Volleyball athletes’ mental resilience has been tested this year in more ways than one. With the season put on hold, games cancelled last minute, teammates in quarantine, we’ve had to shift, adapt and change almost daily. If we are not in the right state of mind before these changes happen, how do we mentally handle these shifts and changes with ease and keep our eyes on our overall goals?
Characteristics of a resilient athlete are:
- Just do it / can do attitude
- Controlled responses
- Calm under pressure
- Strong
- Just keep going
The term resilience means: “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness”
Becoming mentally resilient takes practice. It’s not something that you just have. You have to train yourself to be resilient and constantly work on it.
Here are two steps to improving your mental resilience to improve your volleyball performance:
#1 Train your state of mind
Your attitude towards change and the unknown is the first step. What is your attitude when a big change walks into your life? Do you handle it with grace and ease or do you freak out completely and stress out everyone else around you? There is not one right way to handle every situation. We all need tools and resources to help us get to our resilient state of mind. We need support from others and we need accountability.
#2 Meditate
Meditation helps slow down our racing thoughts. It has been proven to be a key tool to promote resilience. Meditation reduces stress and allows us to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances. If you’re ready to start improving and focusing on your resilient mindset, join us for a 10 day meditation on building a resilient mindset.
Join YAX Online today and start your journey with building a resilient mindset with our 10 day resilient mindset meditation here
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About the Author
Kalynn Evans (B.S., NASM-CPT, E-RYT 200, FMSC, XPT Coach) is the Owner of Yoga Athletex, LLC alongside her sister Patricia Bomar. She grew up playing volleyball; her mom and coach was a former college volleyball player at University of Houston and then a member of the US national team, so volleyball was instilled in her from a young age. Kalynn played club volleyball for 7 years at Club Texas in Houston. She played D1 college volleyball at SE Louisiana where she graduated with an accounting degree. Having some back and hip injuries throughout her volleyball career led Kalynn to practice yoga, and want to offer yoga to youth and adult athletes to prevent and rehabilitate injury. She completed her 200 RYT in 2013, completed Yin and Restorative Trainings in 2015 and 2016, FMS Cert 2016, and NASM-CPT in 2017 and XPT coaching certificate in 2018.
Kalynn’s Instagram: @kalynnevans
YAX Online Instagram: @yaxonline
Yoga Athletex: @yogaathletex
