Excelsior has worked with athletes from many different sports, all of whom have required a strong mental edge that allows them to perform at their best. This page shows an example of an important part of mental skills training, with some easy to follow exercises to practice. Good luck.

Cognitive restructuring

• Getting rid of the feelings of anxiety does not always improve performance. For example, a rugby prop scrummaging to defend his goal line would want to use maximal strength, an increase in arousal would help him.
• Channelling symptoms of anxiety into positive actions can be achieved by changing the perceptions of stress into a positive mental state.
• Negative thinking leads to negative actions. If you think that you will fail - then you will. The first step to changing your mind set is identifying what words you say to yourself (self-talk) when you are in a pressure situation.
• Example: Situation - Injury time in a rugby match, the fly half has to kick a 30-metre penalty to put his team in the lead. Negative self talk like "If I miss this kick, we will lose the match, I will get the blame." The consequences are an increase in muscle tension, he is distracted from his kicking routine, and he slices the kick. Positive self-talk "I will go through my pre - kick routine, I have kicked thousands of kicks like this in practice." He is relaxed, and kicks the penalty.

Exercise:
List a set of situations where you encounter pressure. List the thoughts that go through your head in those situations. Identify the consequences of any negative thoughts. Change those thoughts into positive thoughts. The following example may be useful to follow.
Situation:	Opposition has just scored.
Thoughts:	We are behind, it will be difficult to catch up, that means that we will lose, we will be out of the tournament.
Consequences:	You put less effort into the game, you don't chase every ball as hard as you can, you let the opposition steal the game.
Positive thoughts:	I will concentrate on being in position on the field, marking my opposite number closely and call more loudly to my team mates to pass the ball when I am open.

• Once you have written down this list of situations, you should look to incorporate them into practice. Saying the positive thoughts out loud helps to reinforce the action.
• When attempting tasks in practice, which are associated with negative self-talk, consciously stop and say your positive self-talk. This may include: attempts of new skills; when doing tasks that are difficult; when practicing match situations like defending a 1 goal lead or having to deal with an injury situation and being 1 man down; or having to overcome feelings of fatigue and digging deep to continue with effort.
• Coaches can engineer these pressure situations and then encourage their athletes to say out loud their positive self-talk.
• This should be introduced in pre-season training, or when there are no major competitions due. Practice first in training, then introduce them to small competitions to enable practice to become more permanent.