Scene I: Rahul, is a 13 year old table tennis player. He performs much better in practice than during competition. His practice game is flawless, but in competition his performance is below par. He feels free and loose in practice and is plagued with doubts or in decision in competition. Something changes between practice and competition.

Scene II: Manasi is a 20 year old track and field athlete. After an injury she has physically 100% recovered, but she can’t perform the way she did pre-injury. She is afraid of re-injury, and this causes her to play tentatively. She has lost her confidence and wonders if she can return to previous performance levels.
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Scene III: Adi, is a 15 year old cricketer- batsman. He losses focus and has mental lapses during critical times of the game. When up to bat when chasing for a higher target, with early wickets and game unchanging, has pressure to produce runs. He commits simple errors that he wouldn’t normally do in a less threatening situation.

The main reason for such discrepancy in the performance is not due to lack of physical or technical skill or training, but due to lack of mental training. In any sport there are three major components: 1.Physical, 2. Technical and 3. Psychological . Most of the athletes and coaches are either not aware not aware of the third component or don’t feel that it is important.

When athletes play any sport they don’t keep their head outside and play.  So if they don’t train it like they train their body before performance, they will have mental lapses. But unfortunately when athletes experience this performance discrepancy or mental lapses, coaches and athletes start (skill) training harder and harder and it adds to the problem instead of solving it.

When athletes practice they practice it in a very safe, predictable and organized environment. When in a tournament or competition, they face challenging situations, opponents, unpredictable circumstances and scoreboards. All this was missing in the practice sessions. An athletes mind feels that all this is new, and like a curious young kid it runs towards all these factors, and forgets what it has to focus on.

Hence in mental training athletes train their mind and learn to focus on the thoughts, that are helpful and not on the harmful thoughts. Thinking about the opponent is not going to help, but thinking about how to play is.

The mind is the most powerful tool you have got. It is not conditioned by time and place. It travels faster than the fastest thing, light. You think about a place or an era and before you know, your mind is already there. This powerful tool if not trained well can become the biggest obstacle in the way of peak performance.  The challenges that you have to face or the performance you have to give is in the present moment. If at that moment your mind is not there, your performance is gone. This makes regular mental training very important for peak performance.

So train your mind, practice harder and enjoy your game to give your best.

‍https://anchor.fm/vilasins/episodes/Mental-Training-eesrb0

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‍https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/vilasins-sports/id1505749422

‍Special Thanks: Ms Madhuli Kulkarni – Sports & Performance Psychologist