to anxiety around failure. Although there is nothing wrong with striving to be our best, this creates a sense of pressure that can hinder decision-making and prevent us from taking risks. The good news is that we often worry about things we care about. By recognising the purpose of mistakes and the importance of reframing errors, we can focus on our processes or actions that are within our control.

The Benefits of Reframing Mistakes and Errors

Mistakes and errors can often give us valuable information about the numerous ways to improve and learn. When we take the time to reflect on our performance, we can gain insights that inform our future decisions.

This process of reflection helps us develop resilience and adaptability. Mistakes and errors can also sharpen our critical thinking and improve our problem-solving skills. When we embrace that they are a normal part of the learning experience, we are more likely to take on opportunities for growth without fearing failure.

“Setbacks are not reflections of our abilities but stepping stones toward improvement.”

Strategies for Reframing Mistakes and Errors

Have you ever wondered why some performances might feel slightly less or more pressured after a mistake or error? The weight we give to them is very significant. Reflecting on the last time you ‘messed up’, did you notice what happened to your performance afterwards?

For some athletes and performers, it allows them to relax, as the worst-case scenario we were trying to avoid has already happened. For those who feel more pressure after a mistake or error, there is often an intent to ‘make up’ for that mistake. This is very risky from a mental toughness point of view. More often than not, this will switch the internal focus away from the process to the outcome.

But what if I suggested that how we act after the mistake is far more important? It is common for performers to consider starting at 100% of the quality of their best performance. What ends up happening is that we try our best to maintain this level of performance for the whole duration of the competition or performance. This can often lead to rushing our processes or creating a sense of pressure due to the unrealistic expectations we place on our performance.

The Start From Zero Percent Approach

But what if I said the quality of our performance starts at 0%? And we work towards increasing our quality throughout our performance. At the start of all performances, we haven’t achieved anything productive or equal to what we know we are capable of. This means that any error or mistake would not detract from the quality or hard work we have already achieved. But what if I said the quality of our performance starts at 0%? And we work towards increasing our quality throughout our performance.

At the start of all performances, we haven’t achieved anything productive or equal to what we know we are capable of. This means that any error or mistake would not detract from the quality or hard work we have already achieved.

For example, say you are a tennis player, and you miss an easy cross-court winner during the first game of a match. Using the start from Zero Percent Approach, this feels normal. But when you start from A Hundred Percent not so much.

Mistakes vs Unfortunate Occurrences

Sometimes, just changing the label will get the job done. In high-performance sports, the words mistake and error are particularly confronting. Imagine yourself in a one-on-one meeting with your coach on Monday morning, and she opens with, “I want to talk about the mistake she made yesterday yesterday”.

A mistake can be referred to as an error or something we have done with a lack of responsibility or misunderstanding. Imagine you’re a basketball player going for a free throw and miss. This should be considered a mistake if the player closes their eyes and executes that skill incorrectly on purpose. But this almost never happens.

What is far more common in these situations is that the player tries to get the ball in the basket, but it doesn’t quite make it. This is not a mistake; it is an unfortunate occurrence. And sport and other performance areas are full of these.

An unfortunate occurrence refers to an undesirable situation or event that is not through lack of effort. We could consider it like this. Unless you intentionally try to do poorly, then it would be impossible for there to be any mistakes throughout your entire performance. But there will always be a bunch of unfortunate occurrences.

Conclusion

Reframing mistakes is a powerful mindset shift that can lead to personal and professional growth. By viewing errors as opportunities rather than failures, we open ourselves to a world of possibilities. So the next time you become fixated on a mistake, remember this. Was it really a mistake (lacking effort), or was it actually an unfortunate occurrence? And whatever it turns out to be, both are opportunities for improvement!

As always, if you need a hand, give us a shout.

Potential In Performance – Is It A Myth?

For me, potential in performance is one of the most fascinating topics to debate in modern-day sports psychology. This article is my opinion on the subject. If you take the time to read my ramblings below, you’ll see that I lean heavily towards the view that there isn’t really such a thing as potential.

From a performance psychology perspective, I would even say that it can often be detrimental. But this is just my viewpoint. Please add your counterargument below in the comments section for those who read and disagree. Debating these topics healthily and respectfully is crucial to improving our understanding. So don’t be shy.

“You Have Some Much Potential”

The word ‘potential’ is used extensively across sports and other performance domains, such as music, art, performing arts, and academics. It is used so frequently that it will almost always be regarded as ‘real’. The context in which it is most commonly heard is to describe an individual performer. Someone who can and should be much better in the future based on current or past ‘glimpses’. For example:

“Our starting quarterback has so much potential but often falls short on game day.”

In other words, according to the individual who said these words—let’s say the coach—this athlete has done things that suggest they could be much better later on but are not right now.

All too often, this is down to moments of brilliance. Maybe it’s moments of brilliance during a practice session with little or no competitive pressure. Or perhaps it was one or two unforgettable moments in a game that made everybody sit up and take notice.

The issue with these moments of brilliance is that they are only moments. Even the sports that last the least time (e.g. 100 m sprint) are made up of dozens of moments. Some sports, like cricket, comprise tens of thousands per match. So, if only a few of these moments are brilliant, then it suggests the rest were not, which is the definition of inconsistency.

So, if consistency is the most sought-after aspect of performance (as my colleague Chris argued in this brilliant article), then moments of brilliance count for diddly–squat.

Genetics and Potential

Not always, but often, potential in performance is used to describe genetic or inherited advantages. In other words, if you go back to the good old nature versus nurture debate, we often label performers as having ‘huge potential’ when they have all the genetically inherited ideals for that sport—a naturally taller basketball player or a heavily set forward rugby union forward.

In these scenarios, being labelled as naturally talented can often be a significant handicap from a mental toughness point of view.

Think about it. Our effort is one of the few areas of performance over which we genuinely have considerable influence. Therefore, consistency of hard work (in the right areas 😬) would have to be the most significant predictor of future success in sports and performance.

Imagine that from the age of seven, you have been told by all the significant people around you that you have genetic advantages. “Tommy has so much potential and natural talent”. If I were Tommy and I heard this repeatedly, it would be easy to believe that I don’t need to put in the same level of effort as some of my competitors to succeed. When you combine this with humans naturally wanting to take shortcuts (see more here: Principle of Least Effort), Tommy is in trouble. His dreams of making it to the top are pipe dreams.

Inside Knowledge

One of the absolute joys of working as an applied sports psychologist is that many of our loyal clients are already competing and performing at a high level. We had/have the privilege of helping some of them get there. For others, we have joined them and their team while they are already at the pointy end, and we have been brought in to help increase the probability that they stay there.

Irrespective, we have conversations with some of the best athletes and performances in the world virtually every day. As I am only one member of the current Condor Performance team, I can’t speak on behalf of all of our uber-elite clients worldwide, but the ones I have worked with rarely talk about potential.

Most of these exceptional athletes were not told they had potential or natural talent during their developmental years.

Due to this, they developed a rock-solid belief system that consistency of effort was the number one ticket to the top. Hard work was above everything else. This work ethic became a habit, and as the years rolled on, it became a much more critical ingredient to performance consistency and excellence than anything else.

Practical Takeaways

What does this mean regarding practical takeaways for those reading this article? I will leave you with some straightforward and hopefully game-changing advice on this subject of potential in performance.

If you’re a coach, I would cease to use the terms potential and natural talent. Just ban them from your vocabulary. If you are an athlete or non-sporting performer, I would encourage you also to move away from these dangerous labels. When you think you are full of potential, notice those thoughts and return to work. If others tell you it, thank them and get back to work.

Consider this if you have been labelled as someone with huge potential. Does hearing this make me want to work harder or not? If you’re one of the lucky few who views your potential in a motivational way, then make sure you have strategies to continue working hard even when those around you stop describing you in this way.

Amount of Influence

From a mental toughness point of view, one of the most fundamental ideas is how much influence we have on stuff. When we look at this in the context of time, it is elementary.

We can not influence the past at all.
We have a vast amount of influence over the present.
We have some influence over the future (due to the amount of influence we have over the present and the impact the present has on the future).

Potential in performance, as well as in any context, is a future-orientated construct. It is a prediction about the future. So, in the same way that putting a considerable amount of mental energy into the past is detrimental (“things were so much better last season why Coach Bob was around”), so too is focusing too much on the future.

So, we want to spend most of our energy in the present moment. My response to working with an athlete who believes they have enormous potential is the same as when consulting with an individual who believes they have absolutely none. Ask yourself the following:

“What is my plan for this week, this training session, so that afterwards, there is no doubt that I have improved in one or more meaningfulness areas.”

Permission granted to write this on your bathroom mirror.

Coaching The Coaches

Sport psychologists Coaching The Coaches is becoming more and more normal as competitive sport finally starts to understand what we do.

Coaching Is Also A Performance Area

One of our great professional delights here at Condor Performance is the opportunity to work alongside sporting coaches. We are privileged to work with coaches across many sports and levels of competition. Most of this consulting is one-on-one, whereby we help them improve their mental toughness and mental coaching skills. Of course, these two areas are related but far from one and the same. So, coaching the coaches really means coaching the coaches mentally.

Collaborating with coaching staff provides a range of challenges and rewards distinct from working directly with athletes. It is immensely satisfying for us to help coaches redirect some of the vast amounts of time and energy spent on their players back into improving their own performance.

That’s right. Coaches are performers, too, even if they don’t actually put on the boots.

An Unlimited Appetite for Learning

Increasingly, coaches at the elite level of sport are taking off-season trips. The idea is to ‘pick the brains’ of other organisations and bring new perspectives back home. Study tours are fascinating exercises with a host of educational benefits. However, they’re not exactly cheap, and that thing called ‘life’ can get in the way.

We are huge advocates for these study tours but accept that they will not be possible for most coaches. Luckily, there is a workaround. You can start working 1-on-1 with a qualified sports psychologist or performance psychologist from the comfort of your own home.

Of course, when it comes to the practical application of coaching tasks and responsibilities, the coaches themselves are the experts, not us. But we become involved in providing mental skills training to the coach, not to start developing game plans or overhauling training regimes.

Five Key Questions

Below are five key questions for coaches that are directed at their own performance, not that of their athletes.

HOW ARE YOU PERFORMING OUTSIDE OF THE PLAYING ARENA?

Before we discuss the mental side of your coaching performance, let’s take a moment to look at the bigger picture. Improving your performance in areas that don’t at first appear to be directly linked to the ‘nuts and bolts’ of coaching will, in fact, directly benefit your work with your athletes.

Attending to ‘off-field’ matters will help to increase your physical and mental energy and availability. It will sharpen your focus when coaching. It will enhance your enthusiasm for your duties. Furthermore, it will promote enjoyment of your role and contribute to your general well-being. Finally, it will help to address (prevent) burnout in the longer term. The major targets for improvement for any coach, from a lifestyle perspective, are:

Nutrition. You’re undoubtedly encouraging your athletes to put the right fuel into their bodies. And while you may not be running around on the court with them, it’s important that you do the same. This isn’t just necessary for general health but also for enhancing your mood and improving concentration. Taking care of your nutritional needs seems fairly obvious at first glance. But that’s why it often takes a back seat to other tasks that seem more urgent at the time.

Sleeping is a skill, something that can be improved or neglected.

Sleep. Unfortunately, this is not an exact science and a great night of shut-eye can’t be guaranteed. There are various factors that can get in the way of sleep. So anything you can do to increase the chances of a good night’s rest will benefit life and sport. Taking basic steps to plan for and implement good sleeping habits sounds sensible enough. Like nutrition, sleep can be one of the forgotten components in the grand scheme of coaching performance. See this great PDF for more details.

WHAT DOES MENTAL TOUGHNESS LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?

The mental qualities you hope to see in your players are easier to picture. But what does mental toughness actually look like for you personally? What skills are you seeking to keep improving to perform at your best? Below are some points that keen-eyed readers will recognise fall along the lines of the Metuf model. These are all areas we often discuss when coaching the coaches.

Motivation

What are your reasons for coaching and wanting to do it well? The immediate response may be that you love your chosen sport. However, it’s helpful to clarify this passion further. Why exactly does coaching appeal to you, and what rewards do you get in return for your efforts? Knowing what matters to us in terms of our chosen sport means that we can keep these values as non-negotiable aspects of our sporting lives.

Emotions

How well are you able to manage your emotions? That term – manage – is used deliberately and does not result from the growing ‘business-speak’ in modern society. Although the term ‘control’ is thrown around freely in sports, we cannot control our emotions as we cannot guarantee them. What we can guarantee are the actions that we take in response to our feelings. Developing competency in recognising and better understanding one’s own emotions – and the impact of these emotions on performance – benefits the coach in their work and enables the coach to teach their athletes similar skills.

Thoughts

Do you spend most of your time worrying about aspects you have little or no influence on, such as your opponents? How to approach thinking is arguably one of the biggest mental mistakes made by performance worldwide. There is a common and very dangerous belief that to perform well, you need to think positively. One of our favourite quotes, to the right, begs to differ.

Unity

How well do you communicate your message to others? Are you able to receive and interpret messages well from others? How effectively can you communicate your message to yourself? Communication is a hugely underutilised skill. Normally, this is due to lifelong habits we develop in everyday interactions. Even minor modifications can yield powerful changes in tasks such as teaching biomechanics or managing different personalities. You can read a lot more about the topic of Team Unity here via this excellent article by my colleague Madalyn Incognito.

Focus

How well can you focus on what is most relevant and useful in your role as a coach? Improving your attention in preparation and competition is equally important. Are you prioritising one over the other at present? The art and science of helping anyone improve their focus is a highly individualised process, so it’s difficult for us to provide generic advice. If you are a sporting coach and struggle to focus, get in touch today so we can start correcting it.

Are You Developing Your Sporting IQ?

Out on the playing surface, tactical wisdom refers to knowledge about the sport. It’s about decision-making skills and knowing when to do something and why. There is an enormous difference between ‘how to’ shoot for a goal (technique) vs. determining if a shot or a pass is the best goal (tactics). Developing decision-making skills is something that the vast majority of coaches I’ve encountered have revelled in. I enjoy helping them teach their athletes how to become smarter and read the play. How to be proactive rather than reactive.

Off the playing surface, these same principles apply to coaches, too. We want to encourage them to continue learning, to seek new knowledge, and to gain deeper insights into their sport. Tactical wisdom for coaches isn’t restricted to coming up with new game plans. Instead, tactical wisdom is looking at the bigger picture and planning how to acquire and utilise knowledge for the benefit of your athletes. As a coach, if you can recognise your strengths and weaknesses knowledge-wise, you’ve immediately begun filling in any gaps and strengthening the existing foundations.

ARE YOU REFINING AND UPDATING YOUR TECHNICAL SKILLS?

When discussing technical consistency with an athlete, we would discuss their ability to execute movements and apply skills the way they want to repeatedly across all conditions in competition. That is, ‘how to’ do something. One of the primary concerns of a coach is to help teach athletes these skills. So, to improve your performance as a coach, it is worthwhile considering ‘how to’ teach your charges.

It is one thing to demonstrate to a javelin thrower how to launch that piece of equipment. However, it’s another to pass on that knowledge effectively and of greatest benefit to that individual athlete. It’s hugely useful for coaches to break from habit where possible and review how they execute their skills in their role as coaches.

How effectively are you teaching your athletes, and how satisfied are you with your current ability to pass on skills/knowledge/information to others? As with all the previously mentioned pillars of performance, the goal here is ongoing improvement in the ‘how to’ of coaching players, regardless of which technical elements are areas of strength for you as an individual.

If you are a sporting coach and you’d like more information on how we can work with you, please contact us via one of the methods below.

Fill in the form via our Contact Us page
Complete the MTQ-C (for coaches) via this link
Send an email to [email protected], and make sure to include lots of background information, such as your sport, your location, your coaching goals, and your challenges.

Willpower And Performance

What exactly is willpower? More importantly, can it be improved and if so, what does the sports psychology research say about how? Condor Performance Stalwart Chris Pomfret looks at these key performance psychology questions and more.

Did you have the **willpower** to keep going through all the obstacles?

Willpower: What Exactly Is It?

Willpower is not an uncommon word in the English language. A quick Google search produces roughly 76,300,000 results. However, as is the case with so many concepts in psychology, there is not a tremendous amount of clarity about precisely what willpower is.

Articles discussing its usefulness and ways to enhance it are even less common. So, I will try to remedy that with this thought piece.

There are some attempts to clarify willpower in this excellent article on the American Psychological Association website, but I like this clue the most:

The ability to delay gratification, resisting short-term temptations in order to meet long-term goals

Let’s Run Some Examples

Although technically, willpower is not considered a mostly sport psychology concept (not in the same way, for example, goal setting and visualisation are), maybe it should be. I struggle to think of any other sub-discipline of psychology where the above definition is so relevant. Below, I will use two fictitious athletes as examples to get my points across.

Meet Larry

Larry (not a real person) is a talented Division Two college baseball pitcher. When he was younger, he was the standout player in the Little League. Where he grew up in a remote part of Louisiana, baseball was all the town seemed to care about. And there were few distractions, so Larry would spend hours and hours after school and on weekends throwing his dishevelled bag of balls at a graffitied rectangle on an old gymnastics propped up against the garage wall.

He wouldn’t have known if Larry had been asked why he spends so much time working on his pitching. He wouldn’t have heard about willpower. Instead, he was simply a living, breathing example of it.

A Change In Environment

Things changed once Larry moved across State lines to Texas to start college. For a start, he was older now. He became interested in girls, but maybe more significantly, from a willpower perspective, there were plenty around for him to be interested in!

Due to his upbringing and the importance of work ethic imposed on him from a young age, he still found it relatively easy to attend compulsory team practice. But suddenly, even this had a slightly different motive. You see, a handful of young ladies at Larry’s college would always watch the baseballers in training. This was a far cry from the Larry of a decade earlier, who would thunder his Rawlings into the dusty gym mat with an audience of zero or one. (Sometimes, his neighbour would watch from across the fence).

Not All Practice Is The Same

Larry’s baseball team coach clarified that additional practice was entirely voluntary. However, all the players would have access to the facilities should they want to do some extras. At first, Larry did some extra pitching after training, but soon, this stopped when he worked out that it would start to encroach on his social life.

Little did Larry know that the baseball coach was psychologically very astute. Despite saying it was voluntary, he would ask one of the assistant coaches to track which players would do additional training and how much. He would classify those who did as being more internally motivated. Due to this invaluable psychological trait, he predicted more extraordinary things for these athletes and, in turn, tried to give them more opportunities during games.

Larry would tell himself that part of the college experience was to have fun. Indeed, science now is unequivocal in that neglecting a social life entirely to support excellence is a terrible idea. However, he failed to realise that with a little bit of time management, he could bake his cake and eat it. In other words, he could easily have squeezed in 2 to 3 hours of additional non-team practice (early mornings, for example) while having a rich and fulfilling social life as well.

Like hundreds of thousands of elite college athletes, Larry never quite fulfilled his dream of playing in the big leagues. His diminishing willpower during his teenage years ultimately got in the way.

A Different Example

Wendy (a made-up person, too) came to squash late and by pure luck. When she was 14, her family moved from the South Island of New Zealand to the North Island. By pure coincidence, the house that they rented was a four-minute walk to the local squash courts. Wendy had not been an especially sporty kid before the family moved, but the squash club seemed to provide the best opportunity for meeting new people. So, they signed Wendy up for some group classes.

Wendy quickly realised that she enjoyed most of the elements of this sport. She loved that it did not depend on certain weather conditions, which in New Zealand can cause havoc with the more popular outdoor sports such as rugby union and cricket. She also loved the decision-making aspect of squash and the speed of play.

There was no easy way to take extra classes, as private tuition was too expensive for Wendy’s family. So, instead, she asked the court manager if she could help clean them in exchange for after-hours access. She was allowed to do this, so she went to work.

During most mornings, before school, Wendy would get up at 5 am and walk to the courts. For the first hour, she’d sweep and mop the four courts. For the second hour, she’d practice. Sometimes, this was alone; Wendy would creatively devise drills that would allow for solo practice. Occasionally, one of the older male players would join her for the second hour and play practice matches.

Then, She Started Competing

At age 16, a sport psychologist came to run a Mental Toughness workshop at the club and suggested that those “interested in getting to the very top” should at least keep some form of performance journal. Wendy did not need a second prompt and started reflecting after each training session and her growing number of squash competitions.

A massive feature of her journaling was willpower-related. When her motivation to train dropped, she’d write about this and remind herself that some of the growing number of distractions—such as the two (not one, but two) fast food joints in town—would make her feel good for a few minutes, but what she was working towards would be far more satisfying for a much more extended period.

Obstacles

When obstacles got in the way of her improvement endeavours—for example, the entire squash club was closed for three months for refurbishment purposes—she would always creatively work around them. She set up a home gym to ensure she stayed in top physical condition and would gorge on YouTube videos of the world’s best to solidify technical and technical brilliance in her mind’s eye.

When Wendy started playing squash professionally, her willpower was second nature. She did not need to work on it. Unlike in Larry’s case, where a lack of willpower ultimately got between him and his potential for Wendy, it was her secret weapon. It was the difference between her becoming great as opposed to just good.

7 Ways To Boost Your Willpower

Read this article a second time 😃!
Keep a reflection/performance journal of some sort.
Set some long-term goals – but at the same time, remind yourself you’ll only ever have some influence over these.
Design ready-to-go backups for your most common training sessions before they’re needed.
Accept that external motivators such as prize money and trophies are fragile. Willpower and internal motivation are “best mates”, so if you improve the latter, the former should also benefit.
Vary your practice as much as possible, as monotony will lead to boredom, and boredom is the biggest threat to willpower by far,
Work with one of our team of sports/performance psychologists for at least a month. During the initial Kick Start Session, ask them to target willpower. The best way to get started is to watch this explanatory video below and then get in touch by filling in your details here.

Baseball Psychology

Baseball Psychology Is A Ten Minute Read by Performance Psychologist David Barracosa On The Mental Aspects Of Baseball

There Is A Lot Of Psychology In The Sport Of Baseball

Introduction

This article will focus on the mental side of baseball (or Baseball Psychology) by exploring its mental challenges. I will also take a deep dive into some of the different approaches that we, as performance psychologists, tend to use a lot when working with our growing number of baseball clients. As with all of our articles, if you have any comments or questions, please add them at the bottom. I will endeavour to reply to every single one within a few days.

Why Is Baseball So Psychologically Challenging?

Since joining Condor Performance, I have worked with hundreds of baseball players at all levels of the sport. This has allowed me to see how individuals react to the challenges thrown their way (literally and metaphorically) and determine what works and does not work in strengthening performance.

Analysing baseball performance and determining player strength is a big deal in baseball, maybe more so than any other sport. If you have already seen the movie Moneyball, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. If you have not seen it, you should.

Through these practices, baseball has become obsessed with statistics. This obsession has filtered down into the mindset of the players. These stats, as important as they are, are outcomes, and the players only have some influence over them. As explained in far more detail in this article by my colleague Gareth, an ‘outcome focus’ can and usually does distract from the process.

The other aspect of baseball that makes it so tricky psychologically is how much time the players have to think. Of course, there are other sports similar to this—think golf—but baseball’s relatively slow pace compared to many sports is a massive hurdle from a mental point of view.

Process, Process and Process

This means a significant part of improving any baseball player’s mindset is shifting their attention away from being statistically motivated to being process-orientated. Statistics muddy the waters. Focusing on them means trying to control too much of what happens in the game.

This generally leads to overthinking, concentrating on the wrong stuff and a drop in motivation. All of these factors are the kryptonite to consistency, which wants to be the goal that we are all striving for. Of course, this is true for many sports, but baseball is particularly susceptible to an obsession with outcomes (both large and small).

It’s How You Handle The Stats!

Many people might be reading this and thinking that statistics are crucial. To an extent, this can be true. They should be seen as clues to potential improvement.

Most stats assume too much and don’t represent the cog in the machine that we have the most influence over. Statistics are the taste of your favourite meal, whereas processes are the recipe that allows you to reproduce that taste repeatedly. I am much more interested in knowing whether we executed the recipe correctly.

In baseball psychology terms, I’m more interested in knowing that you approached the plate aggressively and followed your pre-pitch routine.

In a statistics-only (mostly) frame of mind, we can get distracted from the essence of baseball: skill execution and enjoyment. To put our best foot forward in the contest, we want to be focused on the present moment, routine-based, and active with our processes. Strengthening these three mental skills will help take any baseball player’s performance to the next level.

Psychological Flexibility and Baseball Psychology

Focusing on the present moment aligns with the primary approach in the sport psychology consulting we do here at Condor Performance: psychological flexibility.

Focusing on the past can generate an internal experience of frustration, disappointment and regret. The future can provoke stress, anxiety, and worry.

These can distract or cause an individual to rush, which is not the mindset we want to have. Baseball is a stop-start sport, which means there is a clear distinction between the present moment and this pitch.

This pitch is the only one from a mental toughness point of view. As a pitcher, it’s the only one I have influence over throwing. As a hitter, it’s the only one I can look to hit. And as a fielder, it is the only one I can make a play on.

All the previously thrown pitches are done and cannot be changed. All future pitches are irrelevant because we have no idea what will happen. It’s this pitch (and only this pitch) that matters.

Repeatable Routines Are Key

We can increase that present-moment focus by making it routine-based. When the play pauses, there is a small window for all players to reset. Having repeatable routines can help by ensuring the players use actions to ready themselves for the next play.

Think of David Ortiz at the plate or Craig Kimbrel on the mound as exaggerated but practical examples of having a routine before every pitch.

Irrespective of what has happened, the routine is roughly the same and ensures a mental state of readiness.

Once we have readied ourselves and locked in that focus, we give ourselves a better opportunity to land a punch in this contest. Baseball comprises split-second decisions and moments, so being primed for these moments is a core aspect of mentally strong baseballers.

I see players who often alter their intentions based on previous events. The most common is a tendency to play conservatively when things have not gone their way. Here are a few classic examples:

Let a ball drop in the field instead of laying out for it.
Not throwing an off-speed pitch when there’s a runner on third.
Waiting for the pitch rather than looking to attack it at the plate.

In these situations, we have drastically reduced our chances of showcasing our strengths and skills. If this sounds like you, get in touch, and we’ll see if we can help you through one of our 1-on-1 sport psychology monthly options.

Staying True To Our Processes

Staying true to our processes is designed to help us be aggressive and look to command the moment. Getting caught focusing on something else means we lose that command. We begin to play like we have something to lose instead of playing like we have something to win. Playing to avoid mistakes instead of creating success becomes a habit. We catch ourselves worrying more about the opinions of others than the pride we have in ourselves.

The strength of our processes ultimately comes down to how we practice. If we reinforce our processes and routines in that space, they will appear in a game. Think about throwing a bullpen or taking batting practice; often, it’s about volume and repetition. Make sure your routines are embedded in your preparation.