Coaches often find themselves lost working to find the right words to encourage their athletes to develop a productive mindset. A lot of coaches will find themselves labeling their talented yet disconnected athletes as “challenged” or “in need of mental focus”. Part of the coach’s struggle can be supported by understanding how to help their athletes develop as people and athletes through a set of proven qualities they build into their programs. Winning cultures produce winning teams. Coaches need to start from the inside out by identifying and learning to communicate what it takes to create a winning culture.

In order for motivation to be effective, athletes doing the work must own the reasons why they choose to show up every day and compete. Athletes commonly struggle with staying motivated when their perspective on success revolves solely around winning, especially in the offseason when there isn’t anything to win. Long-term goal setting can be motivating, but the lack of knowledge about the amount of training needed can lead to procrastination. The offseason is a great challenge for sports organizations and their athletes because time off is oftentimes seen as “free” time due to the absence of team training opportunities. An individual athlete’s motivation to train during the offseason can change as they are more likely to become distracted and less focused. It is essential for athletes and coaches to strategize and develop the optimal form of motivation in order to push themselves during the offseason.

This month’s edition of Sport Psychology is for coaches and individual athletes who want to plan for success and set long-term goals with short-term objectives.

This month’s edition of Sports Psychology is a further look into the Perform Phase of the Learn, Plan, Perform Model. This article focuses on imagery for peak performance, though this skill can be used at any time throughout the Learn, Plan, Perform model. Athletes can use this skill to learn how to perform in the present moment with the automatic knowledge stored from it.

This month’s edition of Sport Psychology focuses on how to coach a team that has made it to the Performance Stage. This is the stage in which the team has come together around a set of goals and norms, allowing them to play as one unit rather than a group of individuals.

This month’s edition of Sport Psychology rounds out the final stage in the Tuckman (1965) model of team development, the Performance Stage. This is the stage in which the team has come together around a set of goals and norms, allowing them to play as one unit rather than a group of individuals.