Goal Setting

Is shedding a few pounds on your list of New Year’s resolutions? This ParticipACTION blog asks “why?” Whatever your goal, effective tips include focusing on something under your control, getting in touch with your deepest desires, and setting a positive goal.

Self-awareness – a key driver in developing well-rounded leaders

“First, know thyself.” -Socrates Self-awareness is the ability to recognize, understand and manage one’s feelings, thoughts and behaviours. To better manage the complexities of the current sport and social landscape, self-awareness is a foundational skill that is being increasingly recognized as an essential trait for all leaders. As renowned bestselling author Daniel Coleman of Emotional…

Managing Pain in Endurance Sports

Endurance athletes need to persevere through pain in training and competition. According to Kent University’s Samuele Marcora “our mind is what dictates our physical limits”. Exhaustion is not caused by muscle failure, but by the conscious decision to disengage from an endurance task. According to Marcora’s psychobiological model of endurance performance, perception of effort –…

Regulating Pre-performance Psychobiosocial States with Music

SIRC Highlights from the Study Study background: For athletes at high levels, the ability to control one’s mind in the moments leading up to performance is a key element of pre-performance preparation. Music has been used by many athletes as a way of addressing pre-performance states in a variety of ways. Some use it as…

Mindfulness for Peak Performance

Being an athlete is rewarding in countless ways, but there are also times it can be stressful. From experienced world-class athletes to young children in sport, athletes can be under immense external and internal pressure. To promote peak performance, as well as continued enjoyment of sport, mental skills training should be included within the training…

Sport Injury – Healing the Mind and Body

Most athletes, competitive through recreational, experience injury in their sport at some time. There are many practitioners out there who can help heal the physical symptoms of the injury from the family doctor to the physical therapist. But dealing with the physical side of injury is only half the battle. What we cannot forget to address…

Attention Training in Young Elite Athletes – Highlights from Recent Research

In the arena of sport psychology, research around attention and its relationship to athletic performance has been around for a number of years. Much of this research has focused on athlete training, and deliberate practice in particular, when it comes to developing potential talent in young athletes. Though the old saying seems to indicate that…

Getting psyched for sport – Mental fitness strategies for the aspiring athlete

Mental fitness plays a large part in training and performance. There will be times when an athlete makes a mistake (or consecutive mistakes), is competing against an opponent that has outperformed them in the past, or the conditions of play are not what was expected. Being mentally fit encapsulates many different areas of training and…

Role of a Sport Psychologist

Today’s athletes experience a variety of pressures and stress when it comes to sport performance. Many athletes, teams and coaches are taking advantage of sport psychology professionals to aid them in achieving their performance goals. As such sport psychologists are becoming more and more accepted as a regular part of the coaching and support staff…

What I Wish I Knew Then – 5 Lessons Learned from a High Performance Athlete

Sport teaches us innumerable lessons. When I reflect on my own sporting journey, I cringe at some of the mis-steps I took as a younger athlete. This is not to say that today I’m past the point of making mistakes. Some of us are slow learners after all, and even those of us with years…