Mental training for sports success

Success at a championship level in athletics requires more than physical talent.

A program was presented at Southwestern Community College Friday by a Creston native whose professional career has focused on incorporating mental training and teamwork achieved by improved communication.

Trevor Conner is founder and CEO of Hearts & Minds, a mental training and sports psychology company to help individuals, teams and businesses reach their potential. Conner is a 2006 graduate of Creston High School, where he was a three-sport athlete before playing baseball at NCAA Division II Northwest Missouri State.

Conner has a master’s degree in guidance counseling from the university and has written a sports psychology book, “Just ACE It,” that promotes improvement in attitude, concentration and resilience. Conner has worked with more than 70 Olympians and dozens of professional athletes in addition to many training sessions at high schools and colleges.

On Friday, Conner brought a team of five colleagues who have worked in mental training programs for athletes and military units. Among them were David Mathews, former resilience trainer for U.S. Army soldiers and director of the Focus 5 mental fitness app, former Major League Baseball player Cory Aldridge and a 21-year Navy Seal veteran who directs the S.T.R.E.S.S. initiative used in Friday’s program.

The program required the 200 students from Southwestern and regional high schools to perform a series of physical challenges in combination with cognitive tasks. For example, at one station two “team” members are required to do an army crawl under strings attached to poles, while pushing a sandbag forward and then carrying the sandbag while walking balanced on a narrow wood board.

Then, when the participant is fatigued from that physical task, there is a list of words to memorize and report to a clerk back at the start of the obstacle course. During this, the rest of the team is jogging around the course waiting for their turn at the course, hoping those teammates can do it quickly and correctly so they don’t have to continue running so long.

“It’s designed to help the athletes make critical decisions and perform under stress,” said Cole Higgins, SWCC athletic director.

Doug North, SWCC assistant athletic director and head golf coach, said he has communicated with Conner since his 2017 program presented at Stanton High School. After some sessions online with North’s team over Zoom in the past, Conner worked with North and other SWCC officials to bring a formal presentation to the SWCC campus just before classes began this week.

“We were happy that Trevor could bring in his team of experts and work with both our athletes and our coaches,” North said. “It focused a lot on tuning external things out and working together, forgetting what happened 30 seconds ago. You can’t sulk. You lock in. I will even incorporate some sort of mental component into our weight training in the mornings.”

Military techniques

Some of the blending of physical and mental tasks in the stations set up Friday were designed in part like obstacle courses also involving mental recall tasks that have been used by soldiers at Fort Bragg for special operations forces.

“We broke this into two segments — challenges and communication — in seeing how they performed as things got harder,” Conner explained. “Then we brought them into the gym for a debriefing before the lunch break. After lunch, we debriefed them again about using the mental skills we just practiced, and we saw immediate performance improvements as they finished their final stations.”

The training also included an emphasis on “tuning out” external factors that don’t benefit performance, such as social media messages or rumors that can affect relationships within a team.

“Sometimes mental toughness is what you aren’t willing to do, such as engaging in the drama and those types of conversations,” Conner said. “A big part of the preseason involves that type of culture building.”

Immediate results

Both coaches and athletes were impressed with the improved mental approach to their sport. Volleyball coach Bri Maitlen noticed it in the next practice.

“Trevor and his team met with my volleyball girls on Thursday, the day before we did the program with everyone else,” Maitlen said. “We also did a Zoom call with a Division I volleyball coach from Brazil that Trevor knows, and he was talking to us about trusting our teammates. Our energy and accountability to each other was so impressive in the practice right after it, I got goosebumps! Everyone just leaned in on each other and you could just see their confidence grow. We played at another level.”

Scott Vicker, Southwestern cross country and track and field coach, saw value for his athletes.

“Our kids aren’t necessarily put into tough, stressful situations as a team with the teamwork required in sports like volleyball or basketball,” Vicker noted, “but we were able to learn a lot individually and given the chance to reflect on why they do what they do. They found different ways they can manage in their races when things start to get tough. Staying focused and concentrating when your body is in a state of fatigue is critical in our sport.”

Sophomore runner Brandon Briley from Creston said the program helped him learn an improved ability to stay focused on goals, both during a specific race and for the season as a whole.

“Some of the tasks showed on to communicate with your teammates to complete their tasks and do it effectively after reading the instructions,” Briley said. “I think I gained mental maturity in figuring out how to get in the zone and stay focused to keep hitting paces that I need.”

Baseball player Gabe D’Addario said it was valuable for team members to work as a group during some of the most challenging tasks.

“It was good for the guys to learn how to work as a group in the teamwork needed to get the task done and succeed,” D’Addario said. “We learned that going straight into one of the challenges after reading the instructions too fast wasn’t the best thing, when we really should have gone over the instructions thoroughly and attacked the task effectively, rather than trying to rush through it and not really understanding what we’re doing.”

Building confidence is another aspect of the S.T.R.E.S.S. program.

“Confidence can be a skill and not just a feeling,” Conner said. “Lean into the skills to stay confident. Such as past performances, preparation, self talk and body language. You can improve your confidence by focusing on just two of those things that you can do better.”

Moving forward

D’Addairo said Friday’s program taught him a lot that can be applied in his sport.

“It helped me focus on stopping and understanding the moment you’re in and what needs to be done,” D’Addairo said. “In my sport, for example, if I’m pitching and I just walked a guy on four balls and it was terrible, I have to move on to the next guy and do what I’ve been doing my whole life and throw strikes.”

Softball player Emma Moore said it was helpful to learn how to focus on what can be done immediately to improve performance during a game.

“After we talked and looked back and see what we did wrong as a team doing a task, we learned the value of knowing when to pause and make sure you’re understanding what needs to be done,” Moore said. “If something isn’t clicking in a game, we need to fix it before we get into the game later when it matters.”

Addy Schreck, a member of the Dazzlers dance team and the track and field team, said the session helped her learn the mental strength to keep pushing for her teammates in tough situations. She also learned breathing exercises designed to produce a calm and relaxed approach.

“There’s a basic counseling education theory that you can’t help anyone without their consent,” Conner said afterward. “I was pleased with how everyone bought in and worked to get better. It was a great day.”