Medical school is a grueling, pressure packed degree program that is longer than an Olympic cycle. There are significant lessons in mental toughness that athletes and all individuals in the pursuit of excellence can learn from successful med school students. To find out what it takes, I sat down with my brilliant twin sister, Carly…
The mental toughness training athletes undergo before reaching the Olympic stage is not typically well documented or understood. In this article, I will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the psychological preparation athletes go through before the biggest event in sport. Mentally Preparing for the Olympics For the past year, I have had the opportunity to…
The formula for optimizing performance in any arena can be defined in two ways: Hacking the Mind and Body For example, an executive experiencing a performance slump due to high stress, can spend a great deal of time and money increasing their knowledge and practice of relaxation techniques to calm their system. But, if the…
Working through the injury rehabilitation process can be challenging for anyone experiencing an injury or recovering from surgery. Working with a Mental Notes sport psychologist like Dr Jay-Lee during this process is NOT just for athletes returning to sport, it’s for real people wanting to manage the journey of injury rehabilitation for optimal recovery and…
Burnout in our youth is a very real and prominent dilemma. Times have changed for young student-athletes (8-15 years old), training regimes have progressively become more intense, international competition exposure is not uncommon, and competing demands of homework and tuition is ever increasing. The fear of losing out (Kiasu), stemming from the Asian value of…
The Athlete Development Program (ADP) at the Australian International School is one-of-a-kind in Singapore schools, offering student-athletes the opportunity to train and be coached on a path to university scholarships and elite level sport. This semester, the ADP students added a new form of training to their repertoire, making further strides through sport psychology training…
Over the past few years, there has been an increase in visits to my office by parents with young athletes between 11–13 years of age. At first, this seemed like a positive movement, perhaps motivated by a desire to introduce mental skills training to help their children get ahead. However, there is one glaring dilemma…
Winning in match play isn’t just about hitting good shots and sinking putts. Match play is a mental battle with yourself and your opponent. Projecting an image of confidence when you are feeling edgy under pressure, keeping your cool when things don’t go your way, and being able to make great decisions at critical moments…
In my work as a performance psychologist, the conversation about raising self-confidence naturally comes up. I often here athletes tell me, “I know I need to be more self-confident, but I don’t want to be seen as cocky.” Some athletes have said they would rather be unconfident forever than be grouped into the cocky bunch…
Longbottom, J-L., Banting L., & Dimmock, J. A. (2009). Priming motivation an implicit level in the exercise setting: A novel approach to enhancing well-being and performance in exercise. Poster session presented at the annual conference of the Association of Applied Sport Psychology, Salt Lake City, UT, September 15-18.