admin, Author at SPORTS MENTAL EDGE

Perfectionism in Sports: A Recipe That May Not Lead to Achieving Your Best

Perfectionist athletes continuously seek to accomplish extremely high standards. They work very hard to improve their techniques and spend countless of hours seeking the edge that will enable them to surpass their competitors. Even if they see progress, they will always see that more improvement is possible. They are quick to see the negative side of their performance and associate any error with mediocrity. When asked how they are doing, they quickly let us know …

Improving Team Performance

Working with team sport athletes requires a different mental approach than working with individual athletes. What really counts is how a coach makes sure that the team plays as a unit. It does not matter if a team is full of talented players. If they cannot play together, the team will not achieve success. Coaches choose to use different types of motivation, which could be a combination of positive or negative talks. Positive motivation pushes …

Where Should You Focus As Athletes?

Athletes come to compete ready to do their best. They train hard after putting a lot of hours practicing and improving their skills. But, is this enough in order to do one’s best? Derek Jeter showed up to play not expecting to do his best, but with a prepared state of mind that would help him to achieve his best. One of his mental preparations was that of managing what he can control without worrying …

Improve in Sports, Play Against Better Opponents

Elite female tennis player, Serena William, practices against male players because they hit harder and she is forced to return shot which are more difficult to hit. Alexi Thompson, one the best female golf players in the professional tour credits playing against her older brothers for her ability to hit long drives. She claims she wanted to measure up to them and, consequently, learned to hit long. The underdog Argentina’s national rugby team defeated the …

Accepting Defeat in Order to Win?

This really does not make any sense at all!! At first sight, this title makes no sense whatsoever. Athletes train very hard to perform at their best. They compete to win and establish mental goals to achieve their dreams. So, how could it be possible that they would accept defeat in order to win? The burden of needing or wanting to win is extremely high, regardless of whether it is a young athlete or an …