Myth: Mental Skills Training Provides a Quick Fix
Coaches and athletes recognize that physical skills take countless hours of practice to develop, but some expect mental skills to provide a quick fix. On occasion, coaches will ask me (Tom Raedeke) to talk to their team a few days before a big competition to get them mentally ready. This reflects a misconception about mental skills training. The short period just before competition is not the time to work on one's mental game. Ideally, mental training begins in the off-season, or at least at the beginning of the season. Would you advise coaches to have their athletes change their physical game plan shortly before competition? Probably not, because you realize that after countless hours of practice, athletes can perform a skill automatically without conscious thought. Introducing a new skill may cause them to start thinking about how to perform the skill and thus disrupt their performance. The same is true for mental skills training. It takes time and effort and is not a magical, quick-fix program.