Top Brain Foods For Mental Focus

The next similarity is having the passion for the game. We all have passions in our lives, although many of us might not be clear with that passion yet, many athletes have found their passions When athletes have the passion for the game it can move athletes through tough times and stay hungry for the next game. Passion gives athletes a reason to work hard and be the best player they can be. With a passion, athletes have specific targets to shoot for. According to Dr. Stankovich “Many years ago it dawned on me how important it is in life to have a passion and purpose — to be dedicated to the nth degree, and to have specific targets to shoot for in the big picture of life. I have learned that without true passion (also loosely known as intrinsic motivation), it is extremely difficult to truly reach your full potential in life.” Although it is debatable wither passion can be taught, passion can be looked for.

Sports—which involve emotion, competition, cooperation, achievement, and play—provide a rich area for psychological study. People involved in sports attempt to master very difficult skills, often subjecting themselves to intense physical stress as well as social pressure. research has expanded into numerous areas such as imagery training, hypnosis, relaxation training, motivation, socialization, conflict and competition, counseling, and coaching. Specific sports and recreational specialties studied include baseball, basketball, soccer,

Something that has always been in my life and repeatedly been said to me, or mentioned is that during a sporting event everything is mental. Now what I have always wondered was that everything in the mental game is based on one’s own preferences, the way one thinks and processes information and how he reacts to a situation. There are various components of an athlete’s mental game such as motivation, agility, confidence; all of which contribute in actual competitions, games or even at practice. More importantly, confidence is more complex because it is what is affected most of the mental game, that’s what makes or breaks an athlete, and that can be affected by a coach, parent, or negative teammate, it’s not just personal thoughts reflecting

It is often said that “practice makes perfect”, but what kids participating in competitive sports find out is that “Perfect practice makes perfect” (Three quotes). Hard work pays off and repetition builds skills. Practice may not be everyone’s favorite part of a sport, but doing something over and over again will make it become an instinct. Regardless of the type of sport that is played, there are some basic fundamentals that are learned and then practiced repeatedly. With each practice, athletes can gain more confidence in their ability (Kuchenbecker 37). Repetitions enable the players to develop skills and become more confident that they can perform when the time comes rather than being worried about failure. The level of discipline and focus developed by these kids helps them throughout their lives in a wide variety of ways.

Every elite athlete has psychological training and uses the process of goal setting in order to enhance their performance. Goal setting is used to enhance concentration, build self confidence and to manage time and other resources. (Tony M 1995, page 259)

Competition is a unique situation in life to analyze. If you can focus on the small details outside of the game, there’s a possibility that you can understand the way an athlete is performing and why a coach is behaving a certain way. In the heat of the moment, if not properly trained, one can not perform to their potential due to the pressure that the moment of competition can place on an individual. This can be just as much for coaches and how they react and act as much as it goes for player. Effective coaches know how to use the situation to their advantage and know what to do or how to react at the appropriate time. In this paper, I’ll examine the competition of the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh Titans and the St. Thomas Tommies in a NCAA Division 3 playoff game. I’m watching this game from the UW-Oshkosh side, so I will be observing the UW-Oshkosh football team for the most part. With this competition between UW-Oshkosh and St. Thomas, I’ll break down this paper into four talking points and the effects of said points. These four points are pre-competition routine, feedback and reinforcement by coach, game flow and interruptions and then other thoughts and factors that I noticed during the game.

The live sporting event that I chose to observe was the 2015 Woman’s Soccer Big West Conference championship game with Cal State Fullerton competing against Cal State Long Beach. The game took place on Sunday, November 8th at 1:00pm at Cal State Fullerton. This game is significant because it determines who wins the Big West and who qualifies for the NCAA tournament, so pressure on the players and intensity are very high. Throughout the game, I observed the game as a sport psychologist professional and observed the player’s and coach’s behaviors that relate to Sport Psychology. The three sport psychology concepts that were interpreted during the soccer match were: situational awareness, arousal regulation strategies, and reinforcements.

You’re now in the last 5 minutes in a soccer game and it’s a tie between the 2 teams. You don’t want to go over time so you need to think and use your body at the same time. A team member passes the ball to you but the other team’s defence is coming towards you. What do you do? Stories like “What is Better than a Touchdown?” and “Why we Run” can relate to these situation. Although, thinking and using your body are both equally as important when it comes to sports.

Imagine stepping up to the plate and hitting a home run. When you play baseball, your mental game is just as important as your physical skills. A game puts you under pressure to succeed. Your mind has to work well under stress for you to do your best.

Today in sports athletes endure many mental and physical obstacles from there competitive environment. Many of today's best athletes work with sports psychologists to help them handle the pressures found in this competitive atmosphere. One question that athletes ask is, why cant they play in big games as well as they anticipate themselves doing? Sports psychologists feel that spending all their time on body conditioning and athletic skills will not ensure that athletes reach their peak performance.

Thoughts and actions of mentally tough athletes are mental plan (pregame and game), emotional control, optimal arousal, confidence, intrinsic motivation, optimism, controlled anxiety, concentration and attentional control (alert and mentally focused), performs automatically, proper situational appraisal (challenge and threat),good coping skills (deals effectively with adversity) projects a positive attitude (positive body language) sense of enjoyment in the competitive setting.

In earlier days sports psychology was mostly concerned with developing assessment methods that would identify those people with the potential to become serious superior athletes. Today the focus is on psychological training, exercises that strengthen the mental skills that will help athletic performances on the path to excellence. These skills include mental imagery and focus training. If an athlete is serious about becoming the best he or she can possibly be, the most essential ingredient is commitment to practice the right things. It takes incredible commitment to reach the top: a commitment to rest and train the body so it can perform under the most demanding conditions and a commitment to train the mind to

Mental toughness is not a new concept in sport, but is generally misunderstood. Coaches design programmes to develop mentally tough athletes, predominately in professional sport, to separate elite performers from good performers (Gould, Jackson, & Finch, 1993) as physical talent itself is not the only component that can lead an athlete to success (Gucciardi, Gordon, & Dimmock, 2008).

A sport is a physical activity that involves our body and our mind. Not only is our body extremely important in sports but our I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient) is important also. All sports involve our body and our mind. According to the article (Why we love sports 1) by bleacher report, it states “Obviously sport is a physical discipline, but even the casual fan will tell you that mind and body work together. But when one gets to the top of his game, the mental aspect is huge - not only in the sense of getting "psyched up' but in devising strategy, studying video, researching and developing training technique, etc.” The most underrated aspect in sports is your I.Q If you don’t have a high I.Q in sports, I hate to break it to you, but you won’t succeed. For example, players that don’t have an high I.Q are the ones that make the smart play instead of trying to be a hero in a game and taking a risk. Making the smart play when the game is on the line is important. Those players that make the safe play instead of the risky play, are the ones that often succeed in what they

Having a “Brain Healthy Lifestyle” (Bend, 2014) is made up of several different categories that include “physical health, brain fitness, and vitality” (Bend, 2014) as well as “balanced nutrition, stress management, and mental stimulation” (Sharpbrains, 2014). Our physical health plays a major part in brain function. Exercising our bodies, eating well, and getting the proper amount of sleep has a huge impact on our physical health. “Our brain requires 25% of the blood that is pumped by your heart. The healthier your heart is, the healthier your brain will be” (Bend, 2014). Cognitive fitness is demonstrated by uses of vocabulary, thinking, perception, and attention. It is crucial to make it a normal everyday practice to challenge our brains through new activities. Taking part in a cooking class or learning to