How Can Training Improve Our Mental Skills?

Mental skills play a very important part of your performance on the field.

How often do you spend trying to improve these skills?

How often do you spend trying to improve technical skills?

Very few players as much time trying to improve metal skills as technical skills, yet often make mistakes because they weren’t concentrating, weren’t confident, felt under pressure….

Often players don’t work on their mental skills simply because they do not know how to – well this article will show you how to. Outlined below are some ideas of how you can create an environment that will allow you to improve your mental skills in training.

Concentration

Concentration is about focusing on what is relevant rather than the distractions of the opposition , the pitch, the match situation, the weather etc. However, when you practice, do you concentrate? Are there distractions?

In order to get used to concentrating as you would like to in a match, try to create some distractions whilst you are batting (e.g. people shouting / moving) and then try to concentrate on batting as well as you can. If the conditions when you train are not the same conditions as when you play, you are practising a slightly different skill.

Confidence

Confidence plays a huge role in determining your performance. But how do we become more confident? The first stage is to know what your strengths are (specific strength, e.g. the line you bowl with a new ball, driving on the leg side etc.). If you do not know these, it is easy to lose confidence if you are not playing well.  However, knowing these strengths can help you gain confidence when you aren’t playing well.

Associated with the strengths are your weaknesses. Everyone has them, but what marks a good player out is that they know their weaknesses, form a plan around them and don’t dwell on them. For example, Steve Waugh knows his best shots and only plays these. This helps him to stay confident because he knows if a ball is in a certain area, he can attack it with his strengths, but in other areas he can be more defensive.

However, you must also have a plan of how to build on your strengths and weaknesses – don’t just expect to always drive well on the leg side – you must continue to practice it! And don’t ignore your weaknesses – try to improve them in practice.

Also try to remember your best performances before you play, or get someone to talk to you about when you performed well, or watch yourself perform well on video! If you are playing on a particular type of pitch / situation, watching someone else doing well in that situation can also help you feel more confident.

Playing Under Pressure

Playing under pressure is extremely important as it is often these situations which determine whether we win or lose. However, how often do you practice under pressure? Real pressure can only be created when there is a reward if you succeed and a punishment if you fail. Therefore when you are practising, if someone sets you a target for the last 6 balls, without a reward / punishment it is not real pressure. Try to incorporate real pressure in your practice sessions (not just for the last 6 balls) and you will find you perform better under pressure in matches (e.g. physical punishment, financial reward!).

Another form of pressure is created when you are physically tired. In a match situation you often have to bat, bowl or field well when you are tired. How often do you practice when you are tired? Try to incorporate some physical activity in your training sessions to make it more realistic.

Motivation

Are you as motivated to train as you are to play? Most people aren’t and this is obviously very natural as we train in order to play well! However, motivation in training is very important. Training for the sake of it isn’t beneficial. A short, focused and intense session is much more beneficial. So how do you get yourself motivated to train?

Try to set yourself a specific and achievable goal for that session e.g. not get out once in 10 minutes of batting, hit a boundary every over, bowl 5 balls out of 6 pitched up…. This should fit into you goals for the whole season and how you are playing at that time. For example, if you bowled to full in your previous game, you goal could be not to get driven more than once an over for the training session.

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If you would like more information on how WinningMind can offer you more detailed and specific drills, which will improve your mental skills, then contact Andy Hobbs:

Andy@winningmind.co.uk