The mental skills you need to become elite athlete

What would you tell your younger athlete self if you could? Two former pro athletes, Saana Koljonen and Sanna Kämäräinen, talk about the mental skills we wish we had learned sooner in our sports careers.. and what it cost us when we didn’t.

We start with self-criticism and harsh self-talk, and how being hard on yourself can slowly wear down your confidence (for both of us it was a learned habit, and we honestly believed it was the reason we got better).

Then we get into emotions in sport, fear of failure, and how to stop carrying the last bad game into the next competition.

We also talk about mental training, why it has to be practiced as consistently as physical training, and why at the elite level it’s so often what makes the difference between athletes with similar skills.

This one is for athletes and coaches, and for anyone whose performance gets evaluated all the time.

We also share what we’d do differently now, like listening to our bodies before an injury makes the decision for us.

Timeline

0:00 Bench or spotlight: which takes more mental strength?

2:10 Meet your hosts

4:12 What we wish we had known sooner

5:32 Lesson 1: How self-criticism held us back

9:19 When were you last proud of a performance?

11:29 The fear that feeling satisfied kills your hunger

15:00 “Just don’t think” and other advice that doesn’t help

17:08 Lesson 2: Every emotion is allowed

18:50 Lesson 3: Failure, fear of failure and what to do after

22:13 Redefining what failure means

27:06 Playing all the way to your limits

30:27 Why joy and pride can feel dangerous

32:30 Lesson 4: One more rep is the highway to injury

34:14 Listening to your body

40:39 Lesson 5: Trusting yourself without comparing

42:53 Performance charts and the medicine ball story

48:15 Lesson 6: The mental game is the difference at the top

49:58 You can’t demand what you haven’t practiced

52:26 There is no land without nerves

54:48 Back to the bench: mental skills during injury

58:59 Final message: do the mental reps

1:01:51 Closing thoughts

What do you wish you had known sooner? Tell us in the comments, we might build a future episode around it :)

Ways to work with us:

- Free webinars with Sanna:

Mental strenght for athletes https://www.henkisestivahva.fi/kilpailija

Mental strength for work life: https://www.henkisestivahva.fi/tyo

- Free webinar with Saana:

Perform at your best when it counts ror pro athletes & pros in sports, sales and business https://www.saanakoljonen.com/whenitcounts