Everything they had done together for the past four years had come down to the next eight and a half minutes. It had begun after they graduated from middle school in 1999, when they started weight training and conditioning at Chaparral High School. It had been two hours a day, four days a week, 11 months a year for four years. And that didn’t event count time spent at practice and games.

It was December 6, 2002. My sons’ football team was tied 17-17 with eight and a half minutes left in the state semifinal football game. The game was in Tucson, against the number-one-ranked defending state champion Tucson Sunnyside High School. Thousands of people were there—most of them from Sunnyside.

Sunnyside punted the ball deep into Chaparral territory. Fans on both sides of the field were on their feet. Both bands were playing. The noise was deafening. Everyone was nervous—except, it seemed, the guys in the red-and-gold uniforms. Everything these boys had worked for during the last four years had come down to this moment. Yet my son Andy, then a senior, and his teammates—the team veterans—looked eerily calm.

I will never forget the excitement of seeing them go on to win that game. But the most powerful memory I have of that night is how calmly and methodically these young men executed those last few plays. They wanted to win—everybody wants to win. What I saw in their faces was a sense of certainty that they would win. They were confident. They knew all they had to do was execute plays they had run thousands of times before. They knew what they needed to do and they did it.

It’s almost magical when you see the combination of sound physical training and confidence come together in sports. But sometimes, no matter how gifted the athlete, the mental stuff—the inability to fight off doubt or anxiety—can destroy potential. This month, two leading Valley sports psychologists talk about what they do and when a parent might consider seeking a sports psychologist for their child.

ALISON ARNOLD, PH.D.: Performing well in sports is 90 percent mental. Where once sport psychology training programs were reserved for Olympic athletes, it’s now common for athletes of all ages and levels to participate in some kind of mental toughness training program. It’s never too early to teach your child the basics of mental training. Training the mind is no different from training the body. Every athlete at any age or level can learn something from a visit to a sport psychologist. Developing skills to deal with fear, frustration, competition pressure or team/coach dynamics can help athletes perform better in sports, and life.

In our Head Games Boot Camps, we teach athletes the interconnection between mind and body. We show them how every thought affects the body and ways a “monkey mind” can take them on field trips leading to fear and doubt. When an athlete becomes more aware of their thinking they can decide, “Do I want to go on this field trip or not?” It’s extremely difficult to get a hit when you’re standing in the batter’s box thinking, “I hope I don’t strike out.”

Sport psychology training also can teach your child how to control frustration and anxiety. Using breathing, positive self-talk, visualization, routines and body movement, an athlete can learn to create an ideal mental state for both practice and competition no matter what’s going on around them. This is one of the most valuable tools a good mental toughness training program teaches athletes.

One of our Head Games slogans is “Nothing external affects my internal state.” It’s so rewarding to see an athlete experience that mental control for the first time. Whether they are 6 or 60, the power in seeing how thoughts affect perception can lead to a great sense of freedom. It’s very freeing to not be a victim of the winds of life.

Ultimately, sport is a training ground for life. The lessons your children learn through sports are endless. Working with a sport psychologist can help children harness the tools they need to perform their best in sports and in life.

MARIE DALLOWAY, PH.D.: Mental skills and strengths linked with athletic peak performance include goal setting, relaxation, visualization, concentration, confidence, stress control and holding beliefs that support your goals.

With training, an athlete can develop the mental skills associated with top performance. For example, a visualization program begins by teaching the athlete about the basic skills sets that contribute to visualization. The athlete needs to learn to:

• visualize in color
• include other sensory tracks (auditory and kinesthetic) in visualizations
• sustain and project images
• visualize while in motion (running, walking)
• visualize objects and scenes that are dynamic and in motion
• visualize in the right tempo
• visualize objects and environments in detail
• understand basic relaxation methods that precede the visualization

Athletes repeatedly practice exercises to gain competence in a particular skill set. Then the athlete is trained to apply visualization to sports through problem solving, attitudinal training and mental rehearsal.

For problem solving, athletes learn exercises to help them handle pressure, manage pain and solve specific performance problems. Attitudinal training builds confidence through visualization. Mental rehearsal involves practicing an upcoming event in your mind’s eye.

What an athlete can learn through mental skills training is how to develop and apply the mental skills that separate the best from the rest in sports. rak