Track Your Mental Conditioning Progress

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Tracking your progress in mental conditioning is very similar to tracking your progress in physical conditioning. By writing down what you think, when you think of it and what your feelings are, you will understand why you did what you did. When you look back, you will be able to see your mistakes and successes.

People are creatures of habit. We do something the same way over and over until someone or something shows us differently. By journaling your activities or emotions, you will be able to teach yourself to break your undesirable habits and create new empowering ones. Here is a list of things you can keep track of after a game to help your progress:

• Emotional control: how you are able to control your feelings in a competitive environment
• Concentration: how you can focus on the immediate task at hand
• Handling pressure: how you react when demands are put on you to deliver
• Self-talking: what you say to yourself
• Visualization: what and how you see something in your mind
• Distractions: things that happen around you to get you off your game

Processing all of this information is significant but it does nothing if you do not reflect back on it. In other words, read your journal on a regular basis to see your progress.

Your journaling doesn't have to be fancy or elaborate. You can write in a book, in a binder or even have forms or templates that you fill out for yourself as in the following example. 

Category	Unsuccessful Instances	Positive Instances
Emotional control	After being assessed a penalty, I yelled at the referee.	After being slashed by another player, I said nothing and continued to play.
Concentration	At the end of my shift, I was tired and instead of clearing the puck in their zone, I skated with it and then got hit and retaliated.	During a shift, I was able to play my position in our zone, clear the puck and get a shot on net. I blocked out the noise form the yelling crowd.
Handling pressure	At the end of the game, I had 2 guys on me in my corner and just got rid of the puck which resulted in a shot on our goalie.	In the final few minutes of the game when we were down, I took a few deep breaths and focused on what I can do to help my team.
Self-talk	When I was in the penalty box, I said, "How could I be so stupid?"	In the final few minutes of the game before my last shift, I said, "I am focused, I am quick, I pass well."
Visualization	I was upset with myself and kept thinking of what I had done, instead of what I needed to do for the next shift.	I sat on the bench before my last shift and could see myself making the pass to my line mate for the tying goal.
Distractions	While I was in the penalty box, I kept looking at the fans and thinking, "I wish they would be quiet".	While I was on the bench, I was able to block out all noises and focus on what I needed to do on the ice.