Menos Hiras on Athletic Psychology: Three Tools to Use for Peak Performance

Menos Hiras believes that your mind must also be conditioned before you can achieve excellence in your sport. After all, a healthy mind yields discipline and focus, which can put you in peak shape to conquer your opponents on the field.

He shares three mental tools to help keep you on top of your game:

1. Set goals. Great athletes have a personal goal in mind that they wish to achieve through training and practice. They identify weak points in their game and focus on improving these through practice. To make a goal effective, make sure that it’s specific, measurable, attainable, time-based, and written down. Once a goal has been reached, create a new one. Menos Hiras shares that setting goals the right way enables an athlete to see progress and move forward.

2. Self-talk. How athletes talk to themselves off the field and on the field significantly impacts their attitude and performance. Examples of self-talk include instructional, which focuses on method and technique such as “keep knees bent,” and motivational, which gives confidence and psyches you up. Keep your self-talk healthy and affirmative to get the best results.

3. Visualization. Imagining a specific scenario in your head activates several of the same brain regions as doing the act. Athletes visualize how they want to perform during the game as a way of preparing the brain to carry out the task. Menos Hiras notes that this is a widely practiced and powerful way to improve your athletic skills and performance. To gain the most benefit from the technique involve the senses of sight, sound, and feeling in your visualization.

Menos Hiras shares that there are other psychological tools that athletes use to improve their performance. Always remember that the mind is a potent instrument, especially when used with an equally conditioned body.