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Dr. Patrick J. Cohn - EzineArticles.com Expert Author
Dr. Patrick J. Cohn is a sports psychology expert and master mental game coach who works with athletes of all levels including amateur and professionals. Visit Peaksports.com to gain access to over 500 exclusive mental game articles, audio programs, and interviews with athletes and coaches to enhance your athletic potential: call 888-742-7225.
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Dr. Patrick J. Cohn Email Alerts
- Sports Psychology Myths - Are Athletes Weak If They Resort to Mental Training?
[Recreation-and-Sports] Are you or your players afraid other athletes will see you as weak if you have to do mental training or work with a sports psychologist? Still today, athletes buy into myths about sports psychology, which prevent them from embracing the benefits of mental training. I recently received an email from a young hockey player getting ready for try outs.
- Mental Game of Tennis - Don't Compare Your Tennis Ranking to Opponent's
[Recreation-and-Sports:Tennis] When you make comparisons to your opponents, you are essentially saying to yourself that they are better than you! When you look at the draws to find out who you are playing, do you focus on seeding or player ranking?
- Tennis Psychology and Tennis Parents - Do You Expect Miracles?
[Recreation-and-Sports:Tennis] Do you expect your tennis kid to always perform well or win? Do you have a hard time focusing on what your kids do well on the court instead of focusing on mistakes? I receive many questions from sports parents about their young athletes' performance. One question parents ask me: "Am I too hard on my young athlete?" Yes, most parents are.
- Tennis Mind Game - Tennis Confidence Checklist For Big Matches
[Recreation-and-Sports:Tennis] What does it truly mean to believe in yourself? When you believe in yourself, you have full confidence in your physical skills and ability to execute shots in tennis. My definition of self-confidence for tennis is how strongly you believe in your ability to execute a successful shot or win a match. Don't confuse believe in yourself (self-confidence) with self-esteem. Self-esteem is all about how you view yourself and how you appraise your self-concept (how you see yourself), also called self-worth.
- Tennis Confidence - How to Ride the Momentum Wave
[Recreation-and-Sports:Tennis] Confidence and momentum in tennis are close cousins. When you have momentum, you have confidence squared. Yes, momentum is a huge psychological advantage in any sport especially tennis. Players feel a sense of exhilaration when they have momentum on their side - it's a huge boost to your mental game of tennis.
- Tennis Psychology - Controlling Frustration on the Court
[Recreation-and-Sports:Tennis] Many tennis players experience frustration during a match. They may make the wrong decision on a shot, make an unforced error or lose a game when they've had the lead. These can all be sources of frustration for tennis players. Many players experience frustration because they are not playing their best tennis.
- Tennis Psychology - Practice Confidence Vs Match Confidence
[Recreation-and-Sports:Tennis] Do you play tennis with a ton of confidence in practice, but have trouble taking your practice game to matches? If so, you are not alone. Many of my players are more comfortable in their practice routines than in matches. They lose trust in their strokes that worked well in practice. I recently received the following mental game of tennis question:
- The Inner Game of Tennis - How to Master Your Mental Game
[Recreation-and-Sports:Tennis] The inner game of tennis is very important to your success. Timothy Gallwey wrote the "Inner Game of Tennis" many years ago and it was a groundbreaking book at the time. You should read the inner game of tennis if you have not. Learn how to boost your mental game of tennis with sports psychology for tennis expert Dr. Patrick Cohn.
- When Are Sports Parents Too Involved?
[Recreation-and-Sports] Fox-TV's Morning Show recently asked Dr. Patrick Cohn, co-founder of The Ultimate Sports Parent, for his opinion about a dad who began training his son at the age of 4 to become a pro football player. The dad quit his job to facilitate his son's coaching. The boy is now 12 and spends 10 hours per day of training with his father and quarterback. Dr. Cohn was interviewed by Mike and Juliet of Fox-TV's Morning Show about whether this dad was "over the top."
- When Talented Kid Athletes Face High Expectations
[Recreation-and-Sports] Chris, the sports mom of an 8-year-old athlete, faces a difficult dilemma: Her son is a talented goalie in hockey, but he's so good that his team mates and coaches rely on him.
- Helping Young Athletes Trust in Their Skills When Competing
[Recreation-and-Sports] Do your sports kids excel in practice, but freeze up in competition? Do they have a hard time just being spontaneous and "free" when they compete? Are they so afraid of making mistakes that they don't take risks?
- Ensuring Young Athletes Don't Drop Out of Sports
[Recreation-and-Sports] Did you know that 75% of all young athletes drop out of sports by the time they are 13? They drop out because taking part in youth sports is no longer enjoyable for them.
- Parenting Perfectionist Young Athletes
[Recreation-and-Sports] Often, parents worry about young athletes who are hard on themselves, become easily frustrated, and take disappointment home with them. You're likely familiar with these types of athletes. They're perfectionists.
- Boosting Kids' Confidence on Game Day
[Recreation-and-Sports] At The Ultimate Sports Parent, we often see kids who excel in practice, but freeze up during games. This can be frustrating and confusing for parents and coaches. What's going on in the young athlete's mind and what can sports parents and coaches do about it?
- How Perfectionism Can Hold Back Your Kids in Sports
[Recreation-and-Sports] One of the biggest challenges for young athletes today: They try to be too perfect when they perform. They try to have the perfect game or match. Kids set high expectations, then become upset when they fail to match their own standards.
- Sports Parents Play Critical Roles in Boosting Kids' Confidence
[Recreation-and-Sports] Have I ever told you that I grew up in a sports-crazed family with five kids? Thirty years ago, when I played football, hockey, golf, and lacrosse year round, our dad was an enthusiastic sports parent. He often impeached us to play harder and live up to our abilities. He was quick to express his frustration with referees and coaches.
- How To Help Young Athletes Set Goals in Sports
[Recreation-and-Sports] Too often, sports parents set goals for their kids that are different than the kids' goals. It's important to help sports kids identify their own goals and then help them follow through on them.
- Filling An Athlete's "Emotional Tank"
[Recreation-and-Sports] How can parents and coaches fill a young athlete's "emotional tank?" Coaches need to praise kids five times before they provide one piece of constructive criticism, says David Jacobson, a spokesman for the Positive Coaching Alliance, based at Stanford University.
- How To Evaluate Your Athlete's Youth Sports Coach
[Recreation-and-Sports] In my 15 years as a sports parent, one of the most difficult challenges I ever faced was dealing with an abusive coach. My son was a 7th grader who loved basketball more than anything in the world, and his coach was a nightmare. He yelled at the boys, threw basketballs at them, and called them names.
- Helping Your Athlete Cope With Pressure
[Recreation-and-Sports] Do you know what kind of pressures your young athletes grapple with? As sports parents, it's important to be tuned in to this issue. If your athletes are equestrians, for example, they likely feel pressure to perform up to their abilities. Then there's the added pressure of dealing with their horses' ups and downs. Add to that the potential for danger-and you've got a pressure-cooker situation at times.
- When Should Parents Complain About a Youth Sports Coach's Behavior?
[Recreation-and-Sports] As a sports mom, mom and step mom to four young athletes, age 8 to 19, one of my biggest challenges is understanding how to deal with coaches. I've come in contact with every kind of coach imaginable. For example, I've wondered how to deal with the coach who favors his own child.
- Four Common Sports Parenting Challenges
[Recreation-and-Sports] I'm a youth soccer coach and sports mom/step mom to four young athletes aged 8 to 19. Our kids dance, skate, ski, run cross-country, and play soccer, lacrosse, football and basketball. As a sports parent, I've dealt with sports kids who...
- Sports Parents Need Mental Training Too
[Recreation-and-Sports] Parent sometimes can impede my mental coaching process, even though they have the best intentions. Parents' expectations can pressure young athletes. Parents will often impose their own expectations on their kids, thinking that they are actually boosting their confidence. But often, the opposite is true.
- How Pro Athletes Sabotage their Mental Game
[Recreation-and-Sports] We have witnessed many high-profile professional athletes losing self-control during a game. What triggers an athlete to lose it during competition? Pro athletes are supposed to be role models, right?
- Boosting Kids' Mental Game Confidence on Game Day
[Recreation-and-Sports] We often see kids who excel in practice, but freeze up during games. This can be frustrating and confusing for parents and coaches. What's going on in the young athlete's mind, and what can sports parents and coaches do about it?
- Tiger Woods-like Mental Focus
[Recreation-and-Sports] Nothing is more important to your mental game than the ability to stay grounded in the present moment.
- Post Game Mental Mistakes Parents Should Avoid
[Recreation-and-Sports] We recently interviewed a successful youth sports coach about one of his biggest challenges. He told us how to help parents understand what to say to young athletes during the trip home after a game.
- Overcoming Your Mental Game Fears
[Recreation-and-Sports] Is your potential held back by fear? If you can't break through your performance barriers and are spinning your wheels, it's a good bet that you are limited by a wall of worry - your own fears.
- Controlling the Raging Monster Within
[Recreation-and-Sports] To be a consistent performer you *must* slay the raging monster within (control your emotions during competition). I am sure at one time (or two), you became upset, frustrated, or angry with yourself and it cost you the game or match.
- Simplify Your Mental Game
[Recreation-and-Sports] Anything in life can become too complex. Take computers, for example. Most of us use them every day, but we really do not know how they work inside. We use them for simple tasks such as to write e-mails and for word processing.
- How Athletes Lose Composure
[Recreation-and-Sports] From my experience, many athletes spend too much energy worrying about things that they cannot control on the athletic field, court, or course. They waste energy on irrelevant thoughts.
- Starting Your Mental Training Program
[Recreation-and-Sports] Athletes and coaches preparation make each year their best in sports. One important step to consider is how to start a mental training program.
- Routines for Peak Performance
[Recreation-and-Sports] Every day of your life, you are either thinking in ways to help you succeed and reach your goals or thinking in ways that limit your success, causing you to move away from goal achievement.
- The Mental Game Traps of the Comfort Zone
[Recreation-and-Sports] Many athletes I work with on a daily basis hold themselves back with a comfort zone. A comfort zone is a mental barrier that limits what you think you are capable of accomplishing and is really hard to shake.
- Two Undetected Mental Game Errors
[Recreation-and-Sports] Many athletes who are perfectionistic with their approach to sports think they have a great attitude about sports, until we talk about how perfectionism can hold them back from reaching their potential.
- Use Your Mental Game to Overcome Self-Intimidation
[Recreation-and-Sports] Intimidation is a massive mental barrier for many athletes. It often happens when you compare yourself to your opponent's skills before competition. Many athletes worry about the skill level of their opponents and then feel inferior, for example.
- Champions Focus - Mental Toughness Under the Gun
[Recreation-and-Sports] How well do you focus when under pressure? Does your focus wander to the what ifs? What if I don't get it done and blow a lead or embarrass myself?
- How to Tap the Power of the Zone for Peak Performance
[Recreation-and-Sports] All athletes love the magical, sought after state of mind known as the *zone.*
This state of supreme focus helps athletes in all sports perform at their peak.
- Trying Too Hard on The Track
[Recreation-and-Sports] Do you perform relaxed and tension-free in a practice but then race tense or scared in races or national events? This is a big sign that your mindset breakdowns when you go from practice to race situations.
- Sports Psychology - Letting Go of Errors
[Recreation-and-Sports] Mistakes or errors occur every day in sports and life, but many athletes stifle their own performance because they simply can't let go of past mistakes.
- Sports Psychology - Master The Success Formula
[Recreation-and-Sports] Have you ever competed against an opponent who was not as dedicated as you or did not work as hard as you do, but somehow found a way to beat you in competition?
- To Enter The Zone And Reach Peak Performance - Try Less
[Recreation-and-Sports] NASCAR champions use a popular motto: "To speed up, slow down. " This may sound contradictory, but in mental game coaching, I use a similar motto: "To perform better, try less. "
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