It’s a Saturday afternoon. You have just sat down on your couch and are ready to digest the sporting action on television – favorite drink in hand. Regardless of the sport, you have a penchant for, the athletes go about their business with grace, poise, and class (unless you are watching Sergio Ramos in a big game). They make it look so easy. They make it look like that is something you could do, even after a night out on the town.

Yes, it certainly does look easy, but the glamour and brilliance you are exposed to on television does not tell the whole story.

You don’t get to see the hours of hard work being put in on the training ground. You don’t get to see the pressures which go along with needing to be ready for the highest level of sport. You don’t get to see the constant fight each and every player has to go through to ensure they are not only ready for action but ready to battle their inner demons – the demons which weigh heavy on a professional.

Those behind-the-scenes challenges are what make the athletes you see on a Saturday afternoon look so perfect. However, this is not just about being ready physically, the mental state of a player is just as important – and in a lot of cases, even more so.

Injuries, defeats, and personal issues all contribute to the state of mind of an athlete. If a player is not in the right place mentally, they will not succeed. As onlookers, it is almost impossible to comprehend what that means, as we take it for granted that our heroes on the sports field will be perfect for our enjoyment, but that is a naive way to look at it.

Having the mental strength to pick yourself up after a setback in professional sport is something which Liverpool Football Club defender Joe Gomez knows all about. The young player’s stock was quickly rising at the English Premier League club in 2015 when anterior cruciate ligament damage put a hold on his dreams of going even further. His injury meant he had to sit on the sidelines for over a year, but it was what he learnt about himself on a psychological level which ensured he was able to return to the field in 2017.

“It was tough at times and there were phases when I felt like everything was against me. Now looking back at it, it was a big year for me to learn: to gain faith in myself. I am thankful that I came through to it and that it’s behind me,” Gomez told The Independent in early 2017.

“It certainly has made me mentally stronger. I look upon things differently. I am a different person. When you have experienced something like that, you don’t take things for granted anymore. It gives you a different perspective. I see it as a blessing that I was able to learn from it in the way I did.”

Gomez is one of the lucky ones.

Not every professional is able to come back from a setback as confidently as this young bartballer did. It just doesn’t work like that.

Tiger Woods is a great example of how injury issues, coupled with problems in your personal life, can take their toll on your ability to perform on the biggest stage. Woods, for much of the 90s and 00s, dominated the game of golf with his raw talent and drive to succeed. But once things started to unravel at home and the injuries started piling up, the career he was once admired for began to fall apart, and he has never been the same since.

The stories of both Woods and Gomez point directly to how important having the right mental state is. If you are unable to overcome your setbacks on a psychological level, then you will never be able to return to the levels of performance you once enjoyed.

So how does one work on the mental side of sporting setbacks?

Synctuition, that was developed by neuroscientists, physicists, and mathematicians promote the recovery of the mental state of athletes using a groundbreaking and totally unique combination of 3D soundscapes, gamma waves, binaural beats, and personalized sound journeys. Users are guided into deep relaxation and meditative states, pushing them towards the mental recovery they desire.

– Shorter recovery periods

– Stronger immune system

– Increased focus

– Improved sleep

– Easier to maintain work-out discipline

You see, it really is all about the mind. One cannot expect to pick things back up after a setback without returning to the state of mind one was once in. The saying ‘mind over matter’ is so important here, as a weak mental state does nothing more than weaken your physical abilities.