Top Five Mental Mistakes Athletes Make, and How to Avoid Them

In this article, we will be exploring some of the most common mental mistakes that I see athletes of all levels in various different sports make. It is not too useful to know what they are, so we are also going to go over how to avoid them. Lets get started so you can grow your mental toughness!

1) Getting Angry and STAYING Angry

Have you ever gotten angry or upset while playing or competing in your sport? Most of us have- it’s common. The mental mistake here is not getting angry, this is something that happens normally and is not really that big of a deal. You can get angry as many times as you want and still be super mentally tough. How? The mental mistake that will drag down your game here is not getting angry, but STAYING angry. Being mentally tough does not consist of avoiding anger and upset, but giving it up quickly once it happens. As long as you can give up before it is time to perform, then you are good to go!
Most of the time we deal with being angry in three ways.
1) Yell, scream, break or throw something in hopes that this will get it out of your system. It won’t, it will only add fuel to the fire.
2) Try and stuff it down and suppress it. This does not work either. You only get “pressurized anger” inside of you, which just makes you more high strung.
3) Keep playing while being angry. Of the three, this may be the best strategy, but still certainly not recommended. It is still likely that you will keep being angry, play worse and tire out more quickly.
So if these three strategies do not work, what do I do? Check out my article on how to give up being angry or upset.

2) Skipping Post Match Analysis

Each game or match is a great learning opportunity, but a lot of times we do not take full advantage of it. The mental mistake here occurs after competing. When we lose, it is common to kick ourselves, second guess, replay parts in our head, sulk, or apply positive thinking. Underneath this, we are blaming ourselves, thinking we did or are bad or wrong in some way. If we win, we go celebrate and bask in our own glory.

Now don’t get me wrong, celebrating is great and you can kick yourself if you want, but each approach to winning or losing that we often take is missing something. We often do not implement the discipline to see each time we compete as an opportunity to expand our mental and physical game. If we lose, a big mental mistake is kicking ourselves instead of looking to see what was missing in our physical or mental game that would have made a difference, which we can do for the next time so that we never lose for that same reason again.

On the other hand, the mental mistake when we win is to completely ignore any lesson to learn. When we win, a great way to solidify and expand your mental and physical game is to look at what was at the root of having us win. This way, it is no mystery why we won, and we know exactly what to do again in the future to win again. Then celebrate!

3) Choking

Have you ever blown a lead? Many athletes have- it is an incredibly common pitfall in sports. And it is an entirely mental mistake. To learn how to avoid choking, check out a previous article specifically on this topic.

4) Having Your Focus on Winning, Losing or Results, Not on what it takes to produce the results.

To get your focus on the process and off the results, check out a previous article about this topic.

5) Negative Visualization

Negative visualization is a mistake that many athletes unknowingly make. It is picturing or visualizing the opposite of what you want to have happen by telling yourself to NOT do something. For example, it is common to say to ourselves, “don’t miss,” “don’t mess up” or “don’t choke.” However, the mind cannot hold a negative thought, so when you tell yourself to not do something, it pictures or visualizes doing it.

A simple example is if I say, “do not think of a school bus.” The image of a big yellow bus probably just entered your mind. Same goes with sports.
Visualization is great, because it makes you mind used to having what you want to happen, happen and in turn more likely. The pitfall here is getting your mind used to and making more likely the things you do not want to have happen through negative visualization.

So what is the fix? Visualize what you DO want!

Now that you know what these mistakes are, go, compete and avoid them!

Build Your Mental Tennis – Gemini Mental Toughness Training Article on Published on ITA Site!

Gemini Mental Toughness Training recognizes the importance of mental tennis and the difference it makes for gaining the competitive advantage and peak performance for college tennis players. Because of this, we are proud to announce that our article on Mental Toughness to Avoid Choking and Finish a Match was just accepted as an editorial on the ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association) Website. It is side by side with published authors and an article from Sports Illustrated!
Check it out!
http://www.itatennis.com/ITA360/Editionals.htm

Also, you can listen to David speak on the topic in a podcast!

David Groemping
Gemini Mental Toughness Training
www.Sports.GeminiExecutiveCoaching.com

Increasing Your Mental Strength to Play as Well In Competition as You Do In Practice

Being able to do something well in practice but having a hard time executing that same thing in competition is a very common mental toughness challenge for tennis players.

You know you can, but you just aren’t hitting a certain shot that you do in practice, or just are not as consistent as you know you can be.

For those of you who find yourselves in this situation, here is an article to help.

When we are practicing, there is no score, no winning, no outcome.  However, in competition situations, there is- BIG TIME. With the stakes higher, a lot of times we become attached to a certain outcome or result.

Here is what I mean by “attached to a certain outcome or result.”  You want to win, or want the ball to go in so bad, that that outcome becomes your focus and what is on your mind. In other words, when you are attached to an outcome, your focus all of a sudden becomes on winning or not losing, opposed to what it is going to take to win. This is what has you get tight and what many call “play to not lose.”  Many of us do this, but it is about the same thing as looking at the score cards at the top of the net while playing, instead of the ball.

This is quite different that when you were practicing and it was easy to focus on your footwork, contact point, aim, etc…

So now that we know what the cause of the trouble is, what do we do about it?
We have to get to the root of what has us be attached.

What has us be attached is we think that if we miss or lose we will:
-Look bad to others or lose admiration
-People won’t want to play with us
-Our practice will have been for nothing
-We will disappoint someone
-Generally suck

These are just a few examples but the list goes on and on. There is often a different notion of what it will mean about us or what will happen if we lose or miss for every player.  Also said, we each have different notions about what will happen that has us be attached.

If you are really committed to causing a result in this area of your tennis, reading this article and knowing that you get attached at certain times is probably not enough.  It would be incredibly useful to take a few minutes to figure out what notions you have that get in your way.

These notions exist in our blind spots and most often take some searching to uncover.  They are not obvious or readily available either.

What you can ask yourself is, “what would happen if I missed or lost?” or “what does losing/missing mean about me.” The answers that you are getting from yourself are not the obvious ones like, “I would lose the point,” but you want to get the answers that exist in your head that are causing you to get attached.  Doing this takes some hard and honest thinking, but it is the best way to get unattached and play as well in practice as you do in competition.

The last step to take is to think of what TO focus on when playing.  Is it being aggressive? A certain pattern?  Strategy? Footwork?

Achieving this, like anything else in tennis, takes practice.  It may take a few matches before you get to most of the notions in your head that are having you be attached.  Once you are good to go for a while, more could come up and you could get re-attached.  Mental toughness is about getting the stuff out of the way that inhibits you from focusing, then getting yourself to focus on something useful.  And it takes work to do this.  We all worked to get our strokes and it takes work like getting unattached to the outcome to get mentally tough!

David Groemping
Gemini Mental Toughness Training
www.Sports.GeminiExecutiveCoaching.com

Three Keys to the Competitive Advantage – No Excuses, Closing and Being Tough

What does it take to obtain the competitive edge, superior athletic performance and lots of wins? This is a long answer, but on this podcast, David will speak about three of its key elements:
-Being Excuse-Free
-The Art of Finishing a Game or Match
-Being a Tough Competitor

Download the podcast and get some great mental training!

David Groemping
Gemini Mental Toughness Training
www.Sports.GeminiExecutiveCoaching.com