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You are here: Home / Mental Coach Articles / Engaging Athletes in Mental Training

Engaging Athletes in Mental Training

February 2, 2018 By Patrick Cohn Leave a Comment

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 unsure how to introduce mental training to athletes.

They worry that their athletes might not understand mental training and how it can help.

They also worry athletes will reject it for different reasons. So parents often ask us how to get their athletes involved in mental training if they don’t know anything about it.

Athletes might think if they have to work with a mental game expert that something might be wrong with them.

Based on our survey with sports parents, we know that nearly 45% of families do not embrace mental training because they simply don’t understand what it is or how it can help their athletes.

How can you help athletes embrace mental training?

  1. Educate. Athletes have to understand that mental training is not for the weak or problem athlete. It’s for athletes that want to have more stable confidence and improve their consistency.
  2. Discuss the Benefits. Take a growth approach to mental training for athletes. Mental coaching does not have to be about fixing problems but rather striving for peak performance, better focus, stable confidence, more composure, and so on.
  3. Use Role Models. Tell athletes about other athletes who use mental training as a regular part of their training programs, such as Mia Hamm, Jeff Burton, and Andy Murray. Can top athletes be wrong about using mental training?
  4. Mental Edge. Discuss with your athletes that they may miss out on a good way to get the advantage over other athletes. And if their competitors are using a mental coach, they may be at a disadvantage when physical skills or talent is equal.
  5. Dispel Myths. Many athletes still hold onto myths about sports psychology coaching, such as it’s only for problem athletes, other athletes might use it against them if they find out, or they must be head cases if they have to engage in mental game coaching.
  6. Life Skills. Parents especially like to hear us talk about the many benefits of mental skill applied to other areas of their athletes’ live. Through mental training for sports, athletes can learn life skills, such as teamwork, composure, proactive confidence, goals setting, and much more.
  7. Provide Samples. We suggest to our MGCPs to offer a short 15-minute sample session for athletes to help them understand mental training. If you can show athletes the value of working on their mental approach, they are more likely to embrace mental training. Give your prospective athletes one valuable tip.
  8. Identification. Help your athletes identify with mental game challenges they might experience. For example, they might under perform in competition, get easily frustrated, worry too much about what others think, feel anxious, or tank.

The key to helping athletes embrace mental training is to educate them on the benefits, provide samples, and help them identify with how it can help them overcome a specific challenge.

I don’t think you can force athletes to do mental training, unless you’re also a team coach and you use practice time to teach mental skills.

The best option is to educate your target population of athletes about the benefits and wait for them to arrive at a “teachable moment” when they understand it and are fully ready to embrace mental training.

Please contact us to complete an application or learn more about the MGCP program.

If you have not completed the application, you can apply by either:

  1. Filling out the application online: Apply to Be an MGCP
  2. Downloading the application and submitting it, as soon as possible: Download the MGCP Application

Apply to Be a Mental Coach Today!

Filed Under: Mental Coach Articles, Sports Psychology Certification Tagged With: Athlete's Mental Edge, Consistency in Sports, Mental Training, Sports Psychology Certification

MGCP - Sports Psychology Certification Course

  1. The MGCP 20-chapter workbook including exercises to teach you how to identify mental game challenges and obstacles that influence performance; develop mental skills individual and team members; and improve teamwork and communication.
  2. The Athlete's Mental Edge workbook system to help you stay organized and accelerate your athletes learning and progress with mental skills.
  3. 12+ Real-life video and audio case studies to accelerate your learning of mental game coaching.
  4. MGCP Summaries, outlines and flow charts to help you understand the over mental coaching process and the phases of mental coaching taught by Dr. Cohn.
  5. Examples of mental imagery programs (hockey, dog handling, and golf) including how to create imagery scripts and audio programs for your athletes.
  6. A series of sports psychology e-books on goal setting, confidence, focus, pregame and preshot routines.
  7. Use of Dr. Cohn’s Athlete’s Mental Aptitude Profile (AMAP) and several sport-specific versions to help you identify an athlete’s or team’s mental game strengths and weaknesses.
  8. Use of the Team Cohesion Aptitude Profile (TCAP) to assess team cohesion; and a sports parent’s profile to use with sports parents.
  9. Examples of pre-seminar questionnaires to use before you give a seminar to a group to help you identify mental game challenges and areas to teach.
  10. How to do team mental game assessments efficiently using an online assessment tool.
  11. Over 160 mental game coaching “handouts” or one-page summaries and worksheets you can use to help you stay organized during sessions and as summaries for your student or team.
  12. 18 real-life case studies focusing on a different challenge in sports psychology and Dr. Cohn’s solution to each. You understand the real-life issues with athletes and how to address their mental game barriers.

Apply for sports psychology certification today!

Resources for Mental Game Coaches

Please browse our programs for mental game coaches and sports psychology professionals below. With the purchase of each program, you can upgrade to the Self-Paced Course or the Full MGCP Certification Course. Contact us at Peak Performance Sports, LLC for more details: 888-742-7225

AMAP Assessment System

The AMAP System licenses to you our exclusive mental game assessment. You learn how how to easily identify your athletes’ mental game challenges, what mental game issues to look, and how to do a summary of the AMAP. The AMAP has several purposes beyond its use as an assessment tool.

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Athlete's Mental Edge Workbooks

The Athlete’s Mental Edge workbook system 2.0 is designed for both mental coaches and sports team coaches. And no matter if you are a 20-year mental coach veteran or just starting your career as a mental coach, you’ll love the simplicity of the workbooks, and your athletes will appreciate your organization.

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Workbooks for Mental Coaches

Mental Coaches' Playbook

The Mental Coach's Playbook is a tool for mental coaches to help them improve efficiency and success as a mental game coach working with sports parents and their young athletes. Learn the top issues for young athletes and their parents. Learn how to be more successful when working with young athletes. Digital Download Only.

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Working with Sports Parents

Improving Credibility for Mental Coaches

This program helps new and experienced mental coaches gain credibility in your field of expertise. In “Improving Credibility,” sports psychology professionals learn how to get organized with your business documents, how to harness social proof from athletes and coaches, and learn the top tactics to improve your credibility as a mental coach.

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Call 888-742-7225 for More Information

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