Sports Psychology For Parents, Kids And Coaches

This article outlines a few basic concepts that athletes, coaches and parents of athletes need to understand.

Can Your Mind Affect Your Body?

New Research Shows How 1,000 Athletes Quickly Improved
Strength, Focus And Confidence

Can your mind affect your body?
Can you train yourself to become physically stronger by changing the way you think?
What kinds of techniques can athletes use to build their confidence, focus and physical strength?
New data based on research with approximately one thousand athletes show that 85% of athletes who learn a simple technique improved their strength performance by an average of 15%.
Collegiate athletes, Olympians, high school athletes, elite athletes and weekend warriors were given a strength test.
The athletes came from a wide variety of sports including baseball, basketball, track and field, wrestling, mixed martial arts, boxing, football, lacrosse, swimming, tennis, figure skating, gymnastics, soccer, golf and hockey.
Some of the athletes included in this study were professionals. Others were athletes from middle schools, high schools and colleges. Weekend warriors were also included in this study.
After the pre-test, the athletes were given some basic, simple training in self-hypnosis, meditation, guided imagery and visualization. This technique takes less than fifteen minutes for the athletes to learn.
The athlete/subjects then had their strength measured again. As was noted above, the average change for most athletes showed an increase of 15% higher on the posttest.
Some athletes improved by more than one hundred percent.
The data are impressive because they indicate that a brief amount of mental training can enhance athletic performance and help athletes to improve on their strength, confidence and focus as their ability to enhance their strength was due in part to their ability to increase their confidence and their focus on the task at hand.
Moreover, this simple exercise helped these competitors, coaches and parents of athletes to better understand the mind-body relationship.
While most athletes believe that they can improve their performance by getting psyched up in some manner. This study showed athletes that they can impact their ability to perform in a manner which is measurable.
The athletes get proof that how they think and perceive impacts their ability to perform well on a physical task.
There are two important mind-body concepts that all athletes need to understand:
First, your body believes what your mind tells it. If you tell yourself you are weak, nervous or incapable, your body is likely to believe this.
Conversely, if you communicate confidence, positive imagery and successful thoughts, feelings and experiences to your mind, your body is apt to believe that you are strong and capable of doing some great things.
Second, you will become what you imagine. Positive thoughts, daydreams and night dreams can set the tone as to what you will accomplish in your athletic life.

Jay P. Granat, Ph.D. is a Psychotherapist, Author and in River
and the Founder of
To see some his self-help products, click here.

Dr. Granat can be reached at 888 580-ZONE or at

Dr. Granat

About Dr. Granat

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