In the 1980 Olympics, eighty-three percent of the athletes practiced some form of mental preparation (Ungerleider 3). In the 1996 summer Olympics, there were twenty hired sports psychologists at the games to work with athletes. The man that broke Babe Ruths record for, the most home runs hit in a season, Mark McGwire, has been working with a sports psychologist since 1991 (Sugarman 1).
A positive attitude is the first of the elements that produces a good, mentally prepared athlete. If an athlete steps on to the field believing he or she is not capable of doing something, there is almost no way they will be able to accomplish what they want. Their negative attitude will limit what their body could accomplish. Attitude is where you define, winning in your own mind. This is what determines how strong or weak you will be (Johnston 15). Ozzie Smith once said, "you play the way you practice, you practice the way you think (Warren 15)." That is the truth, if you have a positive attitude and believe in yourself, then there is not too much that can stop your attempt to achieve. .
The second critical aspect that impacts the mental preparation process is goal setting. An athlete that uses goal setting in their routine will be on top. There are three different categories of goals that all athletes should use, immediate, intermediate, and long-term. Immediate is a goal that an athlete may set for something they want to happen during their next game. Intermediate is a goal that could be set for a game that could be higher then the goal that was set meaning to be immediate. A long term goal is one that is set by an athlete that they could be hoping to reach and work up to the whole season; an example of this would be a championship. When any athlete is setting goals, they are trying to develop a general plan for success. This has.
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been proven to help because it helps an athlete understand and appreciate the relationship between effort and accomplishment (Ungerleider 6).
