Athletes in the same competitive situation can experience different changes in intensity. For example, when within sight of winning, one athlete may have an increase in intensity and feel very nervous because she’s never defeated her opponent before and doesn’t totally believe that she can this time. While another athlete in the same situation might have a decrease in intensity and feel a letdown because she’s already mentally in the locker room thinking about her next competition.

How to calm yourself down?

Or how to increase the intensity?

5 Tips to Improve Sports Performance

1. Intense Breathing
Intensive breathing gets up pumped up. Breathing slower and deep will calm you down.

2. Move your body
Physical activity increases your intensity.

3.  High-energy self-talk
Keep your intensity up by high-energy and positive self-talk.

4. High-energy body language
Use body language to build up your confidence and eagerness to compete.

5. Music
Use music to build excitement and increase energy levels.

To read the full article, go to Psych-up Techniques. You find out how to calm yourself down or pump you up.

Have you checked our sports psychology pages? You may learn some valuable tips to improve your performance in volleyball.

Can watching and involving in sports make kids believe in themselves?

Can sports teach kids hope and optimism, which often help us to go through tough times in life?

Read a full article post how sports can have a positive influence on kids.
Teaching Kids Optimism

The answer is simple. The best athletes have done hard work and put hours and hours of practice into it.  There is no gene, which makes you automatically good at volleyball or basketball. It is all done by countless of repetitions.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking, there’s really no such a thing as overnight success.

Let’s put it another way, if you want to learn new skills or shift careers – whatever you want to accomplish – you can expect another 10,000 hours of hard work.

Read the whole article by clicking the link below:

How to Get Success -  The Myth of Overnight Success

And make sure you have read our pages about Sports Psychology in Volleyball.  You learn the basics about visualization and self-talk.

You shouldn’t just repeat the mantra “stay focused” – you need to have specific things to focus on.

For example when the volleyball player practices skills, she should try to keep her thoughts in the correct form – so she learns to visualize the skill.  When you learn to visualize the correct form, it helps you to repeat the skill correctly one after another.

To read the whole article, visit Staying Focused Is Important for Athletes.

Visit also our website to learn more about visualization and sports psychology for volleyball.

Prime confidence keeps you positive, motivated, intense, focused, and emotionally in control when you need it most. With prime confidence, you’re able to stay confident even when you’re not performing well (it happens to even the best athletes periodically).

Ultimately, prime confidence enables you to perform at your highest level consistently.

Five Keys to Prime Confidence

1. Preparation breeds confidence
When you have practiced well and make countless successful repetitions in practice, you will gain confidence you are able to repeat those skills in the match also.

2. Mental skills reinforce confidence
Practice self-talk, use body language, etc to gain confidence.

3. Adversity ingrains confidence.
Practice under challenging conditioning – when you are tired or there is windy while playing outdoors. Try to see those conditions as a challenge, which give you motivation instead of anxiety.

4. Support bolsters confidence.
Have people around you who support and encourage you in the times of adversity. There will be times when things are not going so well.

5. Success validates confidence.
Success builds your confidence. This doesn’t necessarily mean winning in competitions.  You can create other kind of victories – learning new skills, learning to listen coaches, digging most balls in defensive drill, not committing errors in the serving drills, etc.

To read the whole article go to Confidence in Sports

To read more about mental training, visit mental training skills section in our website: Sports Psychology in Volleyball

Their mind fully connects with their body, fusing peak mental performance with skill – creating an elite athlete.

In his explanation of flow, there are several components in the process:
1. Completely involved, focused, concentrating – with this either due to innate curiosity or as the result of training
2. Sense of ecstasy – of being outside everyday reality
3. Great inner clarity – knowing what needs to be done and how well it is going
4. Knowing the activity is doable – that the skills are adequate, and neither anxious or bored
5. Sense of serenity – no worries about self, feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of ego – afterwards feeling of transcending ego in ways not thought possible
6. Timeliness – thoroughly focused on present, don’t notice time passing
7. Intrinsic motivation – whatever produces “flow” becomes its own reward
(Source: Austega.com)

To read the whole article, go to How to use flow to improve athletic performance?

An athlete might be de-motivated by the stress of losing (even quit before the game is over) but motivated by the stress of competition.

Read about 1) Competition Stress, 2) Stress of Anticipated Failure, 3) Stress of Anticipated Injury, 4) Stress of Unpreparedness .

Click below to find the article:

Does stress improve or worsen your athletic performance?

How positive attitude helps us to reach our potential in sports?

Prime confidence keeps you positive, motivated, intense, focused, and emotionally in control when you need it most. With prime confidence, you’re able to stay confident even when you’re not performing well (it happens to even the best athletes periodically).

Ultimately, prime confidence enables you to perform at your highest level consistently.

Five Keys to Prime Confidence

1. Preparation breeds confidence
When you have practiced well and make countless successful repetitions in practice, you will gain confidence you are able to repeat those skills in the match also.

2. Mental skills reinforce confidence
Practice self-talk, use body language, etc to gain confidence.

3. Adversity ingrains confidence.
Practice under challenging conditioning – when you are tired or there is windy while playing outdoors. Try to see those conditions as a challenge, which give you motivation instead of anxiety.

4. Support bolsters confidence.
Have people around you who support and encourage you in the times of adversity. There will be times when things are not going so well.

5. Success validates confidence.
Success builds your confidence. This doesn’t necessarily mean winning in competitions.  You can create other kind of victories – learning new skills, learning to listen coaches, digging most balls in defensive drill, not committing errors in the serving drills, etc.

To read the complete articles, follow the link:

How to build confidence in sports?

How to fuel mental performance?  What foods and nutrients help you to focus and perform better?

1. Green Tea (L-Theanine)

2. Carbohydrates during exercise

3. Caffeine

4. B-vitamins

5. Omega- 3’s

6. Protein

Read the full article about concentration enhancing foods and nutrients here:

Concentration-Enhancing Foods and Nutrients