In 2011, Simon Baron-Cohen, professor of developmental psychopathology at the University of Cambridge, published The Science of Evil, which argued that evil is the consequence of blocked empathy and compassion. Without empathy, Baron-Cohen contended, we can turn people into objects,...

April 2022

The word "character" comes from the Greek word, "kharakter," a chisel or marking instrument for stone or metal. In a sense, we chisel our true essence from the bedrock of life, one moral decision at a time. Character is who...

March 2022

Between point behavior: the single most important factor in developing mental toughness. Think about your last match. How did you spend most of the time? Hitting forehands, backhands, playing serve and volley? Actually, for the majority of the time, you...

March 2008

Even successful players limit their potential with negative thoughts and actions. Is your time on the tennis court punctuated with negative thoughts and self-criticism? Are you frequently disappointed, even bitterly dissatisfied with your tennis, so that you leave the court...

May 2022

For many years at the Human Performance Institute, we operated a small tennis academy for juniors, aged 9 to 18. The tennis program's goal was to leverage all the demands and stresses of elite junior tennis to build, first and...

May 2022

I came face-to-face with evil at the impressionable age of 16. It was my second summer working for a cemetery and crematorium, a job that would help me earn the $200 I needed to buy my first car, a used...

February 2022

"Choking." Probably the most dreaded word in tennis. There was a time when players and coaches didn't even say the word, for fear they could spread the choking response like a virus. Choking is a biochemical event, not a character...

March 2011

Jim Loehr's fantastic original series comes to a close with his personal analysis of American junior tennis. What would it take to bring more Americans back into the mix at the top of the game? In Jim's view one thing:...

May 2014

Confidence. Now there is a magic word. You need it to perform your best. But how do you actually develop it? A sense of confidence comes from a sense of control. But the expectation that you can control the outcome...

April 2014

There is the real world. Then there is our version of the real world. And that version is our story. Jim Loehr has spent many years listening to players and helping them realign and reshape their stories. Time and time...

March 2014

Every player's ultimate coach is himself. The private voice inside our heads that talks to us during matches--and in the rest of life as well. How do you want to script what that voice says? In his fourth installment in...

February 2014

Last month Jim Loehr talked about his academy and how it has redefined success for the players in junior tennis and in life. (Click Here.) Now more. Like asking kids to go to the end of their lives and imagine...

January 2014

At the Human Performance Institute, there is a small academy with less than two dozen kids. Under the direction of Jim and his staff it has produced players who have excelled in the Florida juniors and won scholarships at the...

December 2013

We are honored and excited to have this new series from my friend Jim Loehr, the man who created the term mental toughness and has continued to research and refine the relationships between head, heart, soul, and high performance in...

November 2013

Flamboyance isn't the most important thing that separates Rafael Nadal from other competitors. When you watched the 2008 Wimbledon final, did you sense, as did so many observers, who the eventual winner would be simply by watching how Rafael carried...

August 2008

Great competitors love the process, not just the winning. It's easy to love winning. Great competitors learn to love the process. They learn to extend themselves and to find great fulfillment in the feeling that they gave their best, put...

July 2008