You’ve probably heard of mental imagery for performance training. This well-researched technique enhances performance by “practicing” technical skills (in the mind’s eye) and simulating environments to boost familiarity in specific contexts (e.g., a soccer field in France, a sailing venue in Tokyo, or a basketball court in the next town over). Imagery also improves motivation, reduces competitive anxiety, and [...]
Athletic injuries can take a toll, not just on the body, but also on the psyche. For some athletes, their identity revolves around their sport; being injured can lead to feeling lost and big questions such as “Who am I?” Why are your emotional reactions to injury important? The body is attached to the brain and the heart. In [...]
Mindfulness and meditation are techniques often interwoven in mental performance training for athletes. Athletes tend to be kinesthetic learners. Because sport is all about movement, training techniques don’t just happen in the office; ideally, they’re integrated directly into physical training. In line with the Reaching Ahead Mental Performance emphasis on self-attunement, martial arts have long been a physical means [...]
Heading Towards Accomplishment? Let’s say you want to drive to Rehoboth Beach or somewhere else for a fun weekend get-away. Without finding Rehoboth on a map or with GPS, most of us would not know the best route. The sheer desire to go to the beach will not take us there; but the map or GPS that helps us [...]
What: BCIA Webinar: Sport Psych Meets Biofeedback When: September 21, 2018 at 2:00 pm Why: “Old school” sport psychology emphasizes ideas consistent with traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): “Control or suppress negative cognitive processes and everything will fall into place, emotionally, physiologically, and in terms of behavior/performance.” Recently, sport psychology has finally been catching up with third wave CBTs (e.g., [...]
“Baseball is 90% mental and 10% physical.” Most athletes, and even casual sports fans, have heard this famous Yogi Berra quote at one point or another. As a former swimmer, somebody who competed in an individual sport for the entirety of their athletic career, I think the numbers are closer to 99.9% mental and 0.1% physical. My swimming [...]
Hello readers! My name is Vadim Jacobson and I am thrilled to announce that I will be helping out Dr. Tim Herzog as an intern for this upcoming year. I will be learning about how to run a consulting practice, and will be directly assisting with marketing, social media, and writing a weekly blog about various topics in sport [...]
Hey! I’m Raegan Geldart, Reaching Ahead’s new intern. I am excited to be working with Dr. Tim Herzog on several projects this summer. One of which being this blog! Here I will talk about several mental performance skills or ideas in relation to girl’s lacrosse. This subject hits home for me for many reasons. Having grown up in the [...]
Recently, I asked Tory Tolson for a quick breakdown of the phases of training so I could better understand our both out process and our desired outcomes and goals. Here's what he had to say... Phase 1 He said that typically "Phase 1" would be ‘Corrective Exercise’ where we work to improve individual-specific muscular imbalances that are evaluated in [...]
When you set a goal, and the stakes feel high, it can be easy to make excuses after failures to avoid negative feelings such as regret, shame or guilt. Without thinking about why they do it, people sometimes make tasks harder than they need to be so that ready-made excuses “protect” them from feeling badly. The downside is missing [...]
Working out with Tory Tolson is fun. He will joke with you that it is “Woozy Wednesday…” (How is that motivating???) He seems generally serious but will quietly rock out to whatever pop song (old or new), or show you pictures of his latest giant snowman creation (see picture above). You won’t catch him ever being boastful, but this [...]
Truth be told, when I first began working out with Ryan Morrissey at PEAK, I think I initially felt like he was "nitpicky." Did it really matter if my feet were perfectly place such that I was standing over the arch of my foot, engaging my glutes and my core? (The answer is "yes"... it actually did matter). I [...]
A World Championship ahead and World Class people helping along the way...
The Reaching Ahead “Dirty Dozen” Mental Training Program is a year-long monthly Webinar series focused on the following skills (as outlined on the US Sailing Blog). It is a flexible, affordable way to gain a sailing-specific mental performance foundation.
I am working with many clients these days on goal-setting. That, by itself, is not a big switch. We still focus on SMART Goals. We focus on setting process goals that are within one's control. The switch is that we're using a really cool tool called "Goalscape." You can see it pictured below. With Goalscape, we're able to prioritize [...]
