How To Hire A Mental Toughness Coach

I have been a mental toughness coach to top-level athletes for over 30 years. All my athlete clients are in demanding sports, requiring incredible reserves of mental power and resilience. I love coaching them, and I love training their minds. I was a top athlete myself, in two sports at the national level. I won six college conference championships and was inducted into a Tennis Hall Of Fame. I was an NCAA Division-I Head Coach, owned a west-coast tennis academy and coached eleven state champions and seven national champions. I was mental toughness coach to a four-time World Champion and twelve-time Gold Medalist in downhill ski racing. One of my clients, Miriam Nakamoto, recently won her third world kickboxing championship, and became the first U.S. woman to hold the WBC Muay Thai World title, in a title fight in Beijing, China. I have coached thousands of athletes in over 55 sports.

Hollywood called me to create, write and produce a series of TV pilots around my work as a mental toughness coach.

I was the first person in the world to earn an undergraduate college degree in sports psychology. I also have two graduate degrees in related fields. I taught college 15 years and was a master teacher in education, training other teachers. I conducted original research and have published over 350 articles in my field. The electronic and print media contact me weekly for stories and background.

I tell you this because whoever you hire as your mental toughness coach needs to have experienced what you are experiencing. They also need to have had success themselves as athletes, because only if they have gone through the crucible of hard-core training, and wicked, pressure-packed competition, can they relate to you. Only if they themselves have succeeded as an athlete, teacher, researcher and coach, can they devise ways to coach you on the mental secrets they used as an athlete, and as a coach.

Please carefully examine the credentials of mental toughness coaches who have only academic degrees, and limited experiences as athletes, coaches and teachers. They have a limited set of experiences with which to help you succeed.

Here are six things you want to look for when you are researching a mental toughness coach so you can make your hiring decision with peace of mind.

1. A Top-Notch Mental Toughness Coach Attracts Top Athletes. I have coached world champions, national champions, state champions, All-American College stars and professional athletes. I was mental toughness coach for Erik Weihenmayer, perhaps the most famous blind athlete in history. He remains the only blind person in history to climb to the top of Mount Everest.
   
   
2. A Top-Notch Mental Toughness Coach Has Experience As A Mental Coach For National Or International Teams. I have been the Mental Coach for the Israeli Davis Cup National tennis team and a Mental Consultant for the Irish National Cricket Team.
   
   
3. A Top-Notch Mental Toughness Coach Has International Travel Experience. I have traveled throughout the world with my clients as they experienced the rigors of major international competitions. I have coached at the U.S. Open, Wimbledon and Davis Cup in tennis, and other major events.
   
   
4. A Top-Notch Mental Toughness Coach Helps You Understand And Overcome The Paradox Of Success. It is one thing to get to the top, and quite another to stay there. A mental toughness coach shows you how to avoid being a "flash in the pan", or a "one hit wonder", and builds sustainable peak performance in your game.
   
   
5. A Top-Notch Mental Toughness Coach Helps You Understand And Overcome The Fear Of Failure. A good coach helps you convert the fear of losing into a determined, tough, no-quit mindset, and helps you come to terms with losing so it no longer has any power over you.
   
   
6. A Top-Notch Mental Toughness Coach Helps You Understand And Overcome Life Stress Issues That Impact Your Sport Experience. If you have life stresses that are pulling at you, and keeping you off balance, this dramatically affects your sport performance. A good mental toughness coach helps you devise a plan for handling these stressors so you stay on track.

A mental toughness coach can be an indispensable member of your training team. They should be able to guide you past the inevitable blind alleys and mental pitfalls that exist in training and competition. Ask the right questions. Hire the right person. Do that and you will accelerate your learning and training and reach more of your potential as an athlete. And that's what it's all about, isn't it?