Overcoming Mental Hurdles

Back at Ithaca, as a grad student, I remember having an inter-departmental rivalry of sorts with the Sports Psychology peeps. After 5+ years of studying various sciences I was convinced that physiology, kinesiology and biomechanics was the be all-end all when it came to designing training programs for athletes.

Today, after working with so many kids, I realize this view was shortsighted. The mental aspect of training is undeniable. I feel like I can work with a young athlete for one session and peg, almost to a "T", the type of parents they have; overbearing, supportive, positive, etc.

Some of the best natural athletes I have struggle because they are afraid of making mistakes. They don't want to deal with the negative consequences they associate with making a mistake.
It is my job as coach to make an adjustment in my coaching style to make them realize it's OK to try something new and not be perfect the first time. It's like teaching them to clear hurdles in their head.

This essentially means that each athlete may require a different style of coaching (and probably does). I've heard so many times how coaches use negative reinforcement to "weed-out" the kids they don't want anyway. Really? How many do we leave by the wayside just to get to the select few who were probably going to be successful anyway, just to take credit for them for being their coach?

The same sort of thing happens when it comes to overcoming physical limitations or "ceilings." Sometimes an athlete can be pushed further than they believe they should be. This is not always the case, however. Some athletes need to have the reigns pulled back some (especially with weight training) as they are only interested in how much weight they can put on a bar without worrying about execution. Do you think yelling and screaming and trying to motivate this type of athlete is going to work? Hell no. Take some time to teach them the why's and how's about the exercise.

As important as it is to understanding the mental makeup of your athletes, I still believe it is most important to have an understanding of training principles, anatomy, biomechanics, and the like (I don't care how good you are with brain typing, mental training, etc...without the scientific background you should not be training. Period). However, I feel like the mental aspect of coaching is what separates the average coaches from the great ones.

Can you get the most out of each of your athletes without leaving anyone behind?