Premier Sport Psychology is excited to welcome Dr. Troy Moles to our team. He will be starting August 22, 2016. Below is a quick interview with Dr. Troy so you can get to know your potential sport psychologist!

Ok, Troy, let’s start with a bit about your background.

Dr. Troy

I completed my Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Sport & Exercise Psychology in August 2016 from the University of North Texas.  While there, I provided sport psychology consultation services to coaches, teams, and individual student-athletes within the university from 2010-15.  I also spent time working with community-based athletes and student-athletes (children, adolescents, and adults) from the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  Over the past year (2015-16) while completing my doctoral internship at the University of Missouri-Columbia Counseling Center, I consulted with the MU athletics department mental performance team and worked with several individual student-athletes.  While completing my M.S. at Chatham University, I had the opportunity to work with the University of Pittsburgh student-athletes on leadership, life skills, and career counseling for a year.  Before all that, I completed a B.S. in Computer Science and Psychology at Allegheny College, where I was a student-athlete in track and field for 4 years (sprints).  My other primary athletic experience was playing football for 11 years through my senior year in high school (QB/DB).

What made you choose sport psychology?

After graduating college, I spent some time reflecting on what I really would be most happy doing in my career life and what my ideal job would look like.  At that time, I was thinking about pursuing a career in Computer Science until I realized I wanted to work with athletes so much more than I wanted to work with computers!  Knowing I would thrive/be happy working with athletes and given the combination of my interest and background in both psychology and athletics made becoming a sport psychologist my dream!  My own experiences as an athlete have definitely fueled my passion for working with athletes.  Having been on many championship level teams (and some really “bad” ones too!) in both individual and team based sports, I have an understanding of the demands of being an athlete, what it is like to be an athlete, and how important the mental aspect is to performing at a high and consistent level.  After learning how important the mental aspect is to performance in college, I now want to help others reach their full potential or cope with their adversity, whether it be as athletes, students, partners, and/or other performers/leaders.

What work will you be doing with Premier? What does it mean to be a post-doctoral fellow?

I will be doing a variety of work with Premier Sport Psychology over the course of the next year, including providing sport psychology consultation and assessment/supervision of assessment services to local area college/university student-athletes (including the University of Minnesota) and community-based clients (of varying ages and level of competition).  Actually, part of why I’m so excited to work with Premier this year is because I will may be working on many different tasks, such as program development and providing team workshops!  Being a post-doctoral fellow in psychology means I have already been granted a Ph.D. in psychology and I am now working toward completing state licensure requirements en route to becoming a licensed psychologist.  In my case, I will be completing a one year post-doctoral fellowship with Premier Sport Psychology in order to meet the clinical hours requirement for licensure.  Being a post-doctoral fellow also typically allows one to build further formal experience and expertise in a specific domain within psychology (with Premier, it is sport psychology).

Thanks for taking the time to do this get-to-know-you. To wrap it up, what’s one fun fact about yourself?

I am an avid gamer and movie lover.  In addition to being a sport psychologist, it has been said I could have been a video game designer or movie director/critic.

To learn more about Troy, check out his bio or call our office at 952.835.8513

The Olympics is less than a month away.  Athletes will travel from all over this earth to compete in the name of their country. Some, like Michael Phelps, are veterans at this point in their careers. Others, like Simone Biles, are making the trip for the first time. All of these athletes are using these last few weeks to fine tune the work they’ve done over the past four years. A trip to Rio is about to make all the sacrifices they made worth it, but they are not the only ones who made sacrifices.

There are many athletes, like volleyball player Cassidy Lichtman, who are not going to Rio. They will not compete on behalf of their country. Their sacrifices will not result in their dreams. As their fellow citizens are flooded with joy, they are dealing with sadness and loss. When we work as hard as these people do to reach our dreams, the realization that we won’t make it will undoubtedly result in heartbreak. Yet, as Cassidy talks about in her own words, not making the Olympics doesn’t change who these athletes are. The sacrifices they made may not have resulted in the Olympics, but that doesn’t mean such efforts were pointless. Olympic athletes understand that their pride isn’t based on whether they made the Olympics or not, but that they even tried in the first place.

These athletes all had a choice to make before they started their path to the Olympics. They all knew more people would be staying home than going to Rio. They chose to pursue their dreams in the face of uncertainty. Such courage tells us more about these people than the fact that they did not make the games. Yes, their dreams did not come true. Yes, they have to deal with heartbreak, maybe even the most they’ve ever had. But they are not “failures” nor will they remain heartbroken. They had the strength to pursue their dreams and that strength remains, regardless of the outcome.

When it comes to your own athletic endeavors, whether they be on the Olympic stage or something closer to home, take a page out of Cassidy’s book. Give everything you have. Train as hard and as smart as you possibly can. The sacrifices you make will never be worthless. The journey towards your dreams will be filled with challenges. The courage to face these challenges will give you strength. This strength will build as you continue along the journey. At the end of the journey, whether you reach your goals or not, this strength will remain. Just like Cassidy will move on and find another dream to pursue, so will you with the strength you’ve gained from your own journey.

Premier Sport Psychology can work with athletes to help them when they don’t reach their dreams. Maybe your dream was to play Varsity your freshman year, but now you’re on J.V. Premier will help you develop a plan to make the most out of your situation and create new goals going forward. Perhaps you’re at the end of your career and you gave everything for your dream. Premier will help you transition from one lifestyle to another, creating a new identity along the way. Whatever your dream was, Premier believes that you are not defined by whether you reach your dreams or not. Your decision to even pursue them in the first place does.

It’s go time. This is where you need to perform at your very best. Your team is counting on you. Even you’re counting on you. But, you’re not exactly sure you can do it. Sure, you’ve practiced more than ever before and you really want to do well, but there’s always a chance you’ll fail. You’re nervous.

So, what do people tell you?

“Be confident!”

And you probably respond with something like:

“Perfect! That’s exactly what I need: to be confident. Awesome… but, how do I be confident, exactly?”

There are actually many ways to build your confidence. As you’ll see in this video from TED-Ed, confidence is built upon body language, having the right mindset, and turning optimistic thoughts into courageous action. In one of the most popular TED talks, given by Harvard professor Amy Cuddy, the way we carry our bodies influences how we feel about ourselves. By striking a powerful pose with limbs outstretched and head held high, a person can stimulate behavioral hormones, like testosterone, in their endocrine system and, subsequently, affect how they approach challenging situations.

Our mindset also affects how confident we feel. When it comes to abilities and challenges some of us have a fixed mindset while others have a growth mindset. Those with a fixed mindset can see their talents as just that, fixed. There’s nothing they can do to improve upon them; it’s as if their talents are predetermined before they’re even born. In contrast, those with a growth mindset understand that talents take effort and time to develop, but that they can be developed and improved upon. Having a growth mindset means adopting a learning process when faced with challenges. It could be that you don’t succeed, but any mistakes you make will result in a learning experience and make you even better in the future. And when you get better, you develop into a more confident person.

Finally, a simple but powerful aspect of confidence is belief. If you believe in yourself and your abilities, amazing things can happen. Confidence may be the giant final goal, but belief is the first baby step. Coupled with the growth mindset, if you belief in yourself you’re on the right path to gaining confidence through successful accomplishments sustained positive self-esteem.

For a colorful and inspiring overview of how to boost your confidence, watch the video below!