Welcome to The Mindset Hub

Welcome to The Mindset Hub! I’m excited to introduce you to the place where young athletes can get help to develop their mindset.

While the Hub was dreamed up only recently, its story goes back further, about 10 years further.

Where it began

I was sitting down with a young hockey player who desperately wanted to play for his country. He was in the national squad and playing for one of the top clubs in the country when he was injured – his jaw was badly broken and had to get it screwed back together.

Athletes regularly come back from injury I hear you say, and you’d be right. This young man was playing again 2 months later, fit as a fiddle, or so it seemed. The problem was his confidence had vanished and he didn’t know how to get it back. Neither did his coaches.

He went away and slowly learned to enjoy sport again at University. With time and hard work, he rebuilt his confidence and five years later was selected to play for his country – a different country but that’s another story!

Creating something different

It may be said that all’s well that ends well but I’m not so sure. His struggles left me wondering why there wasn’t more support for young athletes with their mental approach. Not just with return from injury but in all aspects of their sport (and beyond).

Coaching for technical skills and training for physical conditioning is plentiful but help with the development of a performance mindset is still limited. The Mindset Hub aims to fill that gap focussing exclusively on the challenges facing young athletes.

Our approach will be different. I was fortunate enough to be a member of the Great Britain Men’s Hockey Team that won a gold medal at the Seoul Olympics but also had my fair share of disappointments and defeats. Most young athletes will face the same and need encouragement to ride their sporting roller coaster.

Instead they are fed a diet of ‘marginal gains’, ‘controlling the controllables’ and ‘focus on the process’. Worthy concepts for sure but hardly inspiring, and empty words without context and guidance.

Which brings us to…

A Place for Inspiration (alongside the Perspiration)

Peak performance requires dedication, commitment and persistence – the perspiration - without doubt. I’m equally convinced that athletes flourish most when they have a love for their sport that sparks optimism, creativeness and an independent spirit – the inspiration.

At The Mindset Hub we will recognise the value of practicing mental skills but make sure that they are built on a foundation of greater self-awareness - of what motivates, worries, excites, distracts and much more.

A young athlete’s sporting journey should be one of exploration and I’m looking forward to helping as many as possible, no matter their sport, their background, their standard. All they need is a desire to see how far they can go.

If that sounds interesting check us out at www.themindsethub.org and contact us at contact@themindsethub.org.

I look forward to seeing you soon.

Rob