What are mental skills?
Mental skills are internal capabilities that help athletes consistently manage their thoughts, emotions, assumptions, and perceptions so they can deliberately execute sport-related performances. Mental performance coaching provides the tools and guidance to not only develop skills such as concentration and positive body language, but also to foster personal characteristics such as confidence and behaviors. Mental skills help athletes respond instead of react to their actions, thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations in order to improve their game.
How can mental skills help athletes?
- Strengthen self-confidence
- Enhance self-awareness
- Set effective goals and create a long-term vision
- Get your physical abilities that show up in practice, show up in competition.
- Improve focus, concentration, and attention
- Deal with adversity
- Recover from injury
- Bounce back from errors faster
- Reduce stress
- Be able to perform under pressure
- Develop a positive approach to competition
- Focus on what's in your control
- Develop a clear purpose
- Improve motivation
- Balance your athletic identity
- Turn setbacks into comebacks
What are some mental skills?
Mental skills help athletes respond instead of react to their actions, thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations in order to improve their game.
- Goal Setting
- Mindfulness
- Imagery/Visualization
- Energy Management
- Breathing Techniques
- Physical cues
- Pre/post routines
- Mission, vision, values alignment
- Journaling/Reflection
- Self-talk strategies
- Body-language strategies
- Motivation identification
Who will you work with?
Meet Your Mental Performance Coach - Siana Sylvester, M.Ed.
Siana Sylvester is the owner of Mental Flex and is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant through the Association of Applied Sport Psychology with a Masters in Athletic Counseling from Springfield College. She works with athletes, teams, coaches, and parents to grow their mental skills so they can become more deliberate and consistent performers both on and off the field. She creates customized mental skills services that are backed by evidence-based research so you can flex your mind and elevate your performance.
Siana's Story:
Siana grew up with a stepmom who was a fully-service disabled Veteran and she was inspired by her ability to overcome physical disabilities. Siana thought she would pursue a career in physical therapy and help others recover from injuries so they could return to normal life. In high school, Siana was the Captain of her High School's cheerleading team where she experienced an injury that prevented her from ever gaining back, backward gymnastic skills. The fear of reinjury prevented her from growing in her athletic abilities despite going on to cheer in college. Once again, Siana found herself in a physical therapy practice and was sure that was the place for her. However, after taking one sport psychology course in undergrad at the University of Hartford, she made the connection that performance and recovery is just as much mental as it is physical. Siana went on to graduate school to study Athletic Counseling at the birthplace of basketball, Springfield College. In her time at Springfield College, she worked with athletes across a variety of sports and universities.
Why does Siana spend so much time in baseball/softball?
People ask Siana this all the time. Siana has always appreciated the skill and mental ability that's required to compete in a sport that presents lots of opportunities for failure. Siana grew up spending summers on Cape Cod going to Cape Cod Baseball League games and watching players like Buster Posey and Jacoby Ellsbury. During college, Siana interned with the Y-D Red Sox in the summer 2011 season and worked with the University of Hartford Baseball team. In summer of 2014, Siana worked as a full-time mental skills coach for the Collegiate Baseball League of Europe serving four teams and coaching staffs. In 2015, Siana worked with Trinity College Baseball. And, in 2019-present, Siana works as the Mental Skills Coach for the New Jersey based, Bergen Crush travel baseball team.
What other sports has Siana worked with?
Since 2013, Siana has worked with youth, high school, and colligate athletes to achieve their athletic goals in a variety of sports including: Harvard University Field Hockey and Women's Ice Hockey, Olympic Development Program Youth Soccer, Springfield College Track and Field, Springfield College Athletic Training Room (Collegiate Injured Athletes), Smith College Women's Ice Hockey, and various individual athletes and coaches from CHSAA and NCAA.
Why we do what we do
The mission of Mental Flex is to empower athletes, teams, and coaches to confidently pursue their dreams. Using research-backed coaching methods, we seek to facilitate meaningful transformations that elevate performance and connect athletes to their potential.
Despite majority of athletes and coaches agreeing that confidence, focus, emotional regulation, mindset and concentration are all needed for consistent performance, athletes and coaches often fall short to devoting adequate attention to the mental game.
There are many reasons athletes or coaches don't give the mental game enough attention like lack of sport psychology knowledge, misconceptions about mental skills, perceived lack of time, and established habits. However, there are impactful benefits to integrating the mental game into an athlete's daily practice including better and more consistent performance, higher confidence, and improved focus.
Our Values
- Perseverance: moving forward toward a goal despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. Setbacks are going to happen, having perspective that the game might not always go as planned but pursuing success anyway, matters to us.
- Purpose: doing things on purpose with purpose. Show up with intention. Purpose is a central component of a person’s well-being and happiness (Seligman, 2002).
- Learning: Be a lifelong learner. Despite gaining significant experience or high levels of success, one continues to look for opportunities to expand their knowledge and understanding.
- Compassion: Showing care and empathy toward others. In the face of challenge, a more compassionate response will get you more powerful results. Compassion and curiosity rather than judgment and blame creates an environment of trust.
- Integrity: An unwavering commitment to morally adhering to ethical standards. We take the relationships we build with our players, parents, and coaches very seriously and we will not compromise when it comes to moral action and responsibility.
What's your role?
For the Athlete, Team, or Coach
Mental Skills Coaching calls for a very active effort on your part and/or your team’s part. To be successful you will have to commit to addressing your goals during your Mental Skills Coaching sessions, workshops, physical training, while competing, during practice and during everyday life. Applying the skills you learn in coaching sessions and workshops to your life and in-game competitions, are essential for improving your performance. I encourage you to be open to trying new tools and skills but all participation is voluntary. You will hear Siana often say, it's "challenge by choice" which means that she will encourage you to get outside your comfort zone so that you can grow but the choice is up to you.
For the Family
"It takes a village." The family is a very important part of the support team for a developing player. In today’s game, the role of family members varies tremendously from that of active on-field coach to that of supportive sidelines spectator. The evidence supports that for a young player to have a healthy approach to competition and training, a parent or significant individual must help create an environment that is both supportive and conducive to excellence. By supporting your athlete's journey in building mental skills, you give them the ability to develop effective tools to use when they experience failure or setbacks and be more consistent in their performance. For athletes under the age of 18, you will assist with providing consent for our work together however, I encourage that confidentiality be respected between the athlete and mental skills coach. Any information that raises a red flag such as harm to self or others will always be immediately communicated to you.