How to Minimize Game Time Pressure Many times, athletes attribute poor performance to pressure and nervousness. These athletes often complain that their parents, coaches, or teammates put too much pressure on them. While parents and coaches create an environment of pressure, they are not the cause of pressure. The cause of pressure is when the
Does Perfectionism Sabotage Athletes? Is being a perfectionist a good thing? Does perfectionism help an athlete strive for more? Many elite athletes call themselves perfectionists. In fact, many Olympians and top-level professionals attribute their success to being perfectionists. Well, you can’t argue with success, right? If a gold-medalist or an All-Star believes perfectionism helped them
How to Manage Strict Expectations Last week, I wrote to you about confidence-killer #1 in sports: Harboring strict expectations… Athletes who maintain very high expectations (demands) easily lose confidence when they don’t perform up to their expectations. Strict expectations also can lead to judgmental thinking and self-doubt. Even worse, athletes become frustrated when they fail
How to Improve Your Confidence In any sport, confidence is the #1 mental game skill that helps you (or your athletes) succeed. How you prepare before competition, react to mistakes, cope with adversity, and internalize others comments, can make or break your confidence. And if you’re a coach or parent, you play a critical role
High Expectations and Low Confidence No matter what sport you play, if you focus too much on outcome expectations, your sports confidence will take a hit. I call this the confidence-expectation connection…. Here’s the connection: When your expectations are super high—and you fail to achieve those expectations—confidence takes a hit. Here’s a prime example from