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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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Peaksports.com News

Dr. Cohn is Accepting New Students! Get one-on-one coaching with Dr. Cohn himself to fast track your mental game. You receive personal coaching from the comfort of your home or when on the road. You can choose from one-on-one onsite meetings, phone, or video conference coaching. Learn more about how to boost your mental game with personal coaching>>

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>>

Athletes: Improve Your Success with Online Mental Training! Peaksports Network teaches athletes and coaches cutting-edge and simple mental training strategies for a fraction of the cost of personal mental coaching. Learn how to boost your confidence and success>>

Parents: Improve Your 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.
• 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

"The resources at Kids' Sports Psychology are Wonderful..."

"The resources that you have available on your website at Kids' Sports Psychology have been wonderful. I am slowly learning [and hopefully] in time that a sound mental game may be more important then the actual physical part of the sport that your child plays. As a parent, you need to find the time to teach yourself and help your child understand the psychology of sport. All the hard work on the ice/field could eventually pay off and not just in sport but in every day life."

~Darren Hughesman, Sports Parent 

Help young athletes improve their mental game for sports and life>>

Feature Mental Game Article

THE CONFIDENCE ROLLER COASTER IS NO FUN FOR ATHLETES
By Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.

Sports – at any level – is a game of confidence. When you have it, your skills shine. When confidence sinks, you don’t perform up to your capabilities. But confidence for many athletes is too fragile or fleeting in my opinion. Too many athletes allow their confidence to go up or down rapidly based upon immediate results and circumstances during competition. These athletes ride the confidence roller coaster. When they perform well, they feel good about their skills. When they perform poorly (or not up to expectations), their confidence can dip quickly.

I receive emails from athletes and parents everyday about how their confidence is shattered after just one bad play, shot or routine. If you (or your athletes) ride the confidence roller coaster, is that true confidence? Probably not….

I would argue that fragile self-confidence or letting results or circumstances dictate how confident you feel in the present moment IS NOT true confidence. Real self-confidence is stable, long-term, and lasting, even under adversity or poor results. True self-confidence is based on years and months of practice and competition. Is it fair to yourself as an athlete to throw away years of confidence-building when you mess up one play, race, or shot? I don’t think so.

But I’ve learned over the past 25 years as a mental coach that even the best athletes in the world, at times, can ride the confidence roller coaster…

I’ve been watching the US Open Tennis this past week. I look at the mental game overtures of every match I see on TV. In Rafael Nadal’s first round of the US Open against Andrey Goluveb he didn’t play his usual style of tennis and seemed to struggle at times. Nadal was behind in both his second and third sets, but was able to rally at the end to win in straight sets.

After the match, Nadal talked about his confidence level: “Today I played nervous. That's normal thing. You know, I lost a few matches this summer. Even if I had a fantastic season before, had tough loses in finals. But this summer I didn't play a lot, so the confidence is not arriving fast. Especially if you don't win a lot of matches in the last tournaments, even if I was practicing very well, for sure that's not enough. Important thing is to have victories like I had tonight.”

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Confidence may have helped him pull out the win, but a lack of quality practice and not winning often caused Nadal to question himself. That’s strange because he wins a lot and works very hard at his game. “The confidence is just because I didn't practice enough, is just because when you have tough loses like the final of Wimbledon, your illusion goes down a little bit and you need to recuperate that after. I am playing with very high illusion here, high motivation. But, you know, I need time… So the mental part is tough and the physical part is tough too,” said Nadal.

In another recent match, the confidence roller coaster was no where to be found… Caroline Wozniacki in the fourth round won a thrilling three set match over Svetlana Kuznetsova. She used her mental toughness,  belief in her skills and superior fitness to turn the match around after losing her first set and down 1-4 in the second set. Wozniacki went on to a 6-7, 7-5, 6-1 victory over the Russian. Wozniacki never lost faith or got down on herself.

She attributed her win to the ability to stay positive and keep fighting no matter the score. “It's important to stay positive. If I would have been negative on myself, I definitely would not have turned the match around. You know, I'm a fighter. I fight for every point no matter what the score is. It paid off today. Tennis, again, it's a funny sport. You have to just keep going,” Wozniacki said after the match.

So we know that confidence can vary for athletes and some of this is natural…. When you have momentum, you ride a massive wave of confidence and can feel superior to the opposition. However, when you struggle to play up to expectations, you can lose some confidence.

But to lose a massive amount of confidence – a level of 10 drops to a 4 – due to one mistake or blown play, is not healthy for athletes.

Four Strategies to Not Ride the Confidence Roller Coaster

1. Remind yourself that confidence develops over several years of practice and competition and not just one event or one play. True confidence is stable and long term instead of fleeting. Take a long-term approach to your confidence instead of relying on only the last few minutes of the competition.

2. Use mistakes and mishaps as an opportunity to improve your game instead of being self-critical of your performance, which hurts your confidence. When you are self-critical or judgmental of your performance, you suck the life out of your confidence.

3. Remind yourself of the physical and mental skills you possess that make you a unique athlete and which provide a base of confidence no matter how you are performing any given day.

4. Always look for opportunities to turn around your performance when not performing well or when down in a match. A lucky break, great play, or making a long putt can spark your game and give you the opening to harness momentum.

Note: This article was based on The Confident Athlete CD program. Learn more about how to be proactive with your confidence.

Sports Specific Mental Training Tip

One of the best golfers in history says that confidence is THE most important factor in golf. Talent alone will not lead to confidence. Athletes must grow their skills through hard work and dedicated practice.

"Confidence is the most important single factor in this game, and no matter how great your talent, there is only one way to obtain it - work."

~ Jack Nicklaus

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 interviews former tennis professional Steve Siebold on mental toughness secrets. Steve and Dr. Cohn discuss the difference between being confident and arrogance. They talk about how confidence is one of the common factors among all world class athletes.

Learn the importance of having confidence and how you can begin to bring this to your mental game.

• 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, talks about the chipping yips. Dr. Cohn shared tips to free up your chipping stroke. Learn how to practice in a way that reduces chipping yips so that you can get the best out of your game.

• 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

"Obstacles don't have to stop you."

"Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it."

~Michael Jordan

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 tend to beat myself up!"

Tennis Player:

When I am playing badly I tend to beat myself up. I make awful unforced errors. Consequently I freeze up and play worse. How do I overcome this during a match?

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

Most Valuable Product (MVP)

The Confident Sports Kids CD and Workbook Program NEW!

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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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! Boost your confidence...

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