Category: Sports Science Stuff

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

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.

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.

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.

Are You Competent Or Just Confident?

“I just need to feel more confident, and I will be able to perform at my best. Can you help me build confidence in my abilities?”

This is one of the most common reasons why athletes and performers reach out to us at Condor Performance. This article aims to debunk common misconceptions about confidence. It may even help you feel more confident when you perform! But probably not in the way that you would imagine.

Confidence Vs. Competence

Confidence is simply the belief in one’s ability to perform a particular behaviour or action. Confidence is not a magical state that guarantees you will perform at your best. If only! Ultimately, confidence is a feeling or a thought (or a combination), but it is definitely not an action. In other words, it is quite possible to lack confidence in something you are excellent at, as well as be very confident in something that you suck at.

Competence, on the other hand, is defined as the ability to do something successfully or efficiently. Competence is what we develop over time through training, practice, hard work and repetition. And in the long run, competence is far more helpful for performance than confidence ever will be.

Competence, for the most part, is permanent, reliable, and predictable. Confidence, on the other hand, can be fleeting and unpredictable.

Consider The Following Scenario

You are an experienced driver and are driving your car to training. In this scenario, your ability to drive the vehicle, to use the brakes and accelerator as you need, to indicate when you are turning, to change gears, and so forth is your competence. In other words, you are a competent driver. And so, where does confidence fit in?

The same applies to performance. 

Consistent motor execution (i.e., actions) is possible regardless of how you feel. We don’t need to feel confident to perform. Most athletes and other performers have experienced this at least once: the “Surprise Performance”—a situation where the performance was excellent despite all sorts of self-doubt. Sometimes our clients describe themselves as surprised by their ability to perform so well whilst lacking confidence. As evidence-based sport psychologists and performance psychologists, this is not surprising to us in the slightest.

Hmm, Tell Me More …

As a sport psychologist, part of my consulting approach is to focus on learning to accept our thoughts and feelings while remaining committed to our actions. With this approach, I focus on using our actions to generate the thoughts and feelings we want, rather than the other way around.

If we take the view that we need to feel confident to perform, we are relying on our feelings to influence our actions. The pitfall of this approach is that we are (highly) unlikely to wake up one day, suddenly filled with confidence and ready to perform. By clinging to the belief that confidence is the key to performance, we are likely to undermine our ability to perform when we do not feel confident.

It is more effective to focus on our actions (i.e., what we are doing) and use them to generate our feelings. When it comes to confidence, we want to focus on actions that help build it and let the feeling follow. These actions can include our body language and confidence, even when we don’t feel it (“Fake It Til You Feel It”), as well as our preparation and performance routines. By focusing on our actions, we are focusing on our competence. Focus on actions first; feelings will follow. In other words, competence before confidence.

Not Convinced Yet, Then Read On …

Another reason why focusing on competence before confidence will help you to perform better is that competence can be measured easily and directly, whereas confidence can’t.

If we use the driving scenario above, we can measure our driving competence with a driving test or by counting the number of speeding fines we receive. To drive a car, we need a license. Passing a driving test is evidence of our competence as drivers, not of our confidence.

But how can we measure our level of confidence when it comes to driving? The answer is that we can’t, not objectively anyway. We may feel confident as a driver, only to find ourselves in a challenging, unfamiliar environment (such as driving at night on unfamiliar roads in the rain), and suddenly our confidence disappears.  

Focusing on our competence, which we can easily and directly measure, helps guide our practice. We can focus on developing and refining our skills and measuring our progress.

Competence Before Confidence – Conclusion

One common misconception about elite athletes and performers is that we often overestimate their level of confidence. We assume that, given their skill and experience, they must have supreme confidence.

But this is far from true.

Some performers never feel absolute confidence. Some performers are so plagued by self-doubt, performance anxiety, and insecurity that they cannot feel confident before or during performances. Yet they can still produce exceptional performance despite not feeling confident. How are they capable of this? Because they focus on competence instead of confidence.

To help you feel more confident, focus on improving. How? Through the right amount of high-quality practice. After all, as detailed in this excellent article by my colleague Gareth, Practice Makes Permanent. He also wrote another article closely related to this one, titled The Confidence Myth.

Want Some Help With This?

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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

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.

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.

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

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Mental Blocks In Sport

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

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

The Def (bars)

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

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

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

What are the other kinds of blocks?

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

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

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

Finally, We Have Mental Blocks

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

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

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

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

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

Baby Steps 

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

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

Separate Actions from Thoughts from Emotions

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some Recent Examples

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

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

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

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

Our Guide to Emotional Intelligence

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

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

• Anxiety
• Calmness
• Confusion
• Envy
• Excitement
• Fear
• Satisfaction
• Triumph

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

This Is How I Explain It To My Clients

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

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

😬 Don’t try to change the emotion directly.

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

Technology – Friend or Foe?

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

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

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

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

Real Emotional Intelligence is Acceptance

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

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

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

“Emotional intelligence is the ability observe and label your own human emotions and to know when and how to influence them”. 

Gareth J. Mole, Sport Psychologist @ Condor Performance

If You Need A Hand

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

What Exactly Is White Line Fever?

What exactly is white line fever? It may be a common sporting term in Australia, but it requires a brief explanation beyond our shores. White line fever is a concept whereby an athlete either intentionally or inadvertently switches on when stepping over the white line.

If there is no white line (e.g., in ice hockey), then it’s the closest equivalent. Overall, the term suggests that it is advantageous for the athlete. In other words, they can click into a highly competitive process-oriented mindset regardless of what is happening outside that white line.

There are hundreds of historical examples of white line fever, but the one that always comes to my mind is Shane Warne during his tumultuous years (1994, 1998 and 2004). As you can see from the below expert from this 2005 Independent article, Warnie used it to his advantage when many others would have crumbled:

“And yet his success on the field is merely the counterpoint to his excess off it. Some sportsmen talk of white-line fever, the phenomenon by which even the most placid character is overcome by a desire to hurt his opponents as soon as he enters the field of play. For Warne, the fever coincides with a sense of release from the turmoil of his private life. On the field, he is Shane Warne, all-time legend. Off it, he is a warts-and-all human being just like everyone else. Little wonder the refuge of the cricket pitch allows him to perform so well even when everything else seems to be falling to pieces.“

Why Fever?

Although it has nothing to do with sports, the original term, White Line Fever, comes from a 1970s movie about an angry truck driver. Don’t believe me, watch the trailer below:

After that, some sports journalists probably started using it, and it stuck!

I’m Not Sure Of The Fever Part

Many sports here in Australia have a white painted line marking the playing area. For athletes who typically love clarity, this is quite a nice trigger, as there can only be one precise moment when they are inside the white lines.

Without too much creativity, it could easily be expanded to virtually all other sports. For golfers, it would be the golf course, for combat sport competitors, it would be the ring, etc.

The fever part is more curious. The origin probably comes from its original use, a clue given by the above expert from The Independent.

For more physically confrontational sports like rugby league, rugby union, ice hockey, and AFL, the word fever was likely used to describe those with a healthy dose of overcompetitiveness. But for most other sports, you’ll agree that the word fever probably takes this concept to the dark side. 

If we were creating the term from scratch, we might call it white line focus instead.

White Line Focus

Whatever the label, the mental skills on the table remain similar and potentially very beneficial. As academics become more aware of the benefits of athletes being equally focused on well-being as they are on performance, we risk losing some of those highly sport-specific mental skills.

From a sports psychology point of view, we are talking about pre-performance routines.

Excellent pre-performance routines—like the ones we typically help our clients with—should have a small element of flexibility built into them, including, for example, the time before and maybe just after stepping over the line.

In other words, although it is a great idea to develop highly repeatable actions for when the action in the middle begins, there is no point in having such a routine if it all goes out the window when you step onto the big stage.

Nothing Works For Everybody

These one-on-one conversations try to find one or two concepts to help the athletes focus. Emotions can be very handy, so thinking about making your family proud might be ideal. But you might be naturally emotional in competitive situations, so you’d benefit more from internal verbal reminders about the things you influence most.

Whatever you do, remember these two facts. First, you can’t 100% guarantee any thought or feeling, so consider this mental skill a bonus rather than a requirement for your performance consistency.

Second, it is often easier to be guided by those specifically qualified in this area, like us. Contact us if you need help.

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