Archive: Success

“Be Quiet!!!” – Develop a Mindset to Deal with Noise

June 2, 2015

Ever find yourself wishing that someone would just be quiet while you’re performing? Recently, several people have asked me about how tennis players can deal more effectively with crowds or an unruly spectator so that performance is not affected in a negative way. In most sports, crowd noise tends to be less of a distraction […]

4 reasons not to get angry when you compete

April 10, 2015

As a young tennis player, I had a bad temper. I didn’t like making mistakes. I didn’t like losing points. The root of my anger wasn’t a lack of emotional control, but rather because my thoughts were fixated on those mistakes and lost points, and that frustrated me greatly. If only I could be perfect […]

3 Things To Do To Be A Better Fighter

March 23, 2015

When all else is going wrong in your performance, there is one facet of the mental game that can salvage the day: your fighting spirit. If you continue to fight for your best performance, even on your worst day, you still have a chance of succeeding in the end. The persistence and intensity that you […]

Working on You Equals Success

February 16, 2015

Last week, this audio reminded me of the philosophy that you have to work on yourself first before you can achieve the results that you want. You have to grow into the person that can achieve greatness. As I listened to this message, I realized that the same thing is true in competition. While you are […]

Video on the skill of self confidence

February 13, 2015

Question for you: do you view self confidence as a quality you either have or not, or do you believe that it is a skill that can be developed? In the video below, Dr. Ivan Joseph suggests that it is the latter and he gives some suggestions on how you as a coach or athlete […]

What is your definition of success?

February 3, 2015

This past weekend, I spoke to a group of dressage instructors/trainers at an educational conference in CT, and my topic was “How to be a Positive Coach.” While I don’t have much “street cred” in the horse world, I do have a good bit of experience and knowledge on coaching styles in both sports and […]

Building Sportsmanship

January 12, 2015

If you watched the College Football Playoff game between Oregon and Florida State on New Year’s Day, you may have noticed that a large number of the players from FSU walked off the field at the end of the game without shaking hands and congratulating their opponents. The announcers observed this and commented on it. […]

The 2 Types of Belief You Need to Be Mentally Tough

December 30, 2014

If I were to tell you that confidence and self-belief were major components of mental toughness, you’d probably say something like “yeah, no kidding!” And you’d be right to say that. It’s obvious that’s the case, but let’s dive a little deeper into self-belief because it may not be as obvious that there are two […]

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 […]

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 […]

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