Persistence Performance Group

Your legs are trained. Is your mind? 🧠🏃
When a race gets hard, physical fatigue is only part of the equation. Your attention, self-talk, and ability to respond to discomfort all influence how you navigate the moments when you want to slow down or stop.
The good news? Mental skills are trainable, too.
Here are 5 ways to practice when the miles get tough:
🏁 Shrink the race: Focus on the next mile, the next 10 minutes, or the next actionable cue.
🧠 Change your self-talk: “This is hard” doesn’t have to mean “I can’t do this.”
🎯 Plan for the wall: Decide ahead of time how you’ll respond when fatigue shows up.
🌬️ Reset your body: Release unnecessary tension and use your breath to help you reset.
🔁 Train it, don’t hope: Practice these skills in challenging workouts so they’re more familiar when race day arrives.
You don’t have to wait until race day to build mental endurance. Start practicing in training.
Save this for your next hard workout, and share it with a training partner who’s preparing for a big race.
Follow along for more evidence-informed performance psychology and mental skills you can use in sport and everyday life.

📝 Marcora SM, Staiano W, Manning V. Mental fatigue impairs physical performance in humans. J Appl Physiol 106: 857-864, 2009. doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.91324.2008.

Most performers try to get rid of their nerves. That’s the wrong fight. 🔥
Your body doesn’t have separate “anxious” and “excited” settings. Both rev up the same system. What changes the outcome is the story you attach to it.
Try the flip before your next audition, game, presentation, or tough workout: notice it, relabel it, give it a cue, and exhale longer than you inhale.
Which cue will you use first?
Save this for later to keep building mental skills that last.

Growth usually asks something uncomfortable of you.

Trying something new. Taking the risk. Staying in it when it gets hard. Choosing the challenge instead of what feels safe.

If you’re feeling uncomfortable, it might mean you’re exactly where the growth is happening.

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably had a thought that’s similar.

Even the best performers experience unhelpful thoughts.

There are many tools we can use to manage those unhelpful thoughts that can show up-

One of our favorite strategies involves 3 important steps:

1. NOTICE
“I’m having the thought…”
Catch the thought without trying to get rid of it.

2. NAME
“Yep, there’s that thought.”
Make space for it instead of arguing with it, analyzing it, or obeying it.

3. REFOCUS
“What do I want to put my attention on right now?”
Bring your attention back to the present moment and the next useful action.

Ever catch your brain trying to predict the future mid-game?

“What if I miss again?”
“What if we lose?”
“What if coach pulls me?”

The more your attention gets pulled into what might happen next, the less attention you have for what is happening right now.

Bring it back to the next cue, the next play, and the next thing you can control.

You don’t have to predict the outcome. You just have to stay in the performance. 🧠

Persistence Performance Group is growing! 🎉

We’re excited to welcome Scott Armstrong, MA to the team as a Mental Performance Consultant.

Scott is a former collegiate soccer player with a Master’s in Sport and Performance Psychology, extensive experience as a mental performance consultant, and advanced training in mindfulness for sport and performance. He has worked with both sport and tactical athletes across a variety of performance environments, including major military installations.

Scott is currently accepting new 1:1 and group clients, with in-person availability in Washington State and virtual sessions available anywhere.

Interested in working with Scott? Book a free consultation today or send us a DM to learn more!

Ted Lasso 🤝 sport psychology

Underneath the humor, so many of the show’s best lines map onto real mental performance concepts: attentional control, self-talk, self-efficacy, resilience, and how athletes interpret pressure and setbacks.

The goal isn’t to turn every quote into a psychology lesson, but sometimes the simplest phrases stick because they give athletes something useful to come back to in the moment.

A few of my favorites, broken down through a sport psych lens.

Which one resonates most with you?

We’re excited to continue our partnership with Classic Dance Academy and the Professional Ballet Program for a second year, providing mental performance support to their dancers throughout the 2026–2027 school year.

Dance asks so much of performers—not only physically, but mentally and emotionally. Our goal is to help dancers develop practical mental skills that support confidence, focus, resilience, managing pressure, and navigating the many challenges that come with training and performing.

We’re grateful to continue creating space for dancers to build their mental toolbox alongside their physical skills. 💙

Here’s to another year of growth, learning, and supporting the whole dancer! ✨

Performance profiling helps you identify the skills your performance requires, recognize your strengths, and decide where to focus next.

Ready to create a more intentional plan for your performance? Send us a DM or visit the link in our bio to book a free consultation.

What does effective coaching actually look like?

Smith & Smoll’s Coach Effectiveness Training (CET) was developed to help coaches create environments that support both athlete development and performance. At the heart of the model are five core coaching principles:

1️⃣developmentally oriented philosophy of winning
Focus on athlete effort and enjoyment, rather than winning at all costs.

2️⃣positive approach to coaching
Use positive reinforcement, encouragement, and appropriate instruction.

3️⃣Norms that emphasize athletes’ obligations to help and support one another

4️⃣Decision making that involves athletes
Including athletes in appropriate decisions can increase ownership and acceptance of team roles and responsibilities.

5️⃣Increased self-awareness of one’s own behavior and its consequence
Coaches are encouraged to observe, reflect on, and monitor their own coaching behavior.

Research on CET has found meaningful changes in the athlete experience. Athletes with CET-trained coaches have reported greater enjoyment, more positive evaluations of their coaches and teammates, increased self-esteem, lower performance anxiety, and lower rates of sport dropout.

At Persistence Performance Group, we work with coaches, teams, and organizations to be more intentional about the environments they create while continuing to pursue high standards and performance.

Interested in bringing this work to your team or organization? Send us a DM or visit the link in our bio to schedule your free consultation today!