COLUMBIA, Mo. - Every Wednesday night inside the Mizzou Tennis Center, members of the Mizzou tennis team join the program's mental performance coach, Katie McLean, for activities to strengthen each student-athletes well-being.
McLean joined Mizzou Athletics in the Fall of 2011 as a sport psychology intern under Director of Sport Psychology, Dr. Rick McGuire. The past two years, McLean was a graduate assistant with Mizzou's Total Person Program under the guidance of Kim Lambert.
With her recent transition to mental performance, McLean has been assigned to the women's tennis team for the 2014-15 season. On this night, Brittany Lashway, Brianna Lashway, Beatriz Machado Santos, Cassidy Spearman, and Kelli Hine joined McLean for an array of team building activities.
Before beginning Wednesday night's activities, McLean briefly described the goals of her team building sessions.
"Tonight, we're going to be talking about communication," McLean said. "The last few weeks have been focused around team cohesion and the team's `BOLD' motto which stands for Believe, Own, Love, and Dig. A lot of our team's workshops will be centered on the BOLD motto this season."
The session began with the team quote of the week, which is supplied by a different Mizzou tennis player each week. On this go around, sophomore Brittany Lashway provided a quote that related both to the tennis team's goals and everyone's personal lives.
The group then transitioned into a set of games with the first being a basic icebreaker session. Before arriving to the Mizzou Tennis Center, McLean jotted down random names onto pieces of paper which would then be taped onto the back of each Mizzou tennis player. Going around the table, each Tigers player would stand up (not knowing what person was written on their back) and ask basic yes or no questions to their teammates in order to find the hidden identity.
Up next was the "Park It Box" which teaches the athletes to be aware of what's going on in their minds. In general, each individual must stay focused on the task at-hand. If there is a distraction that pops up throughout their day then they write it down and place it inside the box.
McLean utilizes activities like these to not only create a fun atmosphere, but to also help build the team comradery.
"We sum it up as `thinking right in sport," McLean said. "When you think right then you can perform to your best ability. Every coach at Mizzou wants their student-athletes to show up on game day and perform their best. We use activities like this to help with the mental edge."
Throughout all of the varsity athletic programs at the University of Missouri, each sport is assigned at least one sports psychologist. With a representative in place, the message from the Mizzou Sports Psychology department can then be properly implemented.
"In Mizzou sports psychology, we sum up as a comprehensive and integrated program where our entire athletics department is speaking the same language," McLean said. "Whether it's academics, athletic training, or strength and conditioning, we're all on the same page."
For Mizzou tennis, their particular sports psychology message has centered on improving their well-being.
"During the summer because we had a lot of new girls joining the team, we did a lot of activities in positive psychology," McLean said. "A lot of those days were built around positive psychology interventions meant to increase well-being. The meaning behind that was flourishing people making flourishing athletes. If you're having optimal well-being then you're going to have optimal performance."
Mizzou tennis begins their Fall 2014 schedule next weekend in Kansas City, Mo. with the Mizzou Invite. As the players take the court for the first time this season, there's no doubt that McLean's stress on mental performance these past months will come in play.
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