Let’s talk about controlling the controllables.
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A big mistake that athletes make is allowing their focus to drift to factors outside of their control, which prevents them from doing the things they can do to actually influence their performance. That’s why we love this segment from @PerformingUnderPressure by @HendrieWeisinger and @JPPawlinFry.
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⚾ 24 years ago on July 22, 1997, @Greg_Maddux31 threw a 78 pitch complete game. When asked by reporters about his performance, Maddux replied “73 out of 78” without further explanation.
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⚾ “What Maddux meant was that in his simple assessment, 73 out of the 78 balls he pitched left his fingers in the desired way, which was a good day in his estimation. Everything that happened to the ball after it left his fingers was beyond his control and irrelevant to him”.
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Athletes should commit to the process and Compete from moment to moment with an emphasis on the things they can control and letting go of the things they can’t.
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What aspects of performance do you need to let go of?
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#73outof78
#Controllables
#CompeteMPT
#SportMentality
#ToSeekTogether
#SportsMentalCoaching
#MentalPerformanceTraining
#MentalPerformanceCoach
#TheMentalGame
#SportPsychology
My sister danced throughout her childhood and young adult years, and I learned so much from watching her and the process of performing on stage.
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🩰 Dancing in one fluid routine without breaking step requires intense focus, which makes me think about imagery.
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👁️ Imagery involves using the mind's eye and recruiting as many senses as you can to visualize and practice your performance in your mind. It may feel uncomfortable at first, maybe even silly, but performers at the highest levels use imagery on a weekly if not daily basis.
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💪Whether in performance art or in sport, imagery is a great way to achieve peak performance. It has been proven to improve performance goals, and the best part is it doesn't take the physical toll on the body that practice does.
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When a dancer can imagine their routine from beginning to end exactly the way that they’ve practiced it, the mind can learn from that image as though it were performed physically.
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How can you incorporate imagery into your practice routine? 👀
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#SiblingExcellence
#DanceWithImagery
#CompeteMPT
#SportMentality
#ToSeekTogether
#SportsMentalCoaching
#MentalPerformanceTraining
#MentalPerformanceCoach
#TheMentalGame
#SportPsychology
👟 “In a wide variety of human activity, achievement is not possible without discomfort” Alex Hutchinson in Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance 👟
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“What’s crucial is the need to override what your instincts are telling you to do [slow down, back off, give up], and the sense of elapsed time. Taking a punch without flinching requires self-control, but endurance implies something more sustained: holding your finger in the flame long enough to feel the heat; filling the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run.”
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Alex Hutchinson is discussing the essence of peak performance. Endurance athletes know, as well as anyone, what it means to push through pain.
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The trick is training your mind to push past the pain in order to expand your limits. Focus and mental performance training are crucial when your entire body is on fire and you want to pursue excellence!
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What do you focus on during endurance exercise?
#LongDistanceRunning
#EnduranceAthletes
#PursueExcellence
#SportMentality
#ToSeekTogether
#SportsMentalCoaching
#MentalPerformanceTraining
#MentalPerformanceCoach
#TheMentalGame
#SportPsychology
⚾️On July 5th, 1947 Lawrence (Larry) Eugene Doby became the second Black player to play in Major League Baseball and the 1st in the American League 🧢
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Today, we honor Larry Doby, whose debut was just a few short months after Jackie Robinson’s monumental and society altering debut on April 15, 1947. In the face of racial prejudice, he remained a superior hitter and outfielder during his 13-season career, and both he and Jackie made their way to the Hall of Fame.
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Hats off to you, Larry Doby!
#LarryDoby
#Doby
#HallOfFamer
#SportMentality
#ToSeekTogether
#SportsMentalCoaching
#MentalPerformanceTraining
#MentalPerformanceCoach
#TheMentalGame
#SportPsychology
⛳Golf is really hard: Confirmed ⛳
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You could argue that golf is the most frustrating game out there, and it can wreak havoc on the most experienced of players.
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Mental skills are vital for golfers who want to keep a level head and maximize performance, and the mental side of golf is all about approach and focusing on process over results.
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🏌️Golfers who master the mental game develop repeatable, consistent pre-shot routines.
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Did you put a good, consistent swing on the ball? Then I don't care if you're in the woods, sand or water - that's a good stroke, because that’s all you can control. ✅ ✅
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Golfers - What routines do you incorporate into your golf game? 🤔
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#PreShotRoutine
#FORE
#SportMentality
#ToSeekTogether
#SportsMentalCoaching
#MentalPerformanceTraining
#MentalPerformanceCoach
#TheMentalGame
#SportPsychology
❓Have you ever struggled with injury❓
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⚠️First off, some injuries carry the threat of worsening over time and threatening your long-term health, so when dealing with injury always consult with your physician and/or trainer about whether you should play through it. However, some injuries can be played through and the right healthcare provider can help you make that determination. ⚠️
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With that said, pain is a natural distraction from performance. It can lead to us getting down on ourselves and even impact our competitive drive. Whether you’re cleared to play or need more time to rehab, try some of these mindset tips:
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❌ Instead of dwelling on the pain, accept that you will experience discomfort and choose to focus your attention on your game ✅
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❌ Don’t worry about your injury stopping you from competing the way you typically do, commit to playing well with your “B” or “C” game ✅
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❌ Rather than focusing on whether your replacement will take your spot, focus on your job -- rehabbing with the trainers and supporting your teammates. You will compete again when you’re healthy ✅
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❌ Rehab is hard work and sometimes takes longer than we’d like. Don’t let it discourage you, focus on daily rehab goals and celebrate every victory, big or small ✅
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How do you use mindset to help you recover from injury? 🤔
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#InjuryRecovery
#SportMentality
#ToSeekTogether
#SportsMentalCoaching
#MentalPerformanceTraining
#MentalPerformanceCoach
#ThementalGame
#Sportpsychology
📋 When you think of coaching, do you think of mental skills? 📋
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The best coaches in the world use mental performance skills every day, and there's many reasons why:
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🏆Mental performance skills help coaches and athletes grow as individuals
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🏆It promotes team cohesion and team building - a team that plays together wins together!
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🏆It helps coaches best execute their gameplan to make the right calls when they matter most.
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Coaches - how have you used mental performance skills to enhance your players’ performance?
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#CoachingMentalSkills
#SportMentality
#ToSeekTogether
#SportsMentalCoaching
#MentalPerformanceTraining
#MentalPerformanceCoach
#ThementalGame
#Sportpsychology
“When you’re in that moment, there’s no beginning and no end. It starts off where it left off. When you go to that place, there’s no time, and there’s definitely no thought. It’s just pure. You are and it is and that’s why we continually seek it out, and always search for it, and need it. We need it to feel alive…” Laird Hamilton in The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance by @Kotler.Steven
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🌊 A lot of athletes talk about being “in the zone”, which we refer to scientifically as a Flow State
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🔥All athletes are familiar with this feeling, where you’re on fire and you can’t be stopped. The better we define it the more likely we are to create opportunities to achieve Flow.
🏄 Surfers and other action sport athletes are natural born hunters of Flow States, as the great @LairdHamiltonSurf describes here.
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Can you think of a time you found yourself in Flow?
#FlowState
#SportMentality
#ToSeekTogether
#SportsMentalCoaching
#MentalPerformanceTraining
#MentalPerformanceCoach
#ThementalGame
#Sportpsychology
🤕 Let’s face it, injuries suck. 🤕
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They impact the body, the mind, our lifestyle and our competitive drive.
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We’ve made tremendous strides in the scientific approach to injury rehab and prevention and we see the results PT can yield -- especially when we work with our friends and colleagues at @GoalDrivenPT who are leaders in the field of physiotherapy!
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We know that an under-utilized service in the area of sports injury rehab is sports psychology, and that PT and mental training working together can often give you the best chance at a speedy recovery from injury, as well as relief from chronic pain.
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Athletes can recover more quickly by using effective goal setting, self-talk, and healing imagery as part of their rehab.
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💪 Have you ever used mental exercises to recover more quickly?
#InjuryRecovery
#SportMentality
#ToSeekTogether
#SportsMentalCoaching
#MentalPerformanceTraining
#MentalPerformanceCoach
#ThementalGame
#Sportpsychology
💡Control the Controllables 💡
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Athletes often get caught up in things they can’t control. The moment you start worrying about the weather, you're in trouble.
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But there’s good news! You don’t have to worry about the weather, or a bad call, a negative teammate, your coach's game plan, etc.
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That’s because the only thing you truly have control of is yourself, so there’s no sense in focusing on anything else. You control your mindset, your approach, your focus, your commitment to the process of playing YOUR game.
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Focusing on anything else is just a waste of your time and energy which could be going towards becoming a more productive player.
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What are the uncontrollables that distract you and what do you do to fix them?
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#LetItGo
#Uncontrollables
#Sportmentality
#ToSeekTogether
#SportsMentalCoaching
#MentalPerformanceTraining
#MentalPerformanceCoach
#TheMentalGame
#Sportpsychology
🤼 It may seem counterintuitive, but part of what draws us to combat sports is how they bring out mindfulness in competitors 🤼
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In the heat of the moment, the wrestler must rely on their breath, focus on their opponent, and maintain composure.
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Pain becomes information.
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There are many ways to practice mindfulness, and for us combat sports offer a unique opportunity to practice those skills.
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How do you trust your training? 👀
#TrustYourTraining
#CombatSport
#CompeteMPT
#SportMentality
#ToSeekTogether
#SportsMentalCoaching
#MentalPerformanceTraining
#MentalPerformanceCoach
#TheMentalGame
#SportPsychology
⚾ “To be a more consistent player, be more consistent about the way you prepare for games” in Heads Up Baseball 2.0 by Ken Ravizza, Ph.D and Tom Hanson, Ph.D ⚾
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Performance routines are essential to consistent performance, but what does that really mean?
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Performance routines refer to any intentional, planned, repeated acts you can rely on to ready your body, thoughts, and emotions for competition. They can be used anytime, whether that’s broadly before every game or specifically, like before every pitch/play or when you get distracted.
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Performance routines keep things simple and prevent the mind and body from responding to things that don’t matter. Sometimes they are mental routines you repeat in your head, sometimes they are physical behaviors.
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That's why you might see a batter adjust his batting gloves between every pitch, or a pitcher take a deep breath while focusing toward center field. They are not superstitions, they’re intentional.
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Do you have any performance routines that you rely on?
#CompeteMPT
#Sportmentality
#toseektogether
#sportsmentalcoaching
#Mentalperformancetraining
#mentalperformancecoach
#Thementalgame
#Sportpsychology
🥊How do you keep fighting when your body tells you to give up? 🥊
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After a decade of boxing, one of my favorite aspects of it is finding new and creative ways to befriend the parts of the body and mind that scream at you to give up.
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The more you can welcome those feelings, the further and further you can push beyond them.
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If you're looking for motivation, during the times when it's hardest to find it, CompeteMPT is here to help.
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What do you do to push beyond your limits?
#CompeteMPT
#Sportmentality
#toseektogether
#sportsmentalcoaching
#Mentalperformancetraining
#mentalperformancecoach
#Thementalgame
#Sportpsychology
🤔💭Do you get in your head during a game?🤔💭
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It helps to understand the phases of the performance process:
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🏆Prepare: Practice is a time to build proper mechanics, mental approach, and intensity to be used in a game. Focus can be on building muscle memory, developing/applying performance routines, and bringing your all to every competitive moment.
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🏆 Perform: TRUST YOUR PREPARATION! We do NOT prepare or evaluate while we are still performing. Competition is a time to execute your muscle memory and competitive drive, rather than wasting focus and mental energy on correcting mechanics or getting frustrated with results. When this happens, you're in your head!
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🏆Evaluate: After a performance is when you non-judgmentally evaluate what you did well and what you can improve upon. The trick is being an accurate evaluator, and avoiding dwelling on mistakes, getting frustrated, or ignoring bad performances altogether.
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❔What interferes with your performance process❔
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#PreparePerformEvaluate
#TrustYourPreparation
#CompeteMPT
#Sportmentality
#toseektogether
#sportsmentalcoaching
#Mentalperformancetraining
#mentalperformancecoach
#Thementalgame
#Sportpsychology
⛹️♀️ WNBA starts this week, so let's talk about goal setting⛹️♀️
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The start of any season makes us think about goal setting. Your hard work during the off season can finally be applied, but only if you’ve prepared.
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Goal setting comes in three levels: short term, mid term and long term.
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Short term goals are process oriented, they help you today. Long term goals are more outcome oriented, they’re where you want to go ⏭
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Effective goal setting requires measurability and accountability - not all goals are good goals.
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🤔 What goals are you striving towards?
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#GoalSetting
#CompeteMPT
#Sportmentality
#toseektogether
#sportsmentalcoaching
#Mentalperformancetraining
#mentalperformancecoach
#Thementalgame
#Sportpsychology
❓Do you lose focus when the pressure is on❓
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Focus is essential during competition, and at Compete we believe your focus should be in the here and now.
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The ability to remain in the moment is the KEY to peak performance. As you notice your thoughts drifting toward the unproductive or uncontrollable, try these redirections instead instead:
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❌Don’t focus on the score (losing OR winning), develop a re-focusing cue to bring you back to the present ✅
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❌Instead of being consumed by your emotions toward your opponent, focus on the execution of your craft ✅
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❌ Rather than focusing on specific mechanics, trust your training and execute with muscle memory ✅
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Just point your focus like an arrow and execute your training!
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What thought patterns are you working on changing? 🤔
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#Refocus
#Mindset
#CompeteMPT
#Sportmentality
#toseektogether
#sportsmentalcoaching
#Mentalperformancetraining
#mentalperformancecoach
#Thementalgame
#Sportpsychology
🏈 There’s just a few weeks left of OTA’s, and I find myself thinking about all of the work that athletes put in behind the scenes. 🏈
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Athletes devote thousands of hours in the offseason to honing the finer points of their craft, which is what separates them from the competition.
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And the more elite you get in sports, the more important mental skills become in terms of distinguishing those who make it from those who don't.
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Mental skills will set them apart. And that’s what we do at CompeteMPT.
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⬇️ Where could you use mental skills to enhance your life? ⬇️
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#CompeteMPT
#OTA
#Sportmentality
#toseektogether
#sportsmentalcoaching
#Mentalperformancetraining
#mentalperformancecoach
#Thementalgame
#Sportpsychology
🐘 Did you think of a pink elephant? 🐘
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Controlling your mind can be difficult. How we speak to ourselves directs our focus, our focus controls our thoughts, which influences how we feel.
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if you tell yourself you’re angry about your last pitch, you’re not focused on your next one, and might even feel badly about it. None of that improves the quality of your next pitch ⚾
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The more you learn how to control your focus, the more you can focus your attention on what’s important.
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And that's how we make performance matter in the moment.
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❓When do you have trouble controlling your thoughts?❓
#pinkelephant
#CompeteMPT
#Sportmentality
#toseektogether
#sportsmentalcoaching
#Mentalperformancetraining
#mentalperformancecoach
#Thementalgame
#Sportpsychology
🤔 What does “to seek together” mean? 🤔
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“The roots of the word ‘compete’ are the Latin con petire, which meant ‘to seek together’.”
— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, PhD (Me-high Cheek-sent-me-high)
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Sometimes people think this is about the partnership between the athlete and the Mental Performance Trainer but
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At Compete, we see it a little bit differently.
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We are in the business of forging the relationship between the physical pursuits required for performance and the mental strategies required to achieve them.
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We at Compete also believe in “Seek Together” in the literal sense; that true empowerment and optimal experience cannot be achieved without a community effort toward equity and inclusion of all peoples. Optimal performance thrives on diversified perspectives, and all people are invited to “Seek Together” with us, no matter your pursuit.
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So whether you participate in a team sport, individual sport, in the arts or in business, we always emphasize the importance to COMPETE within!
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Check us out on ToSeekTogether.com to learn more🎉
#CompeteMPT
#Sportmentality
#toseektogether
#sportsmentalcoaching
#Mentalperformancetraining
#mentalperformancecoach
#Thementalgame
#Sportpsychology
💥 Is Mental Performance Training for you?💥
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Mental Performance Training (sometimes referred to as sport psychology) is the approach of harnessing the power of the mind to maximize performance.
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Mental skills have been used for decades. ANY activity that requires performance can be enhanced through the knowledge and use of mental skills!
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What it boils down to is this:
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Do you believe that there is a mental side of performance? Have you ever experienced the phenomenon of being in the zone? Most athletes we work with do, yet few dedicate time toward training that aspect of their game.
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At Compete, we teach skills to hone the power of the mind to allow your thousands of hours of physical training to become further reinforced with the empowering skills of mental training 🧠💪
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Whether you want to improve focus/concentration, to better control your breathing, find “the zone”, improve self-confidence, be more “clutch”, or maximize your recovery from injury, Compete is here to help.
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We utilize a variety of intervention strategies that include, but are absolutely not limited to: biofeedback, mental imagery, effective goal setting, progressive muscle relaxation, and mindset training to help you achieve YOUR excellence.
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⬇️ What skills do you want to improve? ⬇️
#CompeteMPT
#Sportmentality
#toseektogether
#sportsmentalcoaching
#Mentalperformancetraining
#mentalperformancecoach
#Thementalgame
#Sportpsychology
