Excellence in athletic performance comes from solid skill and physical training, supported by good rest, recovery, and nutrition. At any given stage of biological maturity, an athlete’s current physical potential sets a relatively stable ceiling for performance. Even so, how well that potential shows up can vary widely from contest to contest - and even from moment to moment.
Sport psychology helps athletes express their physical potential more consistently by using psychological strategies and techniques to manage physical resources. When strength and conditioning professionals understand these strategies, they can design sport-specific - and even position-specific - training programs with the ultimate goal of maximizing performance.
After introducing foundational concepts, this chapter explains how the mind, through cognitions, can influence physical performance. It then describes the ideal performance state - the goal many athletes and coaches aim for. This state is marked by psychological and physiological efficiency, meaning the athlete uses only the mental and physical energy needed to perform the task.
Next, we examine the primary psychological influences on skill acquisition and performance: motivation, attention, and arousal. Several theories explain how these factors shape psychomotor learning and athletic outcomes. Finally, we review performance-enhancement techniques such as goal setting, energy management and relaxation, imagery, and confidence development. These techniques can be applied in strength and conditioning settings as well as other performance environments.
It’s important to note that strength and conditioning professionals should apply these techniques only within their scope of practice. Clinical concerns, such as mental illness or significant psychological distress, should be referred to a licensed mental health professional.
An athlete is someone who participates in social comparison (i.e., competition) involving psychomotor skill, physical prowess, or both, in an institutionalized setting - typically under public scrutiny or evaluation. At its core, athletic competition involves comparing yourself to others and putting ego and self-esteem on the line within a setting governed by rules and regulations.
A psychologically well-prepared athlete is characterized by efficiency of thought and behavior. Efficiency is often linked to skilled performance, where actions look fluid and graceful. The same idea applies to psychological activity: an efficient athlete maintains a task-relevant focus and doesn’t waste attention on irrelevant processing such as worrying, catastrophizing, or thinking about a critical audience or coach.
Core psychological skills training (PST) tools can be integrated into training sessions to support this efficiency. These include goal setting, imagery, self-talk, relaxation and arousal regulation, and pre-performance routines.
The ideal performance state has been studied from several perspectives. Williams and Krane identified the following characteristics that athletes typically report about this state:
In many ways, this ideal performance state reflects what applied sport psychology programs try to promote: minimal negative self-talk, a strong sense of efficacy, and a focus on task-relevant cues.
Kobe Bryant, one of the premier players in the National Basketball Association, describes being in this state:
“When you get in that zone, it’s just a supreme confidence that you know it’s going in. It’s not a matter of if this [or that] is going in. Things just slow down. Everything slows down and you just have supreme confidence. When that happens, you really do not try to focus on what’s going on because … you could lose it in a second. Everything becomes one noise - you don’t hear this or that; everything’s just one noise - you’re not paying attention to one or the other … You just really try to stay in the present and not let anything break that rhythm. Again, as long as you just kind of stay there, you become oblivious to everything that’s going on. You don’t think about your surroundings or what’s going on with the crowd or the team. You’re kind of locked in … You have to really try to stay in the present and not let anything break that rhythm.”
Bryant’s comments reinforce many of the concepts discussed in this chapter. It’s also important to remember that this mental state is strongly supported by sound physical training and a history of performance success. Bryant demonstrates exceptional physical prowess through sprint work, on-court training, and off-season weight training. Combined with high-level performance in competition, this preparation contributes to a focused, confident psychological state.
To perform effectively, athletes need to manage both mental and physical energy. When athletes drain energy through worry, anger, frustration, or anxiety, they’re more likely to experience fatigue, reduced self-confidence, and diminished physical energy at critical moments.
Mental energy is generated, maintained, depleted, and refreshed through emotions. Emotions are temporary feeling states that occur in response to events and include both physiological and psychological components. These emotions influence mental and physical energy and can help or hurt performance, depending on how the athlete interprets them.
A key training goal is helping athletes channel emotions to raise or regulate energy while still maintaining control. This connects to the concept of flow and the individual zones of optimal functioning (IZOF), which emphasize that the best level of arousal depends on the athlete and the task, rather than being universally “high” or “low.”
The training environment includes many new and unfamiliar experiences, creating frequent opportunities to test yourself and be evaluated. As a result, athletic performance is often influenced by arousal, anxiety, and stress.
Arousal is a blend of physiological and psychological activation. It refers to the intensity of motivation at a given moment. For example, a “psyched-up” athlete may experience high activation, with positive thoughts and a strong sense of control. A “flat” athlete may experience low activation, with wandering thoughts and slower reactions.
Arousal is always present to some degree, on a continuum from deeply asleep or comatose to highly excited. By itself, arousal isn’t automatically pleasant or unpleasant - it’s simply a measure of activation. It can be indexed through measures such as heart rate, blood pressure, electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG), and catecholamine levels.
Anxiety is a subcategory of arousal that includes negative emotions such as nervousness, worry, or apprehension. It can be categorized as state anxiety (momentary nervousness in response to competition) or trait anxiety (a general tendency to perceive competitive situations as threatening). High levels of cognitive anxiety (excessive worry) and somatic anxiety (physical symptoms such as increased heart rate) can impair performance.
Stress is a response to a substantial imbalance between demand and capability, where failing to meet the demand has important consequences. Stress can be positive (eustress), enhancing performance, or negative (distress), impairing focus and execution.
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