A Monthly Publication of Peak Performance Sports
Issue 106 ................................................................................. March 3, 2010
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.
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Parents and Coaches: Help Kids Cope with Mistakes! NEW! Help your athletes deal better with setbacks and errors with The Composed Sports Kid! Available March 5, 2009! Preview Dr. Cohn's new sports psychology program for parents, coaches, and their athletes!
Golfers: Improve Your Golf Confidence for 2010! 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...
Tennis Players: Boost Confidence for Tournament Tennis! Learn how to boost your tennis confidence with Dr. Cohn's unique 8-week mental training course for tournament tennis players!
Parents and Coaches: Improve Sports Kids' Success 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 e-books for young athletes. Learn how to boost sports kids' sports success...
FREE Mental Toughness Reports!
- Golfers and Instructors: Improve Preshot Routines.
- 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 Rider's Preshow Mindset!
- Parents and Youth Coaches: Boost Kids' Confidence and Success in Sports!
Locker Room Talk
"Outstanding articles and classes at Peaksports"
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~Radek Sefcik, Professional MMA
Feature Mental Game Article
5 Myths About Emotional Control in Young Athletes
By Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.
(This article is based on The Composed Sports Kid)
Why do sports kids get angry, frustrated, or upset when playing a sport they love? Aren't athletes supposed to enjoy themselves when they do something that's fun? Yes, but athletes' own internal beliefs and thoughts set them up for feeling angry or frustrated during competition.
In a survey we conducted at The Ultimate Sports Parent, more than 40% of sports parents and coaches said that their kids become easily frustrated or angry after making mistakes. We know kids struggle to let go of mistakes. Parents and coaches must learn how to help athletes better cope with disappointment and setbacks. Setbacks and mistakes are just a part of sports, but athletes who can't handle their frustration are more likely under perform in crunch-time and eventually drop out because they no longer have fun.
Helping athletes develop coping strategies to deal with frustration is one of the most important tasks for parents and coaches. Not only will improved composure help athletes perform better, but they'll enjoy sports more.
In addition, athletes can learn valuable skills they'll use for the rest of their lives. What parent doesn't want their kids to learn how to be more confident, focused, and composed in their everyday lives? And the skills learned via sports psychology can help kids learn these positive mental attributes!
Let me share a very common scenario about emotional control in sports. One sports parent says:
"My 14-year-old son has such high expectations for himself. If he does not hit the golf ball perfectly each shot, or if he strikes out during a baseball game, he gets angry with himself."
Kids who are competitive and demand a lot from themselves (via high and sometimes perfectionist expectations about their performance) are very likely to get upset when they don't achieve their ideal performance. For parents and coaches, frustration and anger often make it appear as if an athlete is "being hard on himself" or "cries easily" after not reaching a high expectation.
What makes matters worse is when athletes believe that mistakes, such as a missed goal or a poor pass, are the main cause for feeling upset or frustrated. This is key: Athletes don’t feel frustrated because they made a mistake. They're frustrated because of how they react to, or think about, the mistake, such as "this is unacceptable and unfair."
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______________________________________________________Parents, coaches, and teammates say that it's embarrassing when athletes act out, cry, or break down on the playing fields. To unravel this issue, you should start by understanding the myths about anger and frustration that keep athletes stuck in their embarrassing behaviors.
The Myths About Emotional Control
Athletes, coaches and parents hold onto beliefs that keep them stuck in old patterns of behavior. You'll notice that many of these myths don’t address the real challenges for athletes. Parents, coaches, and educators have to change their outlook about emotional control and dealing with frustration or anger. Here, I present five myths about anger management that keep your athletes from developing self-control.Myth 1: When Kids Express Frustration or Release Anger, It Goes Away
Some parents and coaches might think that expressing or releasing one's frustration or anger helps it go away. However, according to Albert Ellis, author of "How to Control Your Anger Before it Controls You" (Ellis, 1997), if kids actively release anger, this behavior is more likely to continue. When athletes display their anger, it makes them angrier and hurts performance.Myth 2: Pulling Athletes Out of the Game will Suppress Future Outbursts
Many coaches think that pulling kids out of the game for crying or acting out will suppress this behavior in the future. A form of punishment, getting benched by a coach or parent does not encourage taking responsibility for one's negative emotions. Athletes, if benched for these reasons, get the message that the behavior is unacceptable, but it does not provide a solution to the problem or help kids cope better. If they knew how to ‘just cut it out’ they would have done it long ago.Myth 3: Anger Pushes Athletes to Try Harder
Some young athletes believe anger will help them perform better. Many kids think they'll play better because they'll try harder or push themselves more. In rare cases, it can boost an athlete's focus, especially when frustration helps increase the athlete’s level of intensity or energy. However, most of the time, kids who become upset tend to dwell on mistakes. They become tense, think primarily about avoiding mistakes, rush their performance, and can't focus at peak levels.Myth 4: Mistakes or Other People Are the Source of Athlete's Frustration
Probably the biggest myth that parents and athletes accept as the truth is that athletes believe they are a victim of external circumstance. They think mistakes or unfair opponents or officials cause their anger and frustration, but this is NOT the case. Rather, the athlete's negative reaction to mistakes (based on internal beliefs) is what leads to negative feelings, not the mistake itself! Athletes must understand this new way of looking at mistakes to make progress in gaining self-control. I cover this in detail in my new program, The Composed Sports Kid due out in March, 2010.Myth 5: Some Athletes Are Just Born with Emotional Control
Many coaches and parents believe that athletes are born with a gift of composure; they either have it or they don’t, and this can’t be changed. But this isn’t true. Athletes are not born with composure. Tennis Star Roger Federer confessed that he had to learn how to control his frustration early in his tennis career. In the same way, your athletes can learn mental strategies that will give them more self-control and composure!This article is based on Dr. Cohn's new Workbook and CD program for parents, coaches, and young athletes titled, The Composed Sports Kid: A 7-Day Plan for Helping Young Athletes Cope with Frustration. You can preview the program by watching Dr. Cohn's youth sports psychology video.
Sports Specific Mental Training Tip
"200 saves a day in my head..."
Brodeur thinks seeing is believing. Seeing himself make saves in his head before it happens is the key to his success. But the real key is seeing himself make saves instead of letting in goals in his mind!
“Seventy percent of the game is in my head. That is how I approach the game and after that it is physical. I visualize a lot, I think seeing before it happens is the key to success. I close my eyes and it takes me two minutes a day, I guarantee I’m able to make about 200 saves a day in my head.”
~Martin Brodeur - NHL hockey goal keeper
Podcasts of the Month
The Tennis Psychology Podcast of the Month!
In this week’s tennis psychology session, Dr. Cohn teaches you how to play your best when it matters most. Many tennis players tend to under perform in close matches. Listen to this mental game of tennis podcast to learn how to play your best tennis under pressure.
- 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!
- Subscribe to the Tennis 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. In this week's golf psychology session, Dr. Cohn helps a golfer who is thinking too much over the ball.
Pro Athlete Quote of the Month
"The will to prepare to win..."
"The most important attribute a soccer player must have is mental toughness. Before you can win, you must have the will to prepare to win."
~Mia Hamm
Ask Doc Cohn
"When my imagery does not become reality..."
Baseball Player:
When I play baseball, before the game I always visualize every inning and every pitch. I see what I am going to do and when I am going to do it. But sometimes when these things don't come true, I freak and play poorly for the rest of the game. What should I do to stay confident and composed?
Most Valuable Products (MVPs)
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!
The Composed Sports Kid: A 7-Day Plan for Helping Young Athletes Cope with Frustration NEW!
Are your athletes displaying anger or shutting down after making mistakes? For sports parents, coaches and young athletes, The Composed Sports Kid, teaches you all of Dr. Cohn's secrets for helping kids who lose control or get upset, frustrated, or angry, particularly after mistakes or setbacks in sports. Two programs in one, this two CD set trains both parent/coach and their young athlete with two distinct programs: Parent/Coach Manual and Athlete's Workbook.
This new program will be available March 5, 2010. You can preview the new program with this video at Dr. Cohn's sports psychology Blog. Make sure you are on our youth sports psychology list to be notified when it's available!
Dr. Patrick J. Cohn
Master Mental Game Coach
Boost Your Success with The Confident Athlete Series!
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