“Unsatisfactory results are not necessarily caused by insufficient training. Immature athletes often lose confidence in themselves and lose their composure during competitions with their brain overwhelmed by anxiety, irritable distraction, determination, communication, anxiety, injuries, fatigue, etc. Some even have a “negative emotions magnifier” to aggravate the anxiety into fear, frustration and despair.

Wrong competition mindset will make a race meaningless - because it deprives the athletes of a chance to show his/her skills.

Psychological skills training (PST) is an effective training because:

It trains the athletes to cope with and control emotions, stress, motivation, attention, judgment, decisiveness, arousal level, etc. By raising the rational function and the will in sports situations, we can enhance athletic performance, as well as the athletes’ daily skills outside sports.

PST focuses on improving the “confidence”, “self-efficacy” and “emotional control” of the athletes which altogether form the soul of an elite athlete.

The most common training components include: confidence, ability to concentrate, relaxation techniques, goal setting, arousal level, mental training, imagery training and self conversation.

The elementary phase is to master, imitate and get familiar to the psychological skills one by one (educational); the intermediate phase is to combine the psychological skills with specific sports skills and strategies (acquisitional); the ultimate phase is to develop a mature psychological skills model and apply it to real life competitions (practical).

Principles for effective psychological skills training:
1. Combine it with specific sports training in order to obtain results.
2. Keep on adding psychological skills training to daily training as it takes time to see the results.
3. Athletes and coaches can participate together.
4. The more professional athletes need more specific and personalized psychological skills training.”

Work Cited
1.  Boyle, I. T. (2003). The Impact of Adventure-Based Training on Team Cohesion and Psychological Skills Development in Elite Sporting Teams. Dissertation.Com (October 1, 2003). Retrieved February 7, 2014 from http://www.bookpump.com/dps/pdf-b/1121938b.pdf
2.  Brookfield, D. (2009). Psychological Skills Training. Retrieved May 30, 2014 from http://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/article001.htm
3.  Gill, D. L. (2000). Psychological Dynamics of Sport and Exercise. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
4.  Horn, C. M., Gilbert, J. N., Gilbert, W., & Lewis, D. K. (2011). Psychological Skills Training With Community College Athletes: The UNIFORM Approach. The Sport Psychologist, 25, 321-340
5.  Tatenda, C. M. (2013). The development of an arousal and anxiety control mental skills training programme for the Rhodes University archery club. (Master’s Cwk/Thesis, Rhodes University). Retrieved May 30, 2014 from http://contentpro.seals.ac.za/iii/cpro/app?id=3310667566117943&itemId=1002082&lang=eng&service=blob&suite=def