The Game You Don’t See

Movember and Sportsnet want you to level up your mental fitness with The Mental Game.

Focusing on promoting self-care behaviours in men, this partnership with Movember and Sportsnet brings together well known sports stars and experts to share inspiring and relatable stories of challenge, failure, heartbreak, hard work, and resilience across a variety of sports.

It’s no secret that the pandemic has deeply affected mental health. It’s been tough going in the last year and we’ve all been challenged like never before. Many people have struggled to cope with this once-in-a-generation crisis, and some have relied on what are known as maladaptive coping mechanisms to get through. These include habits like drinking too much, not getting enough sleep (or sleeping too much), excessive gaming, unhealthy eating, lack of exercise or even just not getting outside. These behaviours continue to reinforce feelings of stress, anxiousness, and general mental ill health.

It’s never been more important to take care of yourself, but self-care can be a tricky area for men to embrace. Research shows that activities such as reading, walking in nature or doing yoga can have a significant impact on men’s mental health, but all too often, they are considered feminine and traditional masculine norms hold men back from investing time in their own wellbeing.

Enter The Mental Game.

Even the greats fall down – what matters is that you get back up, and everyone’s approach to how they get back up (and stay there) is different. Ever wondered how Ricky Romero really felt in the spring of 2012? Or what winning the Stanley Cup meant to Ryan O’Reilly? The Mental Game is an intimate look at the set-backs and mental challenges experienced by top athletes, and how they have worked on their mental fitness and resilience to overcome them. The series also features experts like Movember-funded researcher Dr. Thomas Ungar to help explain the science behind self-care and share tangible tips and tricks anyone can apply in their own lives to make a change towards taking better care of their mental health.

Are you ready to level up your mental fitness? Check out The Mental Game at www.sportsnet.ca/thementalgame to watch the series and learn more.