OCALA, FL (352today.com) – It’s been a fascinating journey for Mario Soto, who has been an athlete and actor before transitioning to his current role as a sports psychologist and mental skills coach.
Soto has several clients in Ocala including an Olympian but works with athletes of all levels. But it’s about far more than goal setting and performance planning. His clients have grown in self-confidence, have more self-esteem and their competence in their discipline has improved and increased.
“All of these people, whether they’re pro or amateur or junior, our job is to give them confidence,” said Soto. “As a parent, I think the greatest gift we can give our kids is confidence. You know, somebody who has confidence, they walk differently, their body language, how they view the problem is different because now they’re leaning in. I can solve it. It’s just a matter of how and how much time and when.”
He also understands athletes and what separates good from great, having worked with a number of them at the elite level.
“They’re consistent, they’re stubbornly disciplined, they have an ego and they have a competitive drive, but most of the time, they’re able to control it.” said Soto. “They’re aware of it. I think there also has to be an imbalance that you have surrendered to a degree. When I say an imbalance, you have to be a borderline obsessive about the little things, that at the highest level are everything. You have to pay attention to the detail and they do. They have an ability to get lost in what they’re doing.”
Athletes often have only a fraction of a second to make a decision. The great ones have an ability, having exposed themselves so much intentionally through their practices, to slow the moment down, said Soto.
“I’ll sit and I’ll talk to them and I’ll work and come from time to time and observe,” said Soto. “I want to watch them practice. I’m constantly reminding them, my job is to keep challenging you until you get to the point where you’re pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, and then our conversations are, ‘what did I learn?'”
An emphasis on excellence
Soto tells his graduate students, if you’re not adding value, if you don’t try to make them trust you, or earn that trust, you’re just one of many.
“I’m as competitive of a person as you’re ever going to meet, that’s why we’re kindred spirits, we speak the language,” said Soto. “When you win, great, but I’m doing that behind the scenes. It’s never about me. When you lose, I feel responsible. What could I do different. They hear it in every conversation. I try to be consistent with that.”
Ocala-based Olympian equestrian Will Simpson was Soto’s first big athlete, but how the opportunity came about is rather propitious.
“I got a phone call out of the blue, from somebody who was Googling sports psychology, he was an orthodontist… I said, ‘buy me lunch, I’ll come down there and I’ll meet you and see what I can do.'”
Robert Ridland, the U.S. Chef d’Equipe, or coach, and technical advisor for the show jumping team heard Soto talking, and when there was a pause, Ridland came over and tapped him on the shoulder, and introduced himself. Soto had no idea who he was.
“It was the first horse show I had ever been to. He said, ‘can you come back tomorrow, I have a friend, who I think would really like to talk to you,'” said Soto. “He’s really into that. I said ‘okay.’ I had to call him, and I said I’m sorry I can’t make it, we exchanged numbers. I ended up driving to where Will’s barn was, and it was Will Simpson. I didn’t know anything about him. Then I Googled him, he had just won a gold medal (at the 2008 Summer Olympics for Team Show Jumping). I said, ‘what do you want to talk to me for.’ And I loved his answer, ‘Because I want to keep winning.’ I said, ‘okay.’ That’s the kind of person that I not only want to work with, but it changes the stereotype that people still have today, oh, there has to be something wrong with you (if you’re seeing a psychologist). What’s wrong with saying I want to be the best damn athlete in the world, and I want to get as many resources [as possible] to help me and make that happen.”
When Soto and Simpson started down that path, in 2012, the gold medalist went on an incredible run, in Thermal, Calif., he said. The results were astonishing. Soto’s techniques in providing motivation and focus have helped athletes perform at an optimal level.
“I love the story, and I share it with people, he helped break the thought process that there has to be something wrong with you,” said Soto, who has been working with riders for the past 15 years. “He did it during an interview. We were in Palm Desert at the Thermal Horse Show, and during the circuit, if there were eight Grand Prixs, he won six. The previous [record] had been three. He shattered it. He said, ‘I’m starting to look at nutrition, I’m doing this new thing, Kettlebell workouts.’ And I’m laughing at it, and he said, “I have coach Mario who gets my head right.'” The reporter stops and says, ‘you have therapist?’ He turned to him, and he said, ‘he’s my mental skills coach. He makes sure that my head is in the right place where it needs to be, so I can connect with my horse and do my job.”
Changing the perception
Soto loves sharing that story for no other reason than to make people rethink this idea of getting help. The athlete isn’t weak because they’re asking to get better; if anything, it’s the opposite–they’re saying “I want more out of life. I want more out of this experience.” That passion that he has for helping people comes out and helps to bring something out of them, so they feel it and see it, he said.
Ocala-based show jumper Candice King, who has enjoyed success internationally, and has represented the United States on multiple Nations Cup teams, is one of Soto’s clients. Soto actually knew King’s father in California. The two connected through her father.
“He has an innate way to communicate very clearly, and in a simple way to understand it,” said King. “I’ve sent him a couple of my students. He’s an unbelievable person who can put things in perspective to each individual as they need it.”
King suffered a severe head injury in 2022 and said Soto has been instrumental in helping her walk through that, knowing where she needs to be and where her place is going forward.
“The piece for me with Mario is, across the sport, he understands sport,” said King. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what discipline in horses we do, what sport we do, it’s about how you can compartmentalize, walking into whatever sport you’re doing. Mario is unbelievable in staying really positive and very real. And each person, taking in how they understand all of that. I think that’s that unique piece that makes him so great at what he does. He is not generalized when he is talking to each individual, he’s very much about who that person is and how they take in.”
