Sport Psychology Skills Clinics for Coaches and Leaders | Center for Sport Psychology and Athlete Mental Health

Sport Psychology Skills Clinics for Coaches and Leaders

Clinics are interactive presentations that provide in depth knowledge and experience with a wide range of key sport psychology skills and strategies as they apply to effective leadership, working with constituents (e.g., players, parents, subordinates), and improving communication and your team's performance. These clinics can last between 1-hour and several days, and are tailored to help you improve in your role as leader and/or develop your mental skills as a coach. In each clinic, through lecture, discussion and activities, you will be introduced to the strategy/topic, given the opportunity to practice it with the assistance of a consultant, and provided with materials to help you effectively implement the strategy/approach on your own outside of the clinic. Overall, the goal of the clinics is to provide you with practical, real-world strategies so you can make the performance improvements you desire.

*Prices for clinics will vary and be determined based on your needs, the topics covered, and duration of the clinic. For more information on pricing please contact us:
Phone: 940-369-(7767)
E-mail: sportpsych@unt.edu

Sport Psychology Presentation Topics:

Pre-performance Routines: Setting the stage for success
In this clinic, you will learn the fundamentals of pre-performance routines and gain knowledge of how these routines can assist you in increasing your own or your performers' confidence, concentration, anxiety control, and consistency. You will have the opportunity to construct your own routine.

Developing Championship Goals: Targeting success
In this clinic, you will learn the process of how to effectively set and adhere to championship goals. You will have the opportunity to create your own goals for the year, season, month, big competitions, and/or everyday practice. Specific emphasis will be placed on the development of strategies for achieving goals.

Imagery: What your mind believes your body achieves
In this clinic, you will be introduced to imagery and the different ways in which it can be used to improve performance, recover from injury, learn new skills, develop team cohesion and cope with stress. During the clinic, you will be able to develop imagery scripts for specific situations to help enhance performances.

Confidence through positive thinking
In this clinic, you will learn how to effectively control a major component of confidence - self-talk. You will be introduced to the value of positive self-talk and trained on how to incorporate it into your work. In addition, you will be taught the importance of handling you own negative dialogue, which often enters your mind during critical situations.

Emotional Control: Finding the "Go Zone"
This clinic will teach you about the effects of physiological, cognitive and emotional arousal on performance. An emphasis is placed on helping you understand and identify your own "go zone," so you understand the emotions, thoughts and physical feelings associated with peak performance. You will learn techniques on how to get into your own "go zone."

Attentional Focus: What's important right now?
In this clinic you will be introduced to the importance of concentration for achieving performance excellence. You will learn about a multi-factor system for conceptualizing attention and how understanding attention from this perspective can help you and your athletes control their focus to achieve performance excellence.

Anger Management: Staying in control to reach your ultimate goal
In this clinic, you will learn what anger is and how you experience it, ultimately creating your own "anger profile." Against the backdrop of real-world, personalized situations, you will learn strategies to manage your thoughts, physical feelings, and emotions so that your behaviors are not problematic and do not end up decreasing the cohesion and success of your team.

Stress and Coping: Avoiding burnout and establishing balance
This clinic will teach you about the process of stress - what it is, where it comes from, how it presents itself, and the possible short and long-term effects. It will provide you with useful tools on how to reduce stress and live a more balance life. In addition, it will address ways to recognize and avoid overtraining and burnout before it is too late.

Being an ethical and winning coach/leader
This clinic will introduce you to a set of ethical principles that can guide your behavior throughout your career. In addition, through discussion and real-world vignettes, you will have the opportunity to learn how to think critically and ethically about dilemmas that often arise for coaches/leaders. Finally, you will be given several strategies for evaluating your decisions and thus ensuring that your behavior always is ethical.

Developing mentally tough performers
In this clinic, you will be given an overview of the psychological skills/strategies that underlie mental toughness, including: confidence, goal-setting, pre-performance routines, emotional control, and attentional control. You will learn how these psychological skills and strategies play a significant role in performance success and how you foster the adoption of these skills by your players.

Positive coaching for youth sports
In this clinic, you will learn about helping children develop as athletes AND people. You will be introduced to the different stages of development and the latest research on how to work with children in sport to positively influence their lives. In addition, you will have the opportunity to discuss your own challenges/concerns when working with youth, and then develop strategies for remedying them.

Recognizing and handling "life" issues
In this clinic, you will learn how "life issues" can affect individual and team performance. Topics for this presentation can include: recognizing and dealing with substance abuse, depression and anxiety, preventing and treating eating disorders, or managing time and prioritizing activities.

Developing a cohesive team
In this clinic, you will learn how effective communication is the foundation of a cohesive and productive team. Topics for this presentation can include: development and acceptance of team roles, development and acceptance of team goals, effective communication strategies, and building trust.

Creating a win-win environment with parents
This clinic is for coaches who want to enhance their relationship with parents of athletes. Specifically, it will focus on providing strategies on how to deal with over-concerned or "challenging" parents. You will be introduced to specific strategies for structuring the preseason and actual season so parents are supportive of your goals and the work you are doing with their children. In addition, you will have the opportunity to discuss your own specific concerns when working with parents and will be provided with approaches to remedy those situations.

Becoming an effective leader
This clinic is for coaches who want to continue their development as effective leaders. You will have the opportunity to examine your strengths and weaknesses as a leader and understand your general style of leadership. Next, you will be introduced to different strategies for maximizing strengths and developing weaknesses. In addition, you will have the opportunity to discuss your own leadership challenges and receive feedback on how to best overcome them.

To learn more about our services, watch our introductory video