ATHLETE'S

Most athletes, regardless of raw talent level, understand where they rank on a team, or in the case of individual sports, their own ability against others in a competitive situation. However, an athlete doesn’t always know, let alone understand, their strengths and weaknesses of their mental skills, and how mental skills can be developed and improved. The MSA provides an athlete with a unique perspective on their beliefs and behaviors, their mental skills. Armed with this information, an athlete can seek out exercises to improve and enhance their skills, as well as having a coach, or sports psychologist design a development program.

STRENGTHENING ATHLETES' MENTAL SKILLS

As an athlete, you know how important it is to be confident, stay motivated, and make your best effort to perform well. You may be surprised to learn that you have more control over the development of these and other mental skills than you probably imagined. You can improve your athletic performance by developing the right mental skills - and the right mental skills will ensure that you achieve to your fullest potential. You can develop your mental skills by learning about what the mental skills are and why they're important. You can also learn good mental skills by observing role-models for them. Below are some tips you can use to improve your mental skills.

TIPS FOR ATHLETES

For most athletes, mastery of the ten mental skills is greater in some situations than in others. Strive to achieve higher levels of mastery of these skills and consistency across key performance situations such as these six that are assessed by the MSA.

EFFORT

To improve Effort, assess how important your goals are to you. If success in the sport is not very important to you or and there is little enjoyment then increasing your Effort will be very difficult.

Make a list of your Effort BITEs especially those that occur in the face of mistakes, frustrations, obstacles, and setbacks. Identify which ones are positive and helpful for building a sense of personal control over events and which are not helpful.
Your level of effort is the result of having strong mental skills especially those related to goals (Goal Setting, Goal Implementation, and Mastery Approach) and self-concept (Task Confidence, Self-Worth, and Personal Control).

OPEN TO FEEDBACK

Which athlete(s) had high scores on Open to Feedback in the MSA? Am I Open to Feedback about my own role as coach? Is the feedback I provide clear? Is my feedback specific? Is it given to athletes in a positive context?

Select as your team leaders or team captain the athlete or athletes who score well on most or all of the MSA mental skills. Select your team leaders or team captain based upon whether their teammates do or will respond to him/her as a role model.
Recognize that different athletes may act as leaders in different situations. The athlete who is the leader in a game or following a setback may not be a leader during practice or in off-the-field situation. Ideally your team captain and formal leaders act as leaders in all or most situations.

GOAL IMPLEMENTATION

How well do you implement the goals you set? Is your MSA score high or low? What are your Goal Implementation BITEs?

Goals are intentions and expectations of you. There is no guarantee that you will implement them over time. Your best chance of implementing your goals is to have specific plans for each goal you set.
Make adjustments to your goals based upon a review of the records you kept about your goal progress. Recognize that some of your goals may be more difficult to achieve than you originally anticipated. Set less challenging goals and recognize that these less challenging goals are really sub-goals on the path to eventually achieving the original more challenging goal.

GOAL SETTING

How well do you set goals? Is your MSA score high or low? What are your Goal Setting BITEs?

Make sure your goals have short-term sub-goals and especially be sure your longer term goals have short term sub-goals. For example, if your long-term goal (three months) is to improve your batting average 30 points, short-term sub-goals might be to improve by 10 points in one month, or improve by 50% making solid contact on breaking pitches, or hitting more pitches first pitches to center field.
A challenging goal is one that represents a genuine increase in your skill and performance and requires sustained effort and practice. You should be confident that will sufficient practice you will achieve your goals.

LEADERSHIP

Do you have a strong Leadership skill? Is your Leadership MSA score high or low? In what situations is the score high and in what situations is it low? What are your Leadership BITEs? Are they different in different situations?

Not all athletes wish to be team leaders. Decide whether or not you wish to serve as a team leader. You can build your Leadership mental skills without having to serve as a leader in any official capacity.

Leaders are role models. Role-models are those athletes whom others respect and admire. Leaders may or may not be the most skilled athletes. Effective leaders have high scores on most, if not all, of the mental skills consistently across situations.
Leaders have strong mental skills and encourage the same in others. Their encouragement and “positive attitude” has an emotional impact on their teammates. Leaders speak to their teammates about their athletic and mental skills and help other athletes develop both.

PERSONAL CONTROL

Do you have a strong Personal Control? Is your Personal Control MSA score high or low? In what situations is the score high and in what situations is it low? What are your Personal Control BITEs (behaviors, images, thoughts, emotions)? Are they different in different situations?

Make a list of your Personal Control BITEs especially those that occur in the face of frustrations, obstacles, and setbacks. Identify which ones are positive and helpful for building a sense of personal control over events and which are not helpful.
Do you blame others, other players, coaches, equipment, weather or other external causes when you make a mistake or perform less well than you can? If you do your BITEs are about external control of your performance and your Personal Control is low.

MASTERY APPROACH

What is the evidence for and against the presence of a strong Mastery Approach? Is your MSA Mastery Approach score high or low? What are your Mastery Approach BITEs?

Make a list of your BITEs when you are thinking about what, beyond a win, you want to achieve in a game or competition or during the next week or two of practice and training.
When setting and working to achieve goals, it is better to have goals and be motivated by a desire for personal improvement – being better than you were yesterday – than by a desire to obtain, for example, external rewards and recognition.

SATISFACTION

What is the evidence for and against the presence of Performance Satisfaction? Is your MSA score high or low? What are your Performance Satisfaction BITEs?

Consider how your short term goals for skill development are related to your long-term goals for skill development (see Goal Setting). If they are not aligned, fix them so they are.
Seeing and appreciating the linkage between your short and long-term goals will help make you feel successful and satisfied that you are achieving your long-term goals as you accomplish your short-term goals.

SELF-WORTH

What is the evidence for and against the presence of a positive sense of Self-Worth? Is your MSA score high or low? What are your Self-Worth BITEs?

Do you know how you appraise your own competencies and yourself and how it influences your sense of Self-Worth? You can answer this question by observing the BITES - behaviors, images, thoughts, and emotions – that are associated with your descriptions and appraisals of yourself (see Open to Feedback).
Make two lists of your positive BITEs – make one list as an athlete and one list of non-athletic BITEs. Which list is longer, more important to you, do you believe in more firmly?

TASK CONFIDENCE

What is the evidence for and against the presence of Task Confidence? Is your MSA score high or low? What are your Task Confidence BITEs?

It’s important to identify the specific skill and specific situations in which the skill will be performed so you can practice the skill in different situations. So you should identify the skill or task you wish to target for improving task confidence (e.g., improve foul shooting during the final minutes of close games). If they are not aligned, fix them so they are.
For the targeted skill (or task) identify the skill (or task) related BITEs that help and inhibit performance. Consider your behaviors, images, thoughts, and emotions that you experience during the targeted task. Some of the BITEs facilitate success, some do not. Make a note of them and identify the helpful and unhelpful ones.