Emotion control
My child is sitting on the bench – how should I react?
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The Story of Mental Training
Every good story has many ingredients: a touch of madness, a lot of fun, even more enthusiasm, dedicated work, a few twists and turns, and the occasional rise, fall, and ultimate ascent. Just like all good stories, the story of Mental Training has all these elements. It’s a story that didn’t begin so long ago, yet it feels like we’ve progressed light-years since then.
Everything happened in an instant.
Even before enrolling in college, Luka realized that he wanted to work with people, to help them more closely. Perhaps it was even a romantic idea from movies where psychologists just talk to their clients, and then everything instantly gets better. Later, he realized it doesn’t quite work that way. Through college, Luka understood that he wants to help people become better, and with a bit of experimentation, he realized that athletes are the right population for him!
Fueled by enthusiasm, a desire to work, and help others, we didn’t even pay attention to initial obstacles. And believe me, there were obstacles. Very early on, we learned how to deal with obstacles. Like athletes, we maneuvered around them, jumped over them, knocked them down, and least of all, thought about them.
Initial Mission
The initial mission was to raise awareness about the importance of mental preparation for athletes. In the early days of our work, we encountered numerous misunderstandings about the need for mental preparation. If only we had received 1 cent every time we heard the sentence: “Well, I’m not crazy, why do I need a psychologist?”
However, considering that the only constant is change, things started to shift in this case as well. In the early days, many people connected to sports helped us a lot. They recognized the importance of our work, believed in us, and became ambassadors for what we do. They know who they are, and we thank them!
Mental Training
But, we still didn’t have a name that defined us, so they called us by common names: mental folks, head doctors, mentalists, and better not to list all the names…
The name came naturally; Luka was guided by the idea that the name must be memorable and understandable to athletes. Mental Training was a bullseye! Athletes understand what training is – a repetitive activity, with its challenges and various stimuli that, through constant engagement, yield results. And those who started coming to us also understood the importance of the “head.”
Importance of Mental Training
The first professional athletes and sports clubs contributed to the popularization of our work and the recognition of its quality. We learned early on that people love examples and sports role models. With the arrival of professional athletes, the field of work opened up even more because people looked up to them, and the stigma of “Well, I’m not crazy, why do I need a mental trainer?” became smaller and smaller.
Some of these athletes include:
- Ante Budimir
- Borna Barišić
- Dion Drena Beljo
- Danijel Lončar
- Roko Leni Ukić
- Ivana Habazin
- Jelena Nikolić
- Vladimir Cupara
- Futsal Dinamo
- HNK Gorica
- …
Only change is constant.
Investing in people became a new task. We knew that Mental Training means nothing if we don’t share our knowledge with others, so the team expanded and contracted in different phases.
Additionally, we decided to expand our team of collaborators to areas outside Zagreb and the region, and we plan to continue doing so in the future.
Our scope of work has greatly expanded, including the field of esports.
We are grateful to everyone who has contributed to the development of Mental Training as it exists today. Without falls, there are no rises, and without obstacles, there is no progress. After all, sports is the best example of that.
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