From the TedX speaker who captivates their audience the moment they step on the stage, to the high school athlete who strikes without hesitation, confidence demands to be noticed. This all-but palpable trait is magnetic and mysterious, and it seems to be attached to virtually every high performer and highly successful person. On the flip side, any coach could tell you how upsetting it is to watch a talented athlete struggle. Not because of lack of ability or effort, but simply because they don’t have confidence. So today’s question is this: What’s the x factor that makes some people more confi ..read more

[Please note: This article references burnout, stress, and nerves in sports, NOT clinical anxiety or depression. If you experience clinical symptoms, please consult a professional]   Sometimes your team just needs a break. Maybe you’re struggling after a long tournament, maybe you’re in the middle of a losing streak, maybe you’re about to go into finals week. Maybe you’ve just been working so hard for so long that you’ve lost the spark. When my team needed a break the most, do you know what my coach would do? He wouldn’t cancel practice. He wouldn’t give us an easy practice. He would have ..read more

[Please note: This article is about worry, stress, and nerves in sports, NOT clinical anxiety or depression. If you experience clinical symptoms, please consult a professional] As a parent, it’s hard to let my kids struggle. It goes against every instinct I have to sit by watching their little fingers try to open a snack pack, or awkwardly crawl up onto the couch face-first. And when something doesn’t go their way, It’s hard not to pick them up the moment they cry and try distract them from their feelings. But I resist. I have to resist because every time I cave in, I’m sending them the ..read more

It’s no secret that we’re big believers in the power of visualization. Whether you’re a gym owner, coach, professional, parent, or simply want more out of your life, visualization can make it easier to achieve what you want; whether that’s higher performance, greater confidence, or deeper sleep. If you’ve followed us for a long time, this isn't the first time you've heard us talk about visualization. You’ve learned about how you can use visualization to train your subconscious brain for dramatic growth, how visualization alone can speed up recovery time after injury, how it can strengthen neur ..read more

Every day we’re faced with a million little choices. And every once in a while, we’re faced with a big, life-altering one. The choice to go to college, to move to that place, to try out for that team, to quit your job (you get the picture). For many of you, that big life-altering choice was whether or not to join the Mindset Coach Academy and take steps toward becoming a Certified Mindset Coach. As I welcome my new students into The MCA, I can’t help but think of all the folks that thought about joining but couldn’t quite pull the trigger. If you’ve felt a pull towards mindset coaching, chance ..read more

Wouldn’t it be nice if, way back in little league, our coach sat us down and taught us about visualization? Way before the social pressure or college applications, before we ever really “needed” it?  The truth is, I don't know if I've ever met anyone who had that experience. Many of us come to mental training the hard way. We get stuck in a slump that we can’t seem to pull ourselves out of, we get the yips at the exact wrong time (one too many times), we get so burnt out we just want to walk away from the game and never look back. When we hit rock bottom, that’s when most of us realize th ..read more

The new year is always a bit strange, isn’t it? For many of us, there’s no real interruption to routine, New Year’s Day feels just like any other day. But unlike every other day, there’s this energy that stirs just under the surface. This unspoken expectation that however you choose to spend this day will reverberate  through the rest of the year. Are you sleeping in with a New Year’s hangover? So much for getting healthy. Are you bringing work home with you again? So much for work/life balance. Are you fighting with your spouse? So much for getting your relationship back on track ..read more

December has a way of laughing at the plans you make. Plans to stay the course and end the year on a high note. Plans to prep for a bigger and better new year. Plans to not gain 50 lbs from gingerbread cookies and eggnog (good luck). The holidays are one of my favorite times of the year; but between the decking of the halls and the roasting of the chestnuts, it’s easy to lose yourself in all of it. Perhaps you… Saved up all year to hire a personal coach. Then, the holidays hit. And in the blink of an eye you’ve maxed out your credit card. Somehow manage to squeeze in a family vacation, but it ..read more

We’ve all watched our athletes play scared. And it’s not pretty. As coaches, we have to strike a balance. We have the responsibility to both have high standards for our athletes AND create a safe space to fail. Because playing scared for the sake of a scoreboard is not the answer. It’s a tough balance to get right, and it’s all too easy to lean too far in one direction. If we have high standards without a safe space to fail : Our athletes play scared. They go for points over performance. They pass instead of shoot, revert to bad habits when the pressure’s on, spiral after making a mistake, an ..read more

If there’s one question I get asked by coaches all the time, it’s this: “What makes some athletes great competitors while others struggle?” If I had a simple answer for that question, let’s face it, I would be rich. Here’s what I DO know: It’s true that some kids are born naturally more competitive than others. But what’s also true is that genetics is only part of it, and so much of the skills you need to become a great competitor can, in fact, be trained. When we focus only on the pieces we can’t control, we fall short as coaches. Many coaches expect that if an athlete wants it badly enough ..read more