Mental preparation key to sports success, say Island experts
Gold medal winner Dave MacEachern and a mental performance coach give tips on getting psychological edge
As you're watching the Olympics, and realizing what great physical shape the athletes are in, there's another side to their fitness: They're in great mental shape, too.
Athletes have to prepare their minds as well as their bodies, and that takes training as well.
Two people who know about that side of the sport stopped by the CBC Mainstreet studio to tell host Karen Mair about it.
MacEachern explained much of his mental training was about dealing with injuries.
"Keep going, keep rehabbing, keep fighting for what you're trying to do," he said. "And what I was trying to do was win the gold medal I was favoured to win."
Costello said psychological training can be used in almost every area in sports.
"A big part of what I focus on is developing those mental skills," she said. "I guess not only for coping with stress, but also to be at your best in key moments.
"So how you organize your mind before, during and after you train and perform can really help maximize your focus, your energy, and help you be at your best in those key moments."
Seminar Tuesday
With so much attention on the Olympics right now, MacEachern and Costello are putting on a free seminar Tuesday evening, Aug. 9, to show people how they help athletes gain that mental edge.
"This isn't just for high-performance people," he said. "Because at the end of the day, the majority of the time, you lose.
"So young athletes in particular, they're trying to get drafted into the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, or they're trying to make the UPEI Panthers' women's rugby team, even though they are playing team sports, they are still suffering those individual setbacks, so it's really important to have that structure, and the goal-setting."
Costello said like everything in sports, it's all in the training.
"I'd say just like you can develop physical fitness, you can develop mental fitness. I think there's still a bit of stigma attached, but the way I see it, just like you have physical strengths and areas to improve upon, we have mental strengths in areas to improve upon. And when we embrace those areas, they can become more of a strength."
The free session is happening Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Dynamic Fitness in Charlottetown, at 99 Pownal Street. You can register at http://dynamicfit.ca/events.
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With files from Mainstreet