On Saturday, April 21st 2018,
Ace Tennis hosted the 4th Empower Aces Mind Games workshop. The workshop focused on helping junior athletes improve performance through self awareness and self regulation. The workshop catered to athletes from the Ace U12 Provincial Program with participants ranging from 9 to 12 years in age. This was
Empower Aces second workshop for the U12 age group at ACE during the last 6 months. Majority of attendees also participated in the U12 Mind Games Core Concepts workshop held in December 2017.
The core concepts covered in this workshop included:
- Understanding emotions and recognizing different intensity levels
- Impact of anger and frustration on our brain, our actions and our game
- Using the Anger Mountain to understand different physical cues
- Importance of deep breathing
The junior athletes participated in an interactive exercise that helped them become aware of their physical responses to different emotions. They were taught breathing techniques to maintain their composure. The 2-hour workshop enabled athletes to actively participate in discussions and activities.
The participants received handouts including a tracking sheet and instructions to practice their breathing exercises for 5 minutes twice a day for a month. They were encouraged to make the active breathing a part of their daily routine. The athletes were also provided a handout titled "Improving Performance through Self Awareness and Regulation" emphasizing some of the core concepts covered within the workshop. The athletes also took home their anger mountain exercise responses to better understand their individual responses to emotions.
This workshop was preceded by the "Empower Aces U9/U10 Mind Games - Core Concepts for Junior Athletes" held at ACE In February 24th 2018 and the "Mind Games- Core Concepts for Parents to Help Junior Athletes" held at Ace Tennis on December 9th.
Parents of junior athletes have expressed a keen interest for their children to continue participating in future workshops.
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