About Success Starts Within
Success Starts Within provides sport psychology resources to athletes and performers looking to improve their mental game. Success Starts Within offers 1-1 mental performance coaching and mental training courses to help you build confidence, mental toughness, and all the mental skills you need to elevate your performance. We also provide many free resources, including weekly articles, podcasts, and videos that cover sport psychology topics to help you master the mental game. No matter your sport, skill level, or financial ability, you will find the mental training resources you need here at Success Starts Within.
Mission Statement
Make mental training and sport psychology accessible, affordable, and achieveable to all athletes.
Eli Straw, M.S. - Mental Game Coach
Eli Straw, M.S., is a mental performance coach and subject matter expert in mental training for athletes. He holds a master’s degree in psychology with a specialization in sport psychology and has worked one-on-one with hundreds of athletes across six continents and more than fifteen countries. His experience includes coaching professional, elite, college, high school, middle school, and youth athletes across a wide range of sports.
As both a coach and former athlete, Eli understands the mental and emotional challenges competition can create. He helps athletes build confidence, manage pressure, improve focus, and overcome the mental barriers keeping them from performing their best. Eli is also the author of two mental training books, host of the Sport Psychology Coaching Podcast—which has received more than 750,000 downloads—and a member of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology.
Founder of Success Starts Within, LLC
Sports Psychology Articles
How to Use Mental Training in the Off-Season
Quick Summary:
- Mental training in the off-season is about preparing your mindset for the next season, not just getting ready for the next game.
- Start by evaluating your mental strengths and weaknesses from the past season.
- Identify the challenges that affected your performance and decide how you want to respond differently next season.
- Build a daily mental training routine using breathing, visualization, journaling, and self-talk.
- Connect your mental training with your physical training so the skills become habits before the season begins.
5 Self-Talk Tips to Increase Confidence in Sports
Quick Summary:
- Talk to yourself in the same encouraging way you would talk to a teammate.
- Replace judgment after mistakes with productive instructions about what to do next.
- Use self-talk that feels believable instead of repeating statements you don’t truly believe.
- Prepare simple self-talk phrases before competition so you can use them when emotions are high.
- Use self-talk after mistakes to reset and focus on the next play.
5 Goal-Setting Mistakes That Hurt an Athlete’s Confidence
Goal setting can be incredibly powerful for athletes. Outcome goals and future goals can give you motivation, help you work harder, and give you a
5 Traits of Mentally Tough Athletes
Quick Summary:
- Mentally tough athletes manage their thoughts and return to a productive mindset when negativity or frustration shows up.
- They stay present instead of becoming distracted by worries, previous mistakes, or what other people might be thinking.
- They trust their preparation and allow themselves to play naturally rather than trying to control every result.
- They respond well to mistakes by keeping their composure, resetting quickly, and continuing to trust themselves.
- They avoid labeling entire games as good or bad and instead recognize both the positives and the areas they can learn from.
Mental Routine to Build Confidence in Sports
Quick Summary:
- Confidence is not something you either have or don’t have—it is something you build.
- A daily confidence routine should include self-talk, visualization, and mindfulness meditation.
- A pregame confidence routine should focus on remembering past successes and setting controllable goals.
- A postgame confidence routine should evaluate both what went well and what can be improved.
- Confidence grows when you consistently train your thoughts, focus, and preparation.
How to Stop Overthinking When You’re Playing Well
Quick Summary:
- When athletes start playing well, they often begin thinking, “I hope I can keep this up,” which can lead to overthinking and forcefulness.
- Trying to hold on to good performance often pulls you away from the mindset that created the success in the first place.
- You do not need to do anything new or special to continue playing well—trust what has already been working.
- Take responsibility for your success instead of viewing it as luck or something outside your control.
- Stay focused on the present moment rather than worrying about future results or protecting what you’ve already accomplished.
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