“Do you see the happiness? All coming from the inside. This is what you do.  

This is what you instill in your athletes: Inner strength and self-confidence.”

- Father of a young athlete

We all like excitement. It makes us feel alive. In my work, I train others to create it...

Now that I’m writing articles for youth development athletes for a major sport publication, I have no doubt that I have a solid core of parents who read the column in order to see how they can help their young athletes be more focused and consistent athletes. I learned long ago in...

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE OR LISTEN TO THE PODCAST BELOW

In this ZoneTalk episode, Bob sits down with Sensei Heather Fidyk, a 7th-degree black belt in Wado Kai Karate and experienced international competitor, who has been coaching in karate for more than 25 years.

She is the co-founder and...

In Bob's "Ask Bob" series, he received this question from Duncan in Phoenix, Arizona. Here is Duncan's question regarding well-meaning advice from others:

Hi Bob. Everyone at the club gives me advice. Why isn't it working?

Well, Duncan, there are a number of reasons why it is not...

“I want to get better,” he said.  “I need to be a smarter player.”

I work with many different athletes on their high performance such as one promising young hockey player. At the outset, he had great passion and guts but limited confidence and skills. Slowly but...

Three strategies for staying focused when comments distract your game

This article addresses a question that Gloria sent to Bob for his "Ask Bob" column. Read the article below with Bob's response to Gloria. 

Hi, Bob. My name is Gloria. The other day I was going out to...

Terry was a fledgling high school tennis player when I first started working with him—a cousin had referred him. He was big for his age and skillful with a crushing serve, but less than skillful players were constantly beating him. I noticed that in our Skype sessions he could barely...

David is a golfer. He was already in college and it was going less well than he would have liked.  Getting on the traveling team was hit and miss and he was pretty discouraged, as he only made the tournament team for two out of 10 competitions. 

We worked on his Zone and strategies to...

Craig is a Division 2 baseball player whom I briefly met when he was just entering high school. He already had a fire in his eyes but was stubbornly unwilling to work with any “mental” high-performance trainer at that time. As he entered high school, he initially set his sights on...

Getting an NCAA scholarship in hockey is extremely competitive these days from a Canadian standpoint, especially as the USA is taking the world by storm as the number two producer of players in the numbers category.  Northern States such as Minnesota have programs that have dominated...

My friend Dan is a white-water canoeing aficionado, not at an Olympic level, but for fun. Now that he is retired and has more free time, four or five times a year he travels across Canada and launches his canoe into churning, foaming, frothing rivers, clad in a wetsuit, supplies sealed in...

Building character in your teen athlete | Lessons on learning from adversity in sport

Top athletes by nature are perfectionists. Not only do they want it “now,” they want it to be achieved somewhat painlessly—as do their parents. And thus far, I’ve rarely, if ever, seen...