Demystifying Mental Toughness David Charlton

Penny Mallory was the first woman to drive in the world rally championships.  On her way to do so she showed immense commitment to her craft and made lots of sacrifices in pursuit of success.  In this bite-sized episode she goes on to share her secrets and the mentality that took her to the top of her sport. Enjoy tuning in!
Key Takeaways:
Ambition requires personal sacrifices. Taking risks are necessary to achieve your dreams. There is often a price to pay for committing yourself to your craft. If you set aside 10 minutes each day to work on a particular area in 5 years you would accumulate over 304 hours worth of practice. Where do you waste time when you don’t need to? How do you stay energised and refreshed? Connect with Penny Mallory
LinkedIn
Website
Penny’s Book - World Class Thinking, World Class Behaviour: Adopt a winning mindset to get what you want
Connect with David Charlton
Sign Up to The Mental Edge
Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
Useful Podcast Episodes To Improve Your Commitment Levels
Ep037: Penny Mallory – World Class Thinking, World Class Behaviour
Ep042: Mark Bennett MBE – Characteristics of High Performance Athletes
Ep138: Nick Littlehales – Why do the Mentally Tough see Sleep and Recovery as Important
Ep214: Ellen McDermott – How To Create Helpful Eating Habits To Benefit Your Sport Performance
Ep215: Fenwick Ridley – How Ice Swimming And Cold Immersion Can Help You Take Control Of Your Destiny

Do you ever believe you are your thoughts? Do you often take your thoughts way too seriously?  If so you’ll enjoy today's podcast episode as my guest, Keagen Hadley author of Torn: Overcoming the Psychological Challenges Post-ACL Injury talks about using Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a potentially helpful solution.  Specifically we discuss cognitive defusion as a way to help you create distance from your thoughts.
Key Learning Points:
Cognitive Fusion is concerned with the mess our thoughts in relation to our identity can have where our thoughts can often dominate our reality. Examples include; “I am broken”, “I am rubbish…” Mastering cognitive defusion can help you create distance from your thoughts and see things from a fresh perspective. Cognitive defusion goes on to promote psychological flexibility and empowers you to relate to your situation and thought processes with greater openness and adaptability.  One approach you could take to help you is to smile at yourself and your situation as it can help you make peace and shift your perspective. When you perform and see red mist, slowing down, taking a slow walk can also be a useful way to take the sting out of the situation.  Connect with Keagan Hadley
LinkedIn
Website
BOOK: Torn Overcoming Psychological Challenges Post ACL
Connect with David Charlton
Sign Up to The Mental Edge
Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
To Listen to the Full Podcast Episodes
Ep092: Dr James Hegarty – ACT in Sport, Improving Performance through Mindfulness
Ep124: Dr Keagan Hadley – Long Term Injuries: How to Confront Difficult Thoughts and Emotions
Ep205: Dr Carl Bescoby – Rehabilitation And Returning To Sport: How To Support Injured Athletes
Ep235: Trevor Jones - How To Use ACT To Improve Your Coaching In Sport #BITESIZE
Ep236: Dr James Hegarty - How To Use ACT and Mindfulness When You’ve Got Lots Of Time To Think #BITESIZE

In different sports such as golf and cricket, athletes can be placed in situations where they have a lot of thinking time. Too much thinking time for some!  Due to their high level of motivation, focus of attention, fatigue, emotions and many other factors this thinking time can create havoc in their minds. As a result, indecision, fear and self-doubt can take over.
In today’s episode, Dr James Hegarty, co-author of the book ACT in Sport: Mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment shares some ideas on how athletes can help themselves so that they don’t view this thinking time as a negative and are effective in how they get mentally ready. Psychological flexibility is at the heart of our discussion.   
Key Learning Points:
All athletes can get caught out thinking ahead predicting future events. As humans, athletes also can easily dwell on past mistakes. Developing psychological flexibility is a hugely beneficial skill to have in your armoury as an athlete. Athletes should practice basic mindfulness of the breath to build a foundation. Cricketers can focus on sensations of the sun or cold wind on their face after dropping a catch to refocus. Mindfulness allows athletes to step away from over-analysing mistakes and get their head back in the game. My challenge for May 2024 is to see if I can dial in and be mindful at least 100 times per golf round of golf I play! I’ll report on how I get on. Connect with Dr James Hegarty
Website
Email: james@hegartyconsulting.co.nz
Book – ACT in Sport: Mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment
Connect with David Charlton
Sign Up to The Mental Edge
Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
Podcasts Episodes Connect to ACT and Mindfulness
Ep092: Dr James Hegarty – ACT in Sport, Improving Performance through Mindfulness
Ep099: Trevor Jones – How to Deal with Overthinking on the Golf Course
Ep124: Dr Keagan Hadley – Long Term Injuries: How to Confront Difficult Thoughts and Emotions
Ep205: Dr Carl Bescoby – Rehabilitation And Returning To Sport: How To Support Injured Athletes
Ep235: Trevor Jones - How To Use ACT To Improve Your Coaching In Sport #BITESIZE

Many athletes, golfers or people in everyday life take their thoughts too seriously.  They then get caught up overthinking and it causes havoc with their decision making.  In golfing terms, paralysis by analysis can take over, when the pressure is on and the result is often poor shots and missed putts.  And lots of frustration! 
In this episode, Trevor Jones a PGA Professional Golf Coach and Mental Performance Coach and I chat about this topic where he shares as a coach how he uses Acceptance Commitment Therapy or Training (ACT) to help golfers and other athletes deal with these challenges.   
Key Learning Points:
Feeling confident on every shot is unrealistic. All humans experience self-doubt. We all can get ahead of ourselves or get caught out dwelling on past mistakes. Nurturing psychological flexibility is very helpful tool to have in your toolkit. A challenge for you, seek to integrate mindfulness into your everyday life. Connect with Trevor Jones
Instagram
Watch Professor Steven C Hayes discussing performance psychology from an ACT perspective with Trevor Jones
Website | Aware Performance Group LLC
Connect with David Charlton
Sign Up to The Mental Edge
Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
To Listen To Golf Related Podcast Episodes To Help You
Ep099: Trevor Jones – How to Deal with Overthinking on the Golf Course
Ep167: Karl Morris – How To Manage Your Emotions To Improve Your Golf
Ep228: Gio Valiante – Lessons From Overconfident Golfers That Can Help You Perform Better
For More Resources so You Can Shoot Lower Scores on The Golf Course
Golfers Mental Scorecard
Golf Psychology FAQs
Golf Blogs
Golf Podcasts
Podcasts Episodes Connect to ACT and Mindfulness
Ep092: Dr James Hegarty – ACT in Sport, Improving Performance through Mindfulness
Ep124: Dr Keagan Hadley – Long Term Injuries: How to Confront Difficult Thoughts and Emotions
EP136: Charlotte Potts – Overcoming Tough Times in Professional Women’s Football and Bouncing Back Stronger

How often in sport do you see an athlete make the wrong decision under pressure? Often I’d say! Even at the highest level in elite professional sport.  Indecision, overthinking, paralysis by analysis, having too much time to think of the consequences, a lack of trust in skills or fear are often the reasons for poor decision making. 
In this short bite-sized episode, Paul Phillips an author and culture developer and I discuss overthinking in sport where we share some helpful tips so that you can deal better with pressure in the moment. 
Key Learning Points:
Helping athletes generate behaviours before thoughts and emotions is a helpful skill. James Clear’s two-minute rule in the book Atomic Habits is a useful approach to take when you are feeling indecisive. In rugby the size of an opponent can trigger fear responses, overthinking and poor decision making. Visual, kinaesthetic and auditory cues and triggers are helpful in overcoming fear, Using metaphors such as images of animals or superhero’s is a helpful trigger for adults and children. Spending time with process training, practicing and rehearsing pre-shot and pre-performance routines are hugely beneficial. Connect with Paul Phillips
LinkedIn
Book: How to Create Culture: In Rugby Union
Connect with David Charlton
Sign Up to The Mental Edge
Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
To Listen to Podcasts To Help Overthinkers
Ep092: Dr James Hegarty – ACT in Sport, Improving Performance through Mindfulness
Ep156: Ruth Chiles – There is Hope: How to Overcome Focal Dystonia
Ep161: Paul Phillips – How to Create a Culture of High Performance in Professional Rugby Union
Ep221: Jeremy Snape - How To Use Pre Performance Routines When The Pressure Is On
Ep224: Aaron Walsh - How To Help Professional Rugby Players Perform Better Under Pressure
Helpful Resources For The Overthinker
Blog - Overthinking on the Rugby Pitch
Blog - Do You Start Matches with a ONE-NIL DOWN Mindset?
Blog - 7 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Bowl Every Delivery
Blog - Is Your Head Focused On The Right Things
How to Trust Your Skills When You’re a Goalkeeper

In the last of this 3 part series created for parents of young adults and kids who play football or soccer I discuss how fear can wreck a youngsters fun and enjoyment on the pitch.  Common responses to fear before matches include performance anxiety, physical sickness, feigning injury and refusing to play.  It’s a hugely difficult challenge to navigate as a parent therefore I share a tool connected with mindfulness which can help ease the young footballer’s anxieties.
Connect with David Charlton
Sign up to The X-FACTOR  regular emails helping football and soccer players to get the most from their talent 
Join David @ The Sports Psychology Hub
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
Check out our library of content supporting football and soccer players and coaches
Relevant Resources To Help Parents
Children and Youth Motivation for Sport Checklist – For Kids
Children and Youth Motivation for Sport Checklist - For Parents
Football or Soccer Coach Motivation Checklist – For Parents who coach
Youth Sports Psychology Library – For Parents