Sports mental fitness
Mental Fitness & Performance
Listen to Tarun Gulati, Founder of Contemplate, talk about the past, present and future of sports mental fitness and how the Contemplate sports mental fitness framework brings in a healthier approach for coaches and athletes.
A human being first
An athlete is a human being first, a “human being + an athlete” for only a few years, and continues to be a human being for many more years.
Historically, sports has been focused on the body.
The mind was discussed but only for the sake of making the body better (performance). Now we are discussing the mind for the sake of the mind - mental health. But mental health today really refers to mental illness. It is a cure approach.
The next step in this evolution is to move to a prevention approach. That's mental fitness.
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The Contemplate Sports Mental Fitness Framework
You would like a systematic method to help people find clarity and peace of mind on an ongoing basis
Stress Management (covering various types of stress: performance, image, expectations, winning, future, etc.)
Focus and Discipline
Injury management
Mental Reset
Focus Dot exercises
Pre, During and Post Game Rituals
Peripheral Vision
Flow State
Conviction
Emotional Regulation
Physical Stillness
Breathing
Meditation
Visualization
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How does Contemplate work?
We have a certification program for coaches where we will train them to become Certified Contemplate Mental Fitness Coaches. These could be your existing coaches or other staff members, yoga teachers, psychologists, therapists, etc. Once certified, the coaches then use the Contemplate platform to train the athletes in mental fitness on an ongoing basis.
The mental fitness exercises become part of their weekly schedule. Just like a coach might give out a certain number of physical fitness or technique exercises to an athlete, now they will also add a set of mental fitness exercises to their routine. Most of these exercises are done while they do their existing physical exercises or other activities in their life.
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These mental fitness exercises are of two types:
Core Mental Fitness
The Core program addresses the human being aspect of the athlete and provides them mental fitness training using the practice of Contemplation. This helps them make better decisions at home, work, social media, school, practice, game and everywhere else in life.
Sports Mental Fitness
In addition to the Core module, the specialized sports mental fitness module is a very comprehensive sports training system that addresses everything that an athlete might need help with in their athletic career. It contains exercises for stress, focus, discipline, flow state, injury downtime strategy, peripheral vision, meditation, visualization and more. But all this is effective only if the athlete has clarity of thought and peace of mind, which is part of our core mental fitness training.
The key is to address the root of the problem. Symptomatic relief will not help in the long run. When a coach tells a player - "Get your head back into the game" or "Don't stress" or "Leave your problems outside the field", the question is how many hours of specific training have the athletes gone through for those things? Probably zero. Then how do we expect them to deliver? Just like their body won't deliver if it wasn't trained, their mind cannot deliver without mental fitness training.
We need to move from cure to prevention. From telling to training. We need to move from mental health to mental fitness.
There are three pillars to sports mental fitness:
Human Being first then an Athlete
We need to acknowledge this and address it authentically. The Contemplate mental fitness system starts with a Core Mental Fitness Program that addresses the human being part of an athlete.
From Mental Health to Mental Fitness
From cure to prevention. The Contemplate system is designed as an ongoing training system to ensure that the athletes never cross the threshold and become mentally ill. The goal is to maximize their potential as an athlete while also maximizing their peace of mind.
Ongoing 52 wk Mental Fitness Training
While it is good that mental health awareness programs help in reducing the stigma, increasing awareness, etc. about mental health. But if we really need to tackle this problem, then a half-hearted, step-motherly approach will not work. Crisis hotlines, tips or free resources providing generic guidance won't work. Just like an athlete's body doesn't train using tips, hotlines and free resources, their mind needs an ongoing, 52 wk mental fitness training system. Not once a month workshop. Not a retreat. Not a trip to the psychologist. If you are serious about this, you need ongoing mental fitness training just like physical fitness training. The Contemplate mental fitness system is built to provide such training to athletes, coaches and parents on an ongoing basis.