A
MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF PEAK
PERFORMANCE SPORTS
Issue 87 ................................................................. June 3, 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!
If you enjoy our free mental toughness newsletter, please forward it to other athletes and coaches. Click here to subscribe to Sports Insights Magazine!
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. Read more about mental preparation keys...
Kids Sports Psychology! Kids' Sports Psychology’s one-stop, exclusive 10-step plan for boosting confidence and cultivating positive mental game skills in young athletes! As a member of our newest online community, parents and coaches can download age-specific confidence-boosting mental game strategies, e-books, videos, and audio programs produced specifically for young athletes. Visit Kids' Sports Psychology for a free tour...
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 about how to focus your team in 15 minutes per day...
Locker Room Talk
"The Part of My Game I Needed Was Your Help!"
"I would like to thank you for the help you have given to me through your programs "The Confident Athlete" and "The Focused Athlete". I have made tremendous sacrifices through all these years to become a top Olympic Trap shooter but something was missing. This missing part was your help with my mental game."
~Marios KapodistriasNEW! Listen to Mario's Success Story
Learn how you can receive "The Relaxed Athlete" CD Program as a bonus!
Feature Mental Game Article
Grinding it Out: Keeping Your Mind Into the Game on Tough Days
By Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.
One of the toughest mental game challenges for athletes is the ability to keep their head in the game when their performance is not up to par (or not up to expectations). You might call this staying calm. Others might call this staying composed or staying determined. Athletes use a specific phrase called “grind it out” – when they have to hang tough in the face of adversity.
My interpretation of grinding it out is when an athlete, who is not playing well or up to his ability needs to keep playing hard and stay focused on scoring. Grinding it out does not mean that you have lost hope of winning. Instead, you have the mindset that if you keep working hard, but steady, good things will happen. Grinding it out is the difference between giving up mentally during competition versus keeping your mind focused on the game and trying to get everything you can out of your performance – one step at a time.
A batter who is 0 for 3 at the plate needs to stay focused and confident he can get a hit. A basketball player who is 0 for 4 from the field needs to stay focused on making instead of missing shots. You don’t want to give up all at once by thinking, “it’s just not my day today.” A team with a losing record at the start of the season needs to grind it out till the end of the season.
All athletes have good days and bad days - even Tiger Woods. The hardest days, mentally, are when nothing is going your way and you can’t get any confidence or momentum in the game. Some athletes pack their bags mentally and think that it’s not worth even trying. Other athletes will fight to the last second of the game leaving nothing in the gas tank.
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____________________________________________What separates the athlete who gives up from the one who grinds it out to the end? Pride? Dedication? Patience? Maybe all of the above. You might have a different reason for grinding it out than another person. And coaches love athletes who can grind it out and who don’t “throw in the towel” until the end.
Four Strategies to Help You Keep Your Head in the Game:
(1) Stick to what’s worked for you. If your 3-point shot is not working during the game, default to what is working for you. This might be a “bread and butter” shot you have. You want to keep shooting, but maybe you go with a shot that has a higher probability – something that has worked well for you in the past. Golfers call this a “go to” shot, which is a shot that works well even though it’s not the correct shot or typical shot to play.
(2) Patience is a huge part of grinding it out and keeping your mind into the game. If you have already lost your patience, it’s too late because that leads to giving up. How do you stay patient? Patience is a type of confidence. You stay patient if you believe good things will happen for you eventually. However, you never lose faith in your performance because you know it can turn around at any point in the game or match.
(3) Remain calm and do not let frustration win you over. Usually a lack of patience leads to frustration. When you are in a state of frustration, such as “I can’t buy a putt today,” mistakes or poor play can compound. You begin to rush and not make good decisions. Coping with frustration is a special skill all by itself, but it’s relevant to helping you grind it out. If you are not composed and performing in the moment, you cannot grind it out. Here’s a tip. If your thoughts (or frustration) about your past play does not help you in the present, you should throw it out and refocus on the current play.
(4) What would a “model” grinder do when not performing well? Do you know a teammate or friend who is good at grinding it out? What does that look like to you? Can you emulate this person and put yourself in his or her shoes? What would Vijay Singh do when not playing well, for example? What would Michael Jordan do if he misses his first four shots in the game? Using others as role models to help you get into a grinder's mindset may help spark the patience you need to stay focused.
If you want to learn all my composure-boosting strategies, I suggest you snag a copy of "The Composed Athlete," part 3 of my ground-breaking CD programs in The Confident Athlete Series.
Sports Specific Mental Training Tip
"Mental Toughness and the Ability to See Things Quicker!"
Mental toughness and the ability to "see well" are very important skills in many sports from auto racing to baseball. For example, many of the all-time best hitters in baseball, such as Hank Aaron, attribute their hitting success to "seeing the ball well." Quarterbacks in football often talk about the importance of seeing and reading the defensive formation. Auto racers have to make split-second reactions based on what their visual system and so-called hand-eye coordination.
"I do think when you get to the elite professional level, athletically, I think more times than not, what separates the really great performers are the ones that are mentally tough and see things a little bit quicker than their competitors."
~Troy Aikman
Podcasts of the Month
The Sports Psychology Podcast of the Month!
In this week's sports psychology podcast, Dr. Cohn talks about how to have a positive image of yourself as an athlete. Some athletes who have potential in sports wish they could play well versus knowing they can play well or reach a higher level of competition. Listen to this month's sports psychology podcast...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, Dr. Cohn, helps golfers perform well after a low round. Many golfers have trouble shooting a good score the day after they post a low round in a tournament. Golf Psychology Expert to Tour Pro golfers, Dr. Cohn, helps you play more consistent golf.
Pro Athlete Quote of the Month
"Leaving Baseball at the Ballpark"
"That was one of my mom's rules -- that when my dad came home from the ballpark, we were done with baseball. And it's no different now,"
~Gary Matthews Jr.
Ask Doc Cohn
"How do you help a child on a losing team?"
Baseball Parent:
How do you help a child with a losing baseball season? All teams play against each other in the community. My son's team has not won any games. The children are down. What are things that parents can do to keep the team's spirit up? They start to think that they cannot play which is not the case.
Most Valuable Product (MVP)
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!
Dr. Patrick J. Cohn
Master Mental Game Coach
Boost Your Success with The Confident Athlete Series!
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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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