The mental training process is a repeatable, measurable way of working on mental skills, parallel to physical training rather than a substitute for it. It runs over weeks, and a single conversation or a pre-match routine only ever touches part of it. The term is used loosely, so it often sounds like empty advice; the process behind it has a structure, and that structure is what this text explains.
Physical training is repeated so the body remembers. The mental training process does the same for the mind. The principle is the same; what the eye can see differs.
What is the mental training process?
When an athlete says, “I’m working on mental training,” they mean continuous work with a clear goal, specific techniques, and a way to track progress. It is training just like any other, and positive thinking before a match is only one small part of it. The founder of Mentalni Trening sums it up in an interview for Net.hr: “There are no shortcuts, only work.” (Net.hr, 2026)
An episodic approach looks like this: the day before a match, you browse articles on motivation, find three tips, try to apply them, and fail because they haven’t been practiced. A process-based approach looks different: you practice techniques throughout the season, under controlled conditions, and use them when needed.
Why mental skills need repetition: the mental training process is a schedule
Focus, composure, and self-confidence are skills the brain learns through repetition. It is the exact same mechanism as learning a new shot or how to read tactics: consciously and slowly at first, automatically later on.
When an exercise is repeated in training before reaching competition, it reduces the cognitive load of decision-making when pressure is at its peak. An athlete who has gone through a breathing exercise ten times under physical load doesn’t have to stop and think about what to do when they feel tightness in their chest. The body knows what to do before the thought even forms.
That is why mental training follows the same rule as physical conditioning: consistency. Five minutes of practice every day is worth more than an hour once a month.
Common mistakes in the mental training process
The start determines whether the process survives the season. The most common mistakes come down to a poor schedule: starting out overly ambitious, measuring the wrong things, and leaving the process strictly on paper. Here is where it most often derails:
Too much volume at the start. An hour of mental training a day sounds serious, yet rarely survives past the first week. Fifteen minutes completed every day is worth far more than an hour on Mondays.
Measuring by results. Match results are the worst indicator in the first few months. Track routine consistency and anxiety levels instead; they shift before results do and give a much clearer picture of whether the process is working.
Stopping after the first good game. Progress is assumed, the process is forgotten, and when the next bad game hits, there is no practiced technique to fall back on. A good performance is an argument to keep going, because real progress requires even more repetition.
Comparing yourself to other athletes. For one person, pre-game anxiety is the main hurdle; for another, it’s focus—and their processes will naturally look different. The only useful comparison is against where you stood a month ago.
How is the mental training process measured?
Measurement is what separates a structured process from mere talk. Progress is tracked through concrete indicators; gut feeling doesn’t count. The three most common are:
- Subjective scales: the level of nerves or stress rated before and after training, for example on a scale from 1 to 10.
- Routine execution: whether the athlete performed the planned routine before a match, and how consistently.
- Performance under pressure: how the athlete behaves in practiced situations, from training to competition.
Data is compared over time. If anxiety levels decrease, routines are executed more consistently, and performance under pressure is more stable: the process is working. If nothing changes, the approach changes. Measurement is also feedback: the athlete sees their own progress in the data; taking anyone’s word for it is unnecessary.
Practical Example: Pre-Serve Anxiety
In working with young tennis players, pre-serve anxiety is one of the most common requests. This example illustrates the logic of the process, which is equally applicable off the tennis court.
First, an assessment: when anxiety blocks performance the most, what attention shifts to specifically, and what the athlete feels in their body. Next, a breathing exercise practiced at every training session for five minutes while anxiety is low. The third step is simulation: practice matches incorporating the exact pre-serve routine, followed by tracking how it went. The final part is measuring progress over several weeks (a pre-serve scale compared against the initial weeks).
For a football player, the same logic centers on the routine before taking a penalty kick; in esports, on the break between rounds. The technique changes, while the structure stays the same: assessment, practice in a controlled environment, application under regulated pressure, and measurement.
What a week looks like: the mental training process in practice
A week of mental training follows a repeatable schedule, just like a weekly physical conditioning plan. It is a structure repeated every week, regardless of what else is on the calendar.
- Every day: a short breathing exercise, about five minutes, in the morning or before training.
- Several times a week: a body scan for relaxation, a standardized exercise repeated in the same form.
- Before training: a focus on intention: what I train today, which single thing must be good.
- After the match: a brief review—what went well, and what fell outside the intended framework.
The total comes to less than an hour a day, yet the structure stays the same every week. That is what builds the automatic responses that later deliver results when you are under pressure.
Which mental skills does the process cover?
The same process can be applied to different skills; the problem dictates the technique, always in that order. In practice, this most often involves five areas:
- Focus and concentration: steady attention that returns even after an interruption or a mistake.
- Emotional regulation: fear, anger, and excitement channeled so they fuel performance rather than block it.
- Visualization: playing through situations in advance, in your mind, before they actually happen.
- Routines: a sequence of steps that brings both body and mind into a performance-ready state.
- Self-confidence: performance evidence gathered while it is accessible and applied when it is needed.
Skills are built one at a time. A month of focus followed by a month of routine – yields better results than trying to practice everything simultaneously, the exact same principle as in a physical training plan, where you don’t train everything at once.
How long does it take for a skill to become automatic?
There is no universal answer, but there is a reliable rule: automaticity comes from repetition, and the calendar merely shows how many repetitions have taken place. An exercise repeated daily under controlled conditions becomes automatic faster than one done once a week.
A practical benchmark: when an exercise works under pressure, without conscious thought, it has become automatic. Until then, it is in the learning phase and belongs in practice; competition comes later. That is why a serious process never introduces a new technique on competition day.
Where the mental training process stops: the boundary with psychotherapy
The boundary needs to be clear. The mental training process works on performance: focus, emotions, routines, confidence in the sporting context. Psychotherapy works on psychological difficulties that go beyond sport and require treatment by a professional with the appropriate qualification.
Technically, mental training can be part of a broader plan, but it does not replace psychotherapy when psychotherapy is needed. A serious professional recognizes that boundary and communicates it clearly, and that communication is part of the process.
How to start your own mental training process
The start is simpler than it looks and does not require a specialist on day one. The first step is consistency with one small exercise for two weeks: breathing or a body scan, every day, without exception. The second step is measurement: note your level of nerves before training and watch whether it changes. The third step is to expand the work to the one situation that is most problematic for you.
If the self-led start stalls, this is where structured support comes in. Our program for elite athletes is built around the same loop (a measurable goal, weekly logs, review), run over a season instead of a fortnight. The two-week test tells you whether this kind of work fits you; the season tells you what it can build. Mentalni Trening’s team consists exclusively of licensed sports psychologists with special authorization from the Croatian Psychological Chamber.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Process
How much time per week does mental training require? The structure outlined in the text fits into just under an hour, spread across the week. Consistency is key; that is precisely where the process most often gets stuck.
When do the first results show? In behavior before results. The first few weeks show greater routine consistency and a calmer start to performance; the results follow afterward.
Can the process succeed without a specialist? It can begin independently: the exercises from the text are available to anyone. A specialist shortens the path, tracks every segment of progress, and keeps the process on track when situations arise that you cannot spot on your own.
