Our team of experts are here to help you understand and effectively deal with the situations you will face in competition and in training so that you are free of the distractions that can hamper performance.

Charles Swindell writes, "The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me, is more important than the facts..."

This is the first part of a two part series on building dynamic confidence through the power of imagery and word suggestion.

Centering is a refocusing skill that allows the athlete to recover composure, and to redirect focus. It is promoted as a basic stress control technique.

Choking, what is it? How is choking prevented? How is choking overcome?

Why do some athletes choke or get crazy with anger in adverse competitive situations and other athletes stay calm and focused on the job at hand? Find out how to stay focused to win!

Before you ever can be a championship team, you first must develop a championship attitude. Find out the four important characteristics that you need to get to the top!

Distraction is damaging to your athletic performance - it interferes with your ability to focus, grabs away your attention you need to apply to maintain good technique, and it causes stress.

Very powerful thoughts, images and emotions are just like heavy weights. They require more energy and therefore are more stressful. With this understanding, how do you build mental and emotional weakness into strengths?

The zone is characterized by a combination of feelings including high self-confidence, a task focus, fearless attitude, and self-composure. The mind and body work in harmony to produce optimal performance. It is impossible to force yourself into the zone, but you can create a mindset that helps you enter the zone more often.

Psychologists call it "the holistic sensation people feel when they are totally involved, or in automatic pilot." Michael Jordan calls it "being in the zone."

Athletes, as with all people, fall into two motivational classes: 1) those who truly want success, and 2) those who simply try to avoid failure. Which are you?

One of the techniques used for goal setting is called Goal Trees. It is a system of designing long term goals, then building the steps it takes to reach those goals.

Distraction is damaging to your performance because it interferes with your ability to focus and it disrupts flow. It also interferes with the attention that you need to apply to maintain good technique. This causes stress and consumes mental energy that is better applied to your game!

Swiss Triathlete, Brigitte McMahon, stated that she had visualized the final sprint to the finish of the 2000 Olympic Games in her mind many times before ever coming to the Olympics in Sydney. Brigitte claims that this technique gave her the advantage because she was prepared for it...in fact, she planned the outcome already - in her mind.

Pressure has always been a part of sports. In fact, it's the essence of competitive sports. The great ones learn how to deal with the problems of competitive stress. Learn how you can too!

Tips and techniques on how to use imagery to enhance performance, build confidence, accelerate reaction time and improve coordination and accuracy.

Self-Esteem is a core issue because it affects every aspect of your life, not just sports performance.

Focus is an important element in sports. Focus in a skill, a skill like any other in sport. To improve it takes training and practice. Learn the secrets to improving your focus.

Mental skills expect Beasey Hendrix explains why the mental side of sports is critical to successful sports performance.

Keeping focused on the right things, at the right time is an important key to having a successful performance. Understand what you need to do to keep your head in the game!

Morphing can do several things; it helps the athlete deal with pressure, gives the athletes the opportunity to try something new, it is a new mental game to play, and in puts fun into training.

According to Olympic champion Steve Fraser, "Your future as an athlete is much more dependent on what decision you make, rather that on your genetic make up." The key is choosing your attitude and learning how to think.

How does a champion think? What makes them different from all of the rest?

"No pain, no gain." Is it a winning philosophy for you or not? You must determine whether it is based on the issues of "over training and under training."

There are three aspects that should be included in any training program; technical improvement and refinement, physical conditioning, and mental practice.

To be a peak performer you need to play in the zone - having your mind and body working with one another in perfect unison. Tips and techniques to get you there.

Anxiety is a natural part of performing, whether you are on the baseball diamond, giving a speech, or taking the SAT's. Even seasoned veterans get butterflies before the big game. Where problems begin is if you focus on the wrong things.

Persistence, determination, and a strong work ethic are excellent qualities to possess in any endeavor. But in sports, if taken to an extreme these qualities that breed success can cause failure.

When you are not feeling motivated towards an event or competition, you may need to psych yourself up. This will allow you to raise your level of arousal so that you can perform effectively.

Athletes at the top know that when physical differences between individuals are reduced, it is often the mentally stronger athlete who pulls out the victory. But before searching into the bag of mental skills, you need to develop an athletic self-awareness.

Setbacks are a part of sport. One of the best ways to deal with a disappointment or a setback is to be prepared for it. All athletes need to learn how to refocus quickly after they have become distracted or experience adversity. Tips and techniques to rise above it all from an Olympic champion who has been there!

A warm up ritual can offer time for mental preparation, planning strategies, tactics and even help with stress control - which will help your athletic performance.

Self-confidence is arguably one the most important traits an athlete can possess today.

Now is the time that offers both athletes and coaches a challenge - that of making new goals. What do we need to do? How do we accomplish that? Where do we go from here? These questions must be answered before an athlete can set goals and effectively move forward.

Almost all athletes "talk to themselves" during competition. Many of these thoughts help performance, and other thoughts harm performance. One thing is for sure, successful athletes control their self-talk.

There is a secret of success in goal setting. Here is the secret: sit in a quiet room with a yellow legal pad and a pen. Make a lest of all your goals for this year, now do this...

Many athletes have trouble sleeping on the day before competitions. This is normal problem that annoys many athletes. This problem is called insomnia – the inability to achieve restful sleep. Fortunately, there are ways that you can learn to control this problem.

Do you crumble under the pressure of big games? Does your performance suffer because you lack the composure necessary to effectively execute your talents and abilities? Learning how to stay composed under pressure is a key skill for performing your best in any situation.

Stress can be a friend or foe. Too little stress and you will under-aroused, too much stress and you will be over-aroused, either way your performance will suffer. Learn how to deal with stress.

Too much stress and anxiety can seriously affect your ability to focus on your skills and flow in an athletic performance. It is important that you realize that you are responsible for your own stress level. Very often they are a product of the way that you think.

What is momentum? In sports, momentum is a feeling or idea that you are playing well and that luck is on your side. It is also characterized by a feeling that you will continue to play well.

Imagine for a moment that you are relaxing in your favorite lazy chair one afternoon and you fall asleep. You start dreaming about a magical coach that comes up to you and gives you a small computer device that he calls a success machine...

2x Olympic Gold medalist Cathy Turner talks about how visualization turned around her athletic career and paved the way for Olympic Gold.

Do people tell you that you often lose focus, or that you don't know what is going on? You need to learn how to refocus - we are always focused, but it may be on the wrong things!

What is Mental Toughness? By definition, toughness is ?to be strong and resilient; able to withstand great strain without tearing or breaking.? Toughness is being able to create positive emotions upon command, enabling you to bring all your talent and skills to life in a moment, no matter what is happening around you.

Training Stress Syndrome affects many people in all areas of life, not just the athletes! Learn how to recognize the signs and avoid the final result - BURNOUT!

Most athletes maintain high expectations especially if they have had past success. When an athlete doesn't meet these expectations, frustration, irritation, anger, or feeling of failure emerge.

We regularly carry on an inner dialogue with ourselves, this is called self talk. Your self talk can be negative and self destructive, or it can be positive and helpful. The key point is that you choose what you say to yourself.

Stress is a common element in sport. But when stress levels get too high, here are the signs to recognize the major symptoms of stress that you might be feeling.