Building a Championship Team Culture

Excellence Takes Time

Do you want to build a culture of excellence within your team/program/organization? It takes time, dedication, and a commitment to doing the little things right long-term - in other words, there is no quick fix. If you answered yes to the question about excellence but balked at the statement about time, then excellence isn't for you. Otherwise, here's a great evidence-based article for you! Enjoy.

Making Friends with Pain - Sports Xpress

Pain is my friend!

If you’re an athlete who enjoys the pain that comes when you go to the max in training and competition, then it’s likely you have personally made friends with pain. However, if you've made pain your enemy, read on to find out how to change your relationship with pain.

Mental Skills For All Athletes

Why The All Blacks Need A Mental Skills Coach

Why is training your mind so important when it comes to performing at your best? If your brain is responsible to programming the rest of your body to do things like pass and shoot, wouldn't you want your brain to function optimally in order to give yourself the best chance of success on the field, the court, the ice, in the pool or in the ring?

Here's a great article and video discussing the ins and outs of Mental Skills Training with some of the toughest guys on the planet.

Video link: http://m.nzherald.co.nz/templates/video.cfm?c_id=1503577&gal_cid=1503577&gallery_id=161456

Girls in Sport

Girl Power

What are the benefits and advantages of encouraging girls and young women to stay involved in sports, whether at the competitive or recreational level? Is it about CONFIDENCE, TIME-MANAGEMENT, SELF-ESTEEM, HUMAN CONTACT, FRIENDSHIP, TEAMWORK? Here's a short article from In Between Magazine (www.inbetween.ca) that gives you some food for thought on the subject. Enjoy!

Meditation - Volleyball Source #11

Meditation for Athletes

Athletes who practice meditation can expect to see noticeable improvements in their performance.

The Show - Volleyball Source #9

Handling the BIG Show

Here’s the situation: It’s your first match at the Olympics,there’s a big crowd, a very difficult opponent (maybe a top team from Brazil) and you are feeling like you are in WAY over your head. So how do you handle it? What do you do from a mental standpoint to keep it together?

Mental Make Up - Volleyball Source #13

Winning Athlete's Mental Make Up

Does a certain mentality predispose one player to excel and another to fall short?

Olympic Hangover - Volleyball Source #10

Getting over Olympic hangover

There’s so much emphasis on making the Olympics, yet so few athletes get to live the dream. What about those who come up short? That has to be a huge letdown.

Thoughts - Volleyball Source #14

Power Thoughts

A common myth about the mind (or the brain, words I will use interchangeably in this article) is that it is a separate and completely different entity from the rest of the body. In other words, many assume incorrectly that what we think has NO bearing on how we perform.

Life after Sports - Volleyball Source #12

Is there Life After Sports

Athletes retire for a variety of reasons: age, injury, de-selection, free choice, etc. As a result, athletes may face a wide range of psychological, social and financial changes. How the athlete deals with these changes will affect the quality of the adaptation to retirement.

Mental Toughness - SportsXpress

Mental Toughness for Kids or Parents?

One of the most important factors that influences success in sport – from house-league to elite competition – is confidence.

Mindfulness - Sports Xpress

Mindfulness - Being in the Zone

Mindfulness is the skill of being able to focus on the present moment – the ‘here and now’ – which is a vital part of peak performance in sport.

Friend or Foe? - Volleyball Source #17

Can We Be Friends?

Eugenie Bouchard (Canadian professional tennis player) was once asked who her best friend was on the tennis Tour. Basically, she said she has no friends on Tour, that all the other women are her competitors. Can competitors be friends?

Getting Psyched - Volleyball Source #15

Psyching Up & Down

Every athlete is different in the way that they perform at their best. Some athletes like to get pumped up before a game, while other perform at their best when they are calm and relaxed. Why is that? Is one way better than the other?

Mental Letdown - Sports Xpress

The Post-Competition Letdown

High-performance athletes devote countless hours preparing to be the best they can be. They dedicate months, and even years, working towards one major event (e.g., Olympics, Paralympics, world championships). This total investment and complete focus allows them to achieve success, but it can also lead to a post-competition letdown.

Concussion - Sports Xpress

Psychology of Concussion

We live in a sport culture that emphasizes the ‘tough-guy’ mentality, where athletes are supposed to play through pain and hide injuries. Don’t get me wrong, there is a need for a certain amount of toughness in sport, especially in contact and collision sports. Without it, it would be psychologically difficult for an athlete to get back out there day after day and get ‘beat up’ by sport. However, the toughness that helps an athlete energize to play can be detrimental when it comes to injuries, and specifically head injuries: concussions.

Fear - Sports Xpress

Frozen by Fear

Fear is one of the most basic human emotions, and it can be conditioned to work for or against us. We learn to fear things by how those around us react or by what we are told. So what does this have to do with sport? A lot. Read on.

Average Joe - Sports Xpress

Mental Training for the Average Joe?

I often get asked if what I do with elite athletes can be used by the ‘average Joe’. The short answer is “Yes, if the average Joe wants to do the work”.

What is Sport Psych? - Sports Xpress

Demystifying Sport Psychology

Sports psychology is no longer a well-kept secret. Virtually every college, university, national team, Olympic team, and pro team has a mental performance consultant or sports psychologist on staff. So what does that mean for you?

Excellence - Sports Xpress

Performance Excellence

If you go through the world looking for excellence, you will find excellence. If you go through the world looking for problems, you will find problems. There is no such thing as failure, only results, because in reality failure is just a result that you did not want.

Zen Athlete - Sports Xpress

The Zen Athlete

When most people think of athletes, words like tough, strong and zoned-in come to mind. Many people would say that the words ‘athlete’ and ‘meditation’ don’t belong in the same sentence. However, athletes who practice meditation can expect to see noticeable improvements in their performance.

Golf - Sports Xpress

It's All in Your Head!

There’s too much time to think during a round of golf. This is one of the pitfalls of many golfers as they psych themselves out before they even hit the ball! However, that doesn’t have to happen to you if you train your mind to focus on the right stuff at the right time.

Belief - Sports Xpress

Becoming a Champion

What does it take to be a champion? Talent, yes. But talent alone is not enough. In sport, and other areas of life, positive mental characteristics and qualities make the difference between repeated success and failure.

Bouncing Back- Sports Xpress

Falling Short

There’s so much push to succeed and make it to the top, yet many athletes fail or fall short. How do you mentally manage the letdown of falling short?

The Spotlight - Volleyball Source #16

In the Spotlight

It’s often the case that many Olympic athletes are all but forgotten for the majority of the four years between the Olympic Games; then they become the focus of huge media attention as the Games near. So how can athletes deal with the Olympic hype and manage the pressure that can go along with that hype?