Do you or your athletes tend to worry too much about what others think of your performance? As mental game experts, we know that athletes often get preoccupied with what we have termed "outcome thinking," and tend to play too safely or cautiously as a result.
While it is good to want to be a successful player, when athletes get too wrapped up in being perfect or never making mistakes, their confidence and performance will suffer. No athlete is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. Athletes need to learn to shift their attention from other players and, instead, focus on their own play.
In this week’s podcast, Dr. Cohn speaks about skills you can use to focus your attention on what really matters during the game and avoid comparisons with other players or their performance.
Dr. Patrick Cohn is a master mental game coach who works with junior to professional athletes at Peak Performance Sports, LLC.
Resources for Athletes, Coach, and Sports Parents
*Subscribe to The Sports Psychology Podcast on iTunes