MindFullSports: A Sports Psychology Podcast

What an amazing special guest we have this episode!

Born with Spina Bifida and adopted at an early age, Aaron "Wheelz" Fotheringham was set up for an extremely challenging life. However, starting with his his first drop in at the age of 8, he was prepared to overcome those. 

Multiple Guinness World Records
Creator of Wheelchair Motorcross (WCMX)
Member of Nitro Circus
Opening Ceremonies performer for 2016 Rio Paralympics
Motivational speaker

Wheelz has rolled over all those challenges that would make anyone stumble and made an explosive impact in life. 

It is with great pleasure and honor that we welcome Mr. Fotheringham to the show. We talk about the crazy life that he has lived and how his mind has played a large role behind the scenes. 

We all use self talk in some form or fashion. This is especially true for athletes. They are seen muttering to themselves after plays, analyzing what they did wrong, or even trying to hype themselves for a big game or play. What exactly is self talk and does it really help?

In this episode, we look at three published studies from the Journal of Applied Sports Psychology (all cited below) that look into self talk. Will we find that self talk helps? Can we utilize negative self talk to our advantage? We will even see a comparison of self talk to other ways that athlete's attempt to improve performance such as the utilization of caffeine or the mysticism of that lucky article of clothing.

Studies Cited:
Cooper, K. B., Wilson, M. R., & Jones, M. I. (2020). Fast talkers? Investigating the influence of self-talk on mental toughness and finish times in 800-meter runners. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 33(5), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2020.1735574

DeWolfe, C. E. J., Scott, D., & Seaman, K. A. (2020). Embrace the challenge: Acknowledging a challenge following negative Self-Talk improves performance. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 33(5), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2020.1795951

Wolch, N. J., Arthur-Cameselle, J. N., Keeler, L. A., & Suprak, D. N. (2020). The effects of a brief mindfulness intervention on basketball free-throw shooting performance under pressure. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 33(5), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2020.1720044

In this bonus hour-long episode we welcome special guest, Lydia Alabach. Lydia is a Gracie University instructor for Women Empowered and currently an instructor-in-training for their Combatives program.

We discuss many of the mental aspects of self-defense that are taught in the programs that she teaches and how they can relate into our world of sports. As a society, we often hold an unrealistic expectation for our athletes to be turned on all the time and carry a persona 24/7. This episode is meant to connect that strain to the strain of another very important conversation in our society today. Athletes are human too and deserve to have that time where they can be themselves and enjoy being human.

And we are back!!! In today's episode, we talk about momentum swings in games and how they can impact our mental performance. 

The Las Vegas Raiders hosted the Baltimore Ravens on September 13, 2021 for Monday Night Football. After a long and hard fought game, we enter the discussion in overtime as the Raiders completed what was initially believed to be a game-winning touchdown pass.

The sequences that followed after had a definitive and clear effect on the mental performance of the athletes on the field.

Momentum plays a massive role in sports. But it also robs us of our cognitive focus if we do not have the ability to process the emotions and not allow them to take over our mental state.

Segment Breakdown:
1. We layout what the moment was and set the scene.
2. Why momentum is important and the impact it has.
3. How the direction of momentum swing effects its impact.

Fear is a major part of everyone's lives. Sometimes it can be called many different things (anxiety, stress, nerves, etc) because we, ironically, are afraid to be afraid (or at least admit to it). Fear does not discriminate who it affects or even what the object of your fear is. You can be afraid of both good and bad things. Athletes are just like everyone else. They have their own fears that can prevent them from performing at their peak level.

On the heels of the Naomi Osaka episode, a question is raised. What is  the difference between sports psychologists and a psychologist who does  therapy? In this episode we answer that question and what can be done to  help athletes.

While on vacation, there was a major shake up in the tennis world. In this episode we look at the incident of Naomi Osaka and talk about athlete mental health. Will this impact the sports psychology field? Could this be a turning point in sport culture's negative stigma on seeking mental performance and mental health help? Maybe we need to rethink how we view and treat athletes in this regard.

Reach out through our social media platforms @MindFullSports on Facebook or Twitter and let us know your thoughts.

There are 2 main ways to change our mindset. We can either try to break old habits or create new habits.

Welcome everyone! This short trailer will give you an overview of what MindFullSports is all about.

Music credit to: An Epic Story by MaxKoMusic | https://maxkomusic.com/Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.comCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unportedhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US NoR2jI8zLOOtuuhhcriD

Perfectionism is a mindset that we can all struggle with. There are many risks to this mindset, but can any of these risks be used in a positive way? What is one thing anyone with this mindset needs to help be successful?This episode is also available as a blog post: https://mindfullsports.wordpress.com/2021/05/12/mindsets-of-competitive-success-perfectionism/ NoR2jI8zLOOtuuhhcriD