Mentoring Overview
By signing up to the athlete mentoring programme, you are entering into a system to help you achieve your full potential from a perceptual, cognitive and psychological perspective. The link between how we can take in and process information is strongly linked to elite performance, and is all mediated by our psychological strength. This mentoring programme provides comprehensive support from a world leader in these areas.
There are a number of different mentoring programmes on offer, for both athletes and coaches, and these are designed to meet the needs of anyone from a recreational athlete all the way through to the seasoned professional.
What can I expect from mentoring?
• Identification of visual needs – Regardless of the programme you sign up to, the initial sessions will investigate the specific visual demands of your sport and the way you approach it. These ‘visual needs’ will be unique to you as an individual and by recognizing which are important to your performance, we can then set about enhancing these through tailored training programmes.
• Individualised training programme - Through identification of your specific needs, a training programme can then be set, monitored, and updated to ensure you are continually working to your limits to enhance the perceptual, cognitive, and psychological mechanisms which underpin performance.
• Self-reflection and goal setting guidance - Throughout the mentoring process, you will be guided to engage in self-reflection in order to enhance your personal awareness, which eventually will allow a healthy perspective on managing your performance through deep personal insight. Goal setting will be used to manage the process and monitor progress.
• A knowledgeable and reliable support system – By signing up to this mentoring programme, you will not just receive support in enhancing sporting performance, but you will also have direct and regular access to a qualified professional in general wellbeing and psychological support. This can take many different forms, but just having a regular contact with a confidential sounding board can be hugely beneficial in a number of areas.
Overall, the mentoring system is designed to enhance you as an athlete, and support you as a person. The exact format it takes will be tailored to your individual needs, but this programme will provide regular access to a highly qualified and supportive professional through which your personal growth will be developed and maintained.
Who is my mentor?
Dr Zöe Wimshurst is a world leading expert in enhancing sports performance through understanding and improving perceptual and cognitive elements. She has worked with elite athletes such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Max Verstappen and high-level teams such as Great Britain Hockey and Harlequins RFU. Dr Zöe is a published academic author and holds a PhD in Visual Performance in Elite Athletes. She is also a Chartered Psychologist and holds additional qualifications in Counselling in order to provide holistic support.
With over a decade of experience working at a Senior Level within the British Education system, Dr Zöe has provided support, education and development opportunities to a range of individuals and mentored both students and staff to achieve their goals.
This programme is deliberately exclusive to ensure that all mentees get personalized input and full support.
The programme
Two different level of athlete mentoring programme are available and as standard, each are offered on an annual basis.
| Programme A | Programme B |
|---|---|
| Initial consultation to discuss strengths and weaknesses of performance and set short and long-term goals | Initial consultation to discuss strengths and weaknesses of performance and set short and long-term goals |
| Setting and monitoring of training to enhance perceptual, cognitive and psychological factors relevant to performance | Setting and monitoring of training to enhance perceptual, cognitive and psychological factors relevant to performance |
| 60 minutes, online, individual, consultancy session each month | 120 minutes, online, individual, consultancy session each month (split into multiple sessions as required) |
| 20% discount on ‘visual performance’ screening | Annual in-person ‘visual performance’ screening* |
| Observation of competition or training (in person* or via video) to assess factors affecting performance | Observation of competition or training (in person* or via video) to assess factors affecting performance |
| Biannual re-testing of key visual skills* | |
| Option (where safe and appropriate) for eye-tracking analysis of performance with feedback and guidance | |
| Annual fee: £2500 | Annual fee: £5000 |
*to take place in Bournemouth/Ringwood, or additional travel expenses are not included.
How to sign up
If you would like to sign-up to either mentoring programme, or to discuss them in more detail, please email zoe@performancevision.co.uk