Self-motivation is the holy grail of success in sports, particularly for young athletes. Nearly all elite athletes have self-motivation. However, for less mature athletes who still rely on external motivation from coaches and parents, self-motivation often comes and goes with the wind. Therefore, as a parent or coach it’s easy to think that self-motivation is […]
The process of helping an athlete develop mental toughness is quite simple. There is only one way a coach can develop it. To develop an athlete’s mental toughness, coaches must help the athlete learn how to overcome mentally tough challenges. This requires facing real life pain, ideally positive training pain. Moreover, overcoming real life pain requires […]
There is an ancient principle from the renowned Stoic philosopher Epictetus that all athletes would be wise to live by. In his book the Enchiridion, Epictetus states the following: If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters–don’t wish to seem knowledgeable. While this may seem counterintuitive to an […]