Sports Psychology Fundamentals

Dr. Brett speaks about the fundamental steps towards healthy sports competitions. In order to become successful athletes and competitors you have to learn to get a little bit better day after day. You don't have to beat yourself up for not performing at your best occasionally. On the contrary, there needs to be a solid balance between striving to be the best and letting go.

Video transcription:

Hi, Dr. Brett here. When is competition healthy, and when does it go too far, and when is it too much? And how do we teach our children to be successful athletes and competitors, and yet not get caught up and miserable, like we see some of the top athletes in the world become, right? Think about Tiger Woods for a second -- one of the top athletes ever, and yet he went through a period there of three or four years where he was absolutely miserable, and from my perspective, it probably slowed down his becoming really successful again. Now he's won recently, and it looks like he's back, but that misery, everybody saw it, and there were a lot of commentators that said, "You know, maybe he needs to let go a little bit." Sometimes you need to go a little bit easier on yourself. I remember listening to Derek Jeter recently, and he's obviously one of the best baseball players ever -- shortstops -- one of the best ever, and yet he said that when he's not winning, he's miserable. Now I'm not sure we want too teach our children this, do we? What we want to teach our children and the people that we care about is how to compete, and how to succeed, and how to give it our all, and how to get a little bit better each and every day, but also how to be graceful in life, and how to be graceful with ourselves. In other words, to not pound ourselves because we didn't perform at out best, because a lot of times that pressure becomes so much that it actually interferes with our continued success. So, what we're looking at is a balance -- a balance between letting go and striving, right? Because there are times in life when you just want to go that extra mile; you want to give it your all, and there are other times in life where you've got to lay back a little bit, because maybe you're a little bit injured or you're having an off day, and that's okay. The best athletes know this. Dr. Brett, psychologist, consultant, and coach.
Dr. Brett, Fairfield Psychologist, has over 30,000 hours experience in working with clients.


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