How to Respond to Poor Performances in Competition

In this week's sports psychology podcast, mental game of sports expert, Dr. Patrick Cohn, answers mental game questions in Sessions With Doc. Does a poor performance really rock your world and you tend to lose confidence and wonder what's going on? Today I'm answering a questions from someone who had left a question on our blog at peaksports.com/sports-psychology-blog. Here's what Rick had to say: "I'm in need of some help... I just had one of the worst football games of my entire football career and it is breaking me down slowly. I need to know how to get over this and move on." COHN: Rick, good question. It is really really important for athletes to respond to losses, to respond to poor performances in the right way. A lot of times athletes with fragile confidence will tend to implode after a poor performance. COHN: What is a poor performance? You can ask yourself that question... Often it is when you perform below your standards or below your expectations, feeling like you made too many mistakes or you didn't score enough points or you shot too high of a number in the golf round. COHN: So, poor performances are transient, in other words, they are temporary, unless you get on the doubt bandwagon and start to doubt your skills, you start to change thngs up radically sometimes it'll work but most times, when you start changing things up radically, then you go downhill. Listen to Dr. Cohn's new podcast to learn how to respond to poor performances. Resources for Athletes, Coach, and Sports Parents Learn about Mental Game Coaching For Athletes Download our a FREE Mental Toughness Report Read our Sports Psychology Articles Check out our Sports Psychology Audio Programs *Subscribe to The Sports Psychology Podcast at iTunes