When it comes to sports or elite performance at any age, mental skills are required to perform at an optimal level. Here are some suggestions to help strengthen your mental skills: Use relaxation and breathing exercises- When there is a lot of pressure on you to perform and you get nervous or anxious, your muscles
“The Weight of Gold” is an HBO documentary that highlights several Olympic athletes and their mental health struggles specifically related to being an Olympic athlete. Even if you are not an Olympic, I am sure that there will be parts of this documentary which you can relate to. It certainly is an interesting topic and
I always like to bring attention to professional athletes speaking out about mental health and mental health issues. I believe that it is imperative that high profile professional athletes speak openly about mental health to serve as a role model for others both athletes and fans. This particular article is written about NHL athletes. That archaic code about
To learn more about this topic, please click on the link below for a great article from ESPN:
Former UCLA gymnastics coach, Valerie Kondos Field, helped her team win 7 national titles and she recently spoke at the PAC 12 conference. Her message is quite inspirational, and she talks about the need to change the culture of -win at all costs- and redefine what success looks like in sport and life. Watch below
The NBA had made big strides this year regarding how they are screening for and treating their athletes with mental health issues. Hopefully, this will help to reduce the stigma for athletes who suffer from mental health issues and they will be more likely to seek professional help. This also gives hope that other professional
I don’t know about you, but I cannot begin to tell you how impressed I am with Cori (Coco) Gauff, the 15-year-old American tennis player who recently competed in Wimbledon and beat Venus Williams. The amount of mental toughness that she has to have to be able to compete and beat one of the best
No one is immune to mental illness, including professional athletes. Based off results from my dissertation research and what I see in my private practice, it appears as though there is a definite lack of support for athletes who struggle with mental health issues. Even though the NFL recently announced that they are requiring each
“How did he do it?” is the question that everybody is asking in regard to Tiger Woods winning the 2019 Masters. The reason why everyone is asking that question is because Tiger has had so many setbacks in the last several years. Several setbacks including a number of surgeries and losses in major tournaments that
In many of my blog posts, I talk about the impact physical health can have on mental health and how getting regular exercise can help to better manage their mental health but can exercise prevent depression? Some recent studies suggest there is more evidence than ever before that physical activity does play an important, and