- FOR THE PLAYER :

 

The goal of mental training is to enable players not only to understand how emotions affect and limit their states of mind, but also to find the causes that lie behind these emotional reactions.

 

The objective is to enable players to understand how their minds work and to learn about their behavioural reflexes, as well as their habits and thought patterns (via mental programming). They also come to an understanding of their emotional reactions (with emotional intelligence), the causes of these reactions (thanks to mental programming) and also how the latter affect both their physique (via psycho-neural immunology) and their attitudes while they play.

 

Mental training not only helps to free players from the hold that their thought patterns have over them, but also to change these patterns so that they become a help rather than a hindrance.

 

When players understand the mechanisms of their emotions, they are no longer subjected to them. On the contrary, they learn to use them to their advantage.

 

The aim of mental training is to free players from whatever prevents them from playing to the best of their ability in any given situation (via mental restructuring).

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  FOR THE COACH 

 

Mental training enables coaches to understand their players’ attitudes better. They become better acquainted with the ways emotions work generally (via emotional intelligence), and more particularly with those of their players

 

Coaches learn how emotions affect both his players’ mind-sets and physiques (thanks to psycho-neural immunology).

 

Mental training helps them to understand what causes their players’ emotional trouble or disturbs their concentration. They can then provide solutions that are best adapted to the demands of competition (via the notion of time, creativity, mental restructuring).

 

It enables coaches to provide their players with whatever they need to assert all their physical, technical and tactical qualities in any situation; in a nutshell: to strike an emotional balance.

 

Knowing how human beings work helps coaches to understand why their players react in “human” ways while competing. Besides helping them to see how their players’ mental programming contributes or limits their game, it also helps them to understand why they react the way they do.

 

A knowledge of mental training makes it possible to highlight the causes of certain habits or attitudes (such as stress, fear of playing, over-emotiveness, discouragement etc.) that are incompatible with competitive sports and which spring from inhibitive and destabilizing mental apprehensions. Furthermore, it helps coaches find solutions (via players’ attitudes, thinking or perception of their game) based on an emotional and mental balance in keeping with the demands of competition.

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                        A METHODOLOGY FOR MENTAL AND ENERGY TRAINING

   

Step One

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Taking stock of the player’s mind-set

 

Thoughts associated with sports and competition

 

What is the athlete thinking:        before…

                                                       while…

                                                       after… competing?

 

His or her approach:                     to the game

                                                        to the match

                                                        to his or her private and professional entourage

                                                        to the sport itself

 

What are his or her:       duties

                                         obligations

                                         expectations?

 

The athlete’s background:        financial

                                                    social

                                                    family

 

What all this implies for his or her:         game

                                                                   approach to competing          

                                                                   emotional balance

 

Learning to know oneself in order to accept and appreciate oneself.

 

Being Conscious of One’s Emotions 

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The Role of Emotions : a Description

 

Positive emotions (nourishing): Optimism, confidence, joy, happiness, serenity…

Negative emotions (disturbing): Pessimism, doubt, inhibitions,  fear, guilt….

 

The impact of emotions on: A player’s mental and physical state

The link between thoughts and emotions

Internal and external causes

 

The Consequences of Stress

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Psycho-neural immunology

 

How stress influences the human body and human psychology

Immunity and stress. The role stress plays in our organism. Its importance in certain injuries.

 

Negative Thinking: Feelings that generate stress. The acts they provoke.

 

Possible physical repercussions: Injuries (acute, chronic), fatigue, lack of  punch

 

Possible mental repercussions: Lack of confidence, doubt, fear, inhibition, depression, lack of drive, anxiety

 

   

Step Two

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                                    Mental Programming

 

 

Family Background

 

How an athlete’s behaviour is influenced by family background: A rigid, permissive, indifferent, demanding or harmonious upbringing…

 

Family duties linked to the sport: An obligation to get good results; how this affects behaviour

 

Family judgments: Self-image, reputation, traits of character, atavisms

 

Social Background

 

The athlete’s social class: Repercussions (frustration or ease of accomplishment)

 

The athlete’s origins and how they reflect his or her image

 

Sports Background

 

The athlete’s image: Within his own sports entourage (coaches)

                             Within the sports world (opponents)

The athlete’s physiognomy and what it implies for his or her  attitudes and approach to the game

 

Self-programming

 

The limits that athletes fix for themselves on an unconscious level (references, seeding, admiration)

 

Different Reactions

 

               - Acceptation or Resignation

 

Playing in accordance with the image that “others” have or would like to have of us

 

Playing with respect to the expectations and demands of one’s entourage

 

The blocks or limits that this may imply

The pressures and stress that this adds to the game

“Non”-self-respect

 

          - Rebellion or “Playing As If By Reaction”

 

Very aggressive play (rebellion, revolt)

Playing to prove something to someone

The risks that this makes athletes run (injury, greater fatigue…)

The risk of not playing for the right reasons

 

The Influence of Mental Programming on Thought Patterns

 

                                   Contributions and Limitations: what helps to strike a balance

                                                                                          what doesn’t  (deviant behaviour)

 

                                   Subsequent Attitudes and Negative Thinking While Competing

 

May limit the player in taking the initiative. May generate a loss of self-confidence because solutions appear to be lacking.

Limiting a player’s creativity. Locking him or her up in stereotype play.

Preventing a player from adapting to different situations.

Creating frustration, the feeling of “not going the whole way”.

May give a negative self-image that is very heavy to bear.

Self-flagellation or mental self-destruction: “I’m rubbish, good for nothing…”

 

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Step Three

                             

                                     The Notion of Time

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                                             “Time does not exist, only the present exists”

 

 

 

 

Everything happens in the present: We are subjected to the past in the present, subjected to resentments, to good or bad memories; the only way we may influence the future is to act and be active in the present; we play in the present, we think, we take initiatives in the present.

 

In sport, only the present really counts; it is when everything happens, where everything is decided upon.

 

The Difference between:       Plans and Desires

                                                      Experience and Reproduction

 

Desires are carried out in the present

Plans are carried out in the future

 

Experience is at the service of the present

Reproduction tends to merely reproduce the past

 

Creativity

                                                   “The Aim of Living is to Create One’s Life”

 

Intelligence at the service of concepts

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Creative intelligence

 

The creative player and:         The notion of time

                                                        Mental programming

 

Emotions, Feelings, Thoughts and Creativity

 

Indispensable attitudes for creativity:

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Experiencing –in the present- “the serenity of the present “

Confidence in one’s own capacities, “experience at the service of the present”

Avoiding mental projections, “putting one’s entire intelligence at the service of the present deed”

Being conscious of our mental programming, of how it may help or hinder

 

Nourishing Emotions: Serenity, joy, confidence and happiness are always experienced in the present

Disturbing Emotions:  Fears, disturbing doubts, anguish, depression and stress often spring from anguished projections or past traumatisms

 

The Influence of Disturbing Emotions on an Athlete’s Health:  Injuries, low self-esteem, feelings of inferiority, inhibitions, fatigue…

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                                             The Past

 

                                                        What the player has been through

                                                        Experiences

                                                        The player’s history

                                                        The history of his or her sport

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                                                              The Present

 

                                                         Activity

                                                         Game

                                                         Intelligence

                                                         Creativity

                                                         Desires

                                                                       The Futur

 

                                                         Plans

                                                         Projections

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Step Four

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                                                     Change of Attitude

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Self-questioning : 

 

Distancing

Objectivity

Establishing objectives: Clearly defining goals; the context and limits of self-questioning

 

Deviant behaviour to be avoided:

Defining oneself negatively

Reducing one’s personality to whatever is being focused on

Losing sight of the goal of self-questioning: “Living a better life”

Feeling guilty

 

Helpful and Unhelpful Thoughts While Competing

Defining:        Thought patterns that favour nourishing emotions

                         The reasons why we play this sport

                         What we are looking for when we play

 

Getting rid of all reflexes that have us thinking negatively (thanks to an understanding of the causes)

 

 

Applying This To Our Sport

During the training period

 

“Thinking Out Loud”:

Becoming aware of the reflexes that lead to negative thought patterns

Simulating emotionally dangerous situations in order to forge a new approach (nourishing)

 

Developing Creativity

 

Playing in the present: Free from future projections and reference to the past

 

Acting on the conscious mind in order to influence the unconscious mind

 

Goal:   Achieving a naturally positive attitude while competing

             Playing with nourishing emotions

             Playing in a less traumatized way both physically and mentally

 

Defining What Freedom Is:

 

             With respect to sport

             With respect to one’s life in general

             Self-respect

 

Energy Training:

 

Magnetism:          A definition :

                        What it contributes to the game

                        Curative and preventative practice

                        Choosing the right period in the season

 

 

Step Five

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                                              Putting Theory into Practice on Court or Field

 

Training exercises

Behavioural analysis

 

Simulation

 

In-game simulations

Behavioural analysis

 

Applying the Methods to Competitive Matches

 

The organization of various competitions

Behavioural analysis

New mental and behavioural directions

 

End of Course Debriefing:

 

A personal analysis of mental training

 

 

 

XAVIER DELANNOY

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