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MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF PEAK PERFORMANCE SPORTS
Issue 75..............................................................................May 1, 2007
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 boost your mental game and performance. We thank you for being a subscriber of Sports Insights Magazine! If you enjoy our free newsletter, please forward it to your teammates and friends. Click here to subscribe to Sports Insights Magazine!
It's Now Official... Join Us at The 2007 Peaksports Mental Training Bootcamp! Join myself and other top sports psychology experts for a jam-packed 2-day weekend of Mental Training. For Athletes, Coaches, and Sports Parents - July 28-29, 2007! The Peaksports Bootcamp will be a fun, interactive live sports psychology training camp held in Orlando, Florida. Be one of the first 30 people to register and get a very special bonus!
Get 365 Days of Mentally Training Online! Improve your confidence, focus, and composure rapidly! Get access to the world's most advanced online mental training program 365 days a year and learn innovative sports psychology strategies - designed for coaches, athletes, and sports parents. Coaches can preview our new programs for teams! Space is limited - reserve your spot today!
The Confident Athlete Series! Want to improve your confidence, focus, and composure for sports all in one place? Get all three of Dr. Cohn's new 14-Day Workbook Programs and save $30. Show me The Confident Athlete Series. Next up in the series: The Fearless Athlete - Coming Next Month!
“We just got back from the World Division qualifier for the TKD Junior Olympics and my 12 year old qualified! Your Confident Athlete and Focused Athlete programs helped him stay totally focused on his mission! He was able to dismiss the crowd, the noise, and the negative thoughts. His skills were locked inside of him, waiting to come out, but couldn't because he was bound by fear, perfectionism, negative thoughts, etc.... His skill has been given permission to be released right out of him. It is just amazing.”
~Wanda, Sports Parent
How to Stay Focused When Your Warm Up is Sub-Par
By Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.
Many of my students allow self-confidence to be thrashed around easily by their immediate performance. These same athletes let their warm-up prior to a game or match set up their mental game and attitude prior to competition. If you have a poor warm up, your performance is sub-par pre-game, or you don't feel 100%, do you doubt your game or ability for the day?
Does your mental game suffer when your pregame is not up to your expectations? Does a poor warm up throw you off before a game or match?
If your warm up is less than ideal...
- Do you doubt your ability to perform and undermine your confidence?
- Do pregame jitters turn into anxiety and worry?
- Do you worry about your performance and results for the day and thus become tense?
- Do you think you should try harder because your performance was not perfect in warm up?
- Do you think you must have a perfect warm up to feel like you can have a good game?
If you said "yes" to any of the above questions – then you need to read on! If you said "no" to all of the above questions, do you have other mental game challenges when your warm up is not up to your personal standards or you don't feel 100% physically?
I know it's comforting to have a good warm up when you hit every jump shot before the game, stripe it on the golf range before the first tee, have an awesome bull-pen, or hit every element in your warm up on beam. When you are "on" in warm-ups, you get confirmation that everything is working and your training is paying off, right? This is ideal, but not always what happens....
Anyone can feel temporarily confident for a few moments during practice or warm up, but can you remain confident when your warm up casts doubts? Enduring self-confidence is the mark of a champion. However, you should not have to RELY on a good warm up to have confidence in the game or match.
My friend and mentor, Dr. Ken Ravizza (who will be speaking at my 2007 Mental Training Bootcamp), tells all his athletes, "you don’t have to win warm-ups." And I agree with Ken fully on this one. I have seen too many of my students self-destruct even before they start the game or match.
What should you do to react better to a sub-par warm up? The first strategy is to remind yourself that the pregame warm up is only a time to get ready for competition and it does not count toward the final outcome of the game or match. You want to use this time effectively. The warm up should be used to get physical and mentally ready for competition.
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____________________________________________I suggest that you do not make any judgments about the quality of your warm up. Judgmental behavior leads to making comparisons based on your preconceived standards. When you judge your warm up, you are comparing an expectation of how you SHOULD perform with what is actually happening during your warm up. If you conclude that your warm up should be better in order to perform well in the game, this is the start of self-sabotage, such as doubt and worry. And this can drag down your mental game performance.
Discard any notions you have formed in the past about a poor warm up and the quality of your performance (called over-generalizations). Use the warm up to get ready for competition. Remind yourself that you will - and have in the past - performed well in competition even after a poor warm up.
Most athletes sharpen their focus when they get into competition. Why? A warm up does not count. In competition, athletes' focus improves because of the additional adrenaline or competitive intensity. Be confident that you will focus better when the whistle blows or the gun sounds.
I will be addressing this topic and many other pregame focusing strategies in my new 2007 Mental Training Bootcamp this July. Jump over to peaksports and read more about the fabulous line-up of speakers, coaches, and athletes....
Go now to read more about the 2007 Peaksports Mental Training Bootcamp.
"I Was Emotionally and Physically Dead - I Had to Step it Up"
The theme of today's message is to stay upbeat even when you have negative pregame feelings or thoughts. You don't want to sabotage your performance with a poor mental game! Sometimes you will not feel well prior to competition because you are sick, tired, or worried about the quality of your training or practice! But you have to step it up and get the job done anyway you can. Michael Phelps did better than get the job done - he smashed his own world record in the 400 IM recently!
“I knew this was going to be the hardest race. I was emotionally dead, almost physically dead and I had to step up. I didn't feel good this morning, didn't feel good in warm-up so I tried to block it out and think about what I did in training and use it in the race.”
~Michael Phelps after breaking his world record in the men's 400 meters individual medley.
Next time you are feeling drained, tired, or lacking confidence in your pre-competition routine, remember the words of Michael Phelps before his record performance in the 400 IM. Most champion athletes find a way to focus on things that support confidence before competition - rather than dwell on what's wrong!
Get Psyched for Sports - Podcast of the Month!
Dr. Cohn continues the theme of this newsletter - how to stay confident and composed even if you don't feel right prior to competition or your wam up was not perfect. Dr. Cohn teaches you his top strategies for using the warm up effectively and improving your reaction to a less than ideal performance during a pre-competition warm up.
"Don't Be Afraid - Just Hit It!"
"I was so calm and focused all day long and then got a little bit hyper there coming down the stretch at hole 15 and 16. And then I got on hole #17 and had a very difficult bunker shot, so I said, well, it's now or never. You've got to fly it up there pretty close to the hole, don't be afraid, just hit it. I've practiced the shot, I've hit the shot 1,000 times, and it just so happened that it worked out perfect."
~Scott Verplank, winner of 2007 ESD Byron Nelson Championship
"My Daughter Gets So Down on Herself After Mistakes"
Sports Parent:
"What do you do to help someone who is extremely hard on herself? She is supportive of everyone else on the team. If a teammate makes a mistake, she is the one to lift her up, but she is so hard on herself if she messes up. She gets so frustrated and down on herself."
NEW & IMPROVED Peaksports Online Mental Training System
Get a competitive edge fast by improving your mental game and sports confidence with our online mental training program with even more mental toughness tools for 2007! We have added new sports psychology programs and sports psychology articles to help you, your child, or your team reach peak performance. All teleclasses are free for peaksports members, which includes 24 one-hour mental training teleclasses and growing every month. NEW Team or Group discount plans!Peaksports Members can login in by using this page.
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! |
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teamwork
:: confidence :: focus :: composure |
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