Coaches Corner

by TC North, PhD and Stephen Walker, PhD Who’d a thunk it? After starting the season with one win and four losses, Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos’ football team advanced to the second round of the NFL’s AFC Divisional Playoffs and were served notice that the New England Patriots intended to once again...
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Editor’s note: This week the local paper did an expose about a local high school wresting coach who was arrested and charged with sexual assault on a minor by a person in a position of trust.  Turns out this coach has a stellar won-loss record, steered his team to a State Championship and was...
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by Stephen Walker, PhD and Alec Baker, PsyD “The most important reason that kids play sports is because it’s fun.  When it stops being fun, they’ll stop wanting to play, and they’ll stop learning.” – Harry Sheehy Parents have a huge impact on the quality of their sports kid’s experience.  This article is designed...
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For Podium Sports Journal by Stephen Walker, PhD, CC-AASP and Alec Baker, PsyD What happens when you combine the speed of five great athletes in helmets and pads sprinting on ice skates straight at you? Oh yeah, they’re also bearing weapons. A simple collision, of which there are many, often sends metal blades and...
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From the Editor (10.1.2011)  Some of you may begin hearing about Dave Scott and Mark Allen’s concerns over the upcoming release of Matt Fitzgerald’s depiction of  (“IronWar”, VeloPress, 2011).  They feel strongly enough about the piece to sue the author and VeloPress for defamation of character and state flat out that there are erroneous...
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Editor’s note:  In watching the US Open Tennis Championships these past few weeks I was simply amazed at the incredible speed of processing these athletes demonstrated in match after match.  The Roger Federer – Novak Djokovic match was the ultimate challenge for both players.  Taking nothing away from Rafael Nadal, (check out the first...
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Athletes in every sport will from time to time lose focus, become self-conscious, have self-doubts to contend with and worry about things. It happens especially in cycling, which can be grueling on the best of days. Emotions with strong physical components are the worst because they have what’s called an attractor field – an...
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By Larry Lauer, PhD, CC-AASP Michigan Youth Sports Institute Named one of the NSAPE Top 100 coaching educators of 2007 For a number of years I have worked with athletes as a coach and mental performance consultant. Self-confidence is usually the reason why athletes first contact me. They have hit the bottom so to...
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by Will Murry and Craig Howie Sometimes before and during races, you get a voice inside your head that wants to tell you things.  Welcome to Self-talk.  Actually, Self-talk is a major part of every athlete’s journey.  This voice is often your own; sometimes it’s the voice of someone else: a parent, a sibling,...
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by Noah Gentner, PhD, CC-AASP, USOC Registry of Sport Psych. Consultants In the days following the U.S. Women’s shocking loss to Japan in the World Cup Final the most common refrain heard on TV and radio or read on the internet was, “Wow, what a choke job.”  The widely held belief was that the...
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