How to Train Smarter, Not Just Harder
As an elite athlete, you spend an enormous amount of time training.
You're lifting in the gym, logging cardio through running, swimming, or biking, drilling specific skills, and building cohesion with teammates (if you have them). You’re also recovering - stretching, rolling, getting treatment, and sleeping. And that’s not to mention other responsibilities: school, work, family, and more.
With so much on your plate, mental training can feel like one more thing and there is simply no time for it!
But what if mental training didn’t have to be separate?
The common idea is that mental training happens separately—like a tutoring session. But that’s not the only way. In fact, the best way to train your mental skills may be to incorporate them directly into your physical training.
Why? Because you're developing those skills in the same environment where you’ll need to use them: under pressure, in motion, while competing.
Here’s how to do it:
Pro tip: choose one mental skill you want to work and and integrate it into one aspect of training (a specific drill, live play, or water breaks)
Managing Emotions
High-pressure moments can trigger intense or unpleasant emotions—and that can pull you away from your best performance.
My go-to strategy for emotion regulation is 54321 (check out Essential #5 in the 10 Essentials series for more). Other great options include deep breathing, smiling, self-talk, or connecting with a teammate. Use what works for you.
Ways to integrate into training:
Complete a 54321 during water breaks or between drills
In drills:
choose a set number of reps to complete and then pause for a 54321; if there is built in rest period (because you are rotating with a teammate), complete a 54321 during your break
In live play:
use natural breaks to complete a 54321 during changeovers in tennis, timeouts, end of plays, etc.)
Pair it with specific pressure situations (shooting free throws, kicking a field goal from a 35+ yards, following giving up a walk as a pitcher, corner kicks, etc.)
Managing Mental Talk
Negative self-talk happens—even to the best. A great way to shift your mindset is to turn your Don’ts into Do’s. (See Essential #4 for more on this.)
To incorporate this strategy into your physical training, start by listing out the common Don’ts you tell yourself throughout training and games. If you aren’t sure what these are, spend one training session paying attention to each time you say “don’t” and list them out after the training session. Once you have that list, identify the specific Do’s you want to focus on instead. What is it that you actually want to do, rather than avoid? Now add them into training.
How to integrate into training:
Choose one Don’t and the accompanying Do
For that training day, keep an eye out for that Don’t
Every time you hear it, intentionally say the Do
Switch to a new don’t-do pair every training day
Keep going until the Do’s are automatic
The goal isn’t to have a perfect experience where you can use your mental skills exactly how you would in a game. Instead, incorporating your mental training with your physical training enables you to become more efficient in utilizing your mental strategies AND gives you repetitions in an arena more similar to the one that you will experience in competition. Use your creativity to merge together specific mental skills you are working on with your physical training.
You wouldn’t try a brand-new physical skill for the first time during competition.
That’d be crazy, right?
The same goes for mental skills.
If you want to perform well under pressure, you need reps in practice.
By combining your mental and physical training, you’ll:
Build stronger habits
Use your strategies in real-time conditions
Increase the chances of success when the pressure is on
Train your mental skills alongside your physical skills and see how both take your game to a new level.
Want help developing your mental skills? Need support in integrating your mental skills in training?