Coaching Athletes

In Every Moment Matters, renowned coach educator John O'Sullivan has collected hundreds of interviews with top coaches, sport scientists, psychologists, and athletes and distilled them into a blueprint for becoming a more effective and inspiring leader. Great coaches realize something that others do not: Every moment matters!

Troy Horne here. Your mental-toughness guide! I am here to help parents understand how to help your young athlete navigate this mental-toughness journey. I know where you are, and I know how to help you help your young athlete find their mental toughness.

Mark Messier is one of the most accomplished athletes and dynamic leaders in the history of professional sports. He won the Stanley Cup five times with the Edmonton Oilers during their dynasty years and once more with the New York Rangers, ending the team’s 54-year championship drought. He is second on the all-time career lists for playoff points and third for regular season games played and for regular season points. Notably, he is the only player to have captained two different NHL franchises to championships.

Ever felt not good enough? Struggling with anxiety before significant games or crumbling under pressure? Maybe you're stuck despite countless hours of training, or merely seeking that extra edge. Whatever your situation, the answer is one: develop mental strength.

This is the first guide to motivational interviewing (MI)—the proven approach to harnessing the power of conversations to build relationships and trust—for coaches, sport psychologists, training and rehabilitation specialists, and other affiliated staff. Revealing why conventional ways of giving feedback and addressing conflict are often counterproductive, this audiobook presents tried-and-tested methods for getting through to athletes and helping them to thrive.

In The Champion's Mind, sports psychologist Jim Afremow, PhD, LPC, now offers the same advice he uses with Olympians, Heisman Trophy winners, and professional athletes, including tips and techniques based on high-performance psychology research, such as how to get in a "zone," thrive on a team, and stay humble; how to progress within a sport and sustain excellence long-term, and customizable pre-performance routines to hit full power when the gun goes off or the puck is dropped.

Mindfulness, cognitive flexibility, and overall mental game are often overlooked when it comes to youth coaching for any sport. However, these areas are vital to truly unlocking any young person’s potential in the sporting arena. They say you need to “get your head in the game” - and no truer words have ever been spoken.

CrossFit trainer Ben Bergeron has helped build the world's fittest athletes, but he's not like other coaches. He believes that greatness is not for the elite few; that winning is a result, not a goal; and that character, not talent, is what makes a true champion. His powerful philosophy can help anyone excel at all aspects of life. Using the dramatic competition between the top contenders at the 2016 Reebok CrossFit Games® as a background, Ben explores the step-by-step process of achieving excellence and the unique set of positive character traits necessary for leveling up to world-class. The mindset and methodology that have produced some of the greatest athletes in the world's most grueling sport can work equally well for golfers, lawyers, artists, entrepreneurs - anyone who's willing to commit totally to becoming better than the best.

The modern day youth sports environment has taken the enjoyment out of athletics for our children. Currently, 70% of kids drop out of organized sports by the age of 13, which has given rise to a generation of overweight, unhealthy young adults. There is a solution. John O'Sullivan shares the secrets of the coaches and parents who have not only raised elite athletes, but have done so by creating an environment that promotes positive core values and teaches life lessons instead of focusing on wins and losses.

How do we go from proficiency to mastery in sports? From average to elite. From having a “lot of moving parts” to being economical and efficient in our movements. From feeling rushed and pressured to slowing time down and acting like you knew what was going to happen all along. From deciding to take the best option available to moving to shape and change the options afforded to us. From building easily disrupted and broken skills to adaptable and even anti-fragile ones, getting stronger through being challenged.

The Playmaker on any team makes the right decision at the right time, almost every time. Despite the constraints of time, tactics, and rules, the best players combine their vision and skills with razor-sharp decision accuracy for an unstoppable competitive advantage. As a follow-up to The Playmaker’s Advantage, their best-selling guide for athletes, coaches, and parents, Daniel Peterson and Dr. Leonard Zaichkowsky now focus on the split-second decision-making process that produces both clutch plays and mental mistakes.

Introducing Mental Toughness for Young Athletes, a book filled with proven strategies for athletes in the cheerleading world. While your competitors also work on the physical aspects of their game, and the gains are marginal, you will have the upper hand on all of them by becoming more mentally tough.

This audiobook will help a parent understand the value of the time spent in youth sports. It's a helpful tool for parents and coaches to evaluate the progress of a youngster not just in a sport but in their level of confidence in life, their leadership skills, their growth as a person, and the way they relate to others. This is a great tool if you're a new parent or in the middle stages parenting it provides you with ideas and exmples to help you develop a great foundation for your children success in sports and other areas of life.

Every athlete has the same goal: victory. Game Changer: The Elite Athletes Guide to Peak Performance brings together the best of the best for taking any athlete from any sport and catapulting their performance to the top, fast. Combining the most cutting-edge scientific wisdom with real-life case studies, Game Changer provides a clear blueprint to victory and will put you at the top of your game faster than anything you’ve ever experienced.

Do you put 110 percent effort into your training sessions and still see no improvement? Are you looking for a simple guide that summarizes the best habits used by today's top athletes? The truth is...some of us train our hearts out and see little improvement. And some of us are just getting started and don't know where to begin. This audiobook is for athletes from all levels of experience - from your first few steps to your last stroke in an Olympic swim. You might be looking for motivation to go on your first run. Or you might be ready to trial for your country's Olympic team.

Now, for the first time, athletes from all sports and skill levels can easily learn and master the same Sport Psychology Training Skills previously only available to professional and Olympic-level athletes. Own the Game will provide you the hands-on tools necessary to increase your self-confidence, focus, concentration, and poise -ultimately allowing you to play to your highest athletic level!

The power to become better, greater, more refined versions of ourselves is something that each one of us possesses. It is a power with which we are born, like infinite gold inside the equally infinite mine shafts that are our minds. Now, to get at that gold - there is the rub. Since time immemorial people have struggled to manage the darkness within themselves. How do we reckon our possibilities with our capabilities? How do we overcome the difficulties within? How do we shake off the invisible sandbags that seem to drag us down and run faster, jump higher, push harder?

Do I want to become an elite coach in my sport? Do I want inspire my players to be successful in sport, but also in their lives? Do I want to learn qualities that make me a great coaching candidate? 50 Things to Know About Coaching, by Shane A. Reinhard, offers an approach to coaching sport that is not just about wins and losses, but more about skill development, relationship building, and being successful outside of sport.

Dr. Jennifer Etnier offers a system of positive coaching that can be applied to any sport, and explains that good coaching requires working with young athletes at their developmental level and providing feedback designed to keep children engaged and having fun. Etnier gives easy-to-understand guidance on important aspects of successful coaching-including information on the development of children's motor skills, communication with a young athlete's parents, and nurturing a growth-oriented mindset-making this a critical resource for youth coaches of all experience levels.

Athletes desire—and deserve—a more substantive expression of the Christian faith in the context of sport, but they don’t know what it looks like or where to turn to learn more. Author Brian Smith shares his story as an athlete and coach, and his experience working with high-level athletes in the last decade to help listeners better understand how to integrate faith and sport.