I’ve receive a lot of questions from both sports psychology students and professionals who want to do mental coaching with athletes. Here’s a recent example:

“I completed my MS in sport psychology and am currently finishing my doctorate in clinical psychology. I’m wondering if you have any tips that would help me get from where I am as a grad student to where you are…”

When I was a grad student at The University of Virginia in the late 80s, I was told to do as much research as I could so I could publish journal articles.

However, that only served the needs of the University and not my career as an applied mental game coach.

Advisors pushed students to publish journal articles. I did that more than any other student at the time. I published four journal articles as a graduate student.

___________________________________

MGCP Spring 2010 Course Update

Late registration for the Spring 2010 MGCP course,

starting this month, ends February 8, 2010.

____________________________________

Publishing journal articles is a great goal, if you want to teach sports psychology at a University. I did teach until I discovered my passion for working with athletes on the mental game.

I left teaching and started Peak Performance Sports after teaching for two years.

I did not take the clinical psychology route. Instead, I earned a doctorate in exercise science and kinesiology (fancy terms today for physical education). So the clinical route is a different from the track I did.

But I think the most important key to success as a mental coach is being effective with athletes and helping them succeed.

Why? If you are successful with one athlete, he’ll tell others about how you helped. Word of mouth is very powerful, especially in our work.

But how can you be effective with athletes when you are still a student or just out of school?

1. You must have a *system* for doing mental coaching with athletes.
2. You must ask the right questions to help you understand your student’s mental game needs.
3. You must be effective with your students – help them improve the mental game as they improve their physical game.
4. You must know how to help your athletes apply mental skills education to competition.
5. You must work within the framework of team coaches to get access to athletes.

I teach you all my secrets for being an effective mental game coach in my MGCP certification program. We have a new course starting this month…

We need to act fact. Late registration ends February 8, 2010. Learn my complete system for doing mental coaching with athletes!

If you have not done so, please complete an application at the MGCP website:

MGCP Application

If you have already submitted your MGCP application, please email me to request the Spring 2010 enrollment forms.

Note: The first five people to lock in their seats will get preference.

Please call me at 888-742-7225 if you have any questions about the course.

Your Master Mental Game Coach,

Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.

p.s. I’d like to share a statement from an MGCP grad about the course:

“Dr. Cohn’s MGCP certification program was exactly what I needed. I searched long and hard to find a program just like this. His specialized MGCP training and certification program provided me with the extra “edge” and mental game tools I needed to expand my practice into sports and improve my mental coaching
programs for athletes.”

~John R. Ellsworth, MGCP

Your credibility as a mental game coach is critical to your coaching success. Many budding mental coaches ask me if having a higher degree, such as a Ph.D. in education or psychology is important to credibility.

It’s not as important as you may think, but establishing yourself as a credible mental game coach will help you get more work with athletes and teams.

If you lack credibility as an authority in sports psychology or mental coaching, athletes are less willing to engage your services.

I spent more than 10 years of trial and error during my career to learn what helped me gain credibility as a mental coach.

One of the challenges to becoming an authority has more to do with society’s views of sports psychology than your competency as a mental game coach….

So you have to help your audience overcome this barrier to credibility. Any practice or discipline associated with psychology (such as sports psychology) carries a negative stigma by many people today.

Why? Sports psychology is still not well understood or accepted by a large percent of the athletic world. Just compare sports psychology to other performance enhancement disciplines such as functional or sports-specific training.

I think most of the resistance to accepting sports psychology comes from a lack of understanding about its real role in performance enhancement.

In addition to the lack of knowledge and acceptance that still exists today about sports psychology, you’ll find other roadblocks to working with athletes and teams….

Athletes want to know: what have you done for others?

My core philosophy is that your success with working with athletes often defines your credibility with potential students.

I don’t think your degree defines your credibility as much as your track record for helping athletes improve their mental game and performance.

Want to learn my system for helping athletes reach their potential? Join the Spring 2010 MGCP program starting soon!

If you have not done so, please complete an application at the MGCP website:

MGCP Website

If you have already submitted your MGCP application, please email me to request the Spring 2010 enrollment forms.

Note: The first five people to lock in their seats will get preference.

Please call me at 888-742-7225 if you have any questions about the course.

Your Master Mental Game Coach,

Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D., Master Mental Game Coach

p.s. Here’s a quote from a recent MGCP grad about the course:

“The MGCP course has provided me with the structure and information to allow me to provide my athletes with a comprehensive and organized program to address their mental game challenges.”
~ Chris Farina, MGCP

In this week’s sports psychology podcast, Dr. Cohn helps an football player who has a mental block when trying to kick PATs. Sports psychology expert, Dr. Patrick Cohn helps athletes perform without fear and tension in competition. Dr. Cohn answers the following mental game question:

“I play football for my high school. I’m a kick and punter. In practice I can hit everything. I have college offers from schools all across the nation. But I have some kind of a mental block when trying to kick PATs. 50 yard field goals I don’t miss. For some reason, I seem to be almost scared of them. I dread going out too kick them.”

In this Podcast, Dr. Cohn gives the top mental game strategies to trust in your practice and perform your best. Athletes tend to tighten up and underperform when they try to avoid making mistakes. Listen to this month’s sports psychology podcast to perform with confidence and simplify your performance.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

*Download The Sports Psychology Podcast #37 (right click and “save as” to your computer)

Grab Dr. Cohn’s free mental training ebooks.

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, mental game of golf expert and author of The Mental Game of Golf, Dr. Cohn, helps a golfer who thinks too much over the ball.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

*Download The Golf Psychology Podcast #131 (right click and “save as” to your computer)

 Subscribe to The Golf Psychology Podcast via iTunes 

*Get a Free Golf Confidence Report to improve your preshot routines.

*Learn more about Dr. Cohn’s Golf Psychology Programs.

*Check out The Golfer’s Mental Edge CD and Workbook Program.

In this week’s sports psychology podcast, Dr. Cohn helps an athlete who focuses on her competitor. Sports psychology expert, Dr. Patrick Cohn helps athletes stop worrying about their competitors. Dr. Cohn answers the following mental game question:

“I am being plagued by a fellow competitor. She has burrowed herself into my head, and I can’t seem to shake her off. It started last year when I beat her in competition, since then she tries to put me down, by ignoring me and giving me bad looks etc., and being ”nice” to everyone else. I am trying to ”eliminate” her from my mind, but it’s difficult, and I lose my focus.”

In this Podcast, Dr. Cohn gives the top mental game strategies to ignore competitors who try to get inside your head before competition. Some competitors use trash talk to distract you or cause you to lose confidence. Listen to this month’s sports psychology podcast to learn how to focus on your game and not your competitors.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

*Download The Sports Psychology Podcast #36 (right click and “save as” to your computer)

Grab Dr. Cohn’s free mental training ebooks.