peak sports
  Mental Toughness
Sport Specific Programs
 
Athletes
Sports Coaches
Sports Parents
Race Psychology Programs
Golf Psychology Programs
Online Mental Training
Peaksports Products
 
The Confident Athlete Series
The Focused Team DVD
2007 Bootcamp DVD's
Mental Training Proshop
Mental Game Assessment
Free Resources
 
Trial Membership
Free Newsletter/E-book
Get Psyched Podcast
About Us
 
About Dr. Cohn
Peaksports Clients
Peaksports News
Search Peaksports.com
Refer Your Friends!

Free Newsletter

Get our sports psychology tips &
receive a free mental training e-book:

Name
Email
Your Sport:
Sports Role:

We hate spam too! Privacy Policy

 
  Ask Dr. Cohn Archives

Why Does My Daughter Perform Better in Practice?

Mother of Gymnast:

My daughter trains 6 days a week for competitive gymnastics. She is strong as a bull. She does well when practicing at her home gym. When it comes time for competition, she looks nervous, she seems to hesitate and hold back her strength. We are looking for some way to help her better prepare mentally for competition so she can compete more successfully using her talent to the best of her ability.

Dr. Cohn’s Answer:

I see this very typical issue with many of the athletes I work with— the inability to take one’s practice skills to competition. Often this is a result of fear of failure and sometimes perfectionism. Here are the clues: If she has high expectations (almost unrealistic) for her performance, feels more comfortable in practice than competition, has anxiety and doubt before or during competition (which she does), fears letting others down or how others view her, and performs tentatively like she is controlling her moves—she has fear of failure.

Join Peaksports Online Mental Training System

How do champions win over and over again? By mastering the mental game. Now you, too, can harness the power of unbeatable mental toughness in sports--every time you compete!” Visit peaksportsnetwork and access over 500 performance-boosting sports psychology and mental training tips and programs.