What Are Your Goals In Your Sport?
What is your vision for yourself as an athlete? What are the goals you want to accomplish? More importantly, how do you plan to get to a place you have yet to reach?
All athletes have big dreams…
Many athletes have created goals they would like to accomplish for the competitive season but few athletes are willing to plan and work each day to achieve success.
The main reason athletes fail to accomplish their goals is due to a lack of planning and preparation.
To use an analogy, think of how a building is created…
First there is a vision of what the building will look like.
Next, phases of the project are created. After that phase, blueprints and drawings are meticulously planned out paying attention to every detail of the project.
Then, after the plan is written down, construction begins. Most of the time, unforeseen obstacles occur causing the plan to be altered, adjusted or, in some cases, redesigned.
After the work is done, the vision comes to fruition.
Steps to Achieving Athletic Goals:
- Vision – What is your athletic dream?
- Goals – Specifically, what do you want to achieve by the end of this season?
- Plan – What are the steps necessary to achieve this goal?
- Action – What will you do in each training session to move closer to your goal?
- Adjustments – What will you do when you meet up with roadblocks?
- Accomplishment – What reward will you receive to you reach your goal?
U.S. Men’s Volleyball Team and Goal Achievement
Team USA started their 2015 season with high hopes. Ultimately, Team USA has a vision of Olympic gold in 2016. But as Team USA entered the 2015 World Cup, U.S. Head Coach John Speraw had a very clear goal.
SPERAW: “We came into this [World Cup] going for gold.”
Despite the fact that Team USA had not won the World Cup since 1985, Team USA has been preparing meticulously heading into the World Cup, an event the USA squad has not won since 1985.
Not only did Team USA win the 2015 FIVB Volleyball World Cup, the U.S. Men’s National Team qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games.
Despite a late tournament loss to Poland which dropped USA’s record to 8-1 while Poland was 9-0, Team USA made some adjustments and beat Argentina in their final match of the tournament, 25-20, 25-21, 17-25, 25-20. The victory gave the U.S. a 10-1 record and won the championship title.
SPERAW had Team USA committed to their plan and, since the beginning of the season, Speraw has kept the team’s focus on their goal of winning the World Cup.
SPERAW: “I always wanted to set the goal higher than to qualify. I think a lot of people come to this tournament and just want to get to the Olympic Games. I really wanted to do more.”
“I want this team to set its site on gold medals at every tournament. I wanted to go through the process of full commitment to that endeavor. Whether we won or lost, I wanted the full commitment to see what we could learn.”
Mental Training Tip: How to accomplish your athletic goals
Create a Plan & Work the Plan – After you specified your goal for the season, write down steps you need to take to reach your goal.
Consider these steps as your instructions for success:
1. What physical, mental, technical and tactical skills do you need to improve?
2. Write out these success instructions and define 1-2 goals for each practice to inch you closer towards your desired destination.
The key is to work your plan and have the attitude and patience to make it happen!
We help you with the mental part of the plan.
Check out our Video of the Week, Mental Toughness Training In Sports!
Learn Confidence-Boosting Techniques!
D you have a negative self-image of yourself as an athlete that stifles confidence?
No matter ow positive you try to be, are you unable to shake the doubt that rushes into your head when you size up your competition?
Have you labeled yourself as a loser, poor closer, or mediocre athlete and these labels keep you stuck in a rut of self-pity and indecision?
If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, check out The Confident Athlete!
The Confident Athlete CD and workbook program is a 14-day plan for ultimate self-confidence. This program is ideal for any athlete or coach that wants to discover proven confidence-boosting techniques guaranteed to drastically build self-confidence and improve sports performance.
Learn more about one of our most popular CD programs in The Confident Athlete Series…
The Confident Athlete: A 14-Day Plan For Ultimate Self-Confidence
Check out all of the products in The Confident Athlete Series!
What are customers saying?
“I first purchased The Confident Athlete to see how the program went and immediately saw results. I then purchased the rest of the confident athlete series and have noticed a dramatic improvement in my level of play or should I say consistency. I currently play NCAA Division 1 baseball for Lamar University, and even my coaches have noticed a change in the way that I approach the game. My attitude and confidence at the plate.”
~Tylor Prudhomme (Listen to his success story)
For Young Athletes and Parents – Learn More About How to Help Kids Improve Confidence Quickly!
We’ve got a great program for you called “The Confident Sports Kid: A 7-Day Plan for Building Ultimate Self-Confidence.”
The Confident Sports Kid is a 7-day program for sports parents and kids to boost young athlete’s performance, happiness and success… in sports and life!
The Confident Sports Kid is two programs in one. There’s a manual and CD for parents/coaches, and a workbook/CD for young athletes.
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 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.
Learn more about one of our most popular CD programs in The Confident Sports Kid Series…
The Confident Sports Kid: A 7-Day Plan for Building Ultimate Self-Confidence
Check out all of our products in The Confident Sports Kid Series!
What are parents and coaches saying about our program?
“I appreciate the advice to parents as to how to help your child become more mentally resilient to bullying in sports. The specific advice and scenarios are extremely helpful for any child on a team and very helpful in guiding parents, coaches and administrators in how to deal with bullying in sports. I cannot thank you enough for your input, and I am so reassured to know that there are people like you who are writing articles and doing interviews on such timely and important matters.”
~Julie Goot
For Mental Coaches – Add More Value To Your Mental Training Programs!
This workbook series was designed for coaches and mental coaches to use with their athletes.
The Athlete’s Mental Edge workbooks complement your existing mental training program. Each of the 15 workbooks in the Athlete’s Mental Edge System teaches your athletes a specific mental skill to improve their performance.
For mental coaches, this system is ideal for between session education.
For sports coaches, you’ll be able to conduct 15 team seminars using the workbook system.
In the Athlete’s Mental Edge workbook system, you receive 15 easy-to-read, practical Mental Edge Workbooks on PDF, as well as 16 coaches’ game plan MP3 audio files.
Athlete’s Mental Edge Workbook System
What are coaches saying?
“I am impressed with the willingness and openness of Dr. Cohn to share all of his assets (intellectual, products, etc.) with the MGCP students. You have developed an incredible model/package for mental training. Even though we are paying for your service, you are passing on a legacy built on your contribution to the world of sports. Thank you for that.”
~Tony Melito, MGCP
Boost Your Self-Confidence And Focus With Expert Mental Game Coaching!
Master mental game coach, Dr. Patrick Cohn, can help you or your athlete(s), ages 12 and up, overcome mental game issues with personal coaching.
You can work with Dr. Patrick Cohn himself in Orlando, Florida or via Skype, FaceTime, or telephone. Call us toll free at 888-742-7225 or contact us for more information about the different coaching programs we offer!
What are our students saying?
“Great news. In the last three weeks, we captured the following: our league championship; the northern Ontario [N.O.S.S.A.] Championship; the provincial “AA” [O.F.S.A.A.] Championship and finally the Hawaiian Sun & Surf Invitational Championship. Quite a feat! The team is totally elated. I would like to thank you, on their behalf, for the information you supplied on mental preparation. We remained focused and played relaxed! Your insights, which we incorporated into our practices, were part of the reason for our successes.”
~John Jeffries, Wildcat Volleyball