Strategies for Understanding and Managing Perfectionism, the Double-Edged Sword    What is Perfectionism? Perfectionism is a double-edged sword, particularly for athletes. A construct that has widely been studied in the area of sport psychology, perfectionism is multidimensional and depending on an individual’s personality, can lead to highly positive or extremely negative consequences. Perfectionism is a personality style characterized by setting extremely high standards for performance, striving for flawlessness, a tendency to be overly critical in evaluations of one's performance ..read more

Anger in Sport: Helpful, Harmful, or Both?  Anger in sports is generally viewed as an undesirable negative emotion. Anger can certainly be detrimental when it leads to uncontrolled reactive aggression. In addition, anger can have adverse effects on fine motor coordination and decision-making skills, which in certain sports or positions would be extremely deleterious.   Conversely, some performance-enhancing factors come with experiencing the emotion of anger, such as an adrenaline release (increased energy), increased pain tolerance, and increased strength. For certain sports, and mo ..read more

Sport demands both physical and mental preparation. Athletes need to remain mentally calm, focused, and confident for optimal performances - one powerful tool that can assist athletes in this regard is the Pre-Performance Routine. In this post, we will break down the importance of routines for athletes, and then discuss a few strategies for creating effective pre-performance routines in our athletic endeavors. First, let’s focus on the value of pre-performance routines (also referred to as pre-competition rituals or cues). Pre-performance routines consist of planned actions and behaviors exerc ..read more

Tanner is our newest member to join our team at The Performance Pursuit. We wanted to give you all a sneak peek at what Tanner is all about and let him share his background and interests in sport psychology! Welcome to the team, Tanner! Why sport psychology? For me, I made the decision to pursue a career in sport psychology because I wanted to be able to provide individuals with an outlet and a resource to continue increasing their ability to perform at their highest level. Having experience with mental skills training and to be able to stay in sport, in some capacity and give back is someth ..read more

Felix is one of the newest members of The Performance Pursuit, and we thought we would give you a behind the scenes look at who Felix is and let him share his passion about mental performance consulting. Welcome to the team, Felix!   So Felix…why sport psychology? For me, I chose to pursue a career in sport psychology because I want to help people get better and continue to be a part of sport--something that I am extremely passionate about.  The importance of this area became more apparent as I have gotten older, so I want to try and help as many young men and women in this area as possible ..read more