Welcome my channel, where you will learn mental game and sport psychology tips, tools, and techniques you can use to elevate your mindset and reach peak performance.
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-About- Eli Straw, M.S. - Mental Game Coach
Eli Straw holds a Master's Degree in psychology with a sport psychology specialization. Eli brings a proactive and applicable approach to mental training. Combined with his expertise in clinical and applied sports psychology, Eli has extensive experience coaching, teaching, and consulting with professional, elite, college, high school, middle school, and youth athletes. Eli also has experience playing baseball at the collegiate and professional levels. His background has provided him with first-hand experience of the struggles faced by athletes and those wanting to perform well.
Hi Dr.Straw New subscriber,thanks for the video it was very helpful. But what happens if after doing everything I come back and lose another game? Like... 14 games. What do you think in that case?
Thank you for subscribing and for reaching out! I know it is tough when you come back and lose another game or even 14 in a row. But no matter how many games you've lost, the goal is still the same: to put yourself in the best position to play well in your next game. Going through a process like I outline in the video unfortunately doesn't guarantee you will win the next game, but it helps you approach the game in a more positive and confident mindset. When you do so, that increases your chances of playing well and winning. I know it's tough when you keep losing, but when that happens all you can do is work hard to stay confident and reset for the next game.
Thanks for this I’m going into professional boxing and as an amateur I was my on worst enemy I am so self critical of myself I can’t even watch myself fight cause I think I always look terrible and it’s been terrible on my self esteem
Thanks to your videos, I’ve been able to confront my fear of failure in beach volleyball. Your content is truly inspiring, and you’re doing a fantastic job. Keep it up You're doing an amazing job - keep up the great work.
That is great to hear about you confronting your fear of failure! Congratulations on that! And thank you for your kind words, I really appreciate the support.
@@elistraw Thank you so much! Your videos are a big part of that progress, especially in helping me play more aggressively during games and training. I’m excited to keep improving and looking forward to more of your content! Cheers.
I’m a rower and when I just don’t hit that score on the machine or I’m behind the group in training I feel like I’m holding everyone back and disappointing myself. This was really helpful thanks
A lifetime of not taking chances, is my motivation to go for it every time. I know that not taking the chances, not playing with full drive and commitment leads to a pretty boring outcome. So I am always motivated to Send It. Given that I can't impart my life experiences upon my charges directly, this will help me to teach them that taking the risk is really the best option in nearly every scenario, and that they are acting within their skills. Fear of Failure, is ultimately a distraction that doesn't allow one to maximize their performance.
Hey, thanks for making this video. I really love football, but I believe that I've lost my confidence. My coach is strict since he coaches college students, and I think he applies his strictness to us high school students. I feel as if I'm the worst in our team. I passed varsity tryouts, and it went well for me for the first 3 months, but it started getting worse as months passed by. New people came, and they were really skilled. I don't have a club outside school yet, and that makes me feel left out. My other teammates seem to favor our new teammates more. I have tried everything I could do-I don't think my effort's worthy of them. Ever since I lost my confidence in playing, I started looking for excuses just to not train. I really want to regain my confidence back and play freely like I used to. I've never been put in sub, and I've never wanted to be put in sub, but now, whenever my coach puts me in sub, I feel lighter. It's like I no longer want to play, but there's still a part of me that badly wants to play. I don't understand.
Thank you for sharing all of that. I know it is a tough situation to be in. My best advice is to take it slow and start small with trying to get back into loving the game. Begin by focusing on training and getting a routine in place for yourself. That way, you can stay consistent with improving. In terms of enjoying the game, try and remember what you love about the sport no matter whether you play or not. What is it about the game itself you enjoy?
Hi Eli. I love the way you communicate. I find some players with excess of stress, and this works very well. Also, I find some under the tension level they need to peak perform. Like they are too relaxed. This is the opposite of pre game nerves or anxiety. How do you manage to activate them to instill that dose of neurotransmitters to get them into “the Zone”?
Thank you! I was actually talking with an athlete about that idea yesterday. He wants to get his mind calm to manage his nerves, but he equally wants to be activated. Especially activated physically. What I suggested he do is focus on warming up his body more, to get it activated and ready to compete. As the body gets activated, the mind will as well. Hope this helps!
I’ve been figureskating for a long time now and I struggle A LOT with mental blocks. It’s feels like something been holding me back from developing in my sport. I don’t know what to do because it feels impossible. I’m aware of these mental blocks and I really want to overcome them. Thanks for the tips I’m really going to try this time!
Thank you for sharing that. Hopefully the tips in the video are helpful. It is definitely a process when it comes to working through mental blocks. Stay patient with yourself!
You touched on just about everything I experience before heading out to the course to shoot, whether a registered shoot or a fundraiser event. I'm saving this episode for sure.
Hey Eli Straw, I’ve been following your RU-vid channel, and I really admire the content you create. I know managing a RU-vid channel can be time-consuming, especially when life gets busy. As a RU-vid specialist, I help creators like you manage their channels, create content schedules, and optimize for growth, even if you can’t upload regularly. What I do: Professional video editing, Eye-catching thumbnail design, Video SEO, and promotion, so your channel will grow faster and you can earn more through monetization. And you can reach your target audience well. I would love to schedule a short meeting with you to discuss how I can help you grow your channel faster. This is not a sales call, but an opportunity to share ideas and offer assistance. Let me know if you're interested
Basically my mental block is so weird, I don't know if you could tell me, how to visualise right way on this mental block, so, i practice martial arts, you can put any fighter in front of me, I'm not scared of him, but my brother is scarier than anyone else, so here's how it works, i never set up negative myself against others because others don't fight like my brother, and i can easily beat them, but i have this mental blokc with my brother, it's not that his scary, but his style is different and i take it too serious and think, why i can be so good against others but bad agains my brotherz and this makes it worse because you are what you think, and when he throws punches i blinl, move back i lean back, doesn't happen with others, i can block and strike, but i have mental block with brother, how do i set up in a best way to be like: wait he's just as same as others but i somehow think he's gonna win this sparing, how do i overcome this block and visualize
Thank you for sharing all of that, and sorry about taking a while to reply. The best advice I could give is take fighting your brother as a challenge. It's natural for you to take it too seriously, but try to see it as a way for you to get better going up against other fighters and don't put pressure on yourself to be good against your brother. Just focus on using his skills as a way to sharpen yours. In terms of visualizing, I would say take the same approach. Let go of trying to beat him or not even be scared, and focus purely on getting better and seeing it as a challenge.
I have been following your videos over the last 2 weeks in preperation for a table tennis competition at my work place..your insights and best practices are just next level. Thanks so much for doing these videos, sending you lots of best wishes. Keep sharing the videos and wish you everything you wish for!!
@@elistraw yes it went well , we got to the finals. Lost in the finals Lil disappointed but will keep learning. Thanks much. Looking forward to your videos
hey bro, I really enjoyed your content-it was super informative and helpful! You’re doing great. I think if you work on improving your thumbnails, you could get a higher CTR and more views. As a thumbnail designer and can help you with that.
Thank you for reaching out! In my app I have a few guided visualizations that can help. The app link is in the description of the video and it is completely free right now 👍
Hello Elli, thank you very much for this video. It's good to see you presenting the topic publicly as a mental coach. I struggled a lot with dartitis (basically yips in darts) and am still not where I would like to be, but once I accepted that it is purely a mental problem I started to make progress and I believe I will end up being a better player than I was before because I have now started to open up to mental training. I agree with all of your points and I find myself in many of them. Many coaches (at least in Germany) don't talk about it, and many athletes deny the existence of this problem or don't take it seriously, so I'm grateful that there are coaches like you who talk about it publicly. Getting out of the cycle is harder than any ‘normal’ training and incredibly hard work and I know athletes who rather stopped playing than committing to this hard work. I wish someone had pointed it out to me when I was sliding into it, but if coaches take the issue seriously it can save many athletes from going through the cycle in the first place. Thanks! Best, Simon
I'm a parent of a talented 11yr old soccer player, His mother and I have been very perplexed and left reaching for reasons he has not been himself on the pitch lately, playing passive. Last evening while talking with him, he revealed that he's struggling with performing and a fear of injury (past injuries have kept him from playing). He recently put in a lot of work to make a new team. His new teammates right from the beginning of the season started to place him as the "go to" player after the first 3-4 scrimmages/games, and I believe this added pressure and a failure of his mother and I not understanding/recognizing what is going on, is contributing to the anxiety. I have been suggesting a breathing meditation exercise, getting a nap before practice and games, vitamin supplements to help focus and anxiety, telling him to have fun and play loose, but it seems to be difficult to properly know "when" and "how" to do this correctly. I just had come across your videos, and would like to introduce them to him, where and how would you recommend starting? or any advice?
It’s not even when u make a mistake, it’s when you repeatedly make mistakes in matches that you don’t make in training, it drives me nuts, it makes me lose my temper and by consequence I end up making more mistakes and not winning the match that im supposed to win which makes me furious at the end. And im saying that im supposed to win bc many times my game is better than my opponent’s but I just haven’t been able to stay calmed when I make mistakes so it ruins my game
