Do You Have a Sport Psychologist On Your Success Team?

"I try to have peace of mind. If you have that, you are a mental millionaire. It doesn't cost anything."
—Chi Chi Rodriguez, has 38 professional wins and an induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame

"I was trying to get so far ahead I could choke and still win."
—Lee Trevino, at the 1968 US Open, which he won over Jack Nicklaus by four strokes

"Pressure is something every golfer feels at one time or another...Sometimes when I putted, I looked like a monkey trying to wrestle a football."
—Sam Snead, golfing legend

It's clear that top golf professionals know how important it is to have a solid mental game. They should know. Of all the sports in the world, pro golfers hire the most sport psychologists. It's been estimated that over 80% of pro golfers, men and women, use a sport psychologist or mental game coach.

Here are seven major ways you can utilize a sport psychologist to help you improve faster, and create sustainable success in your sport.

1. A Sport Psychologist Helps You Develop Mental Toughness. Mental toughness is learned, not inborn. Mental toughness is partly borne from superb physical conditioning and discipline, but there is more that makes a champion. A sport psychologist can teach you this critical skill.
   
   
2. A Sport Psychologist Helps You Build A Laser Focus. If you are prone to being distracted, you may need a sport psychologist who can teach you how to block out external and internal distractions. They do this by teaching attentional control techniques. Learn those and you will be able to maintain focus under any conditions.
   
   
3. A Sport Psychologist Helps You Create Calmness Under Pressure. Stress and pressure can create mental blocks that disrupt performance. A sport psychologist knows how to teach you to relax and handle these stressors.
   
   
4. A Sport Psychologist Helps You Play One Shot At A Time. Your best performances take place in the zone. The zone is in the present, the here and now. A sport psychologist devises techniques that help you stay in the now and play one shot at a time.
   
   
5. A Sport Psychologist Helps You Prepare Mentally. It's critical that you have a mental readiness system before you practice, take a lesson or compete. A sport psychologist helps you create this psychological preparation process so you can get your game face on, and control your mind and emotions.
   
   
6. A Sport Psychologist Helps You Shake Off Mistakes. If you are prone to being thrown off when you make errors in a game, you need a sport psychologist. He can help you refocus, relax and get back into your mental groove quickly, using a mental trigger process.
   
   
7. A Sport Psychologist Helps You Reduce Your Mental Errors. Mental errors usually come from poor focus. A sport psychologist helps you gain and maintain focus on what is important, while you let the rest go.

Now you know how a sport psychologist can help you. They are either trained as a psychologist with a specialization in sports, or come from the world of physical education with specialization in psychology. They do this in an educational, rather than clinical manner. A mental game coach can do everything discussed above as well.