Demystifying Mental Toughness

Discover essential tips to build mental fortitude for 2025. Learn the art of recovery and the crucial role of rest days in enhancing performance. Explore hydration's impact, the benefits of nasal breathing, and how cold exposure boosts recovery. Strategies for nurturing mental well-being are discussed, alongside the importance of maintaining a training diary and understanding circadian rhythms. Personal challenges faced by guests highlight the significance of self-care and kindness on the road to resilience.

In episode #269 David addresses the question, "What Can I Expect When Working With A Sport Psychologist" for the final time as this episode marks the end of an 8 part series. This time he focuses on the following statements "Performance Enhancement: The sports psychologist will help you identify and overcome mental barriers that may be hindering your performance" and "Feedback and Reflection: Expect regular discussions about your progress, experiences in training or competition, and adjustments to your mental training plan." David highlights that a high percentage of athletes who contact sports psychologists are reactive often acting on emotion seeking to deal with challenges they are going through. Whilst proactive clients, especially top performing elite athletes, contact sports psychologists when they are in a good place, seeking continuous improvement and looking to embrace a marginal gains approach. He concludes by encouraging listeners to reflect on their 2024 achievements, failures, and lessons learned, offering a blog post with additional questions for self-analysis so that you can make 2025 a great year. Key Learning Points One typical challenge athletes bring to sports psychologists, link to not performing at the level that they train at, which can be caused by the need for social approval, perfectionist tendencies, questionable culture and processes at a club or organisation, with fear then kicking in for the athlete. Sharing surprising statistics about elite athletes such as Harry Kane's goal scoring success rate and Trent Alexander-Arnold's cross accuracy can help perfectionists recognise how many times elite performers do actually miss or fail, forcing athletes to revisit their own expectations. He shares a case study of a proactive top cricketer who used detailed performance profiling to benchmark and measure progress, therefore challenging them to get out of their comfort zone. A skill of a sports psychologist is to ask athletes great questions so that they go on to assess how they can continually strive to improve their methods and performance levels. Connect with David Charlton Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN To Listen to Related Podcasts To Help You Improve Your Performances Next Year Ep264: David Charlton - How to Enhance Focus, Motivation and Confidence Ep260: David Charlton - What Can I Expect When Working With A Sport Psychologist Ep144: Jon Watkins – Mental Strength: What You Can Learn About Resilience From The Special Forces Ep106: Amy Rowlinson – Why is knowing my WHY important? Ep086: David Charlton – Observations: How to Learn from Setbacks Relevant Blogs and Resources To Help You Make Next Year a Great Year Blog: How To Learn From Last Year Blog: What Did You Learn From Last Year? Motivation for Sport Quiz Blog: Make Better Decisions to Help Your Sport Performance including VALUES LIST David Charlton, Sport Psychologist: Why I Do What I Do

In today's episode David explores the importance of confidentiality when working as a Sport Psychologist when supporting clients. He discusses how various environments, such as cafes, public spaces, and formal meeting rooms, can impact a client's comfort and confidentiality. He also emphasizes the need for tailored settings, considering factors like social anxiety, neurodiversity, and the client's familiarity with the space. The episode also covers the ethical considerations in working with athletes, including transparency with coaches, the involvement of parents with young clients, and the use of well-known names. David underlines the significance of confidentiality in building trust and facilitating effective behaviour change development. Key Learning Points: · Reminding yourself who is your client when you work as a Sport Psychologist is important especially in organisational settings or when supporting children. · Obtain written consent when using well-known names or client reviews for marketing purposes. · Establish clear processes when working with clients in an organisational setting. · When training to become a fully accredited sports psychologist the importance of maintaining ethical practices is covered in depth. Connect with David Charlton Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN To Listen to Related Podcasts To Help You Improve Your Understanding of Sports Psychology Ep260: David Charlton - What Can I Expect When Working With A Sport Psychologist Ep249: Dr Edward Hall - Understanding Workplace Collaboration In Coaching In Team Sports Ep166: Mark Bennett MBE – How To Help Athletes and Coaches Reflect On Their Performances Ep138: Nick Littlehales – Why do the Mentally Tough see Sleep and Recovery as Important Ep065: Dr Amy Izycky – Encouraging Mentally Healthy Cultures in Sport Relevant Blogs And Resources To Help Your Understanding of Sports Psychology Blog: How Mentally Healthy is Your Clubs Sporting Environment Blog: Does Your Warm Up Influence How You Perform? Blog: Using ACT and Mindfulness to Improve Your Sporting Performances Blog: How to Stay Calm as a Coach in Big Matches Blog: 5 Reasons Why Being Released from a Football Academy is Difficult

In episode #267 of Demystifying Mental Toughness, David discusses the role of a Sport Psychologist in helping coaches manage anxiety. He differentiates between state anxiety, which occurs in specific situations, and trait anxiety, a personality trait influenced by factors such as childhood, genetics, trauma and environment. David goes on to share to insights to aid the understanding of coaches on the topic, with some solutions discussed too. Key Learning Points: · State anxiety can be managed through understanding triggers and subsequent thoughts, and behaviours. · Trait anxiety may require referrals to clinical or counselling psychologists. · Understanding and managing bodily experiences of anxiety, such as heart racing and tension, can help coaches navigate their emotions better. · Techniques associated with Self-Compassion Focused Therapy, Acceptance Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness can help coaches stay present and manage their anxieties better. Connect with David Charlton Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN To Listen to Related Podcasts To Help You Improve Your Coaching Methods Ep266: David Charlton - How to Help Sports Coaches Cope With Pressure and Stress Better Ep265: David Charlton - How to Help Sports Coaches Self Regulate Their Emotions Ep260: David Charlton - What Can I Expect When Working With A Sport Psychologist Ep249: Dr Edward Hall - Understanding Workplace Collaboration In Coaching In Team Sports Ep166: Mark Bennett MBE – How To Help Athletes and Coaches Reflect On Their Performances Relevant Blogs And Resources To Help You Improve Coaching Methods Stress, Appraisal, and Coping Book : Lazarus PhD, Richard S., Susan Folkman PhD Online Course for Sports Coaches developed by Professor Sophia Jowett – Empowering the athlete: The coach-athlete partnership Anxiety and panic attacks - Mind The Mental Edge - Enhancing Coach-Athlete Relations Blog: How to Stay Calm as a Coach in Big Matches Blog: Helping Confident Coaches Progress

Today David considers the statement: "Coping strategies: You'll develop tools to manage pressure and stress" where he focuses on supporting coaches to improve themselves, and in turn, improve their athletes. This is a continuation of his examination into ChatGPT and its response to the question "What Can I Expect When Working With A Sport Psychologist." David shares many insightful thoughts about the topic to be able to support coaches. With some great questions for coaches to ask themselves. Key Learning Points: How do you want your athletes to behave around your club? Do you as a coach help your athletes mind and body to work in harmony? How can you activate your parasympathetic nervous system more to influence your athletes? Coach pressures come from managing athletes, senior management, coaching colleagues, sport science staff and parents goals, expectations and personalities and much more. Fear can play a big part and influence coaches; fear of failure, fear of judgement, fear of pain, fear of regret and fear of rejection. Connect with David Charlton Sign Up to The Mental Edge Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN To Listen to Related Podcasts To Help You Improve Your Coaching Methods Ep265: David Charlton - How to Help Sports Coaches Self Regulate Their Emotions Ep264: David Charlton- How to Enhance Focus, Motivation and Confidence Ep260: David Charlton - What Can I Expect When Working With A Sport Psychologist Ep249: Dr Edward Hall - Understanding Workplace Collaboration In Coaching In Team Sports Ep166: Mark Bennett MBE – How To Help Athletes and Coaches Reflect On Their Performances Relevant Blogs And Resources To Help You Improve Coaching Methods Stress, Appraisal, and Coping Book : Lazarus PhD, Richard S., Susan Folkman PhD Online Course for Sports Coaches developed by Professor Sophia Jowett – Empowering the athlete: The coach-athlete partnership The Mental Edge - Enhancing Coach-Athlete Relations Blog: How to Stay Calm as a Coach in Big Matches Blog: Helping Confident Coaches Progress

Professor Sophia Jowett's has conducted a lot of research into understanding the interpersonal dynamics between coaches and athletes and is instrumental in raising awareness and changing attitudes around the reciprocity of the relationship and the importance of relational qualities including mutual trust, respect, appreciation, commitment, loyalty, co-operation and collaboration. In today's episode, part 4 of David's investigation into ChatGPT's and its response to the question "What Can I Expect When Working With A Sport Psychologist" he goes on to discuss supporting a coach who receives negative feedback from athletes or players. The aim is to aid your understanding of applying psychological skills training (PST) techniques such as self- talk, relaxation and visualisation to improve the quality of the coach-athlete relationship, and in turn, positively impact both coaches' and athletes' performance and wellbeing. There are connections between the points discussed and Jowett's work. Enjoy tuning in! Key Learning Points: Coaches can benefit from being supported by Sport Psychologists too, not just athletes. As a coach understanding your own emotions and why they occur can benefit your relationships with athletes or players. When you experience negative emotions as a coach does your self-talk become judgemental? Instructional self-talk can benefit coaches to manage situations better. Allowing your self some space to breathe as a coach is useful and can help your behaviour management, as can improving your visualisation skills. Connect with David Charlton Sign Up to The Mental Edge Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN To Listen to Related Podcasts To Help You Improve Your Understanding of Sports Psychology Ep161: Paul Phillips – How to Create a Culture of High Performance in Professional Rugby Union Ep166: Mark Bennett MBE – How To Help Athletes and Coaches Reflect On Their Performances Ep180: David Charlton – How To Work With Team Units To Improve Culture In Teams Ep209: Felix Lehmann – How To Create Better Decision Makers On The Football Pitch Ep249: Dr Edward Hall - Understanding Workplace Collaboration In Coaching In Team Sports Relevant Blogs And Resources To Help You Improve Coach Athlete Relationships Online Course for Sports Coaches developed by Professor Sophia Jowett – Empowering the athlete: The coach-athlete partnership The Mental Edge - Enhancing Coach-Athlete Relations Blog: Why You Should Recognise The Power of Your Words Blog: How to Stay Calm as a Coach in Big Matches Blog: Helping Confident Coaches Progress

Ensuring that your focus is placed on helpful things, that you stay motivated during difficult times and that your confidence levels remain steady and intact even when you lose form are seen as vitally important components being a top class athlete. In today's episode, part 3 of David's investigation into ChatGPT's and its response to the question "What Can I Expect When Working With A Sport Psychologist" he goes on to share with you some helpful tools that you can help athletes in this context. Key Learning Points: Enhancing focus is a skill that can be developed by understanding aspects that are out of your control and to be able to shift your attention purposefully on helpful things/processes that are within your control. A great question to aid your motivation is to go back to the question from time to time – Why do I play my sport? To maintain steady levels of confidence, recognising where you gain confidence from is key. Connect with David Charlton Sign Up to The Mental Edge Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN To Listen to Related Podcasts To Help You Improve Your Understanding of Sports Psychology Ep261: David Charlton - Why Are The Sporting Goals That You Set Yourself Not Helping You Ep260 - David Charlton - What Can I Expect When Working With A Sport Psychologist Ep160: Brian Hemmings – Golf Psychology: What You Can Expect and Why It Can Help You Ep146: John Nassoori – What Is The Role Of A Sports Psychologist In Football? Ep111: Michael Caulfield – How to be an Effective Sports Psychologist in Elite Professional Football Relevant Blogs And Resources To Help You Enhance Focus, Motivation and Confidence Motivation for Sport Quiz Download THE FOCUSED ATHLETE CHECKLIST Performance Profile for Long Term Goals Performance Profiling: When You're Looking For A Quick Boost Handout: Marginal Gains Refining Your Approach

Welcome to episode #263 of the Demystifying Mental Toughness podcast. This week's episode features lessons from the world of business and entrepreneurship as well as the military. Psychological well-being, mental health, mental fitness and self care are key topics that are highlighted. Enjoy! Connect with David Charlton Sign Up to The Mental Edge Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN Other Valuable Resources Sports Psychology Case Studies Resilience in Sport Blogs Performance Anxiety Blogs Communication Skills Blogs Mental Health Blogs Relevant Podcast Episodes in Order and Sequence as Relayed in Episode 263 Ep106: Amy Rowlinson – Why is knowing my WHY important? Ep113: Polly Brennan – The Relationship Between Mental Fitness, Mental Health and Mental Toughness Ep128: Paula Eddy-Wilcox – Can You Show Vulnerability and Be Mentally Tough? Yes! Ep132: Kevin Stansfield – How Lessons from Golf can help with Game of Business Ep133: Christina Flach – Why Mental Toughness is Important: Lessons from Sport, Business and Loss EP138: Nick Littlehales - Why do the Mentally Tough see Sleep and Recovery as Important Ep139: Steve Beharall – Steve Beharall's Journey from Football Coach to CEO Ep143: Lesley Thomas - How Your Money Mindset Influences Your Behaviour Ep114: Tim Bradshaw – Because I Can – How To Get Out Of Your Own Way Ep123: Richard Dorney MBE – Supporting People: What Can You Learn About Resilience From The Military Ep144: Jon Watkins - Mental Strength: What You Can Learn About Resilience From The Special Forces

In episode #262 of Demystifying Mental Toughness due to unforeseen circumstances David includes a large number of inspiring take home messages from guests that originated in episode 100 of the podcast. The takeaways that you will hear relate to the development of mental toughness, how you can deal better with stress and adversity. Coping with trauma and mental health challenges are also key features. Enjoy! Connect with David Charlton Sign Up to The Mental Edge Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN Relevant Podcast Episodes in Order and Sequence as Relayed in Episode 262 Ep001: Doug Strycharczyk - The Importance of Mental Toughness Ep028: Peter Clough MBE - Why is Mental Toughness Important? Ep035: Dr John Perry - Thrive, Don't Just Survive 2021 Ep037: Penny Mallory – World Class Thinking, World Class Behaviour Ep002: Steve Judge – How to Deal with Adversity Ep014: Alessia Bruno – The Yips, Crashes, Trauma in Sport there is hope for Athletes Ep065: Dr Amy Izycky – Encouraging Mentally Healthy Cultures in Sport Ep015: Nick Grantham – Essential Elements of Rest and Recovery Ep066: Marilyn Okoro – Mental Health and Resilience: Lessons from an Olympic Medalist Ep041: Paul McGee – How to Develop Interpersonal Confidence Ep011: Dave Algeo – Mental Toughness, Mental Health and High Performance Ep075: Grant Phyphers – How to Rebuild Your Identity Ep098: Jon Bartlett - Do You Know Your Why? Ep046: Kate Mackay – Why Snowboarding is a Metaphor for Life Ep092: Dr James Hegarty - ACT in Sport, Improving Performance through Mindfulness Ep022: Robbie Thompson – How to Feel More Confident Ep019: Paul Smith – 5000 Consecutive Days Running and Counting Ep048: Natalie Hurdley – How to Build Mental Toughness through Powerlift

In part 2 of David's exploration surrounding ChatGPT's and its response to the question What Can I Expect When Working With A Sport Psychologist, David explores the complexities of goal setting. ChatGPT suggests setting SMART goals for performance and psychological well-being are part of working with a Sports Psychologist, which he is in agreement with. However, David points out that not all Sports Psychology practitioners are comfortable addressing psychological well-being. He goes on to emphasize the importance of goal ownership, discuss athlete's tendencies to set goals, and the distinction between outcome, performance, and process goals as well as a lot more. Key Learning Points: Goals are more powerful when they align with your personal core values. Management of the number of goals you set is important to avoid overwhelm. Tools such as the MTQ Plus (Mental Toughness Questionnaire) can assist Sports Psychologists and Coaches to recognise if athletes naturally set goals or not. An athlete who sets goals and an athlete who doesn't set goals should be supported differently. Connect with David Charlton Sign Up to The Mental Edge Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN To Listen to Related Podcasts To Help You Improve Your Understanding of Goal Setting Ep217: Chris Cook - How A Marginal Gains Approach Can Help You Perform Better Ep213: Sandro Forte – How To Set Yourself Up For Success In 2024? Ep134: David Charlton – Observations: 3 Things That Stop You Achieving Your Goals Ep098: Jon Bartlett – Do You Know Your Why? Ep021: Steve Hackney – How to Reach Your Full Potential Relevant Blogs And Resources To Help You Set Better Goals Blog: How to Find Your Why Blog: How To Learn From Last Year Blog: What Did You Learn From Last Year? Blog: Make Better Decisions to Help Your Sport Performance including VALUES LIST Motivation for Sport Quiz