Sports psychology certification articles for mental performance coaches and graduates of the MGCP certification program.
How to Understand Your Athletes’ Needs A mental game coach trying to establish himself recently asked me this question: “What is the number one mistake mental coaches make on the first session with an athlete?” I’ll give two answers to this question today because I think the answer depends on your philosophy about how to do mental coaching… First, I …
How to Help Athletes Apply Mental Game Skills Not all athletes follow the mental coaching lessons you teach them… Today’s tip is based on a question I received from my mental game coach survey and the challenges mental coaches face. Here’s the question: “How do you motivate the athletes you coach to follow through and actually practice what you teach?” …
How to Help Athletes Apply Skills If you work with athletes on their mental game, you know most of your clients can understand the mental strategies you teach. But the big question is: Can they apply what they learn to practice and competition? My #1 challenge as a mental coach is helping my athletes apply what they learn to practice …
What are the tools you need to be a successful mental game coach? A potential MGCP candidate asked me the following question: “Do you provide materials in the MGCP course, which we can later use with the athletes we work with (such as assessment material, mental toughness exercises, etc.)?” The short answer is “yes” – this is a huge benefit …
How to Introduce Mental Training to Athletes Do sports parents contact you asking how to introduce mental training to their athletes? Parents can recognize that their athletes are under performing due to anxiety, perfectionism, or lack of focus—before their athletes notice it. And parents see the need when their athletes perform much better in practice than competition… But parents are …
Mental Coaching Mistakes I’ve made many mistakes over the last 20 years as a mental game coaching professional. But, I’ve learned from them… When I started out – in the early 90’s – being a full time mental coach wasn’t a common career path. Most sports psychology professionals taught at a University and consulted with athletes and teams in their …