On December 4^th in Colleyville, TX, Coach Aaron Weintraub is bringing together the largest, and best collection of mental training talent in North America for a 1 day summit,  The Mental Skills Coaching Workshop’.

He joins us on the Athlete’s Audio Academy to discuss the workshop, and the impact that coaches can have when they correctly apply mental skills with their teams.

Onto the event:  How’s this for a ‘Murderers Row’ of knowledgeable speakers?

Brian Cain, Mental Training Expert and Coach

Trevor Moawad, Director of Mental Conditioning at IMG Academies

Bob Tewksbury, Mental Coach of the Boston Red Sox

Aaron Weintraub, College coach, Author, Mental Coach

The details are available at CoachTraub.com.  The topics that will be covered include:

‘The language players don’t understand but coaches always use’

‘Self-Talk; the key to unleashing personal power’

‘Winning the mental game at practice’

‘Teaching the power of imagery’

‘Developing pre-performance routines for consistency’

And there will be a number of panel discussions where you, and other coaches will have a chance to ask these great mental conditioning experts about the issues affecting your team, and how to create a winning mind in your players.

If you’re not able to attend this great workshop, post-seminar materials will be available via DVD, contact Aaron for more information.

You can also RSVP via Facebook, or download the registration form.

See you there!

Great athletes, by contrast are present in the moment, and focused on things that they can control.
Brian has some tips for athletes to avoid the idea of momentum, and do the things that the pros do when they’re playing on this weeks edition of the Athlete’s Audio Academy.

Brian Levenson is a mental training consultant based in the Washington D.C. area.  Born and raised in the D.C. suburbs, Brian moved to San Francisco to get his M.A. in Sport Psychology. Brian has worked with athletes in a wide range of sports, including basketball, tennis, and golf.

Especially in the world of football, which may not be the most, shall I say, ‘sensitive’ environment…and one where the best skill players may not touch the ball but 4-7 times a game.

You’ve got to be ready, focused, calm, and confident to play your best, and Robert can help.

Robert’s consulting practice is Elite Minds

Elite Minds has worked with a wide variety of athletes in various settings. They have counseled collegiate and professional kickers, amateur tennis players, golfers of all levels, basketball players, gymnasts, hockey players, lacrosse, soccer, ice skating, field hockey, track, and many other recreational athletes. Their most recent work has been with the TEST Sports Clubs, TEST Football Academy, Athletes Edge, Chicago Bears, New York Giants, New Jersey Nets.

Robert Price has received Master’s degrees from both University of Maryland in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Sport Psychology and Johns Hopkins University in Clinical Community Counseling. Mr. Price also holds a bachelor’s degree from Hampton University, where he majored in Psychology and Learning Behavior Disorders. He played college football at the University of Pittsburgh prior to transferring to Hampton University. He is a trained teacher by trade and has worked with people in numerous capacities. He is a member of North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSA), Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), and American Counseling Association (ACA). He is a licensed clinical professional counselor in the state of Maryland, Washington DC and is a National Certified Counselor granted by the National Board of Certified Counselors, Inc.

Welcome Cindra Kamphoff to the Athlete’s Audio Academy, where we improve the mental game of athletes across sports, disciplines, skill levels, and across the world.

Cindra is a professor at Minnesota State, Mankato, and has extensive experience running marathons.  She’s also focused her entire Sport Psychology consulting practice specifically on runners, www.yourrunnersedge.com.

Cindra S. Kamphoff, Ph.D., is a Certified Consultant through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. She is also a member of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Sport Psychology Registry which approves practitioners to work with Olympic athletes and national teams. She specializes in the psychology of running and marathoning.  She received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Sport and Exercise Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and her B.S. from the University of Northern Iowa. Her dissertation received the 2006 NASPE Sport and Exercise Psychology Academy Dissertation Award, and she recently received the Dorothy Harris Memorial Award through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology.

Dr Cohn has been among the world’s most visible and celebrated Sport Psychology professionals in the world for over 20 years, and we discuss the topic of perfectionism in sports.

He blogs regularly, and hosts a website that’s a fantastic resource for athletes, parents, and coaches at peaksports.com, and his YouTube Channel, Mindset for Sports is also a fantastic resource for all athletes, parents, and coaches.

Dr. Cohn is the president and founder of Peak Performance Sports in Orlando, Florida. Experts in the field of sports psychology consider him the leading authority on mental skills for entering the zone and pre-performance routines, largely based upon his extensive research. He is a mentor to many in the field of sports psychology and provides performance enhancement skills through mental game coaching for individual and team athletes.

He has consulted with high profile teams such as the Miami Dolphins, NASCAR winners, NHL Players, National Motocross Champions, and PGA Tour professional golfers.

Dr Cohn is a leading provider of electronic, online, and CD programs to help athletes coaches and parents, and he’s also frequently quoted in major publications, and you can read all of those here!

Our guest here is Tonya Johnston, MA, really the Michael Jordan of mental skills training for Equestrian athletes, and we discuss the ideas of confidence, and focus for the Equestrian rider (and how that impacts that riders’ teammate)

She is an accomplished rider herself, and  frequent contributor to Equestriancoach.com as well as Equestrianprofessional.com and Equestrianlife.com. Tonya has appeared in many equestrian magazines including The Chronicle of the Horse, The Equestrian News, The Plaid Horse, Horse Showbiz, Equine Wellness, Paint Horse Journal, Riding, and Hoofbeats. For four years she wrote a regular column for Eventing USA, the official publication of the U.S. Eventing Association. Tonya is currently writing a book on mental skills coaching for equestrians, due out in Spring 2012.

Tonya is available on Twitter and Facebook

Sport Psychologist Dr Jack Bowman in Suffolk County, NY has been a pioneer in the mental training arena for athletes, and in bringing creative on-line tools to the world.  We talk today about his newest resource, the Coaches Office, a portal that coaches and athletes and sport psychology professionals can use to share information about the athletes progress.

Dr. Bowman is The founder of Mind Plus Muscle, a member of the American Psychological Association’s Division for Exercise and Sport Science. He is a Certified Consultant in the Association of Applied Sport Psychology, and a member of the United States Olympic Sport Psychology Registry.

Dr Robert Neff, President of Mental Training, Inc. Is our guest today to talk about some of the groundbreaking work that he’s done in creating online mental training resources for coaches, parents, and athletes. You can learn more about the CAP Program mentioned in the interview at www.mtiCAP.com

Robert “Dr. Bob” earned his doctorate from the Sport Psychology program at Michigan State University. He has provided mental training services for athletes, performers, and business executives since 1990. His athlete clients include national junior and collegiate champions, professionals, world champions, and Olympic Gold Medalists. Dr. Bob is on the United States Olympic Committee sport psychology registry, is a Certified Mental Trainer® (CMT) and is also certified through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. Dr. Bob is a former college and professional athlete. Dr. Bob is based in the Dallas area and provides services globally via Skype.

What if that was exactly the wrong way to get ready to play your best?  Turns out that it’s just about the worst way to get prepared.

There’s an optimal level of intensity for competition, and it varies by sport, position, and even individual.

Sport Psychologist Dr. Jim Taylor has written extensively on the optimal intensity for performance, and coached hundreds of athletes on the topic.  He’s the mental training expert today on the  Athlete’s Audio Academy, and he’s been with us before to talk about imagery, and about confidence.

Dr. Taylor is the author of 12 books and blogs on business, sports, parenting, technology, education, politics, and popular culture on his web site, as well as on psychologytoday.com, huffingtonpost.com.

Dr. Taylor has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, UPN’s Life & Style, ABC’s World News This Weekend

Angus has got some ideas here on goal setting, to contrast two previous interviews with Josh Lifrak, and Rob Bell. We discuss outcome goals (the big ‘WHY’), process goals, and performance goals for sports.  It turns out everyone’s right on their perspective!

He is the Head of the IMG Academies Mental Conditioning Division, managing a staff of 9 consultants and developing programs for junior and professional athletes and coaches. Through his understanding and application of skills, Angus trains athletes in group and individual settings, across a wide range of sports and consulting with NCAA Division 1 programs, athletes from the WTA and ATP tour, NFL and NBA.