(By Larry Hodges)
If you think of yourself as an Olympian when you play, you’ll play better than if you think of yourself as some scrub at a club. But how can you psychologically pretend to be an Olympian, and how does that help? Great question – and here’s The Twelve Core Psychological Characteristics of Olympiansfrom Psychology Today. I was going to write about each point, but why do that when they’ve already done it so well in the article?
The key question to ask yourself is this: Do you have a better chance of playing really well if you imagine yourself as a player playing really well? Once you realize that the answer there is a decided YES, go through the twelve items below, one by one, and grade yourself on how you do on each. If you get a good grade on one, good for you! If you get a bad grade on one – you know what you have to do. Here are the twelve:
- The ability to cope with and control anxiety.
- Confidence
- Mental toughness
- Sport intelligence
- The ability to focus and block out distractions
- Competitiveness
- Having a hard-work ethic
- The ability to set and achieve goals
- Coachability
- Hopefulness
- Optimism
- Perfectionism
