Sport Psychology Blog

To improve as an athlete or coach, you don't just have to read sports psychology or self-help books. You can also read lighter books such as autobiographies and still soak in a lot of wisdom and inspiration. This is why I chose to read Sean Conley's autobiography, The Point After: How One Resilient Kicker Learned there was More to Life than the NFL . In this book, Sean Conley tells his story of being a kid from a small town in Pennsylvania working his way to accomplish his dream of becoming an NFL kicker. Along his journey, he experiences a lot of high and low moments that shaped him to become the man he is today. The best part about this book is that Conley is extremely relatable to the average athlete and person. This isn't an autobiography written from a legendary, Hall of Fame athlete. 99% of football fans probably have never even heard of Sean Conley before. But this doesn't make the book any less interesting or valuable. While reading this well-written, entertaini

Eric Henderson is the defensive line coach of the LA Rams. His unit, which includes the 2020 Defensive Player of the Year, Aaron Donald, is perhaps the best in the NFL. A big part of the Rams defensive line's success comes from Eric Henderson's coaching philosophy. He calls it DAWGWORK, which is a mentality that leads to peak performance and dominance! For Eric and his unit, it all starts with the mindset that embraces DAWGWORK. To be the best at what they do, Eric's players need to not only work the hardest, but also the smartest. Most importantly, they need to be very coachable, and have the humility to accept constructive criticism and instructions. Eric's drive to constantly improve his players is summed up in his motto, "Either you’re getting better or you ain’t.” To reach this standard of DAWGWORK, they need to be extremely motivated. All of the pain and sacrifice needs to be worth it to them, which means they must love the grind and desire to be the best. Th

As an athlete, don't just worry about your own performance. Be a good teammate and leader to help your team reach peak performance as a whole! One of the most important factors of a team’s performance is teamwork. For your team to reach peak performance as a whole, you have to truly play as a team! You have to put the team goal of winning over your individual goals. Here, I will use football as an example to show how teamwork and leadership help a team as a whole reach peak performance. If you are a quarterback, you need to be unselfish in order to maximize your team's performance. You need to distribute the ball and make the best football play each time. Don't worry so much about your personal stats. Don't worry about getting credit for your team's success. Don't be selfish and try to be the "star" or the "hero." Just focus on doing whatever it takes to help your team win. Be perfectly satisfied with handing the ball off to your running back

Here is what I learned  from reading Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman: Competition is a big part of life. In sports and in work we have to compete against others to get what we want. There's no way around it. You can either embrace competition or you can run away from it. This book teaches you the attitudes and skills needed to develop competitive fire, also known as mental toughness. To begin this book, the authors teach some healthy attitudes about competition. For one, competition doesn't have to be seen only as a "dog eat dog," zero-sum game. Competition is also a means of developing virtues. Through competition, we can help each other improve as athletes and as people. Through competition, we develop skills that we can use to contribute to society and make the world a better place. To end the book, the authors add more to this by talking about how competition is all about uncertainty. It is this uncertainty that makes