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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Mental Game Skills
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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Mentally Prepare for Competition
Hall of Fame player Hank Aaron attributed much of his success in baseball to his mental preparation -both before and during the game. He believed you should think about the mechanics of baseball when hitting. Instead, he believed that mental preparation and doing his homework was the key to becoming
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Don’t Worry About Things You Cannot Control
I tell my students to not spend any energy worrying about things you cannot control on the athletic field, court, or course. By worrying, you waste energy on irrelevant factors beyond your control. As a result you become upset or frustrated, lose your composure, and it affects you for several
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Why Kids Are Fearless
Why are kids so fearless? Kids play in the present moment. They have no fear of consequences. No fear of failure. No fear of injury. This is also the reason parents need to observe them! Why are adults - and some athletes - filled with fear? Most athletes fear negative consequences of their
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3 Mental Keys for Success
What are three must have keys to success in sports? (1) Learning, (2) Repetition, and (3) Trust in your skills. What most athletes don't get - and even coaches - is that motor learning does not happen overnight. A batting lesson, golf instruction, or coaching on technique must be coupled with
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Routine for Success
Some athletes follow a specific routine to help them prepare for a match or game. They eat the same pregame meal, arrive at the event 1 hour prior to competition, and engage in a precise warm up they have developed through trial and error. Other athletes prefer to jump out of the team bus or car and
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