When we consider top-tier athletes, at any tier, there is always something that separates them from the rest of the field. To varying degrees at different levels of competition, there is some combination of physical prowess, skill and abilities, strategy, mental toughness, and competitive edge that create advantages. Some of these are naturally occurring, some are external gifts, and some are internal specialties. I’m sure at some point there will be developed an algorithm that calculates the potential achievement of an individual athlete within a variety of situations that may be used to help them decide where to “take their talents” in order to maximize them, or how to spend their time training.

Though the science of sport is already being applied at greater detail and with increasing frequency to even younger athletes, the most obscure and evasive weapon to train will always remain the same: the mind.

(Luckily for all of us, training the mind, and its connection to our bodies, will benefit us well beyond sport and our days of athletic competition, but we’ll just stick to that application of it in this post).

There’s a lot of frustration in sport and competition, and learning to embrace that will create some of the best athletes. But one of the most frustrating entities in sport, both in the present and retrospectively, is the skilled athlete without the competitive mind. I would know, I was one of those cases. A plague then and a blessing now it has led to training, research, and application to help others avoid this feeling - not only in sport, but in life as well.

This series of posts will discuss common mental obstacles, address physical manifestations, and suggest self-guided exercises to help develop the weapon of the mind for your competitive arsenal.