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The Confident Sports Kid CD and Workbook Program! Packed with mental strategies, this program teaches your young athletes how to identify confidence busters, manage expectations that undermine confidence, and mentally prepare to stay confident when faced with adversity. Improve your sports kids' confidence now>>

Instill Confidence in Your Baseball and Softball Players! Learn how to help your team play with full confidence and help them stay confident after mistakes! Learn how to Instill Confidence in Baseball and Softball Players>>

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Free Mental Toughness Reports!

• Golfers and Instructors: Improve Preshot Routines.
• Golfers: Learn How to Overcome the Yips with Freer Putting Drills
• Baseball and Softball Players and Coaches: Improve At-Bat Routines!
• Tennis Players and Coaches: Improve Between Point Mental Toughness!
• Hockey Players and Coaches: Improve your Pregame Mindset!
• Equestrians and trainers: Improve Riders' Preshow Mindset!
• Parents and Youth Coaches: Boost Kids' Confidence and Success!
• NEW! Musicians: Overcome Performance Anxiety and Reach Your Peak

Locker Room Talk

"My work with you help me right my own mental path..."

“Doc, I recently won the 2011 Nevada State Match Play Championship! Clearly, without the proper mental approach I could not have won this event. My work with you helped me right my own mental path, for which I am always grateful…. I am extremely grateful to you, and the others who have helped me, and I feel an enormous sense of satisfaction having "overcome my own obstacles" to once again be a State Champion.”
 
Steven Fink, Amateur Golfer

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Feature Mental Game Article

Pregame Mental Preparation Dos and Dont's
By Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.

Do you have a mental preparation routine you use prior to each competition? The pregame warm up is much more than a physical warm up. You have to use this time to be mentally ready to compete. Most top athletes use pregame mental preparation routines to feel ready to perform their best and consistently perform up to their physical talent!

Hall of fame player Hank Aaron attributed much of his success in baseball to his mental preparation--both before and during the game. Aaron was one of the best hitters in the history of baseball and is a huge advocate of the mental game. When Aaron struggled to get a hit against a pitcher, he would go back to the dugout to study that pitcher.

Aaron believed that mental preparation and doing his “homework” was the key to becoming a top, consistent hitter year after year. He was a master at studying the pitcher before games. “I think about how a guy mentally prepares himself to do battle, to go out and face the pitcher. I think so many hitters do not know how to get themselves prepared to play or hit against a pitcher. You have to mentally be prepared to hit against all pitchers.” (Hanson, 1991)

Aaron treated each game differently because he had to face a different pitcher, and this required concentration on and visualization of the pitcher’s stuff. “You visualize [pitches]. You see it in your head; you think about it… I used to play every pitcher in my mind before I went to the ballpark. I started getting ready for every game the moment I woke up.” (Aaron & Wheeler, 1991)

Today, the world’s top athletes use pregame rituals or routines to help create the proper mindset for competition and practice. Your mental preparation should start a long time before the competition and involves more than just visualizing a successful performance. Pregame routines instill confidence, focus, and a success-oriented mindset at the start of competition.

Abby Wombach, the 3rd highest all-time goal scorer of the US Women’s National Soccer Team, understands the importance of mental preparation during her pregame routine to help her play at peak levels. How does she mentally prepare for big games?
 
“Coming into every game, I'm just trying to mentally prepare myself to leave it all on the field. Four hours before the game I eat a good meal -- nothing too heavy. I hydrate all day long and I do a lot of mental imagery, I picture myself playing the game, I see myself doing all those things that my team is counting on me to do,” said Wombach.

She likes to keep her team and herself loose before a game with music and dance. “Before the games, I'm kinda a goofball. I'm always dancing, singing, anything to calm people down. I guess I'm really trying to keep myself calm too a little bit.”

Athletes ask me if they can take mental preparation too far and overanalyze their game or focus too much on the opposition. My answer is…. Yes! I’ve worked with athletes who tire themselves out mentally and physically because they focus too much on an upcoming game and stress themselves out. You want to feel both fresh and ready before competition so you have to find a balance.

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If you play in the afternoon or a night game, you want to feel fresh, but focused and ready to compete. Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz doesn’t want his players exhausted before a night game. “We talk to guys, anytime we play a night game we talk to them about not playing the game during the day. Just try to relax, do your mental preparation, but don't just sit there and think about it for nine hours, because you're going to be exhausted at game time.”

Five Pregame Mental Preparation Errors

What are the top mental game errors athletes make before competition that limits their ability to perform well? Here’s my top five:

1. Maintaining strict expectations about your performance. Maintaining high, specific expectations can limit your success – for example, “I must birdie every hole in order to win today.” I teach my students to identify strict expectations and replace them with simple objectives that help them focus on the process.
2. Leaving confidence to chance. Many athletes lack self-confidence until the game has already started – until they can make a good play or hit quality shots. You have to learn how to be proactive with your confidence.
3. Letting doubts undermine confidence. Doubt is the opposite of confidence. When you question your ability prior to competition, you erode any confidence you’ve brought to the game. I teach athletes how to cut off doubts before they uproot confidence.
4. Carrying life’s worries into sports. Some athletes have trouble “shelving” major life events during competition. Whether the issue is a term paper or a fight with a boss, one goal of mental preparation is to enter the role of the athlete and temporarily forget about other concerns
5. Over-training before competition. Perfectionists in individual sports, such as golf and tennis, spend too much time training just prior to competition. This is the equivalent of cramming for an upcoming test. In sports, you never want to cram during the final days before the competition.

Pregame Mental Preparation Checklist:

My view is that mental preparation is all about confidence and focus. When you are confident and focused on the process, you are mentally ready to complete. I think visualization is overrated in sports, but it can be used effectively to help you prepare.

Here’s my checklist for pregame mental preparation (Based on "Get Psyched for Sports: Pregame Mental Preparation Strategies to Perform Your Best):

1. Enter Role of Athlete – commit to “parking” life issues or hassles for the time being so you can focus on your sport
2. Set a Game Plan or Strategy – use your strengths and opponent’s weaknesses to help you perform well.
3. Be Proactive with Confidence – don’t leave confidence for chance with reactive confidence. Do everything in your power to feel confident before competition.
4. Set Small Goals to Focus on the Process – set one or two small performance goals to help you focus on execution instead of results.
5. Rehearse Your Performance – see and/or feel yourself performing your role with confidence.
6. Prepare to Trust in Your Skills – Don’t worry about the quality of your performance in the warm up. Put practice behind you and become the performer.
7. Embrace the Butterflies – feel pumped and ready for competition. Don’t be scared when your heart beat increases and your palms begin to sweat.

Note: This article was based on Dr. Cohn’s mental training e-book, “Get Psyched for Sports.” Peaksports Network members can download this e-book free at our online mental training program for athletes and coaches.

Sports Specific Mental Training Tip

Preparing for and coping with adversity is a hallmark of mental toughness in sports. You have to prepare your team to deal with anything that can rock their confidence, focus, or composure. When your athletes are mentally ready and have a plan to cope with adversity, they will respond with greater composure and focus.

"Mental toughness is something that you create as the year goes on. The greatest thing about college athletics, what it teaches these young men to deal with, is adversity. Whether it's the whistle's not going your way, whether it's being on the road and people cheering against you, whether you have a tough night shooting the ball or you're just not playing well that day, you gotta figure a way to overcome those things. I think we're trying to create that culture of every possession means something, and mental toughness is a big, big part of any team's success..."

~Tad Boyle, Colorado Buffaloes coach

Podcasts of the Month

Sports Psychology Podcast of the Month!
In this week’s sports psychology podcast, mental game of sports expert, Dr. Patrick Cohn, helps you appreciate your own talents in sports instead of worrying about what others think. Mental game coach Dr. Cohn helps athletes overcome social approval or athletes who care too much about what other athletes think.

Dr. Cohn discusses how perfectionism is related to worrying about what others think, and how to focus on your own game. Learn how to be aware of distractions and how to refocus when you think too much about competitors.

• Show me the Sports Psychology Podcast of the Month!
• Learn more about our "Sports Psychology CD" Programs
• Watch the Sports Confidence Videos by Peaksports!
• Subscribe to the Sports Psychology Podcast at iTunes!

The Golf Psychology Podcast of the Month!
Dr. Patrick Cohn, golf psychology expert and author of the “Golfer’s Mental Edge” CD program, teaches amateur to tour professional golfers how to improve their mental game of golf using golf psychology strategies developed over the last 20 years of his career.

In this week’s golf psychology session, mental game of golf expert and author of The Mental Game of Golf, Dr. Cohn, teaches you how fear of failure can affect your performance on the golf course and what fear of failure is.

• Show me the Golf Psychology Podcast of the Month!
• Learn more about "The Golfer's Mental Edge" CD program
• Watch the Golf Confidence Video series!
• Golfers and Instructors: Download a golf psychology report to improve your preshot routine overnight
• Subscribe to the Golf Psychology Podcast at iTunes!

Athlete Quote of the Month

"Tennis is a mental game."

“Tennis is a very mental game. People don't realize how much tension you have to go through throughout the match, ups and downs, highs and lows. And it's all part of the game. It's not easy.”

~Novak Djokovic, World's No 1 Tennis Player

Video of the Month

How to Keep Your Concentration with the Lead

Sports psychology expert, Dr. Patrick Cohn of Peak Performance Sports, LLC answers a mental game question from a tennis player in a new series titled, “Ask Doc.” This tennis player wants to know regain concentration after its lost in the middle of a match and perform his best. Find out how not to become complacent with the lead in the match.

Visit Peaksports.com sports psychology blog to watch the video.

Ask Doc Cohn

"I strike myself out with over thinking!"

Baseball Player:

"I know I have the tools to be a great baseball player, but a lack of confidence has dragged on for a couple of years. It’s funny because I think a lot in the field, but once a ground ball comes my way I just let go and react. However, when I go up to hit most of the time, I strike myself out with over thinking and a lack of confidence. Any suggestions?"

Read Dr. Cohn's answer to this question now at Peaksports Network!

Most Valuable Product (MVP)

The Confident Sports Kids CD and Workbook Program NEW!

"The Confident Sports Kid: A 7- Day Plan for Boosting Self Confidence in Young Athletes." Packed with mental strategies that you and your kids can start using immediately, this program teaches your athletes how to identify confidence busters, proactively deal with them, manage expectations that undermine confidence, and mentally prepare to stay confident when faced with adversity.

What's more, our new program teaches you, as sports parents and coaches, how you may be hurting your kids' confidence and gives you instructions for changing your behavior in ways that will improve your athletes' performance, confidence and enjoyment.

Read more about The Confident Sports Kid CD and Workbook Program!

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.

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