“ Enables coaches to promote not only athletes’ optimal psychological state but also their mental well-being…”

Training athletes in these three areas in equal measure is the best route to excellence and success, and yet the psychological development of athletes is frequently neglected. With the help of the concept of Lucidity, Dirk de Sousa has developed a way to empower athletes psychologically to access their full potential at any time, through increased mental clarity and the cultivation of psychological distance from automatic emotional responses. In this way, learning is accelerated while the risk of injury is minimized, enabling the athlete to perform at the peak of his or her potential in competition.

As a former coach of three national and Olympic teams, Dirk de Sousa achieved successes that were sufficiently positive that he was invited to train national and regional coaches, and to develop new standards for national performance centres in Switzerland, the objective being to bring the concept of Lucidity to young athletes on a national scale.

In addition, Dirk de Sousa has developed a test-based tool that identifies the current psychological status of athletes and provides coaches with a psychological inventory and follow-up tool. This is the first time the psychological status of an athlete has been measured and objectively assessed, and it enables coaches to promote not only athletes’ optimal psychological state but also their mental well-being at every stage of their career.

Online for the first time, Dirk de Sousa’s methods are being relayed to coaches through Mental Coaching with Lucidity, an online course that explains the concepts behind his work, provides a wide range of teaching materials and gives access to the online tools described above.