Blog
Want a Confidence Boost? Use Your Voice!
November 15, 2016We all know that Confidence is a key component of good performance and the notion that “confidence is a choice” should be obvious. However, many athletes choose not to be confident and therefore make the road to good performance more difficult. Knowing that Confidence and Mental Toughness is first driven by your actions – which […]
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Do You Know How to Play Badly Well?
November 3, 2016“The worse you’re performing, the more you must work mentally and emotionally. The greatest and toughest art in golf is playing badly well. All the true greats have been masters at it.” — Jack Nicklaus Ah, I love this quote from all-time golf great, Jack Nicklaus. When I read the phrase “playing badly well”, I […]
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What to do when you’re not playing well
October 27, 2016A short story from a practice match I played recently… The wind was in my face and I was getting ready to serve for the first time in the match. I don’t have a very big serve and even a little bit of wind against me can make it more ordinary than usual. My opponent […]
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The 3 Components of Mental Toughness
October 21, 2016In recent days, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to Mental Toughness and what it is and why we struggle with it. I have concluded that there are 3 high level components to Mental Toughness, and athletes need to be proficient in all 3 if they are to realize their best performances on a […]
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6 skills you need to be the best college athlete
August 27, 2016This summer, Hayden Steward of St. Michael’s College in Vermont was an intern for PerformanceXtra. As part of his internship, he wrote the following blog post to assist those athletes who are entering their first year of college sports, with some of the challenges they will inevitably face. If you’d like to ask Hayden for […]
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4 Strategies For The Player Who Gets Tight
July 20, 2016Have you ever felt tight or tense while competing? If you’re like most people, myself included, you have probably felt this way at some point in your competitive career. Sometimes it just happens under pressure and at other times, that tight and tense feeling is present from the beginning. Whatever the situation, it doesn’t feel […]
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10 Competitive Skills Observations from USTA NE Sectionals
July 1, 2016I recently attended the New England Summer Sectionals tennis event at Yale University to support players from various academies as well as students of PerformanceXtra. Over the course of two days, I watched 20+ hours of tennis and I observed several things from a mental and competitive skills perspective. Each of the 10 items below are […]
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The Art of Unlearning
June 20, 2016Would you be surprised to learn that a major part of the process of becoming excellent is unlearning? Sure, learning new techniques is important, but the unlearning process addresses the habits and beliefs that we have that limit our ability to reach true excellence. It is in this space that you can become truly elite. […]
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2 podcasts to make your mind and body stronger
June 12, 2016I had a few hours of driving to do over the weekend, so I downloaded a couple of Tim Ferriss podcasts onto my phone to occupy my mind on something productive for the ride. I thoroughly enjoyed each episode and wanted to share some insights with you. Both topics are important in the context of […]
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Are you a perfectionist?
June 3, 2016In my work with athletes, I encounter a lot of perfectionists. I don’t know if this is more prevalent in today’s society than in the past, but it seems as if there is now a romantic ideal associated with being a perfectionist. Like it is a good thing. Like being a perfectionist is a badge […]
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