tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227933392012-01-23T17:50:13.472-08:00Dr. Patrick Cohn's sports psychology blog on the latest issues, techniques and developments in sports psychology.Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.comBlogger341100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-33826215420951137112010-02-03T18:01:00.001-08:002010-02-03T18:01:56.833-08:00

Youth coach Doug Donaldson says he knows intuitively when one of his young athletes feels pressured by a parent’s expectations. And he also knows the problems such well-meaning expectations can create in young athletes. For example, one of his player’s mothers wants the child to play goalie in Lacrosse. But when the mother isn’t listening, the boy says he wants to play defense. “It’s a

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com42tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-73224101761341859832009-12-21T05:55:00.001-08:002009-12-21T06:04:45.741-08:00

Peak Performance Sports and Dr. Patrick Cohn launches http://www.hockey-psychology.com/ for players, coaches, and hockey parents. Hockey Psychology Tips helps junior to professional hockey players improve confidence, focus, composure, and boost mental toughness for practice and games. Dr. Patrick Cohn is a master mental game coach with over 20 year of experience helping athletes and teams succeed

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-15543520497119196242009-10-12T15:35:00.001-07:002009-10-13T06:34:58.785-07:00

October 12, 2009--Orlando, FL. Dr. Patrick Cohn, sports psychology expert and owner of Peak Performance Sports (www.peaksports.com) launched a new baseball web site to help players, coaches, and sports parents improve mental toughness in baseball. Visitors can read mental game of baseball articles, watch baseball psychology videos, and download a free report to enhance mental toughness in

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-87886631091598837622009-09-09T08:30:00.001-07:002009-09-09T08:38:31.298-07:00

Is 17-year-old Melanie Oudin the real deal? Most experts, such as Brad Gilbert think so. Read on to discover her biggest weapon...If you have seen Melanie Oudin’s remarkable 3-set wins, you have witnessed her big-time comebacks against top players in the world.How is she’s pulling out those matches come-from-behind victories? Is she that talented or skilled? Or is it sheer grit and determination?

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-2629268928724450182009-09-08T05:58:00.001-07:002009-09-08T05:58:49.283-07:00

Have you watched the action at the U.S. Open? A lot of surprises this year. We’ve seen some early exits by top seeded players… Are these early exits caused by a poor mental game or physical game?   For example, Ana Ivanovic lost to Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine in the opening round of the US Open. In this case, her first round exit was caused by a poor mental game, as she confessed…   “I

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-49579983483487862642009-08-27T17:32:00.001-07:002009-08-27T17:32:02.480-07:00

Roger Federer demoralized Novak Djokovic at the Cincinnati Masters Tournament recently winning easily 6-1, 7-5. “It looks convincing, 6-1, 7-5, but a few points here or there, your focus is not right on break point, maybe you are the better man, but you end up losing because you lost focus on the biggest points,” Federer said. “That’s why you’ve always got to push yourself.” No matter

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-3019381918701594582009-08-27T17:07:00.001-07:002009-08-27T17:12:12.235-07:00

What do you do when your young athlete’s confidence sinks every time a talented friend or teammate excels in sports?This is a common problem for young athletes. Kids are social beings—and they tend to compare themselves to their friends. But in sports, this is a bad thing to do. Making comparisons to other athletes hurts kids’ confidence.Here’s one sports parent whose athlete struggles with

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-34058924997652187002009-08-24T10:44:00.001-07:002009-08-24T10:51:28.071-07:00

Do you or your athletes fear 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. This hockey player states:"I have friends who

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-88533276755431954302009-08-22T18:42:00.001-07:002009-08-22T18:42:38.737-07:00

Most athletes feel “jitters” or nervousness before competition. But are jitter a bad thing to feel before a game? It depends on who you ask. Many young athletes who experience pregame jitters think they are nervous or tense and don't like these feelings. However, veteran players welcome pregame jitters and even worry when they don't feel some butterflies before a game. As a matter of

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-23595154101407213472009-08-21T15:39:00.001-07:002009-08-21T15:39:28.191-07:00

Golf psychology expert and author of the “Golfer’s Mental Edge” CD program, teaches amateur to tour professional golfers how to improve their mental game of golf. In this week’s golf psychology session, mental game of golf expert and author of The Mental Game of Golf, Dr. Cohn, helps a golfer improve commitment before her shots. You can't be wishy washy with your decisions and expect to hit good

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-25971767114768426732009-08-21T15:24:00.001-07:002009-08-21T15:24:30.316-07:00

Tennis players learn how to cope with mistakes and not dwell on mistakes. Welcome to session number thirty four of The Tennis Psychology Podcast. Dr. Patrick Cohn at Sports Psychology for Tennis, is a mental game of tennis expert and helps tournament players, tennis coaches and parents improve confidence, focus, and composure using sports psychology strategies. In this week’s tennis psychology

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-11317221069973514092009-07-14T11:02:00.000-07:002009-07-14T11:06:17.640-07:00

Are you, or the players you coach, performing up to your ability in competition? And do you bring your best and most confident game to matches? If you are ready to improve your mental toughness and perform with ultimate self-confidence in matches, I strongly suggest you read this entire letter...I'm mental game of tennis coach Dr. Patrick Cohn - owner of Sports Psychology for Tournament Tennis

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-68864953072674089752008-10-24T05:44:00.000-07:002008-10-24T05:50:29.269-07:00

Hi Readers:Are you a tournament tennis player or coach players who compete? Do you play in tennis tournaments often? Peak Performance Sports recently launched Sports Psychology for Tennis players.If you are Junior, high school, collegiate, or ATP professional tennis player, you can learn how to improve your mental game of tennis and perform better in tournaments.Sports Psychology for Tennis

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-75058001674945751852008-06-18T09:43:00.000-07:002008-07-13T19:09:00.185-07:00

Most athletes would agree that “pressure” does not help you perform better. However, some athletes handle pressure positively than others, and use it to win. After winning the 2008 US Open Tiger Woods said that pressure and feeling nervous is a good thing. How you personally interpret pressure makes all the difference in the world. Some athletes love the challenge of scoring a goal with one

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-61125207255248019642008-04-07T09:38:00.000-07:002008-07-13T19:08:06.077-07:00

I love the satisfaction of helping athletes get the most out of their ability using slump-busting strategies and mental game coaching. Cypress National shooter Mario Kapodistrias was in a performance slump with his shooting for a couple years. His under performance punished his self-confidence in trap shooting. His self-doubt caused him to miss targets. He was in a slump mentally and his scores

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-47860786001108486672008-04-07T09:31:00.000-07:002008-07-13T19:06:49.680-07:00

NCAA Division I Shortstop Tylor Prudhomm worried too much about how not to strike out at the plate. He struggled with his batting in baseball. He was not satisfied with anything less than perfectionism. This caused him to try too hard in the batters box and lose his mental toughness at the plate. His mindset was to avoid striking out, especially when he had one strike out already in the game. All

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-72619155338260324632008-04-03T09:23:00.000-07:002008-07-13T19:05:45.607-07:00

Professional Surfer Shawn Burrell didn’t have full confidence in his own abilities. Around other top surfers, he would compare himself and feel like he didn’t stack up to the competition. His harsh judgments about his own abilities was getting in the way of his performance. Shawn would also worry about what his peers and friends thought about his game. He would attempt to read other surfers’

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-5096773363005456052008-03-25T06:18:00.000-07:002008-07-13T19:04:30.973-07:00

“The Relaxed Athlete” is the cream of the crop in the Confident Athlete Series. “The Relaxed Athlete” is loaded with my best pregame strategies. You will learn my top mental game strategies to have a poised and relaxed attitude about competition. “The Relaxed Athlete” is full of my top mental strategies including how to develop a mental preparation routine or warm-up routine. Watch “The Relaxed

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-34199599756285804592008-03-22T06:07:00.000-07:002008-07-13T19:03:06.184-07:00

Are you so concerned about what others might be thinking about your game that you get distracted when you play? For many athletes, a huge source of pregame anxiety or worry comes from the need to seek “approval” from others. If this is you, you might have a need to be admired, accepted, respected, or liked by other people.You worry about performing poorly because it may have affect what others

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-54708928642342406012008-02-26T05:55:00.000-08:002008-07-13T19:01:36.148-07:00

If you or your athletes are tense, worry about outcomes, or bring stress from life into competition, performance will suffer. Does performance anxiety or pregame tension hold you back from performing your best? “The Relaxed Athlete,” the newest program in The Confident Athlete Series, is designed to help you overcome pregame jitters become competition. "The Relaxed Athlete” is a combination of

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-73100384369098196402008-01-08T10:28:00.000-08:002008-01-08T10:30:43.588-08:00

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.Missing shots, double faulting, and losing an important game happen often in the sports world and become a thorn in many athlete's mind. In some cases these thoughts continue for the remainder of the competition because the athlete can't stop

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-15647290037321240642008-01-02T18:56:00.000-08:002008-01-02T18:59:41.920-08:00

For some athletes, self-confidence goes up and down like a roller coaster, changing direction with every bump and turn in the road.Over the last 15 years, I have worked with athletes who possess both high and low levels of confidence. What allows one athlete to have a brick wall of confidence and another athlete to have a Lego wall of confidence?One explanation is self-image. Confident athletes

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-68645629753550769122007-10-15T09:05:00.000-07:002008-01-02T18:38:49.382-08:00

Racing is a game of confidence. You must have tons of it according to racing super starts James Stewart and Dan Wheldon, two racers I have talked with personally about confidence and the mental game of racing.Do you set expectations about where you should finish the race based on lap times and who you are racing against? One of the huge mistakes I see racers committing is what I call *placing

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-73696613671093614092007-09-12T10:48:00.000-07:002008-01-02T18:39:37.070-08:00

What makes top athletes successful? Mike Robbins should know. He went to school with three top athletes and dated one of them...I interviewed retired pro athlete Mike Robbins for my members at PeaksportsNetwork last week. Mike was drafted by the New York Yankees out of high school, but instead played for Stanford and the College World Series.After college, Mike spent three years in the Kansas

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-69575014992995009802007-09-05T11:47:00.000-07:002008-01-02T18:40:11.716-08:00

One big challenge for many athletes today is the fact that they worry so much about what others think when they perform that it becomes a huge distraction.I must first say that it is important to care about other people. However it becomes unhealthy when athletes worry too much about what others think of them to the point that it distracts them from focusing on the task.In my work, we call this

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-5446499119648643532007-05-17T19:02:00.000-07:002008-01-02T18:41:10.719-08:00

I recently worked with a high school athlete who was plagued by those nasty inner gremlins. You know the type – that little guy or gal inside your head what would not shut up and kept asking irrelevant questions. This kept my student from developing confidence and playing to his full potential.I'll call him Joe. Joe was a very hard-working golfer. He spent hours at the practice tee and green

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-62893026628229465322007-05-02T20:07:00.000-07:002008-01-02T18:42:27.927-08:00

One of my mental coaching students, Joe (not his real name) had a unique gift (or so he thought). Since he was overly concerned with what other people thought (coach, teammates, parents, spectators, etc.) about his performance, he often engaged in a process I call mind reading when performing.While Joe was mind reading, he made assumptions about what others were thinking about him. He literally

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-59704305158952791562007-04-29T18:59:00.000-07:002008-01-02T18:44:16.986-08:00

Do you ever get “butterflies” in your stomach before you compete called pregame jitters? Do you get really nervous before the start of a big match or game and can’t relax after the game starts? Most athletes have felt the negative effects of pressure during their athletic career.Even the best athletes feel pressure before a big game, but they know how to channel the pressure into positive

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-91020208276450491962007-04-18T05:48:00.000-07:002008-01-02T18:46:21.729-08:00

Sports psychology experts often talk about the importance of learning mental toughness to improve your performance. However, my 15 years of teaching the mental game to students makes me think that understanding mental toughness skills is not the whole enchilada. To be successful with mental toughness training, athletes must learn how to apply it.Why would I say this?I can teach you to improve

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-78956208370217687282007-04-05T18:20:00.000-07:002008-01-02T18:47:31.888-08:00

Sports self-confidence is the number one mental skill that your young athlete must possess to be successful in sports and life! Self-doubt is the number one mental barrier that blocks athletes from success in sports and life.Having high levels of confidence is so important that I spend most of my time teaching students how to develop and harnesses the power of confidence. I recently received an

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-69709378654066037922007-03-19T12:33:00.000-07:002008-01-02T18:48:28.784-08:00

Mistakes or errors occur everyday in sports and life, but many athletes sabotage their own performance because they simply can't let go of past mistakes.Missing shots, double faulting, and losing an important game happen often in the sports world and become a thorn in many athlete's mind - in some cases for the remainder of the competition because they can't stop dwelling on the error or missed

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-82054365222525143422007-03-01T12:43:00.000-08:002008-01-02T18:49:26.217-08:00

Are you on the self-confidence roller coaster in sports? Many athletes allow their confidence to be thrashed around by immediate results and circumstances.What do I mean by the confidence roller coaster? I am talking about the athlete who loses confidence easily or has fragile confidence based on his immediate results. With each shot, play, or point, his confidence goes up and down depending on

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-53314034295761778582007-02-20T12:06:00.000-08:002008-01-02T18:50:31.338-08:00

There are two bad habits that many athletes today engage in - and they do it without even thinking about it. The habits I’m talking about are NOT about drinking or smoking.The two bad habits that kill confidence are…1. Setting unrealistic expectations2. Engaging in self-doubtI talk about both of these concepts a ton in my work, as they will Hold you back and cripple self-confidence. Here is my

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22793339.post-1140548771525630242006-02-21T11:05:00.000-08:002008-01-02T18:52:43.973-08:00

Hello all you blog readers! My name is Dr. Patrick Cohn. I'm an expert in sports psychology and peak performance. I do not call myself a sports psychologist because I am not a psychologist. For this reason, I prefer the title "master mental game coach" because I teach other coaches and professional my mental training system.One of the reasons I do not call myself a sports psychologist (even when

Dr. Patrick Cohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12981602687036984229noreply@blogger.com1