Craig Sigl articles written for youth sports mental game training, tips, techniques and skills
Firstly, happy holidays to you my dear readers! To me, the best part […]
Last week on the coaching call we had a golfer that said, […]
In one of my coaching calls, a competitor raised his concern and said, […]
Being an athlete requires strength, not just physical but also mental and emotional. Most athletes are physically strong, but are mentally and emotionally weak. Boosting someone's mental and emotional strength can not be achieved overnight, it needs a slow, and step by step process. Training your mind and emotions is just like training your body, it requires a lot of effort, and a lot of time. Here are some useful tips that you can use to improve your mental and emotional strength. 1. WORK WITH YOUR SELF-CONFIDENCE Self-confidence is one of the characteristics that an athlete should have. Because it will [...]
In this article, I’m going to talk about how Lacrosse players can improve their performance and play by developing an important quality in athletes which is trust. The Story Of Bill Bill is a mid-fielder on his high school lacrosse team. Ever since he was introduced to it at the age of 10, he has been totally enthralled with mastering the sport. He actually enjoys some of the drills and practices that his teammates find boring. He loves working out and conditioning himself to improve his stamina as he knows it makes him a better player. Bill’s coach taught him [...]
In this article, I’m going to teach how to connect your religion or faith to help you perform better in sports. The story of Julie Julie was 16 when she came to me devastated that she did not make the varsity soccer team. The varsity coach had seen her play the year before and even complimented her on her excellent defense at the end of a game as she came off the field. She had worked on her game over the summer and thought she was a shoo-in this year. But it didn’t happen and she felt her confidence completely drain [...]
In this article, athletes and competitors will discover the power of a growth mindset to improve performance. What is a growth mindset for athletes? It never ceases to amaze me how small of a percentage of the general sports world there is that really takes advantage of developing their mental skills. I’ve conducted numerous workshops for youth sports teams and coaches over the years teaching mental toughness skills. In my workshops, there are always some athletes that hang on my every word: they ask questions they participate they take notes I can see that they are paying attention to everything [...]
In this article, parents of football players will learn the two most important things they can do to help their young player succeed. There have been numerous studies conducted to find out what highly successful football players have in common. Besides the obvious - talent and hard work - a number of surprising conclusions have come to light. What is at the top of the list? How much the athlete had support at home and the high quality of the coaching. I work with young athletes every day in my office and I always start out by telling the parent how [...]
So many of the athletes I work with complain about their difficulty in being able to concentrate and focus playing their sport, especially under pressure. What about you? “Concentration is the ability to think about absolutely nothing when it is absolutely necessary.” Ray Knight Why Is Concentration Important To Athletes? When you get really good at concentration and focus, almost nothing will be able to knock you off your game like crowds screaming, opponents trash talking you, just any pressure will be a non-factor and you will see your performance will skyrocket. When baseball player Ichiro Suzuki was a little [...]
I have one more tool that is going to help you deal with your difficult emotions and that is what I call, “The AND World”. What does this mean? “AND” means “I can be scared.” “I can be nervous.” You can even say that, “I can be angry.” You know when you got a bad call or a non call that should’ve been called by the opponent. So anger can sometimes create interference because you are too angry to even play smart. You end up fouling or getting off your strategy of what you are supposed to do out there because [...]
