Abstract
There are several important factors that determine the extent to which a professional or an amateur elite athlete achieves sporting excellence. Most important among these are physical skills (coordination, agility, speed), the degree of physical fitness (strength, endurance), and technical skills related to the sport in which the athlete participates (kicking, catching, foul-shooting). In team sports, an athlete’s performance also depends largely on team cooperation skills (blocking, being given the ball when a good opportunity arises, unselfish play). One factor that is now becoming increasingly recognized as critical to individual and team performance is the athlete’s mental approach (attitudes, skills). Coaches and athletes alike in all sports are learning that talented athletes and winning teams who finish first have a mental approach that is different from athletes who never quite make it, teams that finish second.
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Bernard, M.E. (1985). A Rational-Emotive Mental Training Program for Professional Athletes. In: Ellis, A., Bernard, M.E. (eds) Clinical Applications of Rational-Emotive Therapy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2485-0_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2485-0_12
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