For those who know me, they will know that I am very passionate about the mental side of performance, and also how this can be applied in different aspects of life. I believe that the  mental side of the game is something that we don’t train as much as any other  aspects. 10,000 hours to become an expert, however, how many hours of that are  mental skills training? How often do we hear elite athletes talking about the
mental aspects of the game to make them either perform successfully or crumble under pressure? 

If you listen to athletes competing in the  Olympics, Wimbledon etc, they will mention the things like “effort, dealing with pressure, motivation”, but how often do we actually consciously train those things?  When I teach performance  psychology skills, I aim to give athletes strategies to help them improve  performance but also self-awareness, skills to self-evaluate and build confidence. Mental preparation is vital success, and I think sometimes the stigma attached to “psychology” stops people seeking help to be ready in the mind. I believe you can have all the skills and talent in the world, but if you  are unable to manage the psychological demands of performance, then their skills and talents will suffer. For example, a performer who suffers extreme anxiety may not be able to reach peak performance due to the strain on their body from being constantly stressed. Therefore, the role of performance psychology is to assist this person in dealing with anxiety. 
 
Are there differences between male and female athletes?
I believe so. According to research, women are more likely to attribute their success in sport to effort or luck, e.g. “I  tried hard; I put in the effort; I was just lucky on the day!” Whereas men are  more likely to attribute success to their talents, “I am talented, I won because  I am good!”  How can we teach women  to be more confident about their ability. A study completed in the USA asked men and women to predict their exam results. Women predicted grades lower than they received, whereas men overestimated and said they would do better than they actually did. 

What can we do to make women more confident? 
First of all, by motivating females to stay in sport could be beneficial to overall confidence and self esteem. 

According to the Women’s Sport Foundation: 
 High school girls who play sports are less likely to be involved  in an unintended pregnancy; more likely to get better grades in school and more likely to graduate than girls who do not play sports.Girls and women who play sports have higher levels of confidence and self-esteem and lower levels of depression. 
 
Girls and women who play sports have a more positive body image and experience higher states of psychological well-being than girls and women who do not play sports. 

“Girls lose confidence, so they quit competing in sports, thereby depriving themselves of one of the best ways to  regain it.”(Confidence Gap, 2014)

 Whilst continued involvement in sport has significant benefits to females confidence, I think by teaching women to be  proud of their talents and their participation in sport we can further increase confidence.  Just like learning how to catch a ball, or develop skills in sport, mental skills take time and  training. To build confidence is a journey, and there will be situations in  which an athlete’s confidence is high and others in which it is low, but how can  we get athletes to have high confidence in more situations? 
 
I believe that it is important to teach females to be proud of being different, and being proud of who they are. In many  cases, I feel like sports define athletes, and their self confidence is based on results or sports performance. My favourite quote is “sport is something you do,  not who you are!”. It is important we make females aware of their positive  personality traits, and not just have their self esteem built upon the things
they are good at. Emphasising uniqueness, and be the best person you can be.  Can we teach that it is okay
to be different? And that in fact, more successful athletes are those who aren’t afraid to be different? To be brave and be the one to stay later at training, to  skip parties, to choose healthy foods when friends aren’t. Can we teach that  being different is something you should be proud of and be confident about? To have the confidence to be different?


Lastly, the reason I love my job helping  athletes in gaining psychological skills is because when we can instil
  confidence in young people and empower them to be “their own coach”, it is the most rewarding feeling to see them progress, not just in their sport but in  their self acceptance. For me, this is the most rewarding part of my job. Even  the smallest of changes, can bring around the biggest results, and that is why I love helping people to be more confident and gain psychological skills to  help them in life and competition. 

I am running a series of workshops as part of the Festival of Sport in September.
Culture of Club: Creating a Female-Friendly Climate
It is important to understand the impact a club environment and climate can have on female coaches, female club leaders, female participants and those  females outwith the club itself. This workshop will identify what makes a female  – friendly climate and look at how the characteristics of different team and  individual sports can, in turn, meet athletes’ needs and demands by working with  coaches to develop young athletes.  In order to maintain and increase females  within our clubs at all levels, we must be able to create an optimal environment  in which all females thrive upon and develop.  

Club personnel and Coaches can expect to leave the workshop with the ability  to:
 Identify ways to increase female participation.  
 Create a sporting culture where females feel confident and valued.
  Identify key principles in promoting a female friendly environment. 

Female Coaching: Challenges and Solutions 

By the end of this workshop, you will have an understanding of the following:
 The challenges faced as a female coach e.g. confidence, communication, stress
 Sport and gender differences for coach consideration.
 Solutions and  strategies to overcome challenges. 

This workshop offers an interactive opportunity to share good coaching practice, and gain ideas that can be implemented in a coaching capacity.  

Understanding the Mental Barriers of Female Coaches
Coaches can expect to leave the workshop with knowledge of: 
 Factors and common problems that female coaches may face. 
 Simple guidance on how to overcome the barriers.  
 Why, what, when and how coaches can become more self aware. 

This workshop offers an interactive opportunity to share good coaching  practice, and develop ways to become more self awareness, and reflective as  coaches. 

Coaching Young Females – The Mental Tools 

This workshop will provide ideas for managing potential psychological issues
that may arise when coaching young female athletes. 
Coaches can expect to leave the workshop with the knowledge and understanding of: 
 The psychological differences between males and females and the  implications for coaches. 
 Basic psychological principles which are key for peak mental performance. 
 Understanding ways to implement mental skills training within the coaching  field. 

An important aim of the workshop is to provide an opportunity for exchange of  ideas based on both the attendees’ and the presenters’ experiences.

Feel free to sign up:

Sport is not just about winning or losing, but sometimes coaches get lost in this trap. The trap of allowing results determine their self worth, just as players allow their performance to determine how they feel about themselves. Yesterday, I listened to Baroness Sue Campbell at the Global Coach House conference, and she emphasized "Good coaches make good athletes, whereas great coaches make great people". This is everything I believe, and is in line with my philosophy used within my applied psychology work. I had the privledge to listen to many inspiring leaders over the past couple of days who have reinforced my beliefs and also what I teach in my performance psychology practice.

Self esteem is how you value yourself and your evaluation of self worth. I see it frequently, when a young person's self worth is based on their sporting ability. They feel good when they have played well, and feel bad when things haven't went their way. And for maladaptive perfectionists, they probably rarely feel good because of the unattainable expectations they put on themselves.

So what are we doing as coaches and leaders? Are you instilling perfectionist tendencies in your athletes? Are you task focused and your main drive is to teach people to be good people rather than a coach who is focused on winning games? How can you produce good people with morals and values, rather than just have an successful team based on results and outcomes?

Society often puts us into boxes, and even in the sports field. I have seen it many times, where an athlete is in a sport for a reason other than enjoyment. Whether it be that their parents like the sport, maybe the parent either succeeded or failed in the sport, or because they feel pressure to play that sport. By allowing young people to make their own choices on their sport, will enhance their intrinsic motivation, and in turn, keep more young people participating.

Allow people to participate in various sports and allow them to make the choice of what sport they, first of all, enjoy the most, and secondly, which makes them feel good about themselves. We have to empower young people to make their own decisions and to feel free to be who they want to be.

This goes in line with teaching individuality. Teaching young people to be themselves. I continue to emphasise uniqueness and ways to feel good about being different. To embrace who you are, and be okay to stand out and go against the grain. As athletes, we do that and also as coaches. We may not always conform to the societal norm...work a 9-5 job, go home, make dinner, watch some tv. As athletes, and coaches, we put in time and effort, we miss social engagements, and family events. We get up early to train, we stay up late. We spend money and time trying to be the best we can be. We spend many hours training and competing. We are evaluated constantly and probably constantly evaluate self. So with all of this, the most important thing that will keep us striving for excellence, is to enjoy. To enjoy what we do. To love what we do. To have passion. To feel good as a person. To value self and have confidence, not only in ability, but in ourselves as people. As coaches and leaders, I feel it's our duty to promote good people and I am glad that this is also what the pioneers of sporting change believe too. What action can you take today to promote good people in sport?

I really enjoyed delivering to a great bunch of participants at my most recent performance psychology workshop. I recieved a lot of positive feedback which you can see on my testimonial page.

The participants said by the end of the workshop they were able to: "recognize different levels of confidence and esteem";  "how different factors can effect confidence" and "how to deal with anxiety by turning it into a positive"

It also allowed for participants to "understand their self more, learn new skills and adapt current abilities"

I want to say a huge thank you to all participants and their input and inspiration to each other. Group discussions, and learning from each other was noted as a positive as well it being a laid back and interactive environment. Please see the above photo for participants ideas on building confidence.

I am also thankful for Kate Cooper and the Herballife team being very cooperative with the venue, and providing a great learning environment. I apologise for the little technical glitch, and will have that resolved for the next workshop! Lets continue to work together to ensure people are confident in, not only the things they do, but for who they are.