A
MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF PEAK
PERFORMANCE SPORTS
Issue 85 ................................................................. April 2, 2008
Welcome to Sports Insights Magazine
Welcome to Sports Insights Magazine! We are pleased to bring you practical, cutting-edge sports psychology and mental training tips to improve your mindset and performance. We thank you for being a subscriber of Sports Insights Magazine!
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NEW The Relaxed Athlete: A 14-Day Plan for Optimal Mental Preparation. Two programs combined into one, you not only learn how to develop a focused and confident pre-competition routine, but you also learn the secrets to a poised and relaxed mindset. On sale for one week only! Read more about mental preparation keys...
The Focused Team DVD Program! After months of tweaking, The Focused Team is so powerful that it’s virtually the same as having me conduct a live (in person) mental training seminar for your team. Includes everything a coach or team leader needs to effortlessly boost his or her teams' focusing skills and here is the kicker…. in just 7 short sessions! Read more...
Are you a sports parent or coach young athletes? Visit our youth sports psychology site to download a free youth sports e-book, "10 Tips to Improve Confidence and Success in Young Athletes."
"A 180 Degree Turn Around For Me!"
“The Confident Athlete” programs were a real eye-opener for me and exposed many perfectionist traits that were holding me back. I learned that I don't need to have a “magic surfboard” or train 5 hours a day to win. As a result, I enter competitions now more relaxed and confident than ever. It was a 180 degree turn for me."
~Shaun BurrellListen to Shawn's Success Story
Get the Entire Confident Athlete Series with "The Relaxed Athlete" Free
You hear athletes talk about "choking" in sports every day. What happens when an athlete chokes in competition? How does it affect performance? According to Wikipedia, “an individual athlete, or, more commonly, an athletic team collectively, is often said to have choked when failing to win a tournament or league championship and if certain other criteria are also met, especially if the player or team had been favored to win, or had squandered a large lead in the late stages of an event.”
This definition does not tell the entire story because it does not address how the human mind changes under pressure. The Buffalo Bills in the 1990s could not get it done in four straight Super Bowl losses. Did they choke or just get beat by a better team? Some people would say the New England Patriots are choke artists after being favorites to win, but losing the most recent super bowl.
More recently, PGA Tour player Woody Austin admitted that he choked in the final holes of the Zurich Classic. Woody Austin’s self-admitted “choke” on the final hole of last weekend’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans was not as monumental as the game’s most dramatic all-time collapses – such as the 1999 British Open, when Jean van de Velde lost a three-shot lead on the final hole.
I was shocked how candidly Woody Austin talked – on National TV – about how he crumbled under the pressure. “I'm not afraid to admit, when I choke, I choke, and I choked,” said Austin after the round.
“Oh, I puked my guts out, no doubt about it. I didn't have control of my golf swing and I put two hands on the steering wheel and was trying to steer it around, and it caught me at the end…. I'm an honest person. I'm looked at kind of strange, but you know, I know I was choking. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to give you a political answer and say, well, I just didn't have my game today. I didn't have my game today because I was scared out of my gourd and I was puking my guts out. That's the reality of it,” Austin said.
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____________________________________________I have to give props to Woody for saying what’s on his mind. I don’t know if he will regret saying that he was scared out of his mind, but what an honest guy. No hiding behind a facade - you know he is telling the truth.
No matter who squanders a lead or folds under big-game pressure, the result on an athlete’s or team’s mindset and performance is virtually the same. Pressure leads to fear and fear paralyzes your performance. A huge characteristic of pressure is when fear causes athletes to lose trust in their performance (i.e. “put two hands on the steering wheel and was trying to steer it around” according to Austin).
In golf, fear causes golfers to "steer the swing or shot." In tennis, pressure causes players to not be able to "hit out on the ball." In auto racing, we call a lack of trust "over driving the car." The result, you don’t allow yourself to perform with freedom and trust what you have trained your body to do in practice. Lack of trust will cripple any performer, youth to professional.
You must keep in mind that lack of trust starts in the mind and not with a “big game.” How anyone reacts to the big game is the difference between success and folding under the pressure. When you are scared, tentative, afraid to make mistakes, or don’t want to embarrass yourself, you can’t perform freely with complete trust.
The best athletes in the world prepare their minds to cope with pressure. Better yet, they thrive under the pressure. Playing in the big game gives them an added boost of adrenaline to focus their best.
Other athletes still don’t know how to prepare for pressure and have not mastered their emotions. We see it everyday in sports and it can lead to train wrecks. “Some days I'm better prepared to deal with it, and today I was hiding it pretty well. I was hanging in there, but eventually it caught up to me,” said Austin.
Do you want to learn my mental game secrets for playing with poise and a relaxed mindset? Go read more about how to mentally prepare for the big game.
"If I Am Comfortable, I Am Relaxed!"
When you are comfortable with your game, you are confident. When you are confident, you are relaxed, according to PGA Tour winner Bob Tway. And being relaxed allows you to perform the way you trained your body to perform. Anxiety, fear, tension, indecision all flow from from a lack of confidence and being comfortable with your game.
"I have to feel comfortable with my game to play well. If I am comfortable and relaxed because I am confident that I am hitting the ball the way I want to, then most likely I am going to play pretty good. If I am a little anxious or a little worried about a particular part of my game, I probably won't play as well."
~Bob Tway, PGA Tour
The Sports Psychology Podcast of the Month!
In this week's sports psychology podcast, Dr. Cohn talks about mental preparation and your pregame warm-up routine. Dr. Cohn gives mental game strategies for how to become mentally prepared and ready before competition. Most athletes know how to become physically prepared before competition, but lack proper mental preparation...Show me the Sports Psychology Podcast of the Month!
The Golf Psychology Podcast of the Month!
In this week's golf psychology session, golf psychology expert and author of The Mental Game of Golf, helps you think like a winner and improve your preround mental preparation for golf. Mental preparation is just as important as physical preparation for golfers young and senior. Learn the top mental keys to helping you be focused and confident when its time to hit your first tee shot...
"I Puked my Guts Out!"
"I puked my guts out, no doubt about it. I didn't have control of my golf swing and I put two hands on the steering wheel and was trying to steer it around, and it caught me at the end....I'm always like that, that's the whole thing. That's the thing that keeps me from being the player I know I can be. I've said it my entire career, that physically I can hit any shot like anybody, but mentally I'm so far behind the game it's unbelievable."
~Woody Austin, 2008 Zurick Classic
"My Son Is Frozen at the Plate. Help!"
Sports Parent:
My daughter is in Grade 10 and she was invited to the school first team hockey squad. Her coach says she has the technical ability but her confidence always lets her down. When I try and discuss it with her she reacts angrily and tells me that I am expecting too much from her. How can I take this pressure off her and what should she do to establish confidence in the match situation?
The Relaxed Athlete: A 14-Day Plan for Optimal Mental Preparation NEW!
The Relaxed Athlete: A 14-Day Plan for Optimal Mental Preparation!"The Relaxed Athlete," our 5th CD program in the confident athlete series teaches you Dr. Cohn's top mental strategies for complete mental preparation for competition. Two programs combined into one, you not only learn how to develop a focused and confident pre-competition routine, but you also learn the secrets to a poised and relaxed mindset. The program includes 14 days of mental preparation exercises that can be tailored to your specific sport. Each copy comes with 3 premium bonuses that you can download immediately! Become a peaksports member and receive 30% off retail.
Read more about The Relaxed Athlete CD Program!
Buy The Relaxed Athlete Program Now!
Peaksports Members please login in by using this page to access the "Member Only" link to save 30%.
Not a peaksports member yet? Go demo our New Online Mental Training Site at Peaksports!
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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.
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NEW! The
Confident Athlete Series by Peak Performance 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.
Perfect for any competitive athlete or team coach! Buy
All 4 Programs and Get "The Relaxed Athlete" FREE! |
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teamwork
:: confidence :: focus :: composure |
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