Consistency in a positive way is what every athlete wants to achieve. There are not many things in sport that are more annoying than when you play great one week and then the next week your performance drastically dips. You could have prepared all week in exactly the same way as you did the previous week but for some reason your performance was completely different. This difference could be the environmental factors that you have no control over. As an athlete you can only control what you are doing. The environment is unpredictable and you cannot control what the […]
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29
Jul
2013
Consistency In Team Selection
06
Jul
2013
ChampionshipTeam Building Part Two
There are many different types of motivation and reinforcements a coach can use; some may increase or decrease motivation and team cohesion, which has a huge effect on athletic performance. Behavior Alteration Techniques (BAT’s) are some motivational techniques that Martin, Matthew M., Rocca, Kelly A., Cayanus, Jacob L., & Weber, Keith (2009) elaborate on. Their research defines BATs as techniques and messages that teachers used to control their classroom students and classroom environment; they noted that there are 22 different BATs. Some of these techniques are classified as positive BATs and negative BATs. Positive BATs had a positive relationship […]
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20
May
2013
Tips for Building Team Confidence
As the coach you are not alone in supporting your team’s confidence. It is beneficial for coaches to identify members of the team that can help boost team confidence and promote success. Once you identify players with leadership capabilities have the team select or have your team elect a captain and co-captain. Team captains act as a liaison between players and coaches, so they will help you support team confidence. Other players look up to team leaders for guidance, reassurance, and encouragement as they do the coach. In sports team leaders are a valuable team asset you should use […]
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07
May
2013
Centering Techniques for Sports
In Chapter 8 of Psyched to Win Dr. Nideffer refers to “Centering” as a technique, borrowed from the martial arts, whose purpose is to instill feelings of emotional control. These simple breathing and cueing exercises are used to calm and relax both the mind and body. Center of Mass Your Center of Mass is located one or two inches below and behind your navel. If one can consciously bring one’s attention to this point, one feels grounded or centered. In Dr. Nideffer’s article for class, he describes the importance of keeping a balanced, stable lower center of mass. This […]
Read moreWhen people talk about baseball they usually mention the physical aspects of the sport such as, hitting, arm-strength, and power. The primary focus of athletes in the past has been to improve their physical game to compete at a higher level. The physical component of the game is so emphasized that a good handful of professional ball players began using illegal performance enhancement supplements to gain a competitive edge. The physical component of baseball is important, but it’s also highly overrated, especially in higher levels of competition. I say this because all professional ball players have the physical tools […]
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10
Apr
2013
How to Become a Sport Psychology Professional
Sign up for a FREE 20 minute consultation with Sport Psychology Today’s Michael Edger MS, MGCP on “The Road to Success in Sports Psychology” We are offering this program to help guide young students, coaches and professionals interested in the field of Sport and Performance Psychology. Sport Psychology is a young rapidly growing discipline of Psychology. Because it is a relatively new and growing field there isn’t a lot of information available for those interested in deciding whether sports psychology is the right career chose for them. During this 20 minute session you will have the opportunity to ask […]
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21
Dec
2012
Sport Psychology and Mental Training
Sports Psychology is about improving your attitude and mental toughness to help you perform your best by identifying limiting beliefs and embracing a healthier philosophy about your sport. Mental training is used by elite athletes to help improve focus, confidence and deal with distractions. Many athletes have the ability to concentrate, but often their focus is displaced on the wrong areas such as when a batter thinks “I need to get a hit” while in the batter’s box, which is a result-oriented focus. Much of my instruction on focus deals with helping athlete to stay focused on the present […]
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19
Dec
2012
Mental Training and Performance Enhancement
For some athletes, mental training is an untouched avenue to improve sports performance. Many athletes do not understand mental training and may be skeptical about its value.Even if you as a parent understand the importance of mental toughness in your young athletes, your kids might resist it. If kids do not “buy in” to mental training, they will not reap the benefits it provides. We teach sports parents and coaches how to encourage their kids to have a strong mental game. Many athletes don’t realize that resources are available to improve their mental game. When under performing or in […]
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15
Dec
2012
Attentional Focus and Self-Talk
Attentional Focus and Best Use of Self-Talk in Closed Skill Tasks International rugby stars and place kickers Dan Carter, Ronan O Gara and Jonny Wilkinson, among many others place the ball, set themselves, say something to themselves and mostly go about their business and put the ball between the posts. So what exactly are they saying and why? Research has shown that the use of psychological techniques can enhance sporting performance (Krane & Williams, 2006). Use of psychological techniques, cognitive strategies or mental training has been commonly used by high performance athletes for many years. Aided by the growth […]
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11
Dec
2012
Understanding “The Zone” in Sports
Athletes need to play into zone, it does not just come to you. Once you understand the parameters which allow you to enter, raise, expand and enhance the zone, you will have a change perspective in what you do. What the playing zone is and how it works goes like this: The zone, like sport, works on space and time. And you have to think of the zone as a room in your mind. To enter this room you require stillness of the mind, which reduces the thoughts, which creates space, which the zone loves because that’s what it […]
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