The Key to Success in Competition: Training the Mental Pillar at JF2 Academy
Performance in padel, as in any high-level sport, requires a solid mental foundation. Recent studies confirm that the mental pillar determines more than 60% of success in competition, in many cases. At JF2 Academy, we understand that addressing this area requires going beyond automated behaviors and routines.
11/3/20251 min read
The Difference Between Automated Routines and Transformation
For us, routines and automated behaviors on court are important (we internally call this “applying or taking the medicine”), but they are not what is truly essential for improving a player’s performance in everything related to their mental pillar.
Continuous improvement in performance only occurs when, as “good doctors,” we begin by investigating the root cause or causes of the “mental area susceptible to improvement” in the player. This change in approach—where the language we use is very important—allows for true improvement in performance, significant and sustainable over time for the player.
Our Process of Intrinsic Transformation
To overcome internal challenges and move a player toward improvement in their “mental pillar,” our work focuses on a joint “rediscovery” with the player of the following aspects:
“Return to the Essential”: We work on their Process Goals, Limiting Beliefs, Mindset, Essential Principles and Values—everything that is truly essential to improve their performance and personal self-satisfaction.
Their Internal Dialogue and Perspective: We cultivate new positive thoughts, oriented toward “the essential” and a renewed “transformative inner dialogue.”
Their “New Character”: We facilitate the development of new thoughts, new habits, new customs, which will lead to their “new character.”
The Goal: The State of “Unconscious Competence”
By working on these fundamental elements, the player changes their beliefs and internal dialogue, and transitions toward the state of “unconscious competence” in their mental pillar. Once this level is reached, the player no longer needs to consciously “take their medicine” in the face of each adverse situation.
The final result is that of a “transformed person with an extraordinary capacity for improvement.” We will have a player whose mental pillar has been worked and trained cognitively, intrinsically, and transformationally—not only based on routines and automated behaviors.
