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Issue 96 ................................................................. April 2, 2009
Welcome to Sports Insights Magazine
Welcome to Sports Insights Magazine! Learn practical, cutting-edge sports psychology and mental training tips to improve mental toughness in sports.
If you enjoy our free mental toughness newsletter, please click here to forward it to other athletes and coaches. Get powerful mental game strategies as a subscriber to Sports Insights Magazine!
Golfer's Mental Edge: An 8-Week Program for Ultimate Golf Confidence. Dr. Cohn's new CD and workbook program teaches you the top eight lessons to play with mental toughness on the course. Read more about how to improve confidence in golf...
Improve Kids Confidence with Kids' Sports Psychology! Kids' Sports Psychology is a one-stop, exclusive 10-step plan for boosting confidence and cultivating positive mental game skills in young athletes! Download age-specific confidence-boosting mental game strategies, e-books, videos, and audio programs produced specifically for young athletes. Learn how to boost sports kids' sports success...
Are you a Mental Game Coach or Sports Psychologist? Learn how to grow your mental game practice with business-building secrets for mental game experts from Dr. Cohn!
Download a Free Mental Game Report! Golfers: Improve Your Preshot Routine. Baseball and Softball Players and Coaches: Improve At-Bat Routines. Tennis Players and Coaches: Improve Your Mindset Between Points!
Locker Room Talk
"Amount of Knowledge Learned is Fantastic!"
“The amount of knowledge I’ve learned from your e-books, books and podcasts at peaksports network is fantastic! You’re the best Mental Training coach I’ve found. I research the subject a lot and other sport psychologists aren't as comprehensive as you. Several of my golfers have read your web site tips and books with great results. The money I’ve invested in becoming a Premium Member at Peaksports Network has been one of the best investments I’ve professionally and personally made.”
~Gavin Clark, PGA Winter Hill Golf Club
Feature Mental Game Article
Thriving During Crunch-Time: Mental Toughness for Clutch Performances
By Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.
Why do some athletes thrive on crunch-time pressure? Why do some athletes crumble in the clutch moments of the game when all eyes are on them to do something special?
Performing well in clutch moments has a lot to do with your mental makeup, experience playing in crunch-time, and your perception of crunch-time “pressure.”
Some athletes’ mental game crumbles under the pressure and for different reasons. If you can’t get the job done in clutch moments when your team depends on you, you might:
- Be afraid to make mistakes and play tentatively
- Worry about embarrassing yourself
- Not want to let your team or coach down
- Not have the confidence in yourself to trust in your skills
- Tighten up because you focus too much on the outcome or consequences of winning or losing
- Think you will choke based on the past and thus make it happen
Whatever your challenge with performing your best in clutch moments, you can learn how to become a crunch-time performer.
The golf world recently witnessed another clutch performance by Tiger Woods. Woods won the 2009 Bay Hill Invitational last week. He made up five shot on the leader the last day including holing a 16-foot birdie putt on the last hole of the tournament. Most fans (and fellow golfers) have come to expect clutch performances from Tiger Woods and he delivered in a big way.
How do great athletes raise the level of their game in clutch moments when they need it the most.... I think they live for pressure moments when all eyes are upon them. They love the added adrenaline that heightens their focus and intensity during a close game or tight match….
“It feels great to be in contention again, to feel the heat on the back nine. And then obviously the big bonus is to win a golf tournament,” said Woods. “I hadn't been in the mix since the U.S. Open, so it was neat to feel the heat on the back nine again, and got myself into the hunt and into contention.”
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____________________________________________You’ve heard other great athletes say the same thing about playing in contention and trying to win a close contest. That’s why they practice for hours, weeks, and months leading up to big events—they love to feel the intensity and excitement of the moment!
If you are intimidated by your competition, you won’t feel this way. If you are scared to lose and what happens when you lose, you can’t feel this way. If you want to win so badly and try too hard, it won’t happen for you. So once again, you must have mental toughness and love the feelings that accompany a close contest.
Getting yourself into contention or into the championship game is one challenge, but closing the deal and winning when time is running out is another challenge.
“I'm trying to beat them just how they're trying to beat me. It doesn't change. It's just about being there at the end and somehow timing it right and making putts at the right time and pulling off shots at the right time,” said Woods after winning the Bay Hill Invitational.
You can’t learn this type of mental toughness overnight, but you can learn to love the "heat of the moment." Tiger was trained by his father at an early age to cope with distractions and focus under adversity. However, many athletes compete because they love the competition; they love the feelings that accompany a close competition.
If you love a close battle and look forward to thriving under crunch-time, you are one step closer to Tiger-Woods-like mental toughness. You must embrace the mental and physical challenge to take take the last shot, make the winning free-throw, or sink the winning putt. If you have the attitude that performing well in clutch moments is the reason why you practice and train so hard, then you'll look forward to the challenge of performing your best during crunch-time or critical plays at the end of the game.
Want more tips to help you relax and perform well in competition? Check out The Relaxed Athlete in the Confident Athlete Sports Psychology CD programs - to boost your confidence, composure, focus, and trust before and during competition!
Sports Specific Mental Training Tip
"It just wasn't an Option."
Your mindset often determines the outcome of the game or match. When you believe in your team and your skills, great performance flows.
"I came into the gym with the mindset that I wasn't going to leave without the net. We weren't going to leave here without cutting down those nets. It just wasn't an option."
~Jayne Appel, Stanford Basketball, Pac-10 player of the year
Podcasts of the Month
The Tennis Psychology Podcast of the Month!
In this week’s tennis psychology session, Dr. Cohn and Tomaz Mencinger (www.TennisMindGame.com) discuss the mental challenges of playing with tension. Dr. Cohn and Tomaz Mencinger talk about what can hold players back from playing relaxed. The Tennis Psychology Podcast by Dr. Patrick Cohn helps tournament players, tennis coaches and parents improve confidence, focus, and composure.
- Show me the Tennis Psychology Podcast of the Month!
- Watch the Tennis Confidence Video series!
- Tennis Players & Coaches: Improve your mental game between points with this free report!
The Golf Psychology Podcast of the Month!
In this week's golf psychology session, mental game of golf expert and author of The Mental Game of Golf and The Mental Art of Putting, Dr. Patrick Cohn, helps golfers learn how to improve their mental preparation via a mental routine. Learn how to adjust your mental preshot routine to boost your golf confidence. Anyone can use a physical routine. What's most important is having a consistent mental preshot routine.
Pro Athlete Quote of the Month
"It came down to who wanted it the most..."
"It came down to whoever wanted it the most. I just kept telling my team, 'This is our game. They can't stop us.' We just had to keep playing."
~Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic
Ask Doc Cohn
"How can my daughter interrupt the negative thoughts?"
Sports Parent:
My daughter is a freshman in HS and plays varsity volleyball and JV basketball. Like so many of the real life stories I have read on your web site, she is a perfectionist and can get really down on herself if she doesn't perform up to her expectations. For example, during the past basketball season, she would swing between the JV and "C" team and her level of play would differ dramatically. As you can guess, she plays freely on the "C" team, and although mistakes still bother her, she tends to play through them better whereas on JV 1-2 mistakes and she doesn't even want to touch the ball fearing she will make more mistakes.
I've constantly told her not to focus on mistakes, everyone makes them, and to focus on the fact she is one of the most well rounded players on either team. I think to a degree, she believes the positive part, but it is so easy to beat her self up when she is not playing well. As a lifelong golfer who has destroyed many a round letting negative thinking get the worst of me, I am a firm believer how positive thinking will make you more successful not only on the field, but also in life.
I feel negative thinking is a process that is always present, and starts to surface when things don't go well. I have also heard one might be able to interrupt that process. Is there something you could suggest that she specifically do (think of, say to herself, etc.) to interrupt that negative thought process as it begins to occur on the court?
Most Valuable Product (MVP)
Golfers Mental Edge: An 8-Week Plan for Ultimate Golf Confidence NEW!
Golfer's Mental Edge: An 8-Week Plan for Ultimate Golf Confidence. What's the one big sign that your mental game is the weak link in your golf game? When you can't play consistently as well as you can perform in practice! The “Golfer's Mental Edge Program” is a complete brain dump of the TOP eight mental training sessions Dr. Cohn teaches his personal students to help them boost their mental game and improve consistency on the course. In each of his 8 coaching sessions, you eavesdrop as Dr. Cohn teach four golfers his top mental strategies and learn right along side his students.
Read more about The Golfer's Mental Edge CD Program!
Peaksports Members get 25% off (save $100)! Not a peaksports member yet? Go demo our Online Mental Training System at Peaksports Network!
Dr. Patrick J. Cohn
Master Mental Game Coach
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