In the age of social networks, which top athlete has never been approached by a professional who posed as a mental trainer or coach in order to sell his method? Such an approach is bragging rights “Hundreds of athletes already activated,” Acting art “Directly on identity to effortlessly increase performance,” said another who advocates a “Energetic mental coaching” yet another promise “Go beyond the classic mental preparation and make it more concrete, faster and therefore more effective.”

What do these methods have in common? Define yourself as “unique”, “innovative”even “Revolutionary” in supporting athletes with the certainty of pushing them to exceed their limits by offering “the” solution to achieve this. As a pseudo-guarantee of credibility, the abstruse concepts put forward often have a vaguely scientific tinge. Some show an advanced flair for marketing: their method is the subject of a registered trademark or a book to develop it, sometimes appearing prominently on bookstore shelves.

There The literature on mental preparation is now as plentiful as the tools that have expanded the field of possibilities to the point that this is the case for athletes difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. “Some methods are very widely used, but have no scientific validity” notes Marjorie Bernier, lecturer at the University of Brest and author of a doctoral thesis in sports science. “It’s also a great classic to pretend your method is based on neuroscience.” continues the researcher who quotes “Neurolinguistic programming or methods based on motor preferences,” which found Personality profiles based on motor tests.

“Attention Processes”

“Depending on how you walk, we know how you think” Cartoon Jean Fournier, lecturer at the University of Paris Nanterre and researcher in the field of performance psychology. Several psychological assessment tools on which these techniques are based have been questioned by the scientific community, particularly by the American Psychological Association.

Others refer strictly to coaching, e.g clean language (Clean Language) – a question-and-answer technique that helps athletes better understand their behavior – was developed in the 1980s by New Zealand psychologist David Grove.

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