How to Set up Your Program for Optimal Mental Performance

3 hours ago

2 min read

We spend a lot of time as coaches talking about workouts, mileage, race plans, and training paces.

But what about the athlete's mind? How do they think about workouts, the team and competition?

In this Coaching Distance webinar, Chuck Schwartz, head coach at Air Academy in Colorado Springs, takes a deeper look at the mental side of distance running and how coaches can help athletes develop beyond the workout.

Chuck brings a ton of experience to the topic. His teams have made three NXN appearances, won the 2023 NXN championship, and won three Colorado team state championships. He was also named the 2024 Nike NXN Joe Newton Coach of the Year.

Where Does Mental Toughness Start?

Chuck starts with the coach, which I loved since we set the tone/example for the program.

He shares how he took a hard look at his own coaching several years into his career and began studying cognitive psychology, sports psychology, and Self-Determination Theory.

He breaks down three important needs athletes have:

Belonging: Do they feel like they have a place on the team?
Competence: Do they feel like they're getting better?
Autonomy: Do they have some ownership in what they're doing?

From there, the webinar gets into performance-based identity, perfectionism, fear of failure, pressure, and helping athletes understand that they are more than their race times.

Mental Toughness Is More Than Hard Work

One of the biggest takeaways is that simply making workouts harder doesn't automatically make athletes mentally tough.

Chuck talks about teaching athletes how to respond to adversity, manage pressure, use visualization and positive self-talk, and find meaning in discomfort during workouts.