Facing Frankenstein: How to Defeat Your True Opponent in Sport

By Mark Elliott and Rory Best

You have created a Mental Monster that is more cunning, capable, and powerful than any of your physical opponents. It is your worst enemy and fiercest rival in sport.

• Do you sabotage your own performances and success?
• Are you in a constant battle with your mind?
• Do you ever wonder why your mind turns against you?
• Has competing become a fear-fest when it used to be fun and exciting?

Guided by the Mental Monster Model, Facing Frankenstein is a one-stop superstore of information and instruction for sportspeople who long for an effective answer to the burning question:

How can I get out of my own way and perform like I know I can?

With its combination of unique insights, real-life examples, and a no-nonsense training system that works, you will discover:

• Why you struggle with the psychological side of competing and be surprised that it has little to do with sport itself.
• What holds you back and why.
• How to manage the monster mind and deliver high-level performances time and time again.

‘Working with Mark was the turning point in my career’

Rory Best OBE, Ulster, Ireland, and B&I Lions

• Language: English
• Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Apr 28, 2024
• ISBN: 9781805148470

Mark Elliott

Mark Elliott has a BFA in illustration from the School of Visual Arts. He has illustrated a number of book covers, and his work has been exhibited at the Society of Illustrators and the Art Directors Guild. Mark lives on a sheep farm in the Hudson Valley region of New York.

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‘I can say, without hesitation, that Mark Elliott is the best sport psychologist I have encountered. He knows his craft inside out.’

Paul Brady, five-time World Handball Champion, eleven-time US Nationals Champion

‘Without doubt, working with Mark was the turning point in my career.’

Rory Best OBE, former Ulster, Ireland (captain) and British & Irish Lions

‘I have a lot to thank Mark for.’

Tommy Bowe, former Ex-Ospreys, Ulster, Ireland and British & Irish Lions

‘I started working with Mark from a young age. We worked on a range of areas in the mental game. His approach, ideas and tools have allowed me to improve my mental game. I can easily say it is one of my biggest strengths as an athlete.’

Olivia Mehaffey, four-time All-American, LET Professional

‘Working with Mark has been an extremely eye-opening and rewarding process. I have learnt so many things that have not only helped my professional performance on the pitch, but have also improved my mental strength as an individual in life.’

Johnny McPhillips, Provence Rugby

‘Mark has worked for the Sports Institute as a consultant supporting athletes and coaches from a range of Olympic and Paralympic sports. The Six Pathways to Mental Toughness training programme, presented in this book, provides the key skills necessary to help individuals gain a competitive advantage. Be proactive – open the book and make a start – let Mark show you how to attain high-level performance consistently.’

Peter McCabe, Athlete Services Manager, Sports Institute Northern Ireland

‘I started working with Mark during a tough period in my season and can honestly say it’s been the best decision of my career so far. My only regret is not reaching out sooner.’

Conor Mitchell, Dungannon Swifts, ex-Burnley and Northern Ireland U21

Copyright © 2024 Dr Mark Elliott

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

Troubador Publishing Ltd

Unit E2 Airfield Business Park

Harrison Road, Market Harborough

Leicestershire LE16 7UL

Tel: [phone]

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Web: www.troubador.co.uk

ISBN 9781805148470

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

To Alison, James and Matthew, the lights and loves of my life.

And to those who strive to be themselves in a world full of copies.

On the battleground of your mind stands an athlete and a monster.

You are the athlete.

The monster, your own worst enemy.

Contents

Foreword

Rory Best OBE

Introduction:

Part 1: Mental Game Awareness and Assessment

The Frankenstein Factor: The Making of a Monster

The Mental Monster

Mental Toughness: Overcoming the Monster Mind

Profiling Your Mental Game: Distance From the Monster

Monster Watch

Part 2:

Introduction to Part 2

Pathway 1 Pathway to Self-Motivation and Commitment

Pathway 2 Pathway to Healthy Self-Belief

Pathway 3 Pathway to Helpful Thinking

Pathway 4 Pathway to Effective Focus

Pathway 5 Pathway to Imagery Control

Pathway 6 Pathway to Emotional Control

Afterword: Keep Moving Forward

Acknowledgements

References

About the Author

Foreword

Rory Best OBE

¹

It is a privilege to write the Foreword to Mark’s book. Mark is one of the best sport psychologists around and has been instrumental in my rise through the ranks of professional rugby union. It is not an exaggeration to say that my progress was dramatic.

Within weeks of my first meeting with Mark, in June 2005, I had progressed from being backup hooker with Ulster to holding down a regular place in the team. What’s more, in November of that year, I won my first international cap for Ireland. It was at Lansdowne Road against the All Blacks, no less, and was the realisation of a boyhood dream. It was a truly special occasion I never expected to come round so soon. But when you’re mentally tough, anything is possible.

Without a doubt, working with Mark was the turning point in my career. I consulted him because of his strong reputation as a no-nonsense yet warm individual who had achieved amazing results with athletes and teams. He was also the leading psychologist with the Sports Institute Northern Ireland.

My main goal in engaging Mark’s services was to become psychologically tougher. Despite being relatively new to the world of professional rugby, I realised that the top players in the sport were not necessarily the most technically skilful. However, they were always the most mentally tough.

A major part of Mark’s teachings is to blow apart a host of human illusions. He explains that we have learned to see the world in ways that are far from helpful and particularly destructive in performance settings. One of these myths is to see external events, such as making a mistake during a match, as the cause of a negative emotional reaction or a loss of focus.

This insight changed everything. It was incredibly empowering. It meant that I was creating my stress and was, therefore, my own worst enemy. It also meant that I held the reins to my emotional and mental state at any one moment.

To whet my competitive juices, Mark suggested I saw my negative thoughts, feelings and images as the weaponry of a nasty internal saboteur who wanted me to fail. We called this internal parasite my ‘mental monster’ in reference to the way Frankenstein created his monster, only for it to turn on him. I liked this analogy as it provided an easy-to-understand and motivating rationale for the mental training I had to do.

I successfully followed Mark’s Six Pathways to Mental Toughness programme, which is tailor-made to overcome this Frankenstein Factor.

Facing Frankenstein is a terrific book that goes right to the heart of the mental game by making you accountable for your emotional state. You need to read it. Mark’s insight into how athletes sabotage their preparation and performances is unique. His words inspire and educate in equal measure, and his training is second to none. And I should know.

You too can reach your sporting potential by following the advice and learning the techniques in his book. I can assure you that before long, you’ll be mentally tough and performing at your peak on a regular basis.

---

1 Rory retired in 2019, having accumulated 124 Ireland caps, thirty-eight as captain. He is an Ulster Rugby legend who has also played for the British & Irish Lions.

Introduction:

Something Monstrous This Way Comes

Do you ever feel that your mind has turned against you? That somewhere along your sporting journey, your once quiet and obliging inner world went rogue and became a nagging, negative and noisy place? One hell-bent on crushing your confidence, pumping up your anxiety and undermining your performances?

In fact, do you ever wonder who – or what – is in charge?

It’s a genuine question.

After all, if you were in control, would you really set out to spoil things? I mean, would you actively choose to:

•doubt yourself?

•fear failure, ridicule and letting people down?

•dwell on your mistakes and treat yourself like trash?

•worry about what others are thinking and doing?

•feel under constant pressure to succeed?

•perform much better in training than in competition?

•lose your composure at key moments and mess up?

•feel trapped in a performance slump?

•play without fun, freedom and flow?

•psych yourself out?

No, of course you wouldn’t. None of us would, I’d imagine. Yet, it goes on all the time. Feeling hijacked from within, or getting in our own way, is a universal human experience, with the performance setting a particularly popular place for it to occur.

Over the course of my twenty-five years working as a sport psychologist, I have heard countless descriptions of this phenomenon in action. Athletes from all sports, individual and team, from amateur to world-class, have spoken to me about their maverick mind and its destructive impact. Preparations have been undone, performances ruined, and opportunities wasted by an inner world that refused to play ball.

But here’s the thing. While descriptions have differed in content and context, each sportsperson, in their own way, alluded to an ‘inner something’ that seemed to be working against them. An opposing force that could strike at any time and drag the athlete over to the dark side of competing.

While there will be as many examples of this hijacking in action as competitive athletes on the planet, I think the following will strike a chord.

Scenario 1

A footballer is getting ready in the locker room when, out of left field, they start to worry. With only thirty minutes to kick-off, their attention is swiftly captured and placed squarely on the consequences of putting in a poor shift that afternoon. It’s a big cup match and they fear making mistakes and letting the team and supporters down. With their mind now firmly focused on avoiding failure, anxiety kicks in and, far from being ready to play at their best, they take to the pitch with foreboding and self-doubt.

Scenario 2

Leading 5-4 and 40:30 in the deciding set and serving for the match against the tournament favourite, a tennis player nets a simple volley to seal the deal. In a heartbeat, their focus fixes on the slip-up and they scold themselves for missing the chance to beat their big-name opponent.

Sure that the opportunity has now gone, the player feels despondent. Then, unable to mentally reset for the next serve, they go on to double fault, eventually losing the game, and within ten minutes, the match is over.

Scenario 3

Having had a challenging day out on the course, a professional golfer returns to their hotel room and sits alone, thinking. Although they played pretty well in parts, they feel driven to dwell exclusively on their poor shots and missed putts, and end up feeling miserable. They don’t eat, sleep fitfully and learn nothing useful for the next day. Tired and feeling flat, they never really get going in the second round and fail to make the halfway cut.

Scenario 4

One last example vividly illustrates the speed of a mental hijacking, its devastating impact on performance, and the disconcerting but commonly reported feeling that it is being done to the athlete, not by them. It comes from one of my clients, rookie European Tour golfer Jamie (not his real name), who felt attacked by some rebellious part of his mind:

‘I know it’s me, it’s in my head, my thoughts, you know. But it doesn’t feel like me. Like, why would I wreck my own game? Why would I do that? But it keeps happening. I’d be over a shot, pick my target, feel fine, then, BOOM, my mind goes off on one. Like, all over the place. One second, I’m okay, then all jumpy and can’t focus. Can’t see the shot anymore, but hit it anyway to get it over with. I’ve wasted so many shots this way. It’s this thing inside my head. Winds me up.’

‘This thing inside’ is Jamie’s reference to the inner something, to that sense of being got at from within. Of being mugged by his own mind. Of being on the receiving end of the ultimate betrayal.

You will inevitably struggle if your inner world is not entirely behind your ambition to improve and succeed in sport. You can be at your sharpest physically and technically, but if a part of your mind is not on the same page as your goals, then this inner something will hold you back.

In fact, it can steal your sporting dream from right under your nose.

It stole mine at sixteen.

From Up-and-Coming to Down-and-Out

I was around ten when I stepped between two grey pullovers and played in goal for the first time. And it was love at first save. I was hooked. Like countless young lads in the 1970s, I ate, slept and breathed football, playing at every opportunity with my friends while also turning out for the school and a couple of underage teams in the area.

By twelve, I was training and playing every week and enjoying it all. It was a time of happiness, excitement and growth. I was becoming a decent goalkeeper.

Fast-forward three years and I’m with a local club, playing for their youth team on Saturday mornings and then for the seniors in the afternoons, when I’d be up against adult opposition. Far from feeling intimidated by the prospect, I took it in my stride, seeing it as a further step towards my dream goal.

As do many youngsters, I wanted to be a professional footballer and had set my sights on playing in the Irish League. And it wasn’t a pipedream either. I knew I had a chance, and when a couple of league clubs started to show an interest, I was buzzing. Being selected for a Northern Ireland schoolboy trial added to the optimism.

It’s late August 1979. I’m now sixteen and a new football season approaches. I’m excited about this, as I’ll be playing for the senior team full-time. The league clubs have continued to monitor my progress and another good season could see me signing for one of them.

I couldn’t have been in a better place. I was happy.

But little did I know that trouble was brewing under the floorboards of my mind and that within six months, I’d have packed it all in, never to play in goal again. Never to play competitively again. That I’d be gone, hounded out of football. Not by a person or people but by something inside that insisted upon it. Something that went about its business with ruthless efficiency.

There was no one moment when things went from okay to not okay. All I know is that my attitude and feelings steadily changed, that doubt crept in, uninvited, and I began to worry about things I’d never dwelled on before. And there were quite a few: making mistakes, playing poorly, letting the team down, being dropped, losing my reputation and being dismissed as a prospect.

Anticipation and enjoyment became feelings of football past, while football present was a disheartening sequence of increasingly awful and cringeworthy displays. And as for football future, there wouldn’t be one.

My performances had deteriorated so severely that the team coach, visibly concerned and sympathetic, asked me to take a couple of weeks away from the game to clear my head and come back refreshed.

Clear my head? I didn’t know what that meant, much less how to do it.

Predictably, I returned to the club more anxious than ever, burdened by the expectation that I should be back to my best, that the break would have done the trick.

But there was no chance of that happening. If anything, I became more uptight and fearful. Come match day, nothing had changed, as my mind struck its – by-now familiar – enemy-within pose, and my performances continued their downward trend. There was no stopping it; I was heading out of the game.

This Thing Inside

In very short order, something not on my side but in my mind had achieved its goal. It bullied me out of the sport I once loved, shattered my dream and banished me into football obscurity.

Whatever it was, the thing inside was good at its job. It got me to abandon my ambition in no time at all.

Now, of course, I thought none of this at the time. I’d neither the insight nor the vocabulary to do so. Instead, I opted for the seemingly obvious explanation – that I’d not been as good a keeper as I thought and had been fooling myself.

But this was a cruel and false assessment. I had been good. The evidence was there. And no way did my ability just magically disappear as if it had never existed. No way. Something else was going on. Something I knew nothing about.

The Mental Monster

Such is the mystery of life that some of our best gifts are cleverly disguised as our worst nightmares. And so it was with the demise of my dream at sixteen.

I couldn’t have known it, but as I hurried away from football, I was heading towards enlightenment. It may have taken a while – three psychology degrees and a few years of professional experience later – but I eventually understood what had happened to me and why so many of my clients described the same phenomenon.

What I unravelled from my research and practice was jolting, and it will startle you too. It will push the boundaries of what you have always assumed to be ‘just the way things are’. You’ll be thunderstruck when you discover why you engage in self-sabotaging behaviour and wonder why nobody bothered to tell you until now.

You will learn that there is indeed an inner enemy that actively works against your desire to succeed in sport. It is your unseen opponent that travels with you to competition.

It is your mental monster, and it’s what’s holding you back right now.

The monster’s ambition is to destroy yours. It is an opponent like no other, the most challenging, meanest competitor you will ever face in sport, and in life too.

It is you, your own worst enemy. Your inner saboteur.

The monster metaphor grew from a casual chat I had one afternoon with my doctorate supervisor, who, having listened to my sporting demise story, said, I think you created a monster back then, Mark.

It may have been an off-the-cuff comment, but something clicked when I heard it.

While at the time of the turmoil, I’d genuinely felt attacked by something separate within me, something that seemed to appear out of nowhere, the wisdom that comes with hindsight saw the experience for what it was. That it was self-inflicted.

I had chased myself out of football.

I had been the bully and the one being bullied; the goalkeeper with a dream and the one who destroyed it; the saboteur and the one being sabotaged.

I was both the creator of the inner something and its victim.

My research supervisor was right: I had created a monster back then – a mental one.

With my ideas taking shape, I did the obvious thing and reread the Mary Shelley masterpiece, Frankenstein. And there, hidden in plain sight, was the most fitting of analogies for self-sabotage.

In time, this groundwork, experience and study led me to develop the Mental Monster Model. As a framework of education and tuition, the model has helped many athletes understand how their mind operates, why it often works against them, and how they can learn to regain control.

When all is said and done, sporting excellence, particularly at the highest level, is as much about mental and emotional control as physical and technical ability. The margins for error can be so small that an athlete with a poor mental game will struggle to gain traction in their sport.

The Book and the Problem it Solves

Facing Frankenstein is a one-stop superstore of information and instruction for sportspeople who long for an effective answer to the burning question:

How can I get out of my own way and perform like I know I can?

With its combination of need-to-know detail, amazing insights, real-life examples, and a no-nonsense mental training system that works, this book will help you develop a mind that supports, not sabotages, your pursuit of progress and success.

Organised in two parts, the book is built around the Mental Monster Model. In Part 1, the model sets the context for the internal battle, while in Part 2, the book’s Six Pathways to Mental Toughness training programme will show you how to win it.

How the Book Will Benefit You

This is the book I wish I’d had as a teenager. It would have helped me understand my difficulties and could have prevented me from quitting football. Who knows how far I could have progressed in the game if I’d had access to the information and training back then?

However, what pleases me most right now is that you have access to it. You have at your fingertips a mighty book that will raise your mental game to a world-class level and improve your performances like never before.

Specifically, you will:

•discover why and how your mind goes rogue and sabotages your performances,

•find out the real reason why a strong mental game is a must-have, and that it has much less to do with sport than you’d think,

•come face-to-face with your mental monster,

•discover your monster’s kryptonite,

•understand mental toughness and learn how to develop it properly,

•find numerous examples of sportspeople who have won the internal war, kicked their sabotaging ways to the kerb and flourished,

•be able to assess your mental game as it is right now,

•have access to the Six Pathways to Mental Toughness programme – a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to an inner game with substance, one that squeezes the monster out of existence, and

•learn how to regain control over your inner world, and train and compete with increased self-belief, determination, resilience, composure, focus and excellence.

The knowledge, understanding and instruction in this book have helped the athletes I’ve worked with perform at their very best, time and again. Indeed, many have gone on to break records and thrive at national, international and world levels.

How to Use the Book

Personal change takes effort. There are no quick fixes, no matter how appealing some of the slick marketing is out there. In reality, it requires dedication, hard work and patience. Often, a lot of patience.

So, make sure you take time to absorb the information in the book, jot down some notes along the way, and most importantly, commit to the Pathways programme. After all, knowledge only takes you part of the way. It is taking action that gets you over the line. Therefore, carry out the exercises, practise the skills, and try them out frequently. No effort will be wasted, and remember that daily gains, however small, will accumulate over time into new and improved mental habits.

Who the Book Is For

The book is written for athletes across all sports and levels of ability, from the amateur participant to the professional elite and world-class. I hope the book will challenge the mental game sceptic as much as it refreshes and nourishes the enthusiast. It should also be read by coaches and parents, and by the curious and intrigued.

You do not have to be at your wit’s end to get the most out of this book, but it will benefit those who have hit some ‘fed-up’ point in their sporting progress. Perhaps you have come to the book exasperated by inconsistent performances, your all-too-frequent defeats to lower-ranked opponents, or an inability to close out matches.

Maybe you are haunted by a fear of failure or burdened by a mind that incessantly churns out defeatist thoughts, memories and images. Perhaps over-anxiety suffocates your preparation and performance, and this book represents a last attempt to regain mental and emotional control.

Whatever your reasons, sporting background, or ability level, it’s really good to see you here.

Be assured that the days of being stalked by your mental monster are numbered.

Part 1:

Mental Game Awareness and Assessment

Chapter 1:

The Frankenstein Factor:

The Making of a Monster

Many years ago, on a freezing February Friday in Belfast, I heard something that changed everything.

As a first-year psychology student at Queen’s University, I was going through the motions of attending another lecture, thinking only of getting away for the weekend, when I was stirred out of my daydreaming by the lecturer saying something strange. With the air of someone revealing a secret, he said, We don’t live in one world, but two. Yes, two!

I remember recoiling a little when I first heard it, unable to grasp the point. But then, when he explained things more fully, it made perfect sense, and I wondered why I’d never been told this before.

Of course we live in two worlds.

Two Worlds, One Life

While there is the obvious solid, physical world of people, places and things – the only world we think exists – there is also the internal, unseen world of beliefs, thoughts, memories, imagination and emotions; all of the things we generate and carry around in our heads.

These two worlds are constantly interacting, though it is our inner world that runs the show. It determines how we experience life itself. And this will be for better or worse, depending on what goes on in there. As the professor put it, The extent to which any of us are happy and confident, feel in control and achieve success, is down to the quality of how we tick in the unnoticed world of our minds.

So, there you have it. Our lives unfold at the intersection of two worlds. One we know very well and one we know little about, and often forget exists.

While there has been a positive shift within society, and we now talk more openly about the mental side of life, it remains the case that most people are strangers to their inner world. Many of us will know much more about our iPhones, favourite football teams, television shows and the lives of celebrities than we do about how we function psychologically and emotionally.

We are so consumed by the external world of people, possessions and situations that we seldom look inwards for solutions to our problems. Instead, we point the finger at our circumstances or other people. Sadly, we can keep doing this for years, then wonder why nothing has changed.

The simple truth is this: your mind holds the trump card in the game of life.

Therefore, if you want to live, love, learn and succeed like never before, you’ve got to look inside.

After all, that’s where ‘it’ lurks.

It?

Yes. IT.

You know, the thing everyone refers to but never names. The inner something that holds us back, gets in our way and makes life more of a struggle than it needs to be.

It is the discouraging inner voice that disturbs and distracts us, as it kills off our confidence by means of a thousand cutting remarks, clutters our minds with worry, self-doubt and anxiety, and grinds us down so far that we fail to get a foothold in life.

It is everyone’s worst enemy.

And if you’re an athlete, you will recognise this inner something as the bully, scaremonger, critic and naysayer that teases and taunts you when all you want is to perform like you know you can. Its cruelty knows no bounds, as it points out your inadequacies, belittles your worth, elevates your opponent’s ability, scares you with what-if scenarios, and extracts the freedom and flow from your game.

This ‘it’ is not on your side. In fact, no physical opponent is more crafty and powerful than this unseen one.

It is your worst enemy, the source of your self-sabotaging behaviour, and the main reason you need a strong mental game.

It’s your number-one rival in sport.

Two Worlds, One Performance

As with life, your experience as an athlete plays out at the intersection of two worlds, with your inner world in charge of everything. As a result, you need to have a mind that backs your pursuit of