FAQs for Athletes, Parents & Coaches

  • Mental Performance Coaching, also known as “mental game coaching” or “mental toughness training,”  is a segment of sports psychology that concentrates specifically on helping athletes break through the mental barriers that are keeping them from performing up to their peak potential. By focusing on the mental skills needed to be successful in any sporting competition, mental game coaching seeks to achieve the overall goal of performance improvement. 

  • Mental Performance Coaching offers dedicated athletes the practical aspects of sports psychology that can help them improve performance using aspects of mental training from sports psychology. Mental Performance Coaching differs from psychotherapy in that it doesn’t deal with behavior issues, and there is no prescription medicine component. Instead, the focus is on teaching athletes how to improve focus, stay composed under pressure, maintain confidence, practice efficiently, and develop more effective pre-performance routines.

  • Mental Performance Coaching can provide a variety of benefits that are customized to the needs of the athlete. Benefits can include an increase in confidence, better mental preparation before competition, focusing better during competition, letting go of mistakes quickly, and performing more freely as a competitor. The benefits most athletes experience are tied directly to the challenges they’re experiencing when they first come to us at Mental Performance Sports.

  • We work with any athlete, team or performer in any sport or competitive arena who is open to change and is motivated to improving his or h er mental game. Our programs can be applied to any level of competition, and we have worked with ages ranging from Little League to Olympic teams and beyond.

  • At Mental Performance Sports, we offer individual coaching, virtual coaching, team workshops, coaching workshops, leadership summits, and parent seminars. There are different levels and lengths of each program type. We also offer our Leadership Academy for institutions like universities, school districts and sports clubs, which provides a comprehensive array of ongoing mental coaching on a year-round basis.

  • Our programs at Mental Performance Sports range from three to twelve months, and beyond. Most programs consist of at least one 50-minute coaching session per week. Some athletes and organizations have found benefits to working with us year after year. 

  • If you have the physical ability for your sport and are motivated to perform your best in competition, you are likely a good candidate to achieve results from Mental Performance Coaching. In particular if you feel that your results are inconsistent, that you are often distracted or unfocused during performance or in preparing for it, you typically do better in practice than in competition, or you don’t feel confident that you know you can succeed — then Mental Performance Coaching can help.

  • Your coach at Mental Performance Sports will guide you to selecting the right program for your mental game needs. Message us here to discuss and learn more about the options available to you.

  • Our Team Workshops are designed to identify and eliminate the barriers to better team performance, and learning routines that can help teams unify, develop a championships mindset, and stay “within the zone” longer. Our Leadership Summits are designed for both athletes and coaches to learn team leadership strategies that increase confidence, accountability, and results in competition.

  • The first step is a free, complimentary consultation to see if you/your athlete is a good candidate for mental performance coaching. If so, you’ll receive a mental game assessment to complete prior to your first coaching session with us. It takes about 30 minutes to complete, and then we’ll find a mutually agreeable time slot for your coaching sessions.

  • Yes! Athletes will have mental game assignments to complete between sessions to help apply the skills they’ve been given by their coach.

  • We understand! This is something we’re familiar with. Just ask us for tips about how to introduce the concept of mental performance coaching to them. 

  • Our founder, Marc Anderson, has been successfully assisting athletes of all ages and in all sports for more than 25 years. He is recognized as one of the foremost mental performance specialists for athletics in the United States.

  • Our offices are in the Chicago area, but our coaches train throughout the United States.