The Most Important Class I Teach

Our full-time stage and screen acting course at Acting Coach Scotland is designed to be essential. It’s packed with the absolutely necessary and cleared of the ‘nice but you won’t ever need it’. One of the things that we teach that you won’t find in most acting courses is the psychology of performance and our class is called The Inner Game of Acting.
 
For many of our students, this could actually be the most important class that we teach. The reason why is that the thing that makes the most impact on our ability to be successful, is what’s going on in our mind. 
 
Just like in sport, ability alone won’t lead to sustained success if the mental game isn’t being won at the same time. 
 
In this class, we explore confidence, self belief, state management, self-talk, goal setting and many other elements of performance and sports psychology that impact on our success.
 
Without training in the psychology of performance, our students will only be partially prepared and after they graduate, they need these tools to succeed on their own. 
 
Without help with goal setting, actors can rely on luck, or chance, or their agent to move their career forwards. Without help with self-talk, the Inner Critic in their head can ruin audition opportunities and even end careers. Without a strong understanding of the difference between self confidence and self esteem, we can take the blows of rejection too hard to our ability to continue confidently auditioning. 
 
So, although we are acting coaches primarily, and although we specialise in our no-bullsh*t acting training at ACS, perhaps the most important class is one that deals with winning the inner game, the battle for the mind that exists within all of us and which makes the greatest impact on an individual’s success. 

We have written a free book on the mental obstacles that we have to overcome as actors, it's called The 12 Obstacles and head over to the Acting Advice Guide section of our website to download your copy.