Youth-Athlete's Sport Blog

I have written several posts on guided imagery and visualization because of the potential impact it can have on your game. In a world where sports performance and success is measured in seconds, athlete's need to be playing at their peak performance level with their maximum self-confidence. Player hesitation or re-thinking through a situation can cost the team a game.  Practicing visualization gives an athlete the mental muscle memory for flawless execution with speed and confidence by maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of your training.

In the previous post we first covered why visualization is important, second was how to visualize, and third when to practice and operationalize visualization.  In the previous post on operationalizing visualization, I mentioned three distinct times when you can use visualization: 1) during a practice to increase the fidelity of the mental image, 2) in daily quiet moments where an athlete creates additional mental images to improve their performance, and 3) during game situations to bring subconscious mental images into the conscious brain to refocus an athlete during intense game moments. This is the final post in this mini-series and will revisit the second point above (creating new mental images during daily quiet moments) where the 10 step mental rehearsal process can be used to create vivid images.  More...

The skill of visualization is probably taught in every sport psychology book or course. Yet it is a skill that most athletes do not continue to use because they have not learned to operationalize this skill in their performance.  In earlier posts, I discussed why visualization was important to increase an athlete's peak performance and how visualization works.  In this next post, I will expand on when a player can use visualization to reinforce a new skill being learned, improve the execution of an existing skill, and opportunities to refocus and reinforce existing mental images during a game.  More...

The best athletes can have slumps, underachieve, and fail if they focus on the wrong success factors.  During these times of poor performance they are unable to let go of setbacks, errors, and mental mistakes that can be compounded by lack of self-confidence, fear of failure, unrealistic expectations.  As an athlete, leaving the mental side of performance to chance make you more susceptible to performance problems.  As a coach, a working knowledge of mental and sports psychology skills will help you develop athletes with more self-confidence, motivation, and experience peak performance.  Finally, as a parent, the principals of sport psychology, can help you encourage your child to reach their peak performance and develop mental toughness that enhances their self-esteem to achieve greatness, not only in their sport, but also in the bigger picture of life.  More...

Many athletes routinely use mental visualization techniques as part of their elite sport training. There are stories and examples of how such techniques provide not only a competitive edge, but also a renewed mental awareness and sense of well-being. In an earlier post, I discussed why visualization was important to increase an athlete's peak performance.  In this post, I will discuss how to visualize for peak performance. More...

Many peak performance athletes use techniques like visualization, imagery, and self-hypnotism to improve their game performance.  These techniques refer to the ability to recall information in physical forms and images, instead of words.  Since the brain thinks in pictures, an athlete can utilize the mind's image processing capability to create positive and desired activities by imagining an events actions and engaging all five senses.  In this way, an athlete can increase the amount of time their mind and body are "on the field" without incurring the additional stress of physically practicing.  Over the next couple of weeks, I plan on writing a series of posts that discuss:  why athlete's are increasingly using visualization, how they do it, what they do, and finally, when.  Let's start with the why. More...

Many athletes warm up either through static stretching or just starting to play.  Warming up by going straight into practice or a game is just a great way to get injured.  The traditional static warm-up stretches relax the muscles and cool down the core body temperature.  Energize the muscles and improve your range of motion with dynamic stretching during the warm-up process that will begin your body's transition from being at rest to a highly activated neuromuscular state and prepare you for peak performance. More...

On any given day, any team or anyone can win the game.  This is what makes competitive sports so much fun.  You never know when a player or team outmatched in every aspect of the game pulls off the victory by stunning their opponent.  Take a lesson from Michael Jordan. More...

This is the fourth and final post on the SPARQ rating and training system.  The previous post answer the questions: what is SPARQ training, why an athlete should care about the rating system , and what it tests?  In this post, I will insights into the commitment required for the training to be successful and a few results of athletes that have gone through the program. More...

SPARQ (an acronym for Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction and Quickness) tests an athlete's overall athleticism.   The follow up training is to help athletes improve in all of those areas through dynamic training. More...

In modern day sports, we keep track of every stat, no matter how small.  But until the SPARQ training and rating system was created in 2004, there was never a way to measure a main component in a competitive athlete's success ... their pure athletic ability.  The goal of the SPARQ system is to boil down a player's athleticism into one number that represents the player’s overall athletic skill—pinpointing what areas he or she is good at, and which areas they need to improve. More...