self-talk

Athletes, what do you REALLY believe about yourself? [VIDEO]

January 16, 2012 By Bob K Leave a Comment

Adrienne Langelier | Belief Systems

Sport Psychologist Adrienne Langelier (@alangelier) out of The Woodlands TX joins us in our mental training expert interview series, hot on the heels of the @HoustonMarathon with some thoughts about self belief, and self talk for athletes.

Your own self-belief is the key to successful life-change, achievement, contentment, and happiness. Adrienne and I open up a conversation about how to stack the deck in your favor by changing your beliefs.

She’s an elite runner herself, sponsored by Brooks and Powerbar, and her mental training chops will speak for themselves. She’s also just started writing for WomenTalkSports.com where a bunch of our friends (@SportPsycher, @Ingridium, and @AnnGaff) are already changing the world for women’s sports.

Filed Under: Blog, Interviews Tagged With: Belief, Confidence, marathon, Mental Skills Training, Motivation, no-feat, Olympics, self-talk, Sports Psychology

Mental Training for Equestrian Athletes | Tonya Johnston

September 28, 2011 By admin

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Live at the #AASP2011 Conference in Waikiki, the Athlete’s Audio Academy is onthe scene, bringing you interviews and presentations from the greatest minds in Sport Psychology.

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

Filed Under: Blog, Interviews Tagged With: AASP, athlete, Confidence, Emotion Control, equestrian, Focus, hunter/jumper, no-feat, Practice, Presence, rider, self-talk, Sports Psychology

Do you make worse decisions as the day goes on?

September 18, 2011 By admin

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A great deal of research has gone into the idea of decision fatigue, and Sport Psychologist Dr. Michelle Cleere (of ShareCare.com and DrMichelleCleere.com) is with us on the Athlete’s Audio Academy to talk about it.

The impetus for our conversation was an article in the New York Times measuring a number of different fields, and the impact that time of day, and number of previous decisions had on outcomes. There’s another factor that contributes to the quality of your decision, too…but you have to watch to find out!

Dr Cleere has joined us before to talk about the difference between Sport Psychology, and Exercise Psychology, and she’s a practiced expert in both.

Dr. Michelle Cleere is a Clinical Psychologist who specializes in breaking emotional patterns that hold people from achieving their physical goals; whether the motivation is to get healthier or beat the competition.

With a PhD in Clinical Psychology and an MA in Sports Psychology, Dr. Michelle is one of the leading experts in exercise and sports psychology. She serves on the faculty of JFK University, works with Doctor Oz and has written for Triathlete Magazine and the National Academy of Sports Medicine. She is also the author of: The Experience of Participating in a Triathlon: from the perspective of two women and Shifting Gears: How Women Triathletes Balance Life with Sport.

Dr Cleere’s Twitter & Facebook

Filed Under: Blog, Interviews Tagged With: decision fatigue, Emotion Control, goal setting, Life Skils, Memory, Mental Skills Training, no-feat, self-talk, Sports Psychology

‘Train to Trust’ and the Tour de You | KC Wilder

September 18, 2011 By admin

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A Sport Psychology book for kids, (called Tour de You) using cycling as the theme hit the stands in the last year, and KC Wilder, PhD, knows both ends of that spectrum….the cycling, and the Sport Psychology.

She’s a PhD in Sport Psychology from Virginia, and a National champion cyclist.

Today, on the Athlete’s Audio Academy, it’s KC’s second visit, (first one’s here) and we discuss the idea of ‘Training to Trust’. That is, planning, preparing, and practicing in your training sessions so that you can just let it flow, and trust in your skills when the flag drops.

kcwilderco.com is her website, and she has articles, and additional information about her book there.

K.C. began her career with a 1989 Brown University bachelor’s degree in organizational behavior and management. She then focused on sport psychology, earning masters and doctoral degrees in that field from the University of Virginia. Her own athletic career is distinguished, with All-American cycling honors at UVA, a top twenty U.S. professional cycling ranking, two national Master’s championships, and a top ten finish in the Masters World Track championships among her numerous accomplishments.

Filed Under: Blog, Interviews Tagged With: athlete, Emotion Control, goal setting, Interview, Mental Skills Training, Mental Training, Motivation, no-feat, self-talk, Sports Psychology, Tour de You, Train to Trust, Visualization

Wait…I have to (gulp) WORK OUT?? | Exercise Psych w/ Dr Michelle Cleere

August 29, 2011 By admin

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Many of the guests that we visit with on the Athlete’s Audio Academy are Sport Psychologists or Mental Conditioning Coaches, and primarily focus their work with athletes, helping them improve their performance. Get better, faster, stronger, and more focused, and calm.

But what if you’re thinking about getting healthier, or maybe just heard from your doctor “You need to start exercising…or you may be at serious risk of disease or death”?

Oh, God…now I have to go to the (gulp) gym?? Worse….do I have to hire a trainer??

Intimidation factor = RED ALERT!

Getting your mind around working out is really the specialty of an Exercise Psychologist, and a great one is our guest today. Meet Dr. Michelle Cleere.

Dr. Cleere is a Clinical Psychologist who specializes in breaking emotional patterns that hold people from achieving their physical goals; whether the motivation is to get healthier or beat the competition.

She is a contributor, blogger, and resource at ShareCare.com, and works with Dr. Oz. She’s also a Certified USA Triathlon Level I Coach, NASM-CPT, and regularly contributes articles to USA Triathlon, and AmateurEndurance.com

With a PhD in Clinical Psychology and an MA in Sports Psychology, Dr. Michelle is one of the leading experts in exercise and sports psychology. She has written for Triathlete Magazine and the National Academy of Sports Medicine. She is also the author of: The Experience of Participating in a Triathlon: from the perspective of two women and Shifting Gears: How Women Triathletes Balance Life with Sport.

Dr Cleere works with new exercisers, emotional eating, weight management, athletes, coaches, and trainers, and can be found at DrMichelleCleere.com or on FaceBook, and Twitter.

Filed Under: Blog, Interviews Tagged With: AASP, athlete, Emotion Control, emotional eating, Exercise, goal setting, Interview, Memory, mental rehearsal, Mental Skills Training, Multi-Sport, no-feat, self-talk, Sports Psychology, Triathlon, Weight loss

If you’re thinking negatively, you might as well punch yourself in the face.

August 15, 2011 By admin

Dr. Taryn Morgan | IMG Academies

Dr Taryn Morgan, PhD, of IMG Academies (and the business manager of two previous guests!) joins the Athlete’s Audio Academy today to talk some Mental Skills Conditioning.

Dr. Morgan outlines the basics of mental skills in a concise, easy to understand, and friendly manner. (Oh, and she’s DR. Morgan…so you know that she knows her stuff). She was also a collegiate Tennis, and Volleyball athlete, of some repute, too. She’s been there. Done that. Bought the T-Shirt. Used it to wash her car.

Taryn has consulted with numerous junior, collegiate, and professional/Olympic athletes and teams. She has been the mental conditioning consultant for Texas A&M Women’s Soccer, University of Tennessee Women’s Soccer, Rowing and Swimming/Diving, Maryville College Volleyball, the Southeast Florida Figure Skating Club (including Amanda Evora, Olympic Pairs skater) in addition to all of the IMG sports.

Filed Under: Blog, Interviews Tagged With: AASP, Affirmations, athlete, Confidence, goal setting, Imagery, Life Skils, Mental Skills Training, Motivation, no-feat, Olympics, Performing Arts, Practice, self-talk, Sports Psychology

A 5-point system to make you a Star | Dr. Jack Bowman | Mind Plus Muscle

July 25, 2011 By admin

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Wouldn’t it be AWESOME if there was a quick visual reference for optimal mental performance?? Something that would keep you from having to read, remember, and think about a bunch of things…when you’re trying to NOT THINK!?

We’re lucky to be joined today by one of the most recognized Sports Psychologists in the profession, and a pioneer in distance learning programs for mental training. He’s created (and describes here) the ‘Perform Like a Star’ program for athletes of all ages, and ability levels.

UPDATE!! Dr Bowman has published a pdf of the Perform Like a Star program on his Facebook Page. Here’s a link to the pdf.

Meet Dr. Jack Bowman, Founder of the Mind Plus Muscle Institute in Suffolk County, NY.

Dr. Bowman has been a guest with us twice before, discussing internships for young Sport Psychologists, and trying to separate the good info from the hooey with regards to mental training on the web.

He’s a certified consultant with the Association of Applied Sport Psychology, and he’s listed on the United States Olympic Committee‘s registry of Sport Psychologists. An advocate of Sport Psychology Training at all levels of sport, Dr. Bowman has been a pioneer in the application of Telecommunications and Information Technology to make Mental Training and Sport Hypnosis accessible to all athletes

In addition to the ‘Perform Like a Star’ program, Dr. Bowman created the Mental Training Room, an online learning program in 1993. Yep…1993, and he’s been involved in numerous programs at AASP, and at the Suffolk County Psychological Association, including the creation of a Mental Training manual for marathon preparation (which you can download here), and a podcast with Dr. Richard Lustberg on Sports Psychology. Dr. Bowman is also board certified as a clinical hypnotherapist, and offers customized Sports Hypnosis recordings.

Dr Bowman details two important components to any mental skills training program, Goal Setting, and Mental Rehearsal(or Imagery). At the Mind Plus Muscle Institute, Dr. Bowman offers Mental Rehearsal programs for Baseball, Ice Hockey, Basketball, Lacrosse, Body Building, Running, Football, Soccer, Volleyball, Sped Training, Wrestling, Triathlon, Tennis, and Swimming. He’s also got some good advice for athletes to know what to look for in mental training, and what to look out for.

Dr. Jack Bowman is the Director of the Mind Plus Muscle Institute for Applied Sport Psychology in Port Jefferson Station, New York. Since 1980 Dr. Bowman has served on the graduate faculty at the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he teaches the Psychology of Sport. In 1981 he founded the Mind Plus Muscle Institute where he has developed numerous performance enhancement programs, including the Mental Training Room that is currently being utilized by athletes at major universities and Olympic training centers world wide.

Filed Under: Blog, Interviews Tagged With: AASP, athlete, Confidence, Emotion Control, Goals, Imagery, Interview, mental rehearsal, Mental Skills Training, Motivation, no-feat, self-talk, Sports Psychology, Visualization

Utopia for Athletes | Angus Mugford of IMG Academies

July 11, 2011 By admin

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I think of it as the ‘Walled City of Oz’. That magical place where nobody really knows what goes on inside, but we all suspect that it’s pretty amazing and magical.

Even the people who are there call it a ‘Sports Utopia’.

Meet Angus Mugford, PhD of the IMG Academies. He joins the Athlete’s Audio Academy to give us a peek inside the tent. The IMG Academy was started by Nick Bollettieri, and among the sports represented with physical skills and strength training, the IMG Performance Institute houses Angus, and the other 7 mental skills coaching professionals.

Angus also shares some info about Combine360.com, an new online community that IMG, and UnderArmour have started to create a benchmark for measuring and improving athletic performance. Cool. Here’s the assessment and philosophy.

Angus holds a PhD in Sport Studies (specialization in sport/counseling psychology) from the University of Kansas,(and I published the interview EVEN THOUGH I went to Mizzou!) and is a Certified Consultant with Association of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) and British Association of Sport & Exercise Sciences (BASES), which are two of the world’s top sport psychology professional organizations. He is also a member of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Sport Psychology registry.

Find more information on twitter for Angus & IMG, and dial in to the IMG Performance Blog, or Facebook page.

Filed Under: Blog, Interviews Tagged With: AASP, athlete, Confidence, goal setting, IMG, Interview, mental imagery, mental rehearsal, Mental Skills Training, Mental Training, Motivation, no-feat, Practice, self-talk, Sports Psychology

What can you learn about a riders’ mind from watching the Tour de France?

July 2, 2011 By admin

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Ahh, July, when a cyclist’s thoughts turn to Northern France for the start of Le Tour. Shots of fields of sunflowers…Phil and Paul on TV at ungodly hours of the US morning ramping up the excitement for the finale. “Pedals turned in anger”…The Tour de France is upon us once again.

Computer screens in offices all over North America are avoiding work with one TDF streaming package or another. All seems right with the world.

That’s what’s in our minds as we watch…but what’s in the rider’s mind? (The effective rider at least!)?

Carrie Cheadle knows. She’s a Sport Psychology consultant in the Bay Area, and she works with lots of endurance athletes, adding mental skills to their toolbox. She is to mental training for endurance athletes what @dwuori is to cycling comedy…that is, a top flight pro.

We discuss the different mental challenges of different kinds of stages, Flat stages in the first week; (where the challenge is focus, concentration, and attention), the high mountains (where confidence, the psychology of suffering, and imagery come into play), and the time trial stages; (again, suffering, pacing, pushing yourself, and goal setting are the skills).

Carrie is sponsoring Neil Browne’s (@neilroad) Online ‘Roadside’ Chats during the Tour (Athlete’s Audio is too…stage 12!) , and has more information about the skills mentioned in our Athlete’s Audio Academy interview on her youtube channel. Check her out at CarrieCheadle.com and follow @FeedTheAthlete on twitter. I was lucky enough to interview her last year at the Association of Applied Sport Psychology conference on the topic of race-day fears.

Click & check out Carrie’s deeper dive on mental skills specific to cycling.

Carrie Cheadle lives in Petaluma, just north of San Francisco, California and has been consulting with teams, organizations, and individual athletes since 2002.

She has written a number of articles for many organizations including Nimble Training and Team Swift. She has been interviewed as an expert resource for articles that have appeared in VeloNews, Outside Magazine, Bicycling Magazine, Sporting Kid, Snowboard Canada, Men’s Fitness, as well as various local media outlets. She has been on the “Form & Fitness” expert panel for Cyclingnews.com since 2007.

Carrie received her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and Sonoma State University and her Master of Arts degree in sport psychology at John. F. Kennedy University. Her professional affiliations include membership with AASP (Association for Applied Sport Psychology) since 2002, becoming an AASP certified consultant in 2007. She is also a member of IDEA Health & Fitness Association and a member of APA (American Psychological Association) Division 47, Exercise and Sport Psychology. Carrie is also adjunct faculty for both Dominican University of California and John F. Kennedy University teaching undergraduate and graduate level sport psychology classes

Filed Under: Blog, Interviews Tagged With: athlete, Carrie Cheadle, Confidence, Cycling, Fear, mental imagery, Mental Skills Training, Motivation, no-feat, self-talk, Sports Psychology, the extra gear

Have you ever been in the zone?? What did it feel like (and how do you get back?!)

June 27, 2011 By admin

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Or what does it feel like when you’re on FIRE? What would it be like to be able to get into that space more often?

Meet super-energetic, and engaging Justin Su’a, of Su’a Sport Psychology, a consultancy in Utah, focusing on improving and improving mental skills, and performance. Justin consults with NFL Teams, Major League, and College Baseball players, youth athletes, even competitors on Dancing with the Stars!

Justin shares with us some of the mindsets that can help young athletes (and their parents) and performers overcome thinking that’s holding them back from their best performance, and we discuss the misconception that an athlete has to have something wrong with them to benefit from Sport Psychology.

…and that many of the things that will benefit you on the field are things that will help throughout life.

Justin is also a prolific social media voice for Sport Psychology. You can get additional mental skills training tips and information on his facebook page, and he regularly posts quick tips on twitter.

Here’s Justin’s bio.

Justin Su’a, MS is a Sport Psychology Consultant specializing in peak performance and confidence enhancement. He is also a key-note speaker and CEO of Su’a Sport Psychology, LLC. He uses mental skills training to teach NFL athletes, university teams, elite dancers and other individuals how to think and perform at a high level. Justin is a former All-American baseball pitcher from BYU and is one of the Sport Psychology Consultants on staff for the Sports Agency Corporation based out of Miami, Florida. He is a member of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) and the official Sport Psychology Consultant for the American Samoa National Olympic teams and athletes. He received his Masters Degree from the University of Utah in the Psycho-Social Aspects of Sport with an interest in the nature of peak performance.