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NEW!
Dr. Cohn Shares Mental Training Secrets! Peaksports
new online member area was growing so rapidly that we had to
upgrade to a more powerful web site. Get access to the
world's most advanced online mental training program 365 days
a year and learn innovative sports psychology strategies. Coaches
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The Composed Athlete: a 14-Day Plan for Maximum Composure!
Part of The Confident Athlete Series, this 2 CD set and workbook
teaches you how to stay poised under pressure in just 15 minutes
a day. Show
me more about The Composed Athlete...
2007
Peaksports Mental Training Bootcamp! We are
organizing the first annual Mental Training Bootcamp for 2007.
This is an intensive 2-Day live sports psychology program, held
in Orlando, FL, for coaches and athletes with special guest
presenters. Stay tuned for more details to follow along with
a survey to get your input on topics!
Are
You The Ultimate Sports Parent? Peak Performance Sports
recently launched "The Ultimate Sports Parent" web
site at www.youthsportspsychology.com
to teach parents to help their kids improve confidence and success
in sports. Parents can download our free e-book and "Ask
the Experts" a youth sports psychology question. Visit
The Ultimate Sports Parent web site now!
Locker
Room Talk
“I
am a professional surfer and after beginning the “The
Confident Athlete” I had an almost instant change
in attitude about my own surfing ability and my mindset going
into competition. One of my biggest issues I discovered in the
program was that I would begin to doubt myself once I show up
at a competition and see others surfing well. I would instantly
think - "no way I am that good." By using the Confident
Athlete strategies, my confidence has done a complete 180
degrees. I won a local pro/am a few weeks back, and just had
my best result of the year in one the last big events on the
world circuit this last week in Brazil! I plan to read the focused
athlete and to continue reviewing The Confident Athlete. It
is my secret weapon!”
~Shaun Burrell, Professional Surfer
Feature
Mental Game Article
A
Proactive Mental Game for 2007
By Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.
Athletes all over the world are setting new goals for their 2007. One
goal that should be on your radar screen is improving your mental
game performance over 2006. However, improving your mental game
can be difficult because it is harder to track and assess than
batting average or free-throw percentage – statistics
that are very easy to track and evaluate.
One of my
past students said this about his mental game, “When I
have trouble with my technique, I can do drills my instructor
gives me, but I am unsure what drills to use when I need to
improve my mental game.” We have no objective statistic
to track an athlete’s level of focus during competition
- at least not yet. Yes, the mental game component is harder
to assess, but well worth the effort. You just have to know
what to evaluate.
One problem
is that many athletes are reactive with their mental game instead
of proactive. Most athletes take a backseat approach to their
mental game - by waiting until they lose confidence or go into
a mini-slump before considering mental game improvement. This
is not the best approach if you want to make 2007 your most
successful year ever!
Serious
athletes want to be clicking on all cylinders with a powerful
mental game when they begin a new season in 2007. Therefore,
you want to spend part of 2007 reflecting on your mental game
performance in 2006. This is the first step to being proactive
with your mental game performance in 2007!
You should
start by reflecting on your mental game performance in 2006.
Below are four mental power skills you should reflect upon.
Your goal is to make adjustments in 2007 to enhance the following
areas:
1.
Ability to focus on the process (concentration)
2. Level of confidence prior to and during games
3. Level of trust what you have learned in practice
4. Ability to stay composed in crunch time
____________________________________________
Want to Become a Mental Game Coach? Enroll in Our Unique
Mental Game
Coaching Professional Certification Program!
Apply for the Spring 2007 Program - Contact Dr. Cohn for details.
____________________________________________
Athletes
should evaluate and adjust their mental game continuously, but
they don’t see it this way. Mental training is just that
– training your mind like your train your muscles. After
completing a 3-month fitness training program, are you done
with training? No, you continue to strive for better fitness
or at the least maintain fitness levels so you do not lose what
you gained in the 3 months.
How do you
assess your performance in these four areas I listed? You can
start by evaluating what percentage of the time you accomplished
these four mental skills in competition. If you competed 10
times, for example, what percentage of those events did you
concentrate well and stay focused on the process? 8 out of 10?
5 out of 10?
I ask my
personal coaching students to track their mental game performance
between sessions each week so they can give me feedback in our
next session. For example, if we are working on improving a
student’s ability to focus on the process, I would like
to know how well he or she could perform this mental game skill.
The simple act of tracking your mental game helps bring attention
to it. With this information, we can then make adjustments to
improve focus.
Maybe it
has been too long since your last golf tournament or football
game to remember what you were thinking. You just don’t
know. One option is to try to relive your last game and go through
each play or every shot in your mind to help you recall what
you were thinking and how confident and focused you were during
each play or shot.
Once you
reflected on your mental game performance in 2006, what is the
next step to being proactive with your mental game in 2007?
What is one positive step you can do to be mentally prepared
for your opening competition in 2007? Be proactive with your
self-confidence! With a high dose of self-confidence, many
others mental game skills are healthy too.
This means
taking proactive steps with your confidence. Having full belief
or confidence in your ability - absent of doubt - is a must-have
mindset to perform your best. Yes, confidence usually follows
a great performance or positive results, but what happens when
you start the game or match not performing your best? Does that
mean you do not deserve to have confidence that day?
How do you
mentally prepare your confidence for 2007? First, please understand
you’re your confidence should be based on years of practice
and performance and not just the last play, shot, or routine.
In most cases, this means you have years of experience to back
up a healthy dose of confidence.
The second
strategy is to identify and debunk all doubts you might have
about your ability that crush confidence you have earned over
years of performance. Remember that doubt is the opposite of
confidence. If you question your ability, you have some doubt
and thus are not fully confident.
A third
strategy is to strive for success and what you want to have
happen instead of being overtaken by fear of failure and what
would happen if you fail. Some athletes naturally strive for
success – a positive attribute. Many other athletes strive
to avoid failure and pain – a mental game breakdown that
is rooted in the fear of failure.
Finally,
if you want to learn all my performance-boosting secrets to
a healthy dose of proactive self-confidence in 2007 and much
more, you can read more by jumping over to The
Confident Athlete program.
Sports
Specific Mental Training Tip
Martin
Brodeur
on Making 200 Saves in His Head
Visualization
and anticipation are two important mental keys to success in
sports. Making 200 saves in your head before a game helps prepare
you for peak performance in many ways. First, the act of visualizing
successful performance, gears your mind toward success and what
you want to have happen in the game. Second, you can use visualization
to anticipate shots you might see from the opposing team and
see yourself making the save. Similar to what a batter might
do to prepare mentally for a certain pitcher. Third, seeing
and feeling yourself perform well in the game helps you get
your game face on in your pre-game.
“I
visualize a lot, I think seeing it before it happens is the
key to success. I close my eyes and it takes me two minutes
a day, I guarantee I'm able to make about 200 saves a day in
my head. The saves I am making in my head they are going to
show up in a game and I'll maybe be half a second quicker than
I should if I didn't see it in my head before.”
~Martin Brodeur
If you have
trouble controlling the movies in your head, this tells me that
you might have some confidence issues with your game. You certainly
do not what to visualize yourself getting scored on by the opposing
team as this only prepared you to get scored on! Make sure you
are in control of the outcome of your inner movies!
Podcast
of the Month
Get Psyched for Sports
- Podcast of the Month!
Podcast 10 gives athletes and coaches a sense
for how to begin a mental training program. Some athletes are
not sure what options are available for mental training. Dr.
Cohn outlines the options for starting a mental training programs
and the various programs he offers athletes and coaches in this
month's podcast.
Show me
the Podcast of the Month!
Pro
Athlete Quote of the Month
"You
know, several times during the Nextel Cup Chase, we've said,
hey, let's just go out there and win races and let it take care
of itself because it looked like we were down for the count
a couple of times. Just give credit to these two guys (Knaus
and Hendrick), just never give up. I think that that attitude
and not getting rattled is just maybe the two years that we
came close and didn't get it. I think that was our whole attitude."
~Jimmy Johnson, NASCAR Driver, Winner 2006 Nextel Cup
Ask
Doc Cohn
Tennis
Parent:
My son,
age 16, has played tennis for 6 years, extremely talented stroke
wise. Has won only one match in 10 novice tournaments with double
elimination – always losing to lesser players. He is a
perfectionist; ADD without hyperactivity. Starts missing shots
and it snowballs from there. Have tried the "Live in the
now. Each shot new opportunity. Be patient. Breathe. Relax before
each stroke." Progressive relaxation. Meditation-don't
need that stuff. Has two coaches who try to work with his head.
He knows what he needs to do (relax, stop being judgmental,
not be results oriented) but cannot make himself do it. Tries
out again for the high school tennis team in March. Enormous
pressure on himself to make the team. In May, he will move to
the 18U.
How do I
get him to be a successful competitive player when he won't
do what will ultimately help him?
Jump to Dr. Cohn's
answer now!
Most
Valuable Product (MVP)
NEW
& IMPROVED Peaksports Online Mental Training System
We spent 2 months revising our online mental
training system in 2006 to bring you even more mental toughness
tools for 2007! We have added new sports psychology programs
and sports psychology articles to help you or your team reach
peak performance. We have added a new feature for premium peaksports
members, Mental Training Plan, to help guide
members to greater mental toughness. We have also added new
programs for coaches in which you can enroll your entire team
at discount pricing!
Peaksports
Members can login in by clicking
here.
Not
a peaksports member yet?
Go
demo our New Online Mental Training Site at Peaksports Network!
Dr.
Patrick J. Cohn
Master Mental Game Coach
Dr.
Patrick J. Cohn is the President and founder of Peak Performance
Sports of Orlando, Florida. He earned his Ph.D. in Education from
the University of Virginia in 1991, and founded Peak Performance
Sports in 1994. Dr. Cohn is an author, speaker and one of the
nation's leading mental game experts. His coaching programs instill
confidence, composure and effective mental strategies that enable
athletes and teams to reach their performance goals. Dr. Cohn
has helped athletes from a variety of sports backgrounds (both
amateurs and professionals) identify and develop the mindset needed
to achieve peak performance. World-class golfers, runners, shooters
and auto racers, as well as motocross, tennis, baseball, softball,
football and hockey players, are among those who have benefited
from his mental game coaching and training.
Make
2007 Your Best Year with The Confident Athlete Series!
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Sports brings you the latest cutting-edge mental training
strategies in a practical step-by-step 14-day achievement
plan. Each program consists of 2 Audio CDs and an easy
to follow workbook to help you apply the mental strategies.
A must have for any competitive athlete or coach! Read
more...
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All Three Programs and Save $30 Today! |
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