The Quest to Understanding and Achieving the Mental Game

It was my junior year in college and my team was in a close match against a school we needed to beat for post-season standing purposes, and general bragging rights. We were 2–2 and in the fifth set with the score at 14–13, them. I stepped back to the service line like I had done so many times before, this time saying to myself, “Just don’t miss this.”

The ref blew his whistle, I did my pre-serve routine, which consisted of three dribbles, and served the ball…right into the net. We lost that fifth set 15–13 and the match, and finished below our expected ranking. I was devastated in that moment, missing a game point serve; how is that possible? It was a moment I so badly wanted to take back. That’s the thing about opportunities though; they don’t go away, they just go to someone else. I choked in that instant of pressure. I wasn’t able to execute a skill I could have performed any other day with my eyes closed, and it was because I was more concerned with not messing up than I was focused on serving in. I had talked myself out of successfully serving in before I was even handed the ball.

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Hey guys! I want to briefly introduce myself, Dr. Megan Melchiorre, to all the bloggers, non-bloggers, athletes, coaches, sport psychologists, and anyone else out there that might read any future posts of mine. Several coaches who know me and what I am currently pursuing, which is a Doctorate in Clinical Sport Psychology, have approached me recently for advice particularly involving performance in volleyball.

While I grew up participating in a number of sports, volleyball is the sport I played on the collegiate level and what I have continued to coach for the past six years; so it is most familiar to me. Since beginning my sports psychology journey about three years ago I have been more involved with various other sports and types of athletes; so even though I may share techniques or skills in the context of “volleyball,” they will be easily adaptable and you can usually tailor it to your own game or situation.

I have worked with sport psychologist, Dr. Rob Bell in Indianapolis, IN and sport psychologist, Dr. J. S. Hamilton out of Miami, FL., both of who are phenomenal in the field. The recent interest in my mental training paired with volleyball knowledge has influenced me to finally start a public “journal,” in hopes of sharing this seemingly significant information needed to consistently perform during competition.

I received many take-aways from my time with Dr. Bell, but one I use frequently is the “what if” moment. They say sports are 90% mental and 10% physical; well that just isn’t true because we aren’t out there playing chess. Sports are 90% physical and 10% mental, but what if that last, small 10% is what takes you to the next level, to the top. Don’t let there be any “what if” moments.

I was talking with someone the other day and they asked me

“If you could choose one game of all the games you’ve played that was most memorable, just really in the zone, best performance…what would it be?”

I knew the answer off the top of my head, as it’s a game I’ll never forget. I was a sophomore in high school and my team was playing at our rival team’s school, which also happened to house later U.S. Olympic Silver Medalist, Megan Hodge. Our team was down 2–0 going into the third set when something came over me. I started picking up my play as my team did also. We came back and won the next two sets, which placed us at 2–2 and going into the fifth set. I only remember about the first five points of the fifth set because after that I was completely in the zone, an effortless, fluid type of play. I had one of the best setters I’ve ever played with just feeding me the ball, and a coach on our bench said that each time after I swung I was fist pumping in the air before I could even land from my approach. I knew it was going down! I scored probably the last eight or nine points for us off attacks and we ended up winning that game as the underdogs.

I had a slight idea about the significance of being mentally tough as an athlete. At least I knew you HAD to be. I always had coaches that would say,

“You have to have mental toughness. You have to be mentally strong. You have to shake it off. You have to bounce back and refocus.”

Okay, but how do you do that? In addition to volleyball I also played softball, which was actually my better sport. Going into my senior season in high school I needed only four homeruns to have the State 4A record. Piece of cake, right? I’ve stacked my numbers these past three seasons, all I need is four, three to tie the record. Throughout that season I was so focused on that magical number four, I went into a slump and failed to obtain that goal. I only hit two homeruns my senior year, preceded by double-digit numbers the previous years.

As I have gotten into the education and experience of sport psychology, I’ve been able to look back on little, yet big moments like these and thought,

“Only if I would have known HOW to be mentally strong.”

My personal experience as an athlete and coach, all the little “results;” don’t really like to use the word “failure,” they’re all just results in which you learn. But, all these results have provided me with the passion to help answer the question for others that I once had for myself as an athlete. The question, if I would have had answered could have been so much more successful with.

The question that could have allowed me to reach the goals I had once set for myself…

HOW do you have mental toughness?