coaching-tips

We all agree that developing mental skills is an essential part of being a successful athlete.

The ability to perform under pressure, the capacity to remain confident and resilient when competition conditions get tough, the skill to be able to relax and stay focused when feeling pain and fatigue in competition, concentration, visualization……coaches and athletes are unanimous that spending time developing mental skills is time well spent.

However, figuring out the best way to develop mental skills – particularly mental skills which can directly enhance the competition performance of athletes is another matter.

We all think working with a Sports Psychologist is a good idea but Sports Psychologists are like life partners……we know that having one is probably a good idea but it is next to impossible to find a good one. (more…)

There is no doubt that developing self-confidence is one of the hottest topics in sports coaching. Coaches universally agree that helping athletes to develop a strong sense of self-confidence: one which is resistant to the pain, pressure and fatigue of preparation and performance is at the core of what sports coaching is all about. So how do coaches help athletes to develop self-confidence? This article presents some practical ideas for helping athletes to develop a strong, real sense of self-confidence: self-confidence which is built on a solid foundation of evidence rather than on hollow rhetoric, shallow praise and cheesy motivational sayings.

Everyday I get emails and calls from coaches, athletes and parents looking for the secret to success. They get really disappointed when I tell them the truth. That is that there is no secret training set, no miracle powders, no super-supplements, no NASA developed training equipment – nothing – that guarantees sporting success except commitment. Giving 100% of your time, energy, resources, drive, enthusiasm and passion to the achievement of your sporting goal is the only real non negotiable in sport if winning is your aim. This article discusses commitment and challenges coaches and athletes to challenge themselves about where they fit on the Commitment Continuum.

Start talking about mental toughness in sport and you’ll soon find out that everyone’s got an opinion about it. People will start using words like “hard” and “tough” and “mean” and phrases like “never quits” etc to describe their views about mental toughness. But what is mental toughness? Can it be measured? Can it coached? And if mental toughness can be coached, how can it be coached? This post and podcast discuss mental toughness in sport and suggests a new way of looking at measuring and coaching mental toughness.