Bea My Coach

Honoured 🙏 and excited to be part of this network of stress management experts.
Dr Bernadette Dancy | Stress Coach has built a great community and network of experienced providers in the wider health and fitness community with her directory. Stress Education & Training Provider | Stress Ed. also offers stress management CPD courses.
Highly recommend following Stress Ed if you're a Sport Psychologist or coach with an interest in stress and burnout or if you just have a genuine interest in the topic

Sport Psychology Toolbox- 33

Taking a different perspective

A lot of the time, especially when our minds are telling us a particular (unhelpful) story, we can feel trapped with those thoughts, feelings & emotions and those in turn affect our performance.

We could obviously dig deeper to understand why this happens. And some times that is necessary but also more time intensive.

What can we do that is part of a shorter more immediate intervention?

Asking the right questions can help the performer develop a different perspective on the particular issue at hand.

Ideally, in my opinion, we should let the performer develop the change in perspective themselves rather than telling them what to do/think. So we we are guiding more than coaching, and letting the performer change their own narrative

Sport Psychology Toolbox - 32

Professional boundaries and ethics

Yes, a slightly different take this week but an important one nonetheless.

Any sport psychologist will have gone through training, CPD/CEUs, reflection on and supervision and mentoring in how to maintain professional boundaries and deal with ethical conundrums.

This is often what distinguishes us from "Mindset coaches" or whatever other terms might be used.

We know when a case may need a referral to another practitioner either because the case clearly is outside of our professional remit or because we have insufficient knowledge in a particular area.

The standards we need to adhere to limit us from making promises on outcomes that we cannot be sure of.

"It depends" might not be the answer all of our clients might be after. It's worth to remember that we say this not due to a lack of knowledge, more so the contrary, because we know that our wider knowledge allows us to ask the right questions before we come up with possible solution.

DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK 🤣

The journey back to running regularly and yes I've even got a race I've signed up for - 10km in October

My running journey is kinda coming full circle atm - see the carousel 👆

The major positive is that knees, ankles and back are all holding up

Making use of all my combined knowledge as a rehab specialist and mental performance coach

From August onwards, we will offer

2 x Small Group PT sessions per week at the Lifting Studio

- Tuesdays 5.15pm
AND
- Saturdays 10.15am

45min of strength based circuit session

Ideal for those with some experience who thrive in a small group environment and prefer that to training solo

AND

Those starting out and not wanting to go it alone in a gym

Small group PT allows for plenty of coaching in a supportive environment at a lower price than 1to1 PT sessions

Get in touch via DM

Sport Psychology Toolbox - 31

Building resilience

Resilience is that magic word that gets thrown around a lot and is maybe even a bit overused when we talk about successful performances and performers.

What does it actually mean? What does it mean to you?

Some people think you either have it or you don't. Some say you can build it.

Where does resilience come from? How can you grow or build it? It feels all a bit mysterious whilst also being ubiquitous.

I like to think of resilience as adapting (and learning) through a hard/challenging time period.

What makes you resilient coming out the other side, is the fact that you were able to make changes and adapt to the obstacles put in your way.

Resilience isn't just bouncing back. Bouncing back to me means you're just back where you started. Adaptation and learning means that you are changing and have grown, so resilience is so much more than the ability to bounce back.

Also, when you ARE at your MOST resilient you will FEEL the LEAST resilient. Adapting, changing and learning through hard times feels tough and can feel frustrating and really tests you.

As sport psychologists we can support our performers in navigating through periods of challenge, change, learning and growth ultimately building a more resilient individual.

How do you think about resilience?

Sport Psychology Toolbox - 30

Harnessing competition nerves

Working with rather than against competition nerves

Avoiding performance anxiety for example by pretending it's just another training session and not a competition, or pretending that the game/race isn't really that important is a bit like trying to not think about a pink elephant when someone told you to not think about a pink elephant. 🐘

Some nerves can sharpen the focus whilst full blown performance anxiety can hinder good performance. No nerves might leave the performance feel flat and unfocused.

So how can we make sure that performers have the "optimal" amount of nervous energy?

Recognising what type and how much energy YOU need for optimal performance is the first step.

A variety of mental skills, i.e. mindfulness, breathing techniques, self-talk etc. can then be employed to either up or down regulate your energy levels to the optimal zone.

As with any other performance regulation techniques we best practice these in training before employing them on the big day.

Why you might want to work with a real-life coach over an App/AI generated plan

Swipe through the carousel 🎠

Whether you might want to work with an endurance coach depends on a lot of things;
how much experience you have, your goals, your finances, your injury history, whether you require feedback and/or accountability

Having worked with many different athletes over the years, whether that is providing injury rehab, sport psychology or endurance coaching services there's a few reasons where a real life coach at least for now will be superior on AI generated plans

- More than just notifications-real life conversations

- Not creating an over-reliance on just data, feedback, and conversations mean that an experienced coach can spot fatigue, potential for injury, under recovery, Red-s, early

- Specific feedback over generalized advice

- Building confidence and self-efficacy

- Supporting decision making, goal-setting, resilience through setbacks, motivation, honest reflection and feedback-building mental capacity

- Training built around you as an individual, not just the algorithm, with the ability to make real-time changes

If you feel you could benefit from coaching I have 2 slots opening up over the summer July/August

I have definitely taken too many pictures on my recent holiday in Norway and Sweden 🤣

The yearly reset to recharge those batteries 🔋

Oslo - Bergen - Stockholm

Definitely going back to Norway 🇳🇴... lots more to see

For now already a nearly full week back at work is over