Welcome to the ‘All Things Endurance’ podcast! In this episode, Rick Prince chats with clinical psychologist, Dr. Justin Ross PsyD. Dr. Ross specializes in performance psychology and more specifically, works with a lot of endurance sport athletes. An endurance athlete himself, Dr. Ross is a Leadville 100 MTB finisher, 12-time marathoner – including qualifying for the Boston Marathon six times.
In this podcast, Dr. Ross discusses various performance psychology strategies that endurance athletes can utilize to increase their performance, both in training and during races. Some of the areas that Dr. Ross discusses are:
- Dr. Ross’s Background (1:10)
- Popularization of sports psychology (3:09)
- Is mental training for everyone and all athletes? (5:44)
- Sports psychology myths (7:35)
- Pre-race anxiety strategies (13:03)
- Mental imagery (18:44)
- Integration of mental training (24:39)
- Flow and clutch state (26:18)
- Effect of social media and how to make it positive versus negative (33:13)
- Comparing your current athletic performance to your previous best (36:18)
- Stigmas attached to seeing a psychologist (39:34)
- Use of sports psychology as a part of the training process (44:41)
- What credentials in a mental health profession should an athlete seek out? (46:29)
- How to refer an athlete to a mental health professional and what strategies to potentially use (49:21)
- Scope of practice (53:46)
- How and when to work on one’s mental game (57:07)
