Motivating athletes who feel discouraged requires fostering a positive growth mindset—a mental approach embraced by elite performers worldwide. When athletes face setbacks, it’s crucial to shift their focus from failures to opportunities for improvement. Encouraging them to view challenges as stepping stones rather than roadblocks can reignite their passion and drive. Elite performers practice habits such as setting realistic, incremental goals, maintaining self-discipline, and engaging in daily visualization of success. These habits help athletes reframe negative experiences and build resilience. By celebrating small wins and emphasizing effort over outcome, discouraged athletes can regain confidence and develop the mental toughness needed to thrive under pressure.
We specialize in motivating athletes by helping youth develop personalized mental performance routines that enhance their confidence, resilience, and overall enjoyment of sports. By addressing challenges such as low self-esteem, performance anxiety, and negative self-talk, we provide young athletes with strategies to overcome obstacles and maintain a positive mindset. Implementing mental training routines is essential for motivating athletes, as it not only improves their performance but also fosters a love for the game and equips them with valuable life skills that extend beyond sports.
Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.
Vince Lombardi
College athletes often face unique challenges, including intense academic pressures, rigorous training schedules, and the expectation to perform at high levels. These demands can lead to stress, anxiety, and burnout. Motivating athletes through mental performance coaching and routines can significantly benefit them by providing strategies to manage stress, enhance focus, and build resilience. Techniques such as mindfulness, visualization, and positive self-talk can help athletes maintain a positive mindset, improve performance, and reduce the risk of mental health issues. By prioritizing mental well-being, motivating athletes helps them achieve a balanced and successful collegiate experience.
When you invest your time, you make a goal and a decision of something that you want to accomplish. Whether it's make good grades in school, be a good athlete, be a good person, go down and do some community service and help somebody who's in need, whatever it is you choose to do, you're investing your time in that.
Nick Saban
Amateur athletes aspiring to elevate their performance and transition to higher levels often encounter challenges such as overtraining, lack of sleep, and performance anxiety. Motivating athletes through mental performance coaching and routines can be instrumental in addressing these issues. Techniques like visualization, positive self-talk, and mindfulness help athletes manage stress, enhance focus, and build resilience. By incorporating mental training into their regimen, motivating athletes allows them to improve their performance, maintain motivation, and develop a growth mindset, all of which are essential for long-term success and progression in their athletic careers.
"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks, but I do fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."
Bruce Lee
Professional and Olympic athletes operate at the pinnacle of their sports, where the margin between success and failure is often razor-thin. Motivating athletes through mental performance coaching offers a strategic advantage by enhancing psychological resilience, focus, and confidence. Techniques such as visualization, positive self-talk, and mindfulness enable athletes to manage stress, maintain concentration, and perform consistently under pressure. Incorporating mental training routines is essential for professional athletes, as it not only optimizes performance but also fosters a sustainable and fulfilling career. By prioritizing mental well-being, motivating athletes helps them navigate the demands of their profession, overcome obstacles, and achieve long-term success.
I think every athlete will tell you no matter what sport you're in, when you train so hard and when you care so much about doing what you do, there's a little bit of nerves that come with that. But nerves that won't prevent you form performing, nerves that, hopefully, allow you to be that much more motivated and inspired to do well.
Sidney Crosby
Develop a growth mindset instead of a failure mindset
Trust in your ability to make decisions in training and competition
Finding enioyment and having fun in your sport
Applying effective goal setting through intentional training
Developing resilience to overcome challenging situations
Learning how to implement positive self-talk, daily affirmations, and a personal mantra
Creating a strong athlete identity to enhance self-advocacy
Manage performance anxiety to achieve an excellent state of competition readiness
Our weekly performance coaching sessions are tailored to athletes of all levels, providing personalized mental performance routines to enhance your athletic journey. In addition to these sessions, you can connect with your coach through follow-up communications via text and email, ensuring continuous support and motivation. We prioritize your privacy and confidentiality, safeguarding your personal information with the utmost care. By engaging in our comprehensive mental training program, you can unlock your full potential, excelling not only in your sport but also in various aspects of your life. Here’s how our program can benefit you:
Enhanced Focus and Concentration: Develop the ability to maintain attention during critical moments, leading to improved performance.
Increased Resilience: Build mental toughness to effectively navigate challenges and setbacks.
Boosted Confidence: Cultivate a positive self-image and belief in your abilities.
Stress Management: Learn techniques to manage anxiety and pressure, promoting a calm and composed demeanor.
Goal Setting and Achievement: Establish clear, actionable goals and develop strategies to accomplish them.
By integrating these elements into your routine, you can achieve a balanced and successful athletic experience.
Our initial free consultation call helps us discover a personalized plan for you to reach to your performance goals.
We create a specific mental performance routine using effective strategies and mindset techniques to be applied daily.
Regular progress monitoring and self-reflection will help with focus, goal attainment, and modifications as needed.
We continue to build on previous strategies by slowly adding new homework each week for the athlete while fine-tuning the original habits created.
Athletes are expected to do the daily work. They are taught to be their own self-advocate and need to communicate as needed during coaching.
Our goal is to create habits and routines to be used for sports and life. We want to make sure you have reached a place to continue to succeed.
EXCELLENT Based on 23 reviews Devon NickelJanuary 3, 2025 Ashley was so great with my daughter! Shes very positive and enthusiastic and gave practical tools to help her mindset. My daughter was skeptical about talking to someone, but she really enjoyed her time with Ashley. I would definitely recommend working with her! Emma LeppertDecember 31, 2024 I can only say good things about Ashley at Great Athletes Think Elite. Being a collegiate athlete you have to be on physically and mentally. Ashley helped me so much and provided me with techniques to help change my mindset and perspective which are applicable to sports and life beyond. I would absolutely recommend her services to anyone looking to level up their play! Amy BrownDecember 22, 2024 We can’t thank Ashley enough for the difference she’s made for our son. She helped him rebuild his confidence and provided him with practical tools to manage his nerves during games. One of the most impactful strategies she introduced was establishing a daily routine of gratitude and goal-setting, which has improved not only his performance but also his overall mindset. Thanks to her guidance, he’s back to playing the sport he loves with renewed passion and giving his highest effort every time he steps onto the field. We highly recommend Ashley to any athlete struggling with confidence or mental blocks—her expertise and approach truly work! Sally AndersenOctober 24, 2024 I had been struggling with confidence and identity after switching from powerlifting to CrossFit, and it was tough mentally to make the transition. After 8 years as a powerlifter, I didn’t know how to redefine myself as an athlete in this new space. Ashley was a game-changer! She helped me rebuild my confidence and guided me through the mindset shift I needed to thrive as a CrossFitter. Now, I feel stronger mentally and more secure in my athletic identity than ever before. Highly recommend her for anyone needing a mindset reset or performance boost! Trisha DuffieSeptember 9, 2024 I have had the privilege of knowing Ashley for 4 years. She is an amazing resource and coach in countless aspects of life and sports. She always creates a welcoming and positive atmosphere and is able to create conversations that open new ways of interpreting situations. My family always felt open and honest in discussions with Ashley and always ended meetings with a positive outlook. Ashley was able to implement goals and ways to take personal accountability for progress without making it feel like work! She was able to help redirect and refocus thoughts and goals to keep us on track. Ashley truly was a game changer and much needed part of our team in order keep us going in the right direction. Highly recommended a million times! Lisa McGinnitySeptember 4, 2024 I had the fortunate opportunity to observe Ashley conduct a workshop with a group of high school athletes. I was beyond impressed listening to her powerful insights and guidance for stepping up an athlete’s mental game. She has a way of breaking down and simplifying the steps and strategies needed to be successful to perform at a high level, making it feel more manageable, less overwhelming, and highly attainable. The way she commands a room and can engage people is remarkable. I cannot recommend Ashley enough if you have a student athlete who needs to overcome mental performance barriers, or in general, just wants to excel in their sport. She really is quite impressive! John ShalloMay 18, 2024 Amazing experience, really helped and very thoughtful with every meeting. Nicole WoodroofMay 4, 2024 We cannot say enough great things about Ashley and the work she has done with our son. When we started with her, his confidence regarding his sport was at an all-time low. He had been beaten down mentally by old-school coaches that don’t have any idea how to get what they really want out of kids. At almost sixteen, this had been going on for years. The focus she gave all of us, not just him, has made all the difference. She has helped my son refocus on what creates results to help him reach his goals, instead of being in his head about every tiny mistake he makes. As a high-level competitor herself, a high school counselor, and a coach, she has the trifecta of perfect skills for what it takes to work with kids and athletes. She understands kids in a way that even as parents we haven’t at times. In fact, we have asked her on several occasions to help us, and she partnered with us in a way that gave him the support he needed to meet his goals. Sometimes, although well-intentioned, we would say things that were reinforcing the thoughts that weren’t serving him well, but Ashley was patient with us too, and was able to help us help him. She has helped change our mindset as well as my son’s. She is an incredible, caring, wise mentor and we only wish we found her sooner! I highly recommend hiring Ashley Ainsworth!