Every competitive athlete experiences pre-competition jitters. Your jitters may be positive and helpful or induce anxiety and apprehension. Pregame jitters can cause some athletes to not sleep well the night before competition. Some athletes can’t eat the morning before a big game. Your
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How to Win Ugly
Many of the athletes I work with focus too much on having the perfect performance or fixate on how they will appear to others (such as teammates, parents, coaches) when performing. The need to execute flawlessly or to look good in competition undermines performance during competitive
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Helping Kids Cope with Mistakes
All athletes at some time become upset, frustrated, or angry at themselves (or other people). How your kids perform will depend on their ability to let go of mistakes and stay composed. Emotional control is the ability to stay even tempered, level headed, or to remain calm when challenged by mishaps
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Helping Athletes Deal with Setbacks
As a coach, one objective is to help athletes play on with confidence and composure immediately following a setback or mistake. Before you can help an athlete regain control you must maintain your own composure, and avoid showing your frustration. This will help your athletes learn through
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Breaking Free From a of Slump
Every athlete, at some point in his or her career, experiences a slump in performance. A slump is a noticeable decrease in your performance for a prolonged period of time. To break free from a slump you must first determine if your slump is from physical or mental game causes. Once you determine the
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Concentration Skills and Performance Cues
Every person who plays sports has the ability to concentrate and selectively attend to certain performance cues. Your kids must know what they need to focus on in order to throw a baseball or hit a slap shot. Task-relevant performance cues or important skills your kids need to focus on help them
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Goal-oriented Practice
As coach it is your responsibility to keep your athletes from being bored during practice. When your players are bored with practice they lack concentration and focus. Make practice goal-oriented by establishing a goal for each specific task you are going to work on in practice. Goal-oriented
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Expectations Lead to Pressure
Most athletes feel pressure when they adopt expectations from others, such as coaches, parents, or teammates, or have their own strict expectations about how they should perform. Expectations are what you demand of yourself when you perform or what you think others demand of you. You naturally want
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