Sep 18, 2023
I’m delighted to speak to licensed clinical and sport psychologist, Dr Mitch Greene in this week’s episode. Mitch is Adjunct Instructor in Temple University’s College of Public Health. He completed his PhD in clinical psychology and worked in family therapy before moving into sport psychology. He is now the sport psychology consultant to several athletic departments, endurance coaches and national race series.
Mitch has written a
fantastic book from his time both as a sport psychologist and an
athlete himself entitled “Courage over Confidence: Managing Mind
Chatter and Winning the Mental Game”. In the book, Mitch explodes
one of the field’s most common and malicious myths - that
confidence is a prerequisite for athletic success. Stating that the
evidence shows that most athletes find it nearly impossible to
sustain positive thinking when their minds are riddled with mind
chatter - that unwelcome, doom and gloom self-conversation that
crops up in high-stakes competitions. Chatter-filled athletes will
excel in practice but struggle to perform on game day and they will
fear the stakes of losing despite having trained to compete at
their best.
The clear instructions in Courage
over Confidence provide guidance for managing mind chatter and
a method for “joining forces” with that negative voice rather than
battling it. With courage over confidence, good players can learn
to become great competitors.