Coaching Athletes on Mental

Preparation For Competition

Sean C. McCann, Ph.D.

Senior Sport Psychologist, USOPC
September 18, 2019
 Overview of presentation
• The basics of USOC Sport Psychology
– Mission, philosophy, and specifics of our work
• Integrating sport psychology to your coaching:
* Game Day Preparation
* Developing the ability to execute under
pressure
INTRODUCTIONS
Tokyo will be my 14th Olympic Games Working
for the USOC since 1991

I’ve worked with almost every Olympic Sport

I travel over 130 days every year with teams

More and more, I try to work with and through

coaches rather than one on one with athletes
 Sport Psych Philosophy
1. Mental training cannot replace physical training, technical skills, or
talent.
2. Physical training and talent is not enough to win consistently.
3. Strong mental skills will not win an Olympic medal, but weak mental
skills will lose one.
4. Thoughts impact behavior. Consistency of thoughts = consistency of
behavior.
5. Mental skills aren’t like a course you take once and graduate from.
They are skills, and skills need practice, refinement, monitoring, and
honing.
Sport Psychology
At The USOC:

Exceptional
Skills For
Exceptional
Situations
 Focus Of USOC Sport
Psychology:
• Our Staff’s Mission: “FROM NATIONAL TEAM
TO OLYMPIC SUCCESS”
• Our focus is working with highly developed athletes.

• The athletes we work with are generally very skilled in the

psychological components of their sport.

• We don’t spend much time building basic skills.

• Olympic success must be specifically identified as a goal, or it may not

happen. Even talented national teams and athletes don’t always
realize that mental training for the Olympics is a specific and essential
task.
Basic framework for Peak
Performance under pressure:
• Specific Mental Skills are needed for success
• Personalities make some skills easy to develop,
and some very hard to develop
• Coaching, (as well as sport psychology and some
other factors), can develop or inhibit skills
• Ultimately, a combination of factors lead to the
skill development necessary for success
How should coaches begin
talking to players about the
mental game?

How About Game Day Mental Preparation?

Competition Day Planning
• Easy place to start
• It helps to normalize the discussion
• It integrates thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
• It emphasizes individual differences
• It helps diagnose and intervene competition day
challenges
• It is amazing how many athletes have never done
this
How can you impact thinking
on game day?
Is there an ideal mental
state for racing?
• If yes, do you know what yours is?
• If yes, what % of races are you in this state?
Handout- Competition
Mental Plan
• Talks about “the ideal”
• Emphasizes changing factors, not just static
approach
• Integrates thoughts, feelings, behaviors
Competition plan for Pressure:
Executing With Certainty
• This topic is useful for explaining why it is so hard
to execute consistently.
• I’ve found it appeals to many athletes.
• It provides a way to plan for big events, and a way
to talk about the mental challenges of high
pressure situation that isn’t about “choking” or
being “mentally tough”
Why is executing in
competition so hard?
The challenge of execution
• The tendency to see this as an “ability” that you
either have or don’t have.

• Just do it! (like saying “Just Relax!”)

• The key question, is, JUST DO WHAT?

Executing- Hard enough when
you know what you want to
do... Almost impossible if you
are unsure.
• By working towards
certainty, towards
clarity, execution is
more likely.
• Deciding what to do,
where to go, slows
athletes down.
Knowing where you
are going allows you
to improve the how.
Execution Mode- A Process

• Execution mode is an end result of a process that

starts in preparation, and continues all the way to
the start of your competition.

• A process from doubt to certainty

• A process from thought to action

The Process of execution:
How your mindset changes
Mindset When Mindset When In
Arriving At Venue>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Execution Mode

• Paragraphs Bullet Points

• Left Brain Right Brain
• Critic Cheerleader
• Past, present, and future Present only
• Questions Answers
• Wide Open Focused
• Doubts Certainty
• Abstract Concrete
• Analytical Action-Oriented
• More Less
Stage One-
Answering Questions
Streamlined Plan
Logistics What’s working?
Keys
Results thinking Stage Three-
What’s possible For
Self-evaluation Executing With
Me
Tactics Certainty
What’s fast?
Strategy
Technique basics Stage Two- Finding
Your Focus

Sean McCann Ph.D. USOC

First Stage: Answering
Questions
• First Stage Product: Solid Platform
• GOAL- Build a Solid Platform, then move on.
• This is the product of hard training.
• Questions are normal- but must get to answers.
• At the end of this stage, you must be comfortable
moving on. You must be SURE your platform is
strong and stable.
A lot of questions, before
moving on to stage two.
• Conditions- temperature, fast or slow pool
• Competitors
• Logistics of meet
• Meaning of the outcome
• Current fitness level
• Tactics and strategy
• Technique keys you have been working on
• Good physical preparation
What does an athlete need to know about a venue,
before they can move to stage two?
Second Stage: Finding Focus
Stage Two Product: performance keys
• GOAL- Develop specific performance keys for this
situation, then move to execute.
• What have you been working on in training that
you can apply?
• Specifics of the process- What key behaviors on
your part will ensure a good performance?
• Where strategy and tactics get simplified.
• At the end of this stage, you must be SURE you
have the correct performance keys.
 Third Stage: Executing With
Certainty
• GOAL- The mind moves to the specific target and goal.
Behavior becomes automatic. Intense focus drives the
process and produces a great result.
• Full Commitment
• Fully engaged in the moment, nothing else
• Visual Focus- Throwing your energy forward
• Trusting- leap of faith
• No doubt about anything
• No “checking” just to make sure
• Simplicity
• Automatic better than conscious
• But if necessary, the conscious is simple and
forward focused
 Common obstacles to
achieving execution mode
• Outcome is so important, athlete can’t stop thinking
ahead to what ifs
• Lack of confidence
• Coming off of a bad competition
• Worry about a specific competitor
• Return from injury
• No program, process, or routine
MOVING TO EXECUTION MODE
ON COMPETITION DAY
• Step One- Complete confidence in your abilities,
Find a way to check on the “feel”, get all logistics
dialed in. When are you done with this?
• Step Two- Clearly Define the Performance Keys
for this specific competition. When are you done
with this?
• Step Three- Using a well-practiced routine,
commit to competition mode.
Steps you should take to
enhance ability to get to
execution mode
1. Understand what you need to be confident about
training by next competition. Can you create a
structure for training that ensures that?
2. Clarify the SPECIFICS of your competition day
ideal.
3. Develop a ROUTINE that brings you there.
Practice it.
GOOD LUCK!!