The Importance of Mental Skills in Sport<br /><br />Mazin Hadi Kzar<br />Physical Education and Sport Sciences Department, Al-Mustaqbal University College, 51001 Hillah, Babil, Iraq<br />[email protected]<br />Often people put too much emphasis on the physical capabilities of an athlete, when the mental skills they may have, or lack, are just as critical to their success. It’s as though they don’t acknowledge the fact that mental skills, self-awareness and the ability to understand and work with other people, are just as vital to your success as being able to run fast or step off of both feet, or throw a long ball.<br /><br />Imagine that elite performance is about creating a perfectly circular wheel with spokes shooting out from the hub. The spokes represent all the different elements needed to create peak performance. This includes physiology, tactics, strategy, mental skills, conditioning, nutrition, and physiotherapy. In essence all of these spokes combine to create a perfectly round wheel which runs efficiently.<br />Keywords: importance, mental skills,sport<br />