March 2021: Mental Edge Round-Up
?? David Charlton???♂?
Supports Ambitious Athletes to Achieve their Goals - Faster | Sports Psychologist | Mental Toughness | Resilience | Podcaster ?? | Blogger ?? | Executive Coach
I hope you are well?
For a period of time, my weekly blogs and podcast’s which have been published on the LinkedIn platform articles will be no longer after a change of approach. After, doing some evaluation of my processes, learning orientation – for Mental Toughness buffs ?? – I’ve decided that LinkedIn articles, aren’t a great use of my time and efforts therefore you’ll find in the future a monthly round-up, like so.
There’s some great stuff in there on mental health in sport, returning to sport post lockdown, elite performance characteristics and traits, as well as some excellent guidance for those involved in golf, football, and other team sports.
Enjoy!
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Index
Sports Psychology Blog Content
- How does Counselling work in Professional Sport?
- How Much of Being a Top Athlete is about Your Personality?
- Mental Health Guidance For Coaches When Supporting Athletes
- Putting with Confidence from Today
- How to Make Your Post-Lockdown Return to Training as Effective as Possible
Demystifying Mental Toughness Podcasts
- Mark Bennett: Characteristics of High-Performance Athletes
- Jamie Forrester: Thriving in Professional Football
- David Charlton Observations: How to Assert Yourself
- Andy Gorman: Building Confidence in Your Putting
Sports Psychology Blogs
1.How does Counselling work in Professional Sport?
In professional sport, we’ve supported many athletes away from their clubs, in a private and confidential setting to deal with situations such as:
- Falling out with teammates and coaches.
- Dealing with trolls on Social Media
- Bullying from club staff, coaches or team-mates.
- Moving to new clubs when they have struggled to settle.
- Dealing with bereavements of loved ones.
- Serious long-term injuries, which on occasions they have felt that their club hasn’t supported them fully.
To learn more about how we can support you – read our recent article. Click the link below
2. How much of being a top athlete is about your personality?
From a young age, I was always interested in what makes an athlete successful. Is it about talent or genetics? Is it more psychological and about what character traits they have? Could it be linked to the way they train or learn?
It’s a question many Sports Psychologists are still trying to understand.
For the purposes of our next article, I’m going to assume that being exceptional at your craft is not down to talent, skills, environment or gene’s and that is related to all of those elements plus some key personality traits. Read on for more, click the link below…
3. Mental Health Guidance For Coaches When Supporting Athletes
Coaches often state their number one priority is the athletes they work with. They are the people you sacrifice many hours of work for, putting on extra sessions and providing support whenever needed. You are used to growing and developing athletes’ physical skills and striving to achieve their peak performance. However, now more than ever it is important to also consider the mental health of the athletes you work with and how you can help promote positive mental health and well-being.
In this article, my colleague Olivia Scott shares with you some guidance to help you as a coach support your athletes and team(s).
4. Putting with Confidence from Today
Whether you love or hate putting, you’ll be well aware that if you want to shoot low scores on a regular basis and reach your potential – that you NEED to putt well, consistently and under pressure.
There is no hiding place. You will have putts from 2 foot, 3 foot and 4 foot for birdies, pars and bogeys and maybe other scores!!
So to become a better putter and play golf to your potential you’ll enjoy this article where I discuss the top mental attributes of great putters and how you can help yourself this coming season.
5. How to Make Your Post-Lockdown Return to Training as Effective as Possible
Just like returning to training after an injury or end of season break, athletes are going to be a little rusty returning to sport after the latest lockdown. They may also be experiencing other scars because of the enforced break.
In order to minimise these negative effects, there are a number of things that athletes and their respective support network (coaches, sports psychologists, fitness coaches, physios etc) can do to make the transition back to training as smooth and effective as possible. This blog written by my colleague James Lau, outlines some useful strategies.
How to Make Your Post-Lockdown Return to Training as Effective as Possible
Demystifying Mental Toughness Podcast
In this episode, Mark Bennett MBE and I go on to discuss the differences in commitment levels between leisure and high-performance athletes. How coaches can get the best out of their athletes, and parents can best support talented children. Mark’s tagline – Performance is a Behaviour, not an Outcome is also debated.
2. Jamie Forrester: Thriving in Professional Football
In this week’s episode, we have Jamie Forrester, a former professional footballer with a 19-year playing career. He shares his thoughts on how to thrive in professional football, also we chat about playing overseas, training and playing with big names stars at such as Gordon Strachan and Gary McAllister in a successful Leeds United team. The challenges of moving clubs, settling in, hitting the ground running, dealing with managers.
3. David Charlton Observations: How to Assert Yourself
In this week’s episode, David touches on the last 3 episodes of Demystifying Mental Toughness with Paul McGee, Mark Bennett and Jamie Forrester and looks at how important interpersonal confidence is if you are to thrive in sport, your chosen field or in life in general.
4. Andy Gorman: Building Confidence in Your Putting
If you’re a golfer who wants to play your best golf more often. You will have to have confidence in your putting stroke under pressure. Many golfers will admit the sport isn’t a great deal of fun when you stand over putts with fear written all over your face, with your knee’s knocking and your mind and heart racing. And when it feels like the hole has cling film placed over it, golf becomes a hugely frustrating sport!! Today, Andy Gorman a leading putting and short-game coach shares with you his philosophy and approach to ensuring that you putt without fear and with confidence in your skillset.
You may also be interested in downloading a new resource that we’ve created THE FOCUSED ATHLETE CHECKLIST which highlights a range of excellent processes that athletes can follow in order to integrate mental skills training into their daily routines and habits. By doing so, it will allow you to see where there are gaps and how and where you can improve to ensure that you get closer to reaching your goals.
You can also join our online community – THE SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY HUB – for regular Sports Psychology tips, podcasts, motivation and support.
If you have any questions about our products and services please feel free to get in touch.
David Charlton
Tel: 07734 697769
Email: [email protected]