Raise Your Inner Game Today with David Levin

What do shoes and socks have to do with the mental game? 04.06.2021 6:03 ↓

Here’s an interesting question: When’s the best time to start working with an athlete on their mental game? First thing? In the off-season? Only when there’s a problem?  I heard a great story the other day about legendary UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden, that got me thinking about that exact question. No surprise, I suppose, but I ended up with a conclusion that you might not expect. :-) S...

PLEASE Don’t Do This to Fix a Self-Talk Problem … 07.05.2021 5:56 ↓

Negative self-talk is one of the biggest mental game problems athletes deal with, and every coach wishes they had a good way to help with it.  Unfortunately, there is a right way and a wrong way to do that, and most of the advice out there has athletes taking the wrong way.  In this week’s post, I talk about the two options for dealing with negative self-talk and why one is so much bette...

How to Snap Out of a Bad Mood—FAST 30.04.2021 6:08 ↓

Do you ever find yourself in an angry, dark mood — and for no apparent reason?  It’s a bit of a mystery why, but it happens to all of us at one time or another.  It’s frustrating, too, because it can make us say and do things that we really wish we hadn’t. But what can you do, right? It’s just a bad mood? Maybe not. Maybe you can actually snap yourself out of it quickly and keep from doi...

Introduction to “Mental Game Monday” 26.04.2021 5:31 ↓

Introducing our newest podcast feature, Mental Game Monday. This first post covers what it is and how we hope it will help listeners. Enjoy!

“The Magic Key to the Mental Game …” 22.04.2021 5:09 ↓

A bit of a rant from me with this one (sorry), but I get really frustrated when I hear performance coaches talk about how to boost athletes’ mental game, because I know that so much of what they suggest just doesn’t work for many athletes, and it doesn’t have to be that way.  BTW, the reason their suggestions don’t work is because they’re missing the underlying skill that drives everything el...

“The No-Scoreboard Challenge” 07.04.2021 6:37 ↓

This one sounds a little crazy :-) but it’s actually incredibly powerful. And something you can try right away.  Here's to new heights! P.S. I’ve been rolling out our new platform this week, so this is only the second post on the blog. (https://www.raiseyourinnergame.com/blog) The good news is, it’s a good one. :-) And there’s much more to come …

“A masterclass in FOCUS …” 05.04.2021 4:16 ↓

Saw a tweet the other day with a quote from Michael Jordan and it just blew my mind how clear and powerful a statement it was on what it really means to be focused as an athlete.  You hear a lot about the importance of focus and how it’s what sets the greats apart. But it’s not often you get such a clear image of what it actually looks like.  This is one you’ll want to add to your Inner...

Inner Game Journal 10-25-19 25.10.2019 7:07 ↓

My past three months (below). Note the three columns, Sit, No News, Coke. Those have the biggest effects on my Inner Game. Pretty much completely off track with those for over three months. Yikes. And on the left, with the running, etc, you can see the frequency slowly dropping off. The longer I slip with the negative items, the harder it is to stay with the positive ones. Could not be clearer. Bu...