Recently, I was fortunate enough to be allowed to attend the Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group Conference that was held at Northeastern University. At this conference some of the biggest names in sports medicine and strength and conditioning spoke on various topics ranging from the hips impact on low back pain to dry land speed training for hockey. After reflecting back on that weekend for some time now one presentation in particular stood out to me, and that was where Brijesh Patel, the head strength and conditioning coach for Quinnipiac University, spoke on the mental characteristics that a strength coach must try to impart on his/her athletes.
At one point in his presentation Coach Patel spoke about how he pushes his athletes to have swagger. This especially caught my attention because during my freshman year at Bridgewater State University the captains of my football team preached this same concept. Coach Patel described swagger as a confidence that athletes must have to compete at a high level, because it allows the athlete in every situation to believe that they can still come out victorious. From my experience with athletics it was always evident that this was necessary, although I always believed it came from the attitude of the team. I never realized how much of this confidence is really built up during training.
Coach Patel also spoke on mental toughness and focus,which also have a large impact on the success of any team, and how many young athletes today have lost these characteristics. The mindset towards athletics has changed to a certain extent and a true desire to win every contest has been lost. Many young athletes play on a variety of teams and play so many games that losing a game is no longer a big deal.
Some of the ways that Quinnipiac has chosen to teach these essential mental characteristics to their athletes have been to institute rules such as all athletes must wear QU gear to every team lift and their shirts must be tucked in. If someone is to break the rules then the entire team is disciplined. This forces the members of the team to hold each other accountable. They also do team building exercises within their training, which include using manual resistance, partner exercises, and competitions.
After viewing Coach Patel’s presentation and the videos that he included, the value of some of the techniques that he uses is evident. This becomes especially true when working with athletes who lack the mental characteristics necessary for success. Also, they are techniques that I hope to use in my own future program design.