As mentioned before, we need to see performance as a jigsaw puzzle, requiring many pieces to be fitted into place to make the overall picture of optimal performance. We are going to explore the psychology piece and identify what smaller pieces make up the psychology piece. You will discover the key psychological pillars for optimal performance.
Athletes must learn, understand, train and implement the psychological piece to reach optimal performance. A jigsaw puzzle wouldn’t be complete without all its pieces neatly fitted together. The same goes for performance, Yet, many athletes and performers neglect this piece and don’t work on it. However, many athletes and performers want to reach optimal performance. It feels amazing when you perform optimally, allowing your potential to shine. It is one of the main reasons people perform. It feels amazing. Just like the technical skills, the tactical knowledge and the physical side, psychology is complex and needs to be trained. The first step is awareness. Becoming aware of this piece and embracing it.
A study looked into the differences between successful and unsuccessful athletes (reference at the bottom) to find out what psychological characteristics the successful athletes showed. The successful athletes displayed higher levels of commitment, determination, and confidence, were better able to regulate arousal levels and had better concentration. They also utilised a range of mental skills more frequently compared the unsuccessful athletes. We will explore what these characteristics are, which will be called the psychological pillars for optimal performance.
Key takeaways:
Psychology is jsut one piece of the optimal performance jigsaw puzzle
Athletes and performers need to become aware, learn, train and implement the psychology jigsaw pieces
Certain psychological characteristics have been associated with optimal performance, these are the psychological pillars.
The Psychological Pillars of Optimal Performance
As mentioned above, a lot of research has been completed to try and discover what characteristics are associated with optimal performance. Five pillars have been identified that are required for athletes to successfully develop and excel.
The five pillars are as follows:
Resilience
Intelligence
Self-management
Drive
Fortitude
Each of these five pillars consists of psychological attributes, the material that makes up the pillar itself. The image at the start of the article shows the attributes that make up each pillar.
As you can see, each pillar is made up of four attributes. These attributes are things we can become aware of, learn about, acquire and develop. Exploring each pillar and its attributes is beyond the scope of this newsletter, that is something we will explore together later on.
What is important to understand as an athlete or a performer is you need to become aware of these pillars and their attributes and evaluate your pillars. Once you start to understand and learn about these, you can then see which pillars need developing and how to leverage your strongest pillars. Let’s say your strongest pillar is the ‘drive’ pillar. You have all the attributes that make up that pillar and they are all well developed. What does that look like for your sport? You could say it looks like someone who always turns up to training, always puts in the best amount of effort they can, always listens and stays on task and has a clear vision of where they want to go and what they want to do. That ‘drive’ pillar would be pretty sturdy and stable. However, if one of the other pillars wasn’t as sturdy as the ‘drive’ pillar, our performance could be affected.
Each pillar and its attributes need to be worked upon if we are to try and work towards reaching optimal performance. These pillars and their attributes make it clear to us as athletes and performers what we need to focus on and develop.
The best thing to start with is to assess your pillars. Rate each attribute between one to ten and then give each pillar an overall score out of 40. Take some time to properly do this. You could do it with a coach or someone within your performance domain you trust. Once you have become aware of your pillars, you can start to work on optimising each pillar. How can we change something if we are not aware of it? This is why it is important to take time and understand your pillars.
As an athlete or performer, we are all striving towards performing optimally. Whilst performance is complex and made up of many parts, we need to become aware of each piece that makes up optimal performance. I hope I have helped you start that journey of becoming aware of the psychological piece of the optimal performance jigsaw puzzle. As I mentioned before, a jigsaw puzzle is never complete without all its pieces fitted together. The same goes for optimal performance.
Thank you for reading! If you have any questions, or comments, or would like to explore how sports psychology can enhance your performance, feel free to reach out to me at drodgerssportpsych@gmail.com or give me a call at 07475 925 292. You can also check out my website by clicking this link https://www.thesportingbrain.com/. I'm here to help you unlock your full potential.
References
Mills, A. Butt, J. & Maynard, I.W. (2023). Introducing an Integrated Model of Talent Development: From Research to Practice, Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 14:2, 121-131.
