“Too often, sport psychologists are asked to ‘fix’ struggling athletes.” That line from a 2008 study by Holliday and colleagues sums up a lot of my work as a mental performance coach. It’s also why I believe in offseason mental training. The offseason is the best time for a young athlete to build a stronger
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Mindfulness for Athletes: 3 Proven Steps to Reduce Performance Anxiety Burned out. Rigid. Judging every mistake. That’s the athlete I’ve been working with lately — a college-bound high schooler who’s lost the love of his sport somewhere along the way. His identity got tangled up entirely in being “an athlete.” Not a student. Not a
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Psychological safety in youth sports is one of the most important, and most misunderstood, ingredients of a positive athletic experience. In Episode 53 of The Freshman Foundation® Podcast, my guest Bill Eckstrom and I discussed what this looks like for young athletes, their parents, and their coaches. In this post, I explain what psychological safety
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The Power of “What If…?”: Athlete-Centered Coaching That Builds Motivation As a clinically diagnosed anxiety sufferer, I used to dread two little words: “what if.” Any question that started that way sent my mind straight to the worst possible outcome. Failure. Embarrassment. Disaster. You name it. Today, those same two words are one of my
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What’s the Most Effective Way to Coach Focus of Attention in Baseball? “Stay inside the ball.” “Sit back.” “Get your elbow up.” You’ve heard them from the dugout. Maybe you’ve yelled a few yourself. I know I have. Every one of those cues asks a player to think about their body in the middle of
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Emotions in Coaching: 5 Powerful Lessons From Losing My Cool “Show some class.” I snapped it across the field at the other team’s head coach. It was my 8th grade son’s baseball game, and I was one of the coaches. A few minutes later, in the handshake line, it got worse. I’m a mental performance
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Demanding Coaching: 3 Powerful Ways to Give Young Athletes Structure “Sometimes, athletes also just want a bit of structure.” Two-time Olympic fencer Laurence Halsted said that to me on Episode 37 of The Freshman Foundation Podcast. It stopped me in my tracks. I’d spent a lot of time writing about coaches who give young athletes
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Coach-Athlete Relationship: 3 Powerful Lessons From Friday Night Lights “Sixty percent.” That’s how much of his identity one high school athlete told me was wrapped up in being an athlete. The other 40 percent had to cover everything else. Son. Sibling. Student. Partner. He’s not alone. And the person with the most influence over how
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Dugout Culture: 5 Powerful Lessons From the Greatest Place in Sports High fives. Fist bumps. A pat on the rear end after a big hit. Grown men doing all of it without a second thought. Welcome to the dugout. I’ve played or coached baseball since I was five years old. I love everything about the
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I recently recorded a podcast interview with Curt Storring, creator and host of “Dad.Work,” a podcast that explores the triumphs and challenges of fatherhood. Curt was gracious enough to invite me on to share my experiences as a divorced man, single father, recovering compulsive gambler, and mental performance coach service young athletes. I was thrilled
