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- Confidence (3)
- Identity (3)
- Injuries (1)
- Intensity (7)
- Process (5)
- Setting Goals (7)
- Staying positive (15)
- Strategy (2)
- Strengths (2)
- Success (18)
- Training (6)
- Visualization (1)
Archived Blogs
April 24, 2012
Talk on Mental Toughness
On March 27th, I was the guest speaker at the Wellesley Rotary Club in Wellesley, MA and I gave a talk on Mental Toughness – what I think it is and a bit on my own personal journey of discovery in this area. Video of the speech appears below courtesy of Wellesley Media. The video… more »
January 30, 2012
Nadal vs. Djokovic – Reaching New Levels of Performance
The 2012 Australian Open Men’s Singles final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic showed the sporting world that there are always more and more levels of performance to attain. “Unchartered territory”. That’s what Darren Cahill of ESPN2 said at the beginning of the 5th set of yesterday’s final when he was asked for his thoughts… more »
April 8, 2011
The Point of Competition
What is the point of competition? Conventional wisdom tells us that winning is the end goal of competition, but I think that is debatable and possibly detrimental to performing one’s best. In one of the cornerstone works of Positive Psychology, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi states that the point of competition is to… more »
January 7, 2011
The Importance of “Grit”
In March 2010, I wrote a post on the book Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin which focuses on hard work and “deliberate practice” as keys to success. An article in Psychology Today entitled The Winning Edge takes this concept to the next level by looking at the characteristics of high performing people and determines that grit may be… more »
November 18, 2010
TennisXtra for USTA Teams
If you’re the captain of a USTA team and you want your team to take it to the next level in 2011 and beyond, then this is for you. TennisXtra is now offering a program in mental toughness training for teams. This training will benefit teams that have moved up a level or ones that… more »
September 27, 2010
Lack of Intensity
Competitive intensity has been on my mind lately, and more specifically, a drop in competitive intensity during a match or even a lack of intensity from the start. What drives that behavior? Why do tennis players not compete at their highest level at all times? My personal opinion is that much of this behavior is… more »
August 24, 2010
Information vs. Transformation
One of the missions of a coach is to help students transform their games so that they become better players in the long term. In order for this to happen, both coaches and students need to understand the difference between information and transformation. Let’s use a very simple example to illustrate this. Imagine that you… more »
July 6, 2010
The Job of a Coach
I’m currently reading Sam Sheridan’s The Fighter’s Mind: Inside the Mental Game (h/t to my buddy Greg Wilhelm of PeerlessAV) and came across this quote: What is a good man but a bad man’s teacher? What is a bad man but a good man’s job? If you don’t understand this, you will get lost, However intelligent you are…. more »
June 14, 2010
Robert Green and Handling Big Mistakes
It’s World Cup soccer time, and if you’re following the action, you know that the United States and England tied 1-1 on Saturday. There is a tremendous amount of pressure on the England squad, and that pressure will only increase after a disappointing tie in which a goal was gifted to the US. In the… more »
June 11, 2010
When to Compete After an Injury
When it comes to injuries, competitive athletes tend to be stubborn. Many athletes try to play through an injury or compete too soon after their recovery. In my experience, there are several psychological stages that an athlete experiences in enduring an injury as well as risks associated with each stage. Do any of these sound… more »
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