Tracking Mental Skills Improvement
How do you track your athletes’ improvement and quantifying the effectiveness of mental training?
One problem with mental coaching is measuring the effectiveness of your programs with your athletes…
You have to rely on self-reports from athletes unless you can use some solid statistical evidence for improvement.
A problem with self-reports is that they’re not always precise.
The athlete’s perception and memory get in the way of the accuracy or self-reports.
We certainly like to see improvements improvements in athletes’ confidence, focus, composure, and their ability to handle mistakes–over weeks and months.
The same question came up in one of our mastermind meetings, how to you measure outcomes of your mental training?
We decided to put a simple tool together to measure outcomes. We call it the AMAT which stands for “Athlete’s Mental Aptitude Test.”
In order to measure improvements in athletes’ mental game with accuracy, we developed both a pre-coaching and post-coaching one-page test.
Once again, you are relying on athletes perception and memory but at least you are able to start with a baseline of the athlete’s self-report and any perceived improvements in various mental skills.
I’ve tested it on a couple athletes, and the AMAT works well so far.
You can also assess at any statistical improvements, such as a lower scoring average, higher scores on a beam routine, or an improved batting average.
However, the statistical improvements are due to several factors, not just your mental training efforts.
That’s why the AMAT pre-coaching and post-coaching test assesses the athletes self-report and an improvement of mental skills.
**The AMAT is now included in the MGCP program**
In the MGCP certification program you’ll receive these tests:
–The AMAP assessment.
–Sport parent assessment.
–The pre-coaching and post-coaching test (AMAT).
–The TCAP or team cohesion profile.
These tools are designed to help you become more efficient and organized with your mental game coaching.
If you want to learn my entire mental training process with athletes, join the spring session of the MGCP certification program….
If you already completed an application, please contact us at 888-742-7225 and request the enrollment forms.
Here’s what a recent graduate had to say about the course:
“Dr. Cohn, You have provided me with a very organized and effective structure (including training materials) for coaching mental skills. I was already applying some of these strategies while still undergoing the program, and the feedback from my athletes was very positive. I wished I’d done this certification course earlier!”
~HANSON BAY, BA, PE, MGCP
Related Mental Coaching Articles:
- Helping Athletes Apply Mental Skills
- Become a Mental Coach or Sports Psychologist
- My System for Doing Mental Coaching with Athletes
Apply To Be In The MGCP Program!
Upon acceptance into the Mental Game Coaching Professional (MGCP) program, you’ll be given assess to the MGCP documents and to the peaksportsnetwork.com membership web site, start dates and times of each video conference, and how to access the video conference.
The MGCP video conference certification program is taught by video conference over a period of 10 weeks, meeting for two hours each week, but the course can take up to 12 weeks to complete (due to holidays and such).
By the end of the certification program (provided you have completed all requirements for graduation), you will receive a certification from Peak Performance Sports, LLC as a certified Mental Game Coaching Professional!
Have questions about the MGCP program? Read our FAQ. Find out what is included in the MGCP program. Call 888-742-7225 or email us at Peak Performance Sports