Rugby fitness training - Psychology

The mental component of sports performance is often highlighted at the elite level but brushed over when it comes to the semi professional and amateur levels.

The mind is crucial to performance, it is your thoughts, beliefs and attitudes that shape and govern how much of your potential you achieve. If you unlock your true potential you can dramatically improve your performance levels.

Influences on performance include the benefits and negatives of achieving success, the consequences of failure and the level of arousal (often called motivation).

The true influence on performance comes not from your conscious, the words and comments you say/hear but from the subconscious, the thoughts and beliefs that you hold which automatically process information below conscious awareness.

It is these thoughts that shape behavior in every aspect of life, not just your sports performance. For long term success and match day performance you must continually reinforce the positive elements of being successful. This includes imagining, visualizing and experiencing the feelings of winning or success. Positive techniques are also used to develop positive beliefs about your own abilities.

To truly build a positive mental attitude around performance you need to also break down and dissolve any negative blocks and fears you may hold. These can range from not feeling you are worthy of success to fears of hurting other players and more. These fears may or may not be within your conscious awareness.

The most powerful method for breaking down these limiting beliefs is to use a technique called emotional freedom technique (EFT). This revolutionary and new technique can be used by any player.

It works by realigning the disturbed electrical energy pattern associated with a thought or feeling. This allow the negativity to be released and thus removes the blocks to performance.

The key element to using EFT is to discover the particular blocks you may hold that are undermining your play. This is not a character defect but it is the natural outcome and every person holds mental blocks in some way or another over particular issues.

Read more about emotional freedom technique here.

Combining the techniques

Using sports psychology and EFT will allow you to play at a higher percentage of your maximum ability. To increase your maximum ability you must focus upon each of the different training areas. This will raise your athletic potential.

The mains areas to focus upon are agility, sprint training, plyometrics, resistance training, aerobic fitness, core and flexibility. The combination of these based upon your specific needs will produce dramatic results.

To optimize the benefits from training any conditioning routine must be backed up by nutrition. The most effective sports nutrition system in the world is metabolic typing. It is used by many professional teams. It is based on discovering your unique nutritional needs.