
The Christians in Sport Podcast
E49 - Tom Bates, Performance Psychologist: Killing the EGO
Sep 23, 2022
Tom Bates, a seasoned performance psychologist, shares insights from his extensive experience in professional football and coaching Olympic athletes. He discusses the integration of faith in sports and its role in personal transformation. Listeners get a glimpse into a day in his life, the challenges of coaching, and the importance of understanding ego in sports. Bates reflects on achieving gold in Tokyo 2020 and how faith shaped his identity, emphasizing the need for surrender to foster true personal growth.
52:42
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Quick takeaways
- Tom Bates emphasizes the importance of nurturing spiritual beliefs, asserting that faith significantly influences athletes' performance and mindset.
- He highlights the crucial role of sports culture in enhancing team dynamics and overall success through collaborative high-performance psychology efforts.
Deep dives
The Connection Between Sport and Faith
The speaker discusses the profound relationship between performance in sports and spiritual beliefs. He asserts that self-confidence and faith significantly influence an athlete’s performance, pushing them beyond just mental and emotional realms to deeper spiritual dimensions. This connection allows individuals to have transformative experiences that transcend their direct control, often attributing these shifts to a higher power. He shares that many athletes he has worked with have experienced significant changes in their mindset and performance when they nurture their spiritual beliefs, suggesting that faith can serve as a vital component of athletic success.
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