Get a new sports mindset for 2026!

INTRODUCTION

Control your controllables!

This is a workbook for young athletes and those who support them; parents, coaches, trainers or teachers.

So I want you to engage with it, answer questions that you think are interesting and move through it, learning new things as you go.

It’s a workbook so write all over it, underline things, highlight things and use it to develop your sports’ mindset.

So let’s begin!

I’ve made a list of all the benefits you might be enjoying from your sport and it would be great if you could think about each one and whether you feel it applies to you:

a)    Tick those you agree with

b)    Underline the three most important

Learning from your coach or teacher’s feedback

The joy of winning and competing

Being with friends, making friends

Learning new skills and improving my performance

Becoming confident in my sport

Doing something I love

Overcoming my anxiety and nerves

Learning resilience

Other (write in) ………

Do you think any of these have also benefited you at home with your family? In what way?

What about at school? In what way?

Look back at the list of those you haven’t ticked or underlined. Which do you feel you would like to work on through this workbook? Circle them.

What improvement would these have on

a)    The enjoyment of your sport?

b)    Performance of your sport

c)    Your personal development

Our thoughts are powerful so it is really important to know how your mind works and how you can fine-tune it to bring about what you need.

Focus is key

You cannot control whether you win because that is not in your control. There are so many unknowns:

-       The competitors

-       The judges

-       Umpire/Referee decisions

-       Weather

-       Injuries

-       Just plain old luck!

Yet there is so much pressure to win isn’t there?

What’s the first thing your parents and friends ask?

"Did you win?"

"Did you score?"

"How many goals?"

But are you going to focus on things you can’t control?

What if you paid attention instead to what you can control?

You can’t control the result but you can control whether:

-       you played well

-       you progressed in what you’re working on

-       you applied that idea your coach suggested

-       you managed to stay calm under pressure

-       you supported your team members

-       you had a positive mindset

Girl enjoying her sport

Take a look back at that list. It wasn’t all about the winning was it?

You have to balance what feels right to you with meeting the expectations of others.

The immense pressure you are under to win can create anxiety, self-doubt and stress.

Many leave the sport they love because they can no longer take the pressure and no longer enjoy playing.

By reading this book and working through the exercises, you will:

-       Gain an understanding of how your own mind works (all minds are not the same!)

-       How to get the best from it by feeding it with the thoughts it needs

-       Noticing what works and doing more of it

-       Gaining skills to outwit nerves and anxiety

-       Learning to control what you can control and letting go of what you can’t control

-       Welcome feedback with curiosity and intent to learn from it

-       Pick yourself up from failure and try again

You never know, maybe you will notice other benefits in your life outside of sport.

It’s hard to break through from a fixed mindset. But you can create more choice and flexibility from new information and new skills.

You may experience unhelpful emotions before an event, during it, or after it. These feelings can be challenging. Sport can bring up so many of them, some helpful and others unhelpful. Nothing is good or bad. Let’s see them as helpful and unhelpful.

My focus for this book is to help anyone who wants to find some new ways to improve their mindset in sport.

Even if your own particular sport isn’t mentioned specifically, the mindset content is relevant to all sports and physical exercise at any age.

I’m focusing on NLP (neuro linguistic programming) because I am a qualified NLP Sports Practitioner and I have coached many elite athletes, golfers, gymnasts, rowers, swimmers, tennis players, footballers, rugby players and cyclists so I’d like to use what I learnt while coaching them, to help you.

Everything is connected. NLP is all about patterns. Patterns of how we think (Neuro) what we tell ourselves (Linguistic) and what we do then, the result we get (Programming).

As I work with children, teens and families, my focus is on young athletes but I hope all ages will find something in the book that will help them with their sport.  

I expect PE teachers and coaches, parents too, will be interested in learning more about how to encourage and inspire you.

This is not an NLP book as such so I am simplifying NLP techniques and just keeping them specific to sport.

You can buy the book on Amazon, here's the link

Or buy a signed copy from my bookshop here on this website

If you'd like to book a session to help your sporty child with their mindset, use this link

If you're a sports coach and want to bulk buy this book for running a workshop or for sports training use this link