By: Christina MondragónSchrader, LCPC, CMPC
What is the difference between one’s mental health and one’s mental performance? Is there a difference? Well, we are about to breakdown the importance of understanding both. By understanding what our mental health means and by being able to hone in on your mental performance skill, you will know how to utilize these skills to take your performance to the next level. Understanding your mental health,no matter what state of mind you are in is beneficial both in and out of the sport setting. Honing in on what mental performance skills might be needed and when to utilize it could increase one’s confidence, consistency, internal understanding, all factors that will increase your overall performance and overall well being.
Mental Health
Mental Health is the combination of emotional, psychological (our thoughts), and social well-being (mentalhealth.org, 2015-2021)[1]. Everyone has mental health because humans are thinking, feeling beings. Our thoughts are based from our beliefs and past experiences. Our emotions are not always controllable, we feel what we feel, whether we like it or not. Everyone’s mental health is unique to them and can be conceptualized on a continuum. Our mental health also helps us to handle life’s stressors and the ability to make decisions that align with our values (mentalhealth.org, 2015-2021). Our mental health is a constant thing happening whether we are playing sports or not. One’s mental health is not always the reason as to why an athlete might seek services to improve their mental performance. In order to focus on working with one’s mental health specifically, then a referral to a licensed counselor is necessary.
It is important to note the difference between mental health and mental illness. How often do you hear the words mental health and automatically think that that means something is wrong? When we use the term mental illness, it is usually referenced to the struggle to cope with negative thoughts, uncomfortable emotions, and natural life stressors. When our thoughts and our emotions have a debilitating effect on allowing us to function every day life, such as going to work, completing school assignments,or even being able to take a shower, and this goes on for an extended period of time, that is an indicator of mental illness related symptoms. Experiencing sadness and anxiety for example is normal. Feeling an unpleasant emotion does not mean anything is wrong with you, it means you are human. But when that sadness and anxiety makes it hard to get out of bed, taking care of hygiene, or getting to practice consistently, for example, then there are resources for extra help and support.
An example for when our mental health turns into mental illness comes from the story of Gracie Gold, an Olympic US Figure Skater. She wrote a book on her debilitating ups and downs and the impact her depression had on her ability to get up and train[2]. She described her experience as not necessarily being a lack of motivation but her “body feeling like cement.” She exemplifies the impact her mental health had on her ability to physically being able to participate in her sport. Spoiler alert, Gracie Gold learned what her mental health was telling her, working with a licensed professional, and was able to find ways to cope with her strong emotions and eventually making a standing ovation comeback in her sport.
Our emotions motivate, or influence, our performance. Can you think back to a time you were feeling anxious and how that affected your attitude or thoughts to perform your sport well? Or maybe there was a time where the referee was making all the bad calls and that was making you angry. Did that anger fuel your aggressiveness for the better or was your performance more out of control? Feeling emotions is natural. Your cutting edge is going to be able to tune into those emotions and how it influences your performance for the better. By understanding what that emotion is trying to tell you and how to utilize that information to help you enhance your performance, no matter what emotion you are experiencing, is the goal.
Mental Performance
According to the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP),mental performance is enhancing your mental skills and knowing when to use what skill in order to achieve your peak performance.[3] So how much of your sport performance is mental? It’s a hard number to quantify,but factoring in components of the sport such as goal setting, focus cues,motivation, confidence, just to name a few, I would argue that sports are 80% mental and 20% physical. We may not be able to see the mental performance side of sport like we can see muscle gains in our body, but it is a huge part into being able to achieve our optimal performance. As Certified Mental Performance Consultants (CMPC) we are the strength and conditioning coaches for your mind. Strengthening the mind’s tools to build resiliency in times when bouncing back is essential, digging deep when your body is tired to finding that mental grit to carry you through,and how to conceptualize pressure to minimize the possibility of choking under pressure, are a few examples to strengthening the mind’s potential.
CMPC’s can work with athletes on improving their mental performance without the emphasis on their mental health. All the skills and techniques learned from a CMPC are effective at any point in the season, in any state of mind. Some additional tools may be the use of visualization, relaxation or activation skills, and team cohesion. An athlete who is a great example on the effectiveness of visualization is Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. Much has been written on how Phelps used the power of visualization to continue his streak of being one of the most decorated Olympians of all time(Medium.com, 2024)[4]. Phelps was described as using visualization as a way to anticipate potential problems such as water in the goggles, and howto maneuver through the race as such. He was prepared for the worst case scenarios and had a plan to every potential outcome. His winning outcomes speak for themselves on the effectiveness on his use of this mental tool. To use effective visualization, it entails utilizing all the senses, making the visualization as vivid and realistic as possible, almost with the intent to create muscle memory on how we want to react or perform in certain performance situations.
Another mental performance tool we’ll emphasize is deep breathing. Deep breathing is a classic mental performance technique that has multiple benefits. It's a way to recenter yourself, redirect your focus on what you can control, lowers your heart rate, and quiets your mind. The key is being intentional with the deep breathing technique and the awareness on when it is most needed and most effective. Maybe you notice you get performance anxiety, so learning how to utilize deep breathing in a pre-performance routine could be beneficial. Or maybe you feel your heart pounding while you are about to make the game winning shot, feeling in a split second that you need to slow your body and mind and just do; deep breathing is a tool to do just that. Kevin Love, an athlete in the NBA,demonstrates the effectiveness of using this technique and his reputation speaks for itself. Love noted in a Men’s Health interview (2024) that he uses meditation and the power of his breath work when he notices the anxiety creeping in and he needs a way to remain centered while keeping his head in the game.[5] There are so many benefits to deep breathing,but for mental performance, deep breathing creates a shift in our central nervous system and increases alpha waves which is demonstrative to a better“cognitive performance” (Psychology Today, 2024)[6]. Utilizing a relaxation skill has been proven both by research and by practice, as an effective tool to our mental performance whether we are experiencing anxiety or not.
The Combination of Mental Health and Mental Performance
Our thoughts influence the intensity of our emotions, and our emotions motivate our behavior/performance. As we mentioned earlier, we all have emotions, so think about the last time you played emotionally. Did the opponents get in your head? Were you more hesitant playing nervous? Or maybe you had the best game of your life feeling loose and happy. Building the awareness on the impact of our thoughts and emotions to our performance is a powerful tool. Understanding one’s individualistic tendencies, can help one understand the appropriate mental performance skills to implement in the moment. Your mental health, or thoughts and emotions,do not have to be an automatic determinant in the outcome of your game. You can take control of your game through the power of your mind.
Another athlete who exemplifies the intersection of mental health and mental performance is professional tennis champion and activist NaomiOsaka.[7] She states “I think all of us athletes can relate to feeling pressure, not only from the outside world, but the pressure we also place on ourselves. As an athlete, strength is key to how you are perceived, so for me admitting I wasn’t always okay was a big step.” How to perceive pressure and to reframe the concept in a way that does not hurt your performance is part of a mental performance skill while also being aware of the impact your mental health could have on your game. The more pressure you tend to feel and notice, this could have a debilitating effect on your performance. If it does, then one’s focus starts to stay on inappropriate cues such as unhelpful thoughts,confidence drops, anxiety increases, all symptoms that can impact the outcome of your game, thus could decrease one’s mental health if not addressed and these tendencies become a pattern. By understanding your barriers, you can build on your strengths. Understanding your fears,reactions, conceptualizations of pressure or making a mistake, then one can build their tools to increase their mental grit, resiliency, and increase the consistency of reaching your peak performance.
A prominent athlete that has advocated on mental health and its potential effects on mental performance is the most decorated Olympic gymnast,Simone Biles. Simone was known for removing herself from the biggest stage in the world,in order to take care of her mental health because she was well aware of the impact and danger not feeling mentally right could have on her physical health if ignored. She quoted "I have to do what’s right for me and focus on my mental health and not jeopardize my health and well-being.” By ignoring all the signs, this puts athletes at a higher risk of injury, which for some athletes could be a career ending injury. Simone Biles worked with a mental health professional to understand what was going on inside of her, helping to enhance her game on the mental performance end, and ultimately made another comeback,adding to her collection of winnings and being considered the Greatest Of All Time.[8][9]
In conclusion, there is work one can do to understand their mental health, whether they are experiencing uncomfortable emotions or not, and there are tools to improve your mental performance. Understanding how to combine the impact of one’s mental health and tools to improve their mental performance will bring your game play to the next level. The only person who can stop you is you, and the only person who can reach your peak performance is you. You get to decide how you want to play your game.
To learn more about Grow Sport Psychology:
Call: 331-457-2020
Email: sports@growwellnessgroup.com
Website: growwellnessgroup.com
[1]To read the fullarticle: https://www.mentalhealth.org/basics/what-is-mental-health
[2] To learn moreabout Gracie Gold’s story, she is the author to her autobiography: Gracie Gold:Outofshapeworthlessloser: A Memoir of Figure Skating, F*cking Up, and FiguringIt Out. (2024)
[3] To find our moreinformation and find resources visit the AASP website at:https://appliedsportpsych.org/
[4] To read the fullarticle, here is the link: https://medium.com/illumination/how-michael-phelps-5-minute-mindset-helped-him-win-23-olympic-gold-medals-222cd254e346
[5] Read the fullarticle here:https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a62612533/kevin-love-mental-fitness-interview/
[6] Read the fullarticle here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evidence-based-living/202409/the-benefits-of-deep-breathing-and-why-it-works
[7] To learn moreabout Naomi Osaka’s sports journey, check out her book: Naomi Osaka: HerJourney to Finding Her Power and Her Voice by Ben Rothenberg
[8]An excellent watchto learn more about Simone Biles’s journey is Netflix’s Documentary: SimoneBiles Rising
[9] Recommend watch tolearn more about other athletes and their thoughts about mental health andmental performance includes HBO’s Weight of Gold.https://www.npr.org/2020/07/29/896588279/hbos-the-weight-of-gold-examines-olympians-psychological-struggles
