Mental Skills Strategies that have been Successfully used to Enhance Performance in Sport: A Systematic Review

The objectives of the study were to identify existing literature on mental skills strategies that have been successfully used to enhance performance in sport, to synthesize research results and create a summary of evidence on what has been done to enhance performance in sport, and to determine interventions that have been used to enhance performance in sport. The study examined relevant accessible studies from 2006 to 2016. Potential databases for the review were Ebscohost, PsychInfo, CINAHL and Google scholar although some articles were denied access and hence excluded. Eligibility criteria for included studies in the review were competitive student-athletes. A total of nine studies met the inclusion criteria. Cognitive behavioural theory formed the basis of interventions. The outcome of the study was that interventions, when consistently and appropriately done, result in performance enhancement. There was the need for coaches to educate athletes on the most appropriate ways of enhancing athletes’ sporting performance and that these efforts are sport specific. It also emerged that the length of mental skills training is not fully utilised and applied by most athletes in practice and competition games. The results obtained in this review showed that the most utilised mental skills in enhancing sporting performance in netball and other disciplines were imagery, positive self-talk, goal setting and relaxation. Results from the review concluded that mental skills training could enhance players’ performance when used in a sports setting. This does not matter whether these skills are unimodal or multimodal in an intervention. It is recommended that future research focus more on the impact of these mental skills in team sports and best practices of imparting these skills using interventions. Again, other techniques that enhance performance can also be considered in team sports to enhance cohesion and team building.