What Top Athletes Have Benefited From Mental Training?
Whether athletes are young or college-age, talented or less talented, they all can benefit from mental training. Yet, a number of obstacles prevent athletes from embracing it.
What does this mean for parents and coaches? Read on and you’ll learn how to help athletes overcome their resistance to mental training.
First, the obstacles. Here are just some of the reasons young athletes give for resisting mental training. They might say:
- Coaches and teammates will think they’re weak if they embrace mental training.
- If their coaches don’t use mental training, why should they?
- Performing well is about working hard, not about what goes on in athletes’ heads.
- Something must be wrong with athletes to use mental training.
Let’s debunk these issues one-by-one.
First, all great athletes have one thing in common: They are interested in improving themselves—including their mental game. There’s nothing weak or wimpy about taking advantage of mental training.
Says Mia Hamm, “The most important attribute a soccer player must have is mental toughness. Before you can win, you must have the will to prepare to win.”
What’s more, athletes who worry that they’ll be seen as wimpy should embrace mental training because they think too much about how others view them!
Second obstacle: Many coaches—especially good ones—use mental training intuitively. If they don’t, they often don’t know much about sports psychology.
After all, they haven’t received any instruction in it! It’s more than likely that coaches who learn about the benefits of mental training will use it with their teams. But individual sport athletes might not have the same exposure to mental training.
Third: Yes, hard work and dedication are critical to performing well. But athletes need to understand when and why they’re doing well. That’s where mental training comes in! What’s more, athletes might perform well in practice, but not during competitions.
Again, sports psychology can help athletes solve this—and many other challenges.
If you want to convince athletes to take advantage of mental training, you need to dispel these and other myths they buy into.
You might tell your athletes they’re not broken or dysfunctional if they need mental training.
You want to educate them on the real purpose of mental training: to improve performance and consistency in sport.
You also need to explain the many benefits of mental training—how, for example, it helps athletes boost confidence, improve their focus, prepare mentally, and improve their performance.
You might also discuss role models that use mental training, such as Mia Hamm and many other top athletes who have benefited from mental game coaching.
Check out our video of the week, How Self-Intimidation Destroys Confidence
Boost Your Self-Confidence With 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?
“Our son plays academy level soccer. Jaki taught him how to focus on mini goals for each game and practice, how to lower his expectations and understand that mistakes are necessary to grow as a player, and helped his perfectionism. We saw a noticeable difference within one month with improvement each month thereafter. He was more confident, happy, and was having fun again at soccer. The confidence has helped him off the field as well to not have to be perfect in everything that he attempts. We can’t say enough about how grateful we are for Jaki!”
~Linda Black, Soccer Mom
For All Athletes – 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?
“We are amazed at how much ‘The Confident Athlete’ program has helped my niece play her best tennis during matches. She literally made it to the farthest round of a tournament (semifinals) after finishing the CDs/workbook. We are going to do all 3 in the series.”
~Jason Bourguignon, Uncle
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?
“Dr. Patrick Cohn and Lisa Cohn are to be congratulated! Together, they offer a wealth of knowledge, information, and practical mental tools for sports parents on the substantial “mental game” challenges and pressures facing today’s young athletes.”
~Marc D. Anderson, LCSW, MGCP, Mental Game Coach
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?
“Congratulations on your Mental Edge workbooks. I have been through the package and it looks great! The MGCP program just got a lot better. Your workbook program makes it much more tangible and easier to use the mental strategies. This is the missing link in the MGCP program!”
~Bob Simpson, MGCP
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