Patrick Cohn

Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D., earned his Ph.D. in Education from the University of Virginia in 1991, specializing in sports psychology, and founded Peak Performance Sports in 1994. Dr. Cohn is an author, professional speaker and one of the nation’s leading mental game coaches. His coaching programs for young athletes instill confidence, composure and effective mental strategies that enable athletes and teams to reach their performance goals.

Athletes Who Do Well in Practice, But Struggle During Games

Bring Your Practice Performance to Matches

Kids Who Fail to Perform Well in Competition A sports grandparent says, “I have a 10-year-old grandson who plays little league baseball. When he started playing at 8 years old he was very aggressive and very good at making contact with the baseball. The last two years his confidence has … Read Sport Psychology Tip

What Do Parents of Successful Athletes Do Right?

Successful Sports Parent

How to be a Successful Sports Parent A parent asks us how parents of successful athletes have been involved in their athletes’ sports experience. The most well-known example is Tiger Woods’ father. Earl Woods started teaching Tiger how to play golf before the age of two years old and coached … Read Sport Psychology Tip

How Young Athletes Build Ultimate Self-Confidence

Ultimate Self Confidence

Athletes who Lose Confidence with Constructive Criticism “I’m a female soccer player. I’m often challenged mentally when playing and this usually happens at training sessions, my teammate would tell me how I can’t do a certain thing eg. Properly marking my opponent.” “I end up questioning my ability to do … Read Sport Psychology Tip

Using Sports Psychology to Overcome a Cold Streak

How Sports Kids’ Mental Game Affects College Recruitment

“How to Win Wimbledon in Pajamas” Mary Nhin’s son, Kobe, began competing in tennis a couple of years ago and was winning most of his games… until he hit a cold streak. “He began going into super tiebreakers, a very short determining point system, and he would get very nervous, … Read Sport Psychology Tip

Young Athletes Who Perform Tight or Nervous

Tightness and Nervousness

How to Perform Freely We received an email from a young athlete what is feeling nervous… “I have a figure skating competition next week and I was wondering if there are some tips to help me for the competition. I get really nervous for no reason. And I do really … Read Sport Psychology Tip

How One Coach Helped a Perfectionist Athlete

Ultimate Sports Parent Podcast

Breaking the Perfectionist Pattern Richard Burke, who has been coaching baseball, football and basketball for the last 12 years, recently told us how he used our Ultimate Sports Parent program to help a perfectionist pitcher.  “I had a 10-year-old pitcher playing on an 11-year-old travel team. He was doing really … Read Sport Psychology Tip