MCP theory for Masters of Counselling students

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Michael Inglis
Sport Psychologist & Director
The Mind Room
Mindful
Athlete

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• Enhanced performance
• Greater resilience
• Improved concentration
• Mental toughness
WhyMental Conditioning?

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What is Mental
Conditioning?
Enhance performance by regulation of attention & poise:
• Attention = Concentration. How to pay attention 100% of game time?
• Poise = Perform your best for both yourself and the team despite any
negative internal states, i.e., thoughts, emotions & physical sensations.

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Whatis Mental Conditioning?
The aim is not to change these internal state
(thoughts/feelings/physical sensations).
Instead allow these natural experiences to come and go
without impacting on your ability to perform your best

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Phil Jackson:
A champion of mental conditioning

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Phil Jackson Mentally Conditioning his Teams

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Thoughts
Emotions
Behaviour /
Performance
Physical
Sensations
Trigger /
Event

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Thoughts
Emotions
Physical
Sensations
• What our mind tells us, self-talk, an image,
or memories e.g. “I can’t do this”
• Natural and instinctive feeling state, e.g.,
sadness, fear, excitement
• A feeling in the body, e.g. stomach
churning, heart racing

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Thoughts
Emotions
Physical
Sensations
• Everyone wants to feel more confident, feel
less bad, have less negative thoughts so as to
be able to relax & be in “the zone” and
perform better.
• Summary: it is pointless hoping to avoid
discomfort whilst performing.

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How does this relate to
your performance?
Use your own training, preparation or performance experiences to describe one:
1. Optimal performance experience
(include thoughts, feelings and physical sensations)
2. Poor performance experience
(include thoughts, feelings and physical sensations)

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Self-Focused & Action-Focused
Attention
Self-focused Action-focused
Poor Peak

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Automated Self-Regulation
• Trying to control or avoid uncomfortable thoughts or feelings leads
to poor task-relevant concentration and performance.
• Making the shift from control/avoidance strategies to willingness/
acceptance and task-relevant focus, leads to greater automated self-
regulation and better performance.
The struggle to be without distress is the problem,
NOT the presence of negative thoughts and feelings

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Automated Self-Regulation
What happens when you tell yourself:
“don't think about a pink elephant?”
What happens when you tell yourself:
“don’t think about missing the goal?”

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Automated Self-Regulation
• Allow skills and abilities to instinctively take
over, with your mind being quiet and focused
on action in the present moment.
Getting your head out of your body’s way
• We can think and feel bad and still perform
optimally.

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Performance Rating Form

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What is
Mindfulness?

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Mindfulness
Mindful awareness is learning to notice & accept
thoughts, feelings and physical sensations as a
natural process of been human.
• Mindful Attention is the process of self-regulating
attention to the task at hand (performance).
• Mindfulness is a skill developed through regular
practice. It’s like building a mental muscle.

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Mindful Myth Busting

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Better
Emotional regulation
Task relevant focus
Decision making
Problem solving
Confidence
Flow

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Mindfulness & Flow
FLOW: mind and body effortlessly working together to
perform a task.
• Typically occurs 1 - 3 times in career (peak performance)
• Full focus on task at hand and immersion in the moment
• Automated self-regulation of thoughts, feelings & behaviour.

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What disrupts Flow
• Judging yourself
• Self-criticising
• Worrying about what others think
• Result-focused (not process focused)

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Mindfulness in Sport
• A foundation skill for regulating attention and
non-judgement
• Letting go of distraction and self-judgement
during the performance
• Mindfulness is a pre-cursor to Flow

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Centering Exercise

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Summary
• Mindfulness is a skill to help regulate attention and build
acceptance of uncomfortable thoughts, feelings and sensations.
• Practice keeping your attention action-focused.
• Attempts to control or avoid uncomfortable thoughts, feelings,
and sensations disrupts performance.