by Arthur L. Popp, Ph.D.

In an article carried by MSN, Larry Brown (1/25/25) reported that “Madison Keys reveals the big change she made to win her first major (the Australian Open)”

Brown quotes Keys saying “I've done a lot of work to no longer need this (a major championship). 

What does that mean? The article doesn’t explicitly say. There are a number of paths through sports psychology.

In brief (because it takes some work), here is a summary of some steps. 

Building some mental skills count.

What do we mean by mental skills? Think of your brain as a muscle like your biceps or triceps. The tissue is sort of different, but he principle still holds that if you want to get good at something, it takes a good number of “reps” or practice.

So, what are we practicing?

First, is the mindfulness skill of living in the moment, the present, one moment at a time. Our “head” is into what we are presently engaged in. Doing so helps to dislodge and push out disruptive thoughts. For instance, in tennis let’s say you focus on the follow-through of your serve and your forehand. What you’re focusing on in actual play is hitting your serves and your forehand as best as you can and improving that.

Here’s an important point: You don’t think about winning, just your serve and forehand.

You might say, “Art, that’s pretty hard to do; not think about winning.” You’re absolutely right. That’s why you have to train your brain with lots of reps just like you train the response in your biceps and triceps in following through on the service.

“Training your Brain” may include a brief form of meditation practice, like exercises to build your biceps and triceps that you’d do on a gym.

This may sound unfamiliar to you. That’s why I recommend working with a sports psychologist or a mental skills coach. This support can give you more specifics than an article or book chapter can offer.

In fact, I’ll be speaking at the Nassau Zone Conference of the NYS AHPERD at Adelphi University on March 21. I plan to demonstrate some of specific exercises that make up the “Training Your Brain” noted above.