General Archives - Page 9 of 14 - SPORTS MENTAL EDGE

Serena Williams’ Lesson: Coping with Sports Pressures

This past Saturday, Serena experienced a loss that will be remembered as one of the major defeats in the history of Gran Slam tennis championship. Roberta Vinci, an unseeded Italian player with limited success in prior Gran Slam matches, shocked everyone after coming victorious in a thrilling semi-final 3-set match. Vinci overcame the 300-1 odds to defeat the 21-Grand Slam Champion who was pursuing history as a win in the US Open would have placed …

False Confidence in Sports

Players practice for a long time hoping that their improved skills will be transferred onto the court or course. We see golf players spending hours on the driving range hitting ball after ball; or, basketball players practicing one free throw after another. With repetition, they notice an improvement on their shot skills. They leave the range or the court feeling over confident and looking forward to their chance to show their sharper skill. When they …

Sports Concussion: What You Need to Know

Reports show that the potential long term effects of recurring concussions lead to cognitive and neurological disability. Concussion is attracting more attention as of late as the numbers keep increasing yearly. Data indicates that 350,000 sport-related cases were reported in 2012; almost a third of these cases took place during practice. Although football is the leading sport with reported concussions (47%), athletes practicing soccer, lacrosse, basketball, cheerleading and baseball are equally experiencing concerning numbers. Although …

Visualization: Why and How to do it.

Visualization is one of the most common mental strategies used by top athletes to help them achieve their top performance. Visualization, also called imagery, intends to mentally rehearse the performance-like atmosphere by using the athlete’s five senses to pretend he is performing in real time. It is known that pretending to be executing a performance while in training by imagining its success becomes registered in the brain as if it were taking place in real …

How to Build Sports Confidence!

All the roads lead to the same outcome. Highly confident athletes are more likely to be successful. Numerous studies have been done to study the traits commonly shared by highly achieving athletes and the common denominator is confidence. The question is, how do we build confidence? According to Jean Williams, there are four areas we need to pay attention to: interaction of thoughts and performance; cultivation of self-awareness; optimism; reaching for excellence. It is crucial …