At Everest Strong Coaching, we can help our clients develop sustainable methods of caring for their overall wellness, health, and well-being. We work one-on-one with athletes to identify the strengths and values needed to create long-term wellness plans. We work together with our clients to figure what needs to happen to attain their goals. Depending on the athlete’s needs, we may take a variety of approaches to ensure the well-being of the client.

We can help their clients set goals for:

  • Exercise
  • Nutrition
  • Mental and emotional health
  • Lifestyle/behavioral changes

Coaching for athlete wellness includes motivating our clients to stay focused on their goals, and tracking their progress in meeting them. We prepare smaller, more attainable steps while also providing support and guidance along the way. The client should feel empowered by us to attain all the goals set out for them.

When choosing a certified mental game coach, verifying expertise and a background in sports is crucial. Our certified mental game coach is also a sports psychologist and insight-oriented clinical psychologist with a background in horse racing, skiing, and marathon running. Advice given to our clients comes from a place of experience in attaining athletic goals. It may be helpful to ask your doctor to point you in the direction of any reputable and qualified certified mental game coaches and sports psychologists who can help you attain your wellness goals.

Game Preparation

In every sport, the top athletes often have similar skill sets and abilities. You often see two athletes going head-to-head with almost identical stamina and range. However, what separates the winners from those who fall behind is their ability to overcome any mental pressures or anxieties during the game. In other words, the top athletes can zone distractions out to focus on executing the task at hand.

Therefore, athletes must learn how to mentally prepare themselves before a game to be in the right headspace to set themselves apart from others. The mental skills required in the highest-performing athletes include:

  • Calmness under pressure
  • Control over emotions
  • confidence
  • mental alertness
  • positivity

By improving on these qualities, an athlete will then boost their level of consistency. Having all of these mental skills in check will sharpen their ability to remain focused on the game and ignore any distractions. It is important to remember that the best athletes do not avoid pressure; rather, they learn how to adapt to that part of the sport and develop the confidence in their abilities to perform in any situation.

Before a game, athletes can help themselves reach the ideal mental state by relaxing, concentrating on the task, visualizing their success, controlling their emotions and attitudes, remaining aware, and positively affirming themselves. In doing so, the athlete will be in a better mental space to perform, and hopefully set themselves apart from the competition.

Improve Personal Athletic Drive

More than ever before, athletes are in the best place to improve their athletic performance due to recent athletic technology and training methodology innovations. Today, athletes are performing at the most optimal rate they have ever been able to achieve. So, if you are trying to improve your athletic performance, there are many resources to help you do so. However, because it may be overwhelming to decide where to start, we have put together a list of the best methods to take your training to the next level.

  1. Vary Your Workouts

For most athletes, functional exercises are the most beneficial in training efficiently. Athletes have to remember that improving their performance is not about their body aesthetics or their weight. Instead, it is about training your mental abilities, your response time, and your muscle strength. Therefore, functional exercises have proven to be an excellent foundation for every athlete’s workout routine. In addition to functional exercises, it is also essential to incorporate drills and cardio to ensure that you are switching things up enough to stimulate your body and prevent plateaus in your results.

  1. Track and Measure Your Training Progress

Keeping track of your training progress is the best way to push yourself closer to your goals. Having factual data will only motivate you to continue improving as you train. Many coaches will advise you to use this data to set small goals for yourself so that you can reach the greater picture more efficiently and effectively over time. Luckily, modern technology has made it easier than ever to measure your training progress. For example, fitness watches and smartphones allow athletes to keep track of data such as heart rate, running distance, and so much more. Even more, all this data will be presented in the most cohesive way.

  1. Make Hydration a Priority

Staying hydrated should be the top priority for every athlete during every workout. Because athletes sweat during workouts, it is extremely easy to get dehydrated. If this happens, you may start to lose consciousness and even injure yourself. In the worst cases, athletes may experience heatstroke if they are outside. It is crucial to remember that doctors recommend athletes drink 20 to 40 ounces of water per hour during a workout. You should also be drinking water before and after exercising to ensure that your body is hydrated enough to produce the sweat that cools off your system. Staying hydrated will ensure you see a significant increase in your ability to perform athletically.

  1. Recover Properly

Recovering your body is just as important as training it. For one, recovery allows an athlete’s body to prevent injuries in the future. Your muscles need adequate time to heal from the tiny little tears your muscle tissues experience during a workout. In addition, your body needs time to replenish your energy stores. For example, carbohydrates, also known as muscle glycogen, need time to restore before your next workout. Therefore, you must allow your body enough time to recover after workouts. In this time, you can slowly stretch the muscles and even get a massage.

  1. Train Your Mental Skills

There is no question how important clarity of mind is to an athlete. Training your brain is one of the most valuable ways to improve your athletic performance and can set you apart from the competition. Even if your physical performance is perfect, your mental skills can drastically alter the game’s outcome. So, if you would like to improve your athletic performance, you should also prioritize improving your mental skills. Doing so will help you improve your reaction times and help you respond as accurately as possible.

  1. Focus on Nutrition

In many cases, eating nutritional foods is a crucial step in improving an athlete’s performance. In order to train your body as hard as you can, you also need to be eating healthy, nutritional foods. Instead of eating a large bowl of sugary cereals in the morning, you should opt for a well-balanced breakfast that includes carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. By starting at the beginning of the day, you will have plenty of fuel to optimize your physical being throughout the day.

Improve Focus in Athletes

For an athlete to reach optimal performance, they must perfect their ability to concentrate. Internal and external distractions are common for all athletes to endure; however, the athlete who can drown them out will set themselves apart from the athletes who cannot. The most well-rounded athletes learn how to focus their attention on the task at hand and concentrate on what needs to be accomplished. Luckily, we have compiled a list of methods proven to help athletes sharpen their focus and concentration.

  • Practice under the most distracting situations. For example, an athlete who gets distracted by crowds should practice performing in front of people or with some audience.
  • Perfect your pre-game routine so that you can get in the zone quicker. By blocking out all the noise and distractions, the athlete can establish a consistent routine that preps their mental state for the game.
  • Try to relax by meditating, listening to music, or performing any pre-game rituals. A stressed athlete is not going to perform as well as an athlete who made it a point to relax before the game.
  • Use visualization and imagery to put yourself in the headspace of succeeding. This method helps athletes feel more in control of their situation and in a better place to succeed.

How to Be Sports Tough

Learning how to deal with and overcome challenges in sports comes down to having mental toughness. Losing a game and staying positive, or the ability to perform well in a high-pressure situation stems from developing your mental toughness. Some techniques elite athletes use to improve their mental game include the following.

  1. Learn how to deal with negative feelings and thoughts.

Because it is natural to feel negative emotions, it is crucial to learn how to redirect them into a more positive light. This is a skill you can practice in any part of your life to get in the habit of dealing with any negative feelings that may arise. You should be more aware of the things you tell yourself or imagine. By constantly thinking negative thoughts, you will only achieve that level of success. However, you should practice replacing those negative thoughts and emotions with more optimistic phrases to keep you focused on the next task.

  1. Don’t spend too much time thinking about negative or positive outcomes.

While it is OK to react to a positive or negative outcome, it is more important to learn how to move on and get ready for the next challenge. Sometimes, athletes have a hard time moving from one point to the next, which can get in the way of their success. So, stop and let yourself refocus on what is important so that you can set yourself up for success on your next journey.

  1. Learn how to control your emotions.

Hot tempers and bad attitudes are extremely common in sports. It is clear to everyone that any athlete who cannot handle their emotions cannot perform to the best of their ability. If you find yourself having a hard time collecting your thoughts and getting your emotions in check, practice how to avoid these issues by leaving the room, counting to 10, chewing gum, or anything else. It is essential to learn how to redirect your anger so that your emotions do not control you, and instead, you can control them.

  1. Visualize yourself performing well.

Visualization and imagery have proven to be great tools to improve an athlete’s performance. Therefore, it is beneficial to learn how to close your eyes and imagine yourself completing the task at your highest capability. By the time you have to complete the task in real life, you will have already done it so many times in your head that it will feel second nature to perform it again. Doing so will give you the advantage over the other athletes who do not mentally prepare themselves for the game.

How to Be Unstoppable in Sports

Athletes often perform better when they have a personal stake in what they are doing. For example, athletes often dig a little deeper when they find their purpose, driving them forward. It is important to remember that trophies, medals, and prize money will not always motivate an athlete to improve their skill and keep going. Instead, they are more likely to focus on their craft and strive for better if they have something personally valuable to them that motivates them intrinsically. Often, we see this separation between athletes that are great and athletes that are good. Luckily, we have compiled a list of skills you can practice to ensure you can be unstoppable in your sport.

  • Mental Prep

To succeed at a task, you must convince yourself that there isn’t anything that can get in the way of you achieving your goal. By truly believing in yourself and your abilities, you will find that you will cultivate a solid mental awareness that makes you unstoppable.

  • Physical Prep

Once you get your mental prep in check, it is equally important to make sure your body is well equipped to perform whatever task you seek to accomplish. No matter how much willpower and determination you may have, nothing will overcome a body that is not physically prepared to reach a certain performance threshold.

  • Experience

Every time you think about quitting and do not, you are training your brain to overcome any doubt that may stop you from achieving your goals. The more you do this, the more experience you are giving yourself to move forward with a greater knowledge of what you can achieve. Anything you tell yourself you cannot do, but do anyway, will only teach you that there is nothing you cannot accomplish.

Goal Setting in Sports

Goal setting is crucial for athletes at any sporting level because it allows you to continually reach for something greater than what you already have. To fully understand goal setting, it’s essential to recognize a person’s short-, medium-, and long-term goals. Even more, these goals can be broken down into more categories, including outcome goals, performance goals, and process goals.

One of the best goal-setting strategies many athletes and coaches follow are SMART goals. Essentially, this method helps highlight what goals a person might want to achieve. For example, an athlete will want to set specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-based goals. Using this SMART goal method, the athlete can ensure that every area is given attention, making the goal more practical and achievable.

Setting goals is one of the most essential skills athletes can utilize to help them reach their peak performance. It helps them focus on important aspects of their sport and gives them a sense of positive direction and control. Goal setting also gives athletes confidence in their abilities and helps them move forward towards bettering themselves.

If you are interested in hearing more about game preparation, improving your drive and focus, or goal setting, call our team of sports performance coaches at 1-847-778-3997.