Archive: Mental Toughness

Be a Sports Leader!

December 23, 2014

Leadership is an important quality for many of us whether we are players, captains, coaches or managers. We want to be good leaders. But what does a good leader do? Is it all about winning or is there more to it than that? If you’re an aspiring leader, think about taking your leadership skills to […]

Toughness and Reading

December 1, 2014

As my students and good friends know, I’m a big fan of reading daily as a habit. Every day, I read for at least 30 minutes, and I listen to an audio book for at least 30 minutes, usually while I’m driving. It’s a great way to stay engaged with your passion whether that’s sports, […]

An Online Mental Toughness Training Program

October 2, 2014

For the past couple of months, I’ve been working on a project to virtualize the mental toughness and competitive skills training program that I do with individual athletes, and I can now announce that it is complete! I’ve entitled it The Good Athlete to Great Competitor program and it consists of 12 modules with each […]

Dealing With The Expectations Of Winning

July 28, 2014

“I should beat that guy.” “We should beat them.” The above are statements that we have all made in our lives as competitive athletes and in many cases, we were probably correct in our assessment of the match up. Of course there are games and matches in which we are the favorites and we should […]

A New Primary Goal When You Compete

May 20, 2014

If you play a sport in which you or your team has a direct opponent that you are competing against (football, basketball, soccer, hockey, tennis, etc.), what is your primary goal when you start playing? Is it to win? Is it to execute your game plan or do your job? Is it to play well? […]

Mental Focus Over Long Periods of Time

May 4, 2014

Recently, I asked the readers of this blog what challenges they were facing while competing and one of the most popular responses was the ability to focus for long periods of time and that’s what I would like to address in this post.

Three Things to Remember When You’re on Top of Your Game

March 3, 2014

Congratulations! You’re having a great season. You’re playing well, the victories are piling up and you’ve never felt better about your game. And of course, you want this feeling to last for as long as possible. In order to keep things going as they are, use the following 3 points as a guide for keeping […]

3 Things to Do When You’re Trying to Impress Your Coach

February 14, 2014

It’s that time of the year in high school and college when practice for Spring sports is getting ready to start or has perhaps even just begun. It can be a nerve wracking time for some. There may be uncertainty as to whether you’ll play or where you might be in the lineup, and your […]

What’s New with PerformanceXtra?

February 10, 2014

As many of you know, my work with athletes and teams through PerformanceXtra has been a part-time venture for the last couple of years, but as of January 2014 this has changed. PerformanceXtra is now my sole focus and mission, and I’m excited for the challenge. Originally, I started this business for two reasons: 1. […]

4 Things to Consider When Facing a Superior Opponent

February 4, 2014

There are times in competition in which we face opponents who are better than we are. They may have a better record than us or perhaps they have more achievements. Regardless, that’s not nearly as important as how we react to the challenge of facing this opponent. In this type of matchup, our mental attitude […]

Choose to be in Control

January 30, 2014

In order to be successful in life and in sports, there are two important concepts to understand and adopt: Choice and Control. What we think and how we react is our choice. What we choose to focus on should be things that are under our control. There are times in life when these concepts get […]

Isn’t Being Mentally Tough Hard? Yes!

January 27, 2014

Let’s face it – being mentally tough in competition is difficult and one of the reasons for that are the many apparent contradictions as to what to do and what to focus on in a given moment. There are no black and white answers that tell you to focus on just this one thing or […]

A Basic Framework for Winning in 4 Steps

January 22, 2014

Have you ever seen the Marshmallow Test? If not, check it out on YouTube as it’s quite humorous. The object of the test is to gauge how well children can delay gratification in the presence of temptation. It has been shown that those who can delay gratification are typically more successful in life than […]

The 5 Parts of Your Competitive Self

December 1, 2013

All great competitors have a keen sense of what their body state should be during competition so that they perform at top level. This means that they are in touch with how their muscles feel, what they’re thinking, what they’re feeling, etc. Their body state is in essence their body chemistry. Competitive situations alter body […]

The 1 Book You Need To Read To Be A Better Competitor

August 11, 2013

Whenever I talk to people about mental toughness, I make sure that I explain the distinction between an athlete and a competitor because the difference is huge when it comes to being successful in sports and life. Those who are solely athletes have great physical skills. They’re fast, strong and physically gifted in their sport. […]

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