I'm sure we can agree that nothing is quite as impactful as a good TRUE story of a life changed for the better. Today, I want to tell you about Mark Ehlen; he's one of the coaches in the Mindset Coach Academy who will be graduating with his Mindset Coach Certification (along with his class) in just a couple weeks. 

Mark's basketball resume is impressive, he is a heavily awarded, 30-year Division I college coach with a reputation for winning (to put it lightly). Due to his noteworthy coaching career, Mark was also inducted into the Hall of Fame; an honor well-deserved. Although he hung up his head coaching whistle a few years ago when he retired, coaching was never just a career for Mark; coaching is deeply engrained in him. 

With a lifetime of knowledge about the game of basketball and a deep respect for the mental game, a traditional retirement story arc never quite suited Mark. As he puts it: "I'm...

Being a volleyball setter isn't an easy job. Junior Jordan Timmer, a member of George Washington University's volleyball team in Washington, D.C., learned that the hard way.

Compared often to the quarterback of a football team, the setter's skill and toughness is key to a team's overall success. That's why when Timmer realized her skills were slipping last season -- and when she eventually lost her setter position -- she made a move to improve, entering into a lottery for mental training from one of the best volleyball setters out there: Olympian Courtney Thompson, who also works with Positive Performance as a Mental Training Coach.

Timmer knew it was time to boost her performance, empower her mind, and put her team back in the place they wanted to be: the winner's circle.

And she did. After training over the summer with Courtney, her team "is off to its best start since the 2011-12 season."

 [Tweet "I'm earning my place with mental training from...

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...

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...

Before mental training

Not long ago, the coaches of Niagara University's Women's Basketball team, including Head Coach Kendra Faustin and Assistant Coach Corinne Jones, felt their program had untapped potential.

In 2013, they knew they wanted to make a change in their team’s collective mindset. More specifically, they knew, in order to get to the next level of performance, there were

4 things they needed to address

1. “Get Over It.”

   Failure, that is. A fear of failure across the board in their program was manifesting itself in competition. The team would have great practices but were overly nervous about their performance when game time came, resulting in losses and, ironically, failure.

2. “Drop the Language.”

   The Niagara athletes held on to a lot of negative self-talk (e.g. “I can’t believe I missed that layup in the first half”). Basically, “I can’t” was heard way too often.

3. Confidence Un-Boost

   Each...