Sport Psychology

Articles and Videos

A popular group of articles on what ‘is the difference that makes the difference’ in sporting success. The mental game and sport psychology is where true champions emerge. You may find our sections for our most recent articles, resources and materials, latest newsletters, or 5 Minutes with Bo Hanson video series valuable too.

Training and Competition: What to do when your athletes don’t perform?

This article was written during national team selection time for one of our clients. It reminded me of how I felt during my own selection for various national and Olympic teams, and inspired me to share the most important lessons I learnt about the connection between training and competition. This article is about techniques to help athletes control their nerves so they can compete at least as well as they train, if not better. At the end of this article, I’ve also included my top three coaching tips for helping athletes manage their nerves during competition.

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diving-board

Improve Athlete Resiliency – 6 Tips for Coaches

No one will ever forget seeing Greg Louganis recover from his poorly executed 2½ pike preliminary dive in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Greg dove and struck his head bleeding into the water. Although he had obviously suffered an injury, he went on to earn the highest single score of the qualifying. He then went on to repeat the dive during the finals, earning the gold medal by a margin of 25 points.

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Choking in Sport,Sport Psychology,Panicking in Sport

Choking in Sport: Inside Every Athlete’s Worst Nightmare

How many times have you witnessed the heartbreak of an athlete faltering at a crucial moment? The painstaking drama of the moment can be excruciating to watch, particularly when the athlete is at the height of their career or even worse, an athlete you coach. At these times, the terms choking or panicking are thrown around loosely to label the under-performance of the individual or team. But what do these terms mean? Is there a difference between them? And can anything prevent an athlete from choking?

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Sport Psychology,Sport Coaching,Understanding Psychology for Coaching

Sport Psychology for Sport Coaches: What You Need to Know

Understanding the importance of sport and exercise psychology is paramount to getting better results on the field, in the pool or on the court. Often though, coaches find the topic daunting and therefore put it in the “too hard” basket. Other coaches employ the services of a sport psychologist to assist their athletes and miss important benefits of a holistic coaching approach. In this article, we define what sport psychology is and what aspects are best incorporated into training and competition day by the sports coach.

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Learn how to master the people side of sport using DISC Profiling...

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We specialize in helping our clients create and sustain winning results...

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See who we work with and read what they say about us...

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Bo Hanson

Senior Consultant & Director

Bo Hanson’s career within the sport and the business sector spans over 25 years, delivering leadership, management, and coach development. In addition to his own athletic career comprising of four Olympic appearances and including three Olympic medals, Bo has worked for many years with coaches and athletes from over 40 different sports across the globe. Bo was also the winner of the Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD) 2023 Award for L&D Professional of the Year, for his dedication to L&D and transformational work across various industries.

After a successful career in sport including four Olympics and three Olympic Medals, Bo co-founded and developed Athlete Assessments in 2007. Bo now focuses on working with clients to achieve their own success on and off ‘the field’ and has attained an unmatched track-record in doing exactly this.

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BoRowing-Atlanta Olympics Bronze Medal Presentation

Now, watch us interrupt him for a round of quick fire questions.