Book Private Mental-performance Lessons with Coach Connor

I grew up playing competitive soccer and baseball until it came to the point I had to choose one. I stuck with soccer and am glad I did. Soccer has always been a huge love of mine and I got to experience so many cool moments and meet some incredible people through the game. In high school, I played for the Colorado Rapids Development Academy. I trained and played with my own academy team as well as trained with the first team every day of the week. I went to Florida Gulf Coast University to play Division I soccer and was named the All-Conference Freshmen Goalkeeper of the year in my first year there. While I was at FGCU I had some friends and fellow athletes experience some serious mental health struggles relating to their games. I was already interested in sport psychology then, but that solidified what I wanted to do so that I could eventually be a resource for athletes experiencing difficulties with the mental side of their performances. Following undergrad, I went to the University of Kentucky and earned a Master’s degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology. During my time at Kentucky I was able to work with some awesome athletes at Kentucky’s athletic program as well as Morehead State’s athletic program, which was about an hour down the road. Finally, my post graduate studies lead me to a job working with the military and helping the people who work and fight to protect our country develop mental skills to perform under the most extreme of pressures. Aside from work, sports still take up most of my time and interest. I play in sand volleyball leagues, softball leagues, and some would say I have an obsession with golf (that someone would be my fiancé). I am truly passionate about helping people get better at the thing they love doing, and any way I can be a part of someone’s journey to what they define as success is something that I find special.

I have an understanding of how the human brain works as well as how the body follows. We train our bodies so much (and rightfully so) to be able to withstand the forces we place on it while we are performing. Often times; though, we neglect to train our minds in the same way. Our behaviors begin with thoughts and emotions that lead us to action, so we must train our thoughts and emotions to lead us to more productive outcomes. We will work on things like performance anxiety, energy expenditure and regulation, cognitive control, and much more. We won’t just talk about what those things are, but why they happen and how they improve performance. Many people view their minds as an enemy, something that stands in the way of reaching our full potential, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The work that we do will allow your mind to become your most useful tool, and maybe even become your best ally.

A training session with me will last 50 minutes with 10 minutes spared at the end of the session for me to take notes and prepare for the next time we see each other. We will discuss different strategies we can implement for practice based on the areas of improvement we identify in your game. It will be a relaxed setting that is welcoming and driven by you, the client. Most importantly, everything we discuss will be confidential. You never have to worry about anything we talk about going outside the confines of our sessions.

My goalkeeper coach with the Colorado Rapids. He demanded excellence in the smallest of details, and taught me just as much about how to be a man as he did about goalkeeping.

Athletes and parents should know that as soon as we start working together I will become your biggest fan. My job is to help you or your kids grow as athletes and as people, and I will work my hardest to help with that under the full scope of my expertise.