It Doesn’t Take a Lifetime

Sport Psychology can help an athlete transcend from good to great in both sport and life for a lifetime, but it doesn’t take a lifetime for an athlete to use the skills learned from sport psychology to improve.  In fact, many athletes notice a difference after just a few sessions.  The before-and-after portraits of sport psychology success stories can conjure the perception that these mental skills apply only to performances years down the road.  Quite the opposite is true.  While athletes have goals in the near and distant term, sport psychology sessions target tangible skills that athletes are encouraged to rehearse quickly, often as soon as the next practice, to […]

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“This Should Be Fun:” How the Minnesota Cycling Association Is Using Sport Psychology to Help Student-Athletes on Race Day

Dew glistens atop the grass on a Saturday morning at Xcel Energy Mountain Bike Park in Shakopee. While most are asleep, Dr. Erin Ayala and Alex Wulbecker-Smith are in mid-season form…setting up four cherry-glossed canopy tents and fifteen vibrant pseudo-recliners that rival a La-Z-Boy chair and inflatable pool seat crossover.  Simple, yet meaningful beyond what one would ever know.  It’s the first weekend of the Minnesota Cycling Association’s fall mountain bike league. With a middle school race on Saturday and high school race on Sunday, around 1,200 racers will hit the course south of the Twin Cities metro. Hit copy paste for nine race weekends throughout the fall spanning the […]

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Premier Mailbag: October 10, 2022

This week’s question: How can your child compete comfortably in pressure situations?   All athletes face it: those times when the going gets tough or stakes are high and routine shots, plays, or actions become easier said than done.  It’s especially frustrating when those shots, throws, or actions are ones that the athlete has completed thousands of times in practice or in previous competitions.  It’s a crippling feeling; muscles become tight, myriad what if’s swarm the mind, and quick movements turn to molasses.  To put it simply, the athlete is unable to play freely and pressure is often the cause.  Athletes of all levels experience pressure for various reasons.  It […]

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Premier Mailbag: Sept. 1, 2022

We all know that competing in sports is much more than just Xs and Os on the field. Regardless of age, level, or experience, we’ve all dealt with the mental side of the game and the struggles and difficulties that it brings.  We also know that the mental side of sport is often more difficult than the physical side.  You’ve made a free throw hundreds of times in practice but sinking that shot with the game on the line may seem near impossible.  You may have the best serve in the entire state, but for some reason, your arm feels like it weighs 1,000 pounds when serving in a match.  […]

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The Power Five: Team Support

There’s truly nothing more fulfilling than being part of a team that functions as a well-oiled machine. We all know that the value of being on a team transcends wins and losses; between all the long bus rides and team gatherings are adversity-defying moments, character-building experiences, and budding friendships, all of which can serve as puzzle pieces that shape an athlete’s life for decades to come. The dynamics of a team can truly shape lives…a vehicle for culture, growth, and learning. Yet in a puzzle, no one piece looks the same…but they all play a critical role in creating a rock-solid final product. The same can be said for the […]

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The Power Five: Performance Mindset

We all want to find ways to increase our mental game to compete our best on game day. And while we can’t always control outcomes, we can control how we prepare and what tools we use to get in the right mind space before and during competition.  Finding that sweet spot requires a performance mindset.  What is a Performance Mindset? A performance mindset is a way of seeing performance as a collection of small, controllable steps and skills, and prioritizing those which are necessary to succeed. Think of a performance mindset like putting gas in your car the night before a long drive.  The task of filling up the tank […]

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