Rarely in competitive athletics is the importance of the mind doubted. Specialists in sport psychology are often asked some variation of the question "How do I make my athletes more confident?" There are many aspects of training and competing that may shake an athlete`s confidence, from the importance of the event, to fearing certain fellow competitors, to the challenge of the race course. Coaches often wish for their athletes to simply trust in their training, but it`s not always as simple as that. The purpose of this article is to provide a blueprint for coaches to teach mental readiness and demonstrate why it can be just as critical to performance as physical readiness. A coach does not need to be a sport psychologist in order to realize how performance improves with a mental edge in track and field. In order to be mentally ready to compete and put forth an optimal performance in track and field, athletes must be confident in themselves` and have a high level of self-esteem. Above this, an athlete must possess something more specific: a high level of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy, in and of itself, has been shown to be a better predictor of performance than just outcome expectations (goal setting) before a performance and as good of a predictor as anxiety levels (Gernigon & Dolloye, 2003). It is one of the most important, situation specific, mental aspects that a track and field coach can instill within their athletes.
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