Fitness resolutions are some of the most common, and toughest, goals people create for themselves. Why is that? Well, likely because “fitness” doesn’t involve just one specific thing, but a whole slew of miniature commitments that all must be taken seriously for the ultimate goal to be achieved. And, when those smaller components aren’t taken seriously, that’s when excuses creep in to mess up those good intentions.

How many fitness resolutions are in your fitness resolution, exactly?

One of the main reasons why 92% of people fail to achieve their New Year’s fitness resolution is because they’ve improperly considered the actual goal they've set for themselves. In other words, the goal is too vague; the resolution is actually composed of several explicit goals rolled into one.

For instance, we all know “getting fit” doesn't happen by a flip of a switch! There are lots of factors and sub-factors to consider, like…

1. ...

With the switching of calendars comes the all too common New Year’s wish:

“I want to change me.”

Many people’s New Year’s Resolutions refer to weight loss, a career change, or a new outlook on life. But, for athletes and coaches, what does “change” really mean? Does it refer to something that can be seen or touched, like a different workout regimen, a new schedule, an alteration of pace or program? Or does it mean something less material, like a switching of attitude or perspective about the game overall?

Any of these things can affect an athlete’s performance for better or worse. But, without solid performance goals set in place, measuring those changes will be difficult and possibly even pointless.

Designed to create goals

Human beings are natural record keepers. We like to know where we’ve been so we can know where we’re going. From warfare to finances to relationships, recordkeeping, whether written down or merely kept...

What New Year’s Resolution can help you be happier, healthier and less stressed?

We've all tried the resolutions to eat better, exercise more, watch less TV. Blah blah blah. This year, why not try something different? Something that can help you be happier, healthier and less stressed. Even better, it’s something that is actionable and concrete; and it can be done in less than 10 minutes a day.

So for your resolution this year, join coaches from all over the country for our popular 5-Day Coaches Meditation Challenge? After all:

"Studies have shown that meditation can cause parts of the brain associated with learning and memory to grow in size and those connected with stress and anxiety to shrink."-Goldin, P. R., & Gross, J. J.

Plus, our challenge is FREE! It's part of our mission to help coaches and athletes be better in all they do.

Ready to join us for our 5-Day Coaches Meditation...

Last week we opened up a conversation about what leadership in athletics means, starting with these two concepts:

1. Leadership means giving, not taking.
2. Leadership means you want to serve, not be served.

We ended the previous article by discussing how military training and athletics share an interesting commonality: both require hardcore mental and physical strength. We’ve made this comparison times before, and for good reason.

1.     Leadership means being a role model

Whether you’re leading your team officially under a title banner (e.g. as Coach, Quarterback, Captain, etc.) or unofficially, it’s important to consider a hard truth: eventually your position will be taken over by someone else.

Lt. Col. Stacy Clements of the U.S. Air Force wrote a commentary on leadership recently. Much of the article was dedicated to military-specific concepts, but, having related athletics to business AND the military, it was interesting that the Lt....

Previously, we published an article about leadership in athletics. More precisely, the article discussed how igniting a strong leadership mentality within each athlete infuses mental strength throughout the team.

That article only touched briefly on the subject of leadership, so we decided to delve further into what it means to be a great leader with this two-part leadership article, “Selfishness is Out of Season”.

1.    Leadership means giving, not taking

Sometimes individuals who are new to a leadership role confuse the purpose of their position. Leadership is not about taking charge; it’s about giving guidance.

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant." - Max De Pree

Managing an athletic team, whether you’re a coach or captain, is a lot like running a business: you need to weigh decisions, manage personnel, create strategic action plans, assess outputs, etc....

It wasn't that the Golden Eagles weren't tough. It was just that they lacked mental toughness. Patti Hoelzle is the head volleyball coach for Ferndale High School in Ferndale, Washington. She has a skilled team with the right level of fitness. A team consistently comprised of amazing athletes, tall and athletic girls who do well during practices... Now, that is. Before mental training came into play, they were a completely different team during matches.

The (mental toughness training) problem

In addition to the team unraveling during games, Coach Hoelzle had to consider retraining the athlete’s parents. She needed them to understand their young daughters were impressionable; that their conversations were affecting their children’s performance. What conversations, exactly? Well, the town enjoys a very successful youth athletic program. Unfortunately, that often means the parents almost automatically expect their children to win upon entering...

We just completed a survey of 137 coaches and saw that the majority of teams don’t use a structured and consistent program. Instead, they rely on homegrown solutions, guest speakers, or books to guide them. These tools, while with their merits, rarely deliver meaningful and measurable long-term results.

While most coaches and athletes understand the importance of the mental game, it previously has been very difficult to implement a structured & comprehensive mental training program. It involved a lot of trial and error and often times required the coaches and organization to first learn and then develop a program. Doing so typically takes a few years to build and most organizations forgo this investment and suffer from under-performance issues, low confidence, and inconsistency in their teams and players.

Just like any other skill, mental training should be as structured and methodical as any type of physical training. It’s a simple equation,...

At Positive Performance, we love hearing from clients about how mental training has changed their lives and their games. Read what a coach from the GA5 Volleyball Club in Georgia had to say about our program.

A Letter from a GA5 Volleyball Coach

I’ve been actively coaching with an elite club for two years. I served as an assistant coach my first year, where I learned the ropes of club coaching and how the junior system worked.

I was hands on with the girls. But, as I watched a very good and athletic group struggle to close games, get frustrated on the floor, and lose faith in their game,

I knew they needed more of something.

I knew there was something that could help them get over the mental challenges they faced; something to help them focus on what they could control, as opposed to what they couldn’t; something that would help them play better together as a team.

GA5 goes to AVCA

As a coach, I am always looking to learn new and different techniques to push...

Photo from giveitbackfoundation.org

In an effort to keep things short and sweet, we wanted to share a couple of audio clips from an interview Positive Performance's Co-Founder Lindsey Wilson conducted with 2012 silver-medalist and Volleyball Olympian Courtney Thompson.

How To Mentally Prepare.

Being a great athlete has a lot to do with how one prepares their mind, not only going into the game, but long before and long after. Here, Courtney talks about how she prepares herself.

For a transcription of this video, click here.

The mental game.

Born in 1984 in Kent, Washington, Courtney understood early on that having a clear mission was important to her success as a volleyball player. Listen as Courtney talks to Lindsey about...

• How she developed her mental game;
• Why she feels mental strength is important; and
• how she continues to harness her mental strength to continually improve.

"What sets Courtney apart is, she battles."

- Hugh McCutcheon, Olympic Gold &...

Summary: Every team trains and competes on the physical level. But time and time again, athletes fail to play to their potential because they don't train the mental side of sports. While it isn't rocket science, it can be very time consuming and difficult to implement mental training. In this webinar, we teach four surefire methods to immediately improve your athletes' performance.

In this webinar we cover:

1. Why Mental Training is the only way to reduce the gap between performance vs. potential.
2. How to have great practices and develop focus in your athletes.
3. Why most athletes aren't ready to compete and how to get them ready.
4. How to learn to remain positive, after every competition. Even after a big loss.

Watch the Webinar on the Four Exercises to Improve Mental Toughness on your Team

Presented by Lindsey Wilson

Resources:

• Learn how to get your athletes focused and ready to practice
• Develop the right arousal level and maintain the peak state for competition

Get your...