Sport Psychology Blog

Age is talked about a lot in sports. People always talk about whether an athlete is too young or too old to succeed. Biological age is a real thing and it definitely affects your performance, but you need to have the right attitude about age to get the best out of yourself. People may tell you that you're too old to reach your goals. They may think that since you're a certain age you lack the necessary athleticism to reach your goals. Perhaps they're right. Maybe you don't have enough athleticism left. Maybe you aren't able to make up for your lack of athleticism in other areas. But maybe they're wrong. Maybe you do have enough athleticism left in the tank. Maybe you are able to make up for your lack of athleticism in other areas. These haters may be wrong for a couple of reasons. When haters say you're too old, they're comparing you to other people at your age. For example, they may assume that just because most 42 year olds don't have what it t

There are teams that play well when they're winning or when the game is close, but they struggle playing from behind. These teams need to learn how to play well from behind. When it comes to playing from behind, the first and most important thing you need to do is maintain your motivation and confidence, and not get discouraged . However, maintaining effort and confidence is not enough. You also need to stay composed, patient, and not panic. When teams fall behind early in games, they sometimes panic, get impatient, and try to do something special to quickly get back into the game. This however often leads to more mistakes and increases their deficit. Here is a recent example of this happening. In the AFC divisional round of the 2020 NFL playoffs, the Baltimore Ravens fell behind early against the Tennessee Titans. It seemed like the Ravens panicked slightly and went away from their normal game plan, which is running the ball. Instead, in attempt to catch up quickly, they chose

Psyched Up: How the Science of Mental Preparation Can Help You Succeed, by Daniel McGinn is a great self-help book that gives you practical tips to improve your performance . This book is about the moments before high pressure situations and what you can do in these moments to give yourself your best chances of succeeding. McGinn writes seven chapters, each about a different type of strategy you can use to psych yourself up before a performance. The book is written very well. It's easy to read, with a great blend of entertainment and information. The first chapter talks about how to effectively cope with your body's fight or flight response to pressure. The author explains how one of the most common tips for dealing with pressure, trying to calm down and relax, can sometimes backfire on you. The reason why this tip is often ineffective is because going from nervousness to calmness is often too great of a leap to make, especially if you don't know how to calm down ef

Coach Bill Belichick has made the phrase, "do your job" famous. It is a key component to his coaching philosophy and has helped his teams have lots of success. So what does the phrase, "do your job" fully mean, and how can coaches adopt this teaching to help their team? "Doing your job" is somewhat self-explanatory. It means to do your job, obviously. But there's more to it. It means to focus just on executing your job as best as you can. It is another way of saying focus on the process, or focus only on the things you can control, and do your best no matter what the score is. It is taking personal responsibility and ownership for your role on the team. It is also the motivation to perform your duty to help your team and the people who depend on you. But there is another aspect to this phrase that is beneficial. Doing your job means to just focus on your assignments, and not try to interfere with other people's assignments. It means each playe

Some athletes like to draw motivation from hating their opponents. While this can give you strong motivation at times, I don't recommend it. It's fine to have rivalries, but you should minimize the level of hate and anger you have towards others, and you should definitely not truly hate your opponent. Even if this gives you stronger motivation than alternative sources of motivation, I still think you shouldn't do it. Why? Because life is bigger than sports, and you should care more about being a good person than being a good athlete. And remember, you can still motivate yourself fully without using hate and anger! You just have to find other, healthier sources of motivation. Think about how Kobe Bryant's death brought us all together this week. We mourned together and celebrated Kobe's life together. His death reminded us that life is in fact bigger than sports. During these sad times, we come to realize that our rivalries, grudges, and beefs are unimportant in