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You are here: Home / Mental Coach Articles / Mistakes I’ve Made as a Mental Coach

Mistakes I’ve Made as a Mental Coach

January 4, 2018 By Patrick Cohn Leave a Comment

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 spare time.

So, I had to learn by trial and error early in my career. And if you’ve been teaching the mental game to athletes, you’ve probably made mistakes too…

One coach posted this question on my mental coach survey: “What’s the number one mistake a mental coach makes on the first consultation with an athlete?”

I can only answer based on my experience….

Early in my career, I failed to use mental game assessments. When I attended the University of Virginia, Bob Rotella convinced us that tests are worthless for helping athletes succeed.

But in the late 80s, mental game assessment were being developed by researchers and not people working with athletes on a daily basis. Researchers wanted tests you can validate.

So a few years later, I developed by own assessment called the AMAP or Athlete’s Mental Aptitude Profile, which I share with all MGCPs.

It’s certainly not a validated psychological test, but it does help you understand athletes better — even before you enter the first session.

My point? You don’t want to go into a first session blind, without a preliminary plan. You want an assessment that provides specific information about your athlete, which you can use to develop a plan for coaching.

When an athlete starts a program, you have a head start and can prepare a program. You then can be even more specific with the questions you ask in the interview phase.

What are other top mistakes mental coaches make?

  • Not understanding the athlete’s sport or using the wrong lingo
  • Forcing athletes to do mental training
  • Thinking there is only one approach to helping athletes
  • Making guarantees for improved performance
  • Making mental training too complex (too much psycho babble)
  • Trying to “hold the athlete’s hand” when they don’t want you to

This is a small list of the mistakes I’ve seen others make (or I’ve made myself) when working with athletes.

But the good news is you can learn from my mistakes during the MGCP certification program this spring term.

Another huge perk of the program is that you use the AMAP and GMAP assessments I use every day with my students.

MGCP Graduate:

“I find your openness with information and willingness to help your students to excel at becoming a Mental Game Coach truly refreshing and remarkable. I enjoyed the course and found it very practical – I was able to finish the course material and start working with clients immediately.”
~Kerri Morgan

Filed Under: Mental Coach Articles, Sports Psychology Certification Tagged With: AASP Certification, Mental Coach, 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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OR READ MORE

Mental Game Assessments

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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OR READ MORE

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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Mental Coach Credibility Program

Call 888-742-7225 for More Information

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