The Sport Psych Team

Make your race unique while helping your runners succeed! Hire our Sport Psych Team.

We help provide mental support to runners during and before a race. Our Center's Director, a marathoner and an expert in the psychology of running, provides talks at Expos. Learn more by reading below and learning about our unique work at the Mankato Marathon.

Purpose of Sport Psych Team:

Members of The Sport Psych Team provide runners with mental strategies and mental toughness tips to help runners reach their full potential. We do this to help runners accomplish their goal.

Who are we:

The Sport Psych Team includes trained professionals including sport psychology consultants, psychologists, sport psychologists, counselors, and graduate students in those areas.

What we do:

We help runners before, during, and after their race with mental toughness. We provide runners with brief interventions and mental toughness tips to help individual run their best. Some of the mental and performance strategies we discuss with runners include: goal setting, relaxation training, imagery, positive self-talk, what to concentrate on during the race, and other ways to deal with running discomfort and adversity.

We can help all runners, but here are a few specific examples of who we can help:

• A runner who is running their first marathon, and wants to prepare for if they “hit the wall”
• A runner who doubts their ability and wishes he would have physically prepared differently for the race
• A runner who wants to qualify for the Boston Marathon, but if they don’t qualify will feel defeated
• A runner who knows that she is too nervous for the race, but doesn’t know what to do
• A runner who is coming back from injury and is unsure how the race will go
• A runner who wants to know about what they should focus on during the race to get the most out of their body

Where you will find us:

We are available to runners at the starting line, during the race, and after the race.

• "Psychs at the Start": We will be at the start of the race to provide last minute mental tips and strategies. Look for our tent at the start.

• "Psychs on Bikes": We will be providing assistance during the race as “Psychs on Bikes” where several team members will be on bikes along the course, and can offer runners support and mental strategies during the race.