Sports Psychology is playing an ever-increasing role in influencing soccer performance. At Ajax football club in Holland, their selection policy of 18 year old players depends 80% of the time on the intelligence and personality of the footballer! A Sports Psychologist can identify weaknesses in the psychological make-up of a player and can provide the […]

Dear Podium: I’ve got a young athlete I’ve been working with who trains beautifully but just can’t put it together during competition. I believe it is a confidence issue. How can I better coach him so that he doesn’t beat himself before the gun goes off?
– Confidence Coach

“Goals are effective because they influence psychological states such as self-confidence, direct attention to important aspects of the task, mobilize effort, increase persistence and foster the development of new learning strategies (Gould, 1993, p. 168).”
“In essence, goal setting involves commitment and effort on the part of the coaches as well as athletes (Gould, 1993, p. […]