The Coaches Mental Toughness and Peak Performance Training Package for Cross Country

Price range: $239.99 through $259.99

All You Need to Train Mentally Tough Runners and their Parents!

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Tags: Athletes, Blocks, Coaches, Fear, Yips

Description

Cross-country may look simple from the outside: just run, but every coach knows it’s one of the most mentally complex sports out there. Athletes can look brilliant in practice and then tighten up on race day. Splits become distractions. Nerves hijack pacing. One bad mile can mentally unravel even the most talented runner.

For more than 40 years, Dr. Alan Goldberg has helped coaches understand why runners break down under pressure and, more importantly, how to train the mental side with the same precision as the physical. His work has supported thousands of runners—from youth programs to collegiate teams—in developing true competitive confidence.

Building on this foundation, Sara Vatore adds expertise in nervous system regulation and somatic performance, giving coaches a deeper understanding of how athletes respond to stress—and how a coach’s own regulation and communication can profoundly shape team confidence, cohesion, and resilience.

The Cross-Country Coaches Package gives you the complete toolkit for developing athletes who can handle pain, pressure, pacing, and the unpredictable emotional demands of racing.

You’ll learn how to prevent choking, guide runners through slumps, strengthen race-day consistency, and build a team environment grounded in trust and mental toughness.

Whether your athletes struggle with nerves, inconsistent racing, overthinking splits, or shutting down mid-race, this package shows you exactly how to coach the mental performance skills that separate good runners from great competitors.

What You’ll Learn

With the Cross-Country Coaches Package, you’ll learn how to:

Coach the Mental and Physiological Sides of Cross-Country

Train runners to compete with confidence, focus, and emotional steadiness
Build mental toughness into daily practices (not just before championship meets)
Understand the root causes of fear, choking, slumps, inconsistency, and race-day underperformance

Develop Resilient, Consistent Racers

Strengthen pacing focus, competitive composure, and bounce-back ability
Help runners manage pre-race nerves, negative thoughts, and comparison
Teach athletes to respond to pain, fatigue, and adversity without tightening up
Coach runners through frustration, perfectionism, and fear of letting teammates down

Communicate Like a High-Performance Coach

Use language and timing that reinforce clarity, steadiness, and competitive confidence
Navigate emotional athletes and emotional parents without escalating pressure
Understand how your own nervous system affects your athletes, and use regulation intentionally

Build a Supportive, Aligned Team Culture

Create an environment where athletes feel safe, motivated, and mentally prepared
Work effectively with parents so they support, rather than unintentionally sabotage, your training
Instill mental performance habits that hold up through the toughest parts of championship season

The Bottom Line

The Cross-Country Coaches Package gives you the frameworks, tools, and strategies to train runners who stay composed through nerves, confident through discomfort, and mentally locked-in from the gun to the chute.

When coaches understand the mental game, runners perform more freely.

This is how you coach athletes to run with courage, clarity, and championship-level focus—at every meet, on every course.

Though not sport-specific, these tools consistently make a profound impact on cross-country athletes—improving consistency, confidence, race-day execution, and the emotional resilience required for distance running.

What’s Included: Digital Version

Performing Like a Champion (Digital Audio Program & Printable PDF Workbook)

Dr. G’s core mental training program that explains how athletes think, feel, and behave under pressure—and teaches coaches how to help athletes remain calm, confident, and composed in high-stakes moments.

Sports Slump Busting (Printable PDF Book)

A pioneering book that helps athletes and coaches understand the principles of peak performance and how you can get them working for you. Readers will learn how to recognize and avoid mental traps and mistakes that lead to performance slumps and losing streaks, and develop the ability to stay calm under big competition pressure.

This Is Your Brain on Sports (Printable PDF Book)

A revolutionary book to understanding how repetitive performance blocks (slumps, choking, freezing, the yips) are rooted in unresolved sports upsets and offers breakthrough methods and tools to resolve them for good—giving coaches insight into what’s really going on for their athlete.

14 Steps to Mental Toughness (Digital Audio Program & Printable PDF Workbook)

A comprehensive mental toughness audio program loaded with mental toughness skills, exercises, and motivational stories to help coaches understand the cause of performance problems and how to help their athletes bust through slumps and learn what their athlete needs to do mentally in order to be a consistently tough competitor.

Parents & Coaches Guide to Winning at the Youth Sports Game (Digital Audio Program)

A coach-favorite. This program breaks down the most effective coaching communication strategies, the parent-coach dynamic, and how to create an environment where athletes can mentally thrive.

Getting Parents to Work With You, Not Against You (Printable PDF Book)

A practical guide for coaches to build healthy parent relationships, reduce conflict, increase buy-in, and reinforce peak performance behaviors at home.

What’s Included: Physical Version

Performing Like a Champion (Digital Audio Program & Hard Copy Workbook shipped directly to you)

Sports Slump Busting (Hard Copy Book shipped directly to you)

This Is Your Brain on Sports (Hard Copy Book shipped directly to you)

14 Steps to Mental Toughness (Digital Audio Program & Hard Copy Workbook shipped directly to you)

Parents & Coaches Guide to Winning at the Youth Sports Game (Digital Audio Program)

A coach-favorite. This program breaks down the most effective coaching communication strategies, the parent-coach dynamic, and how to create an environment where athletes can mentally thrive.

Getting Parents to Work With You, Not Against You (Hard Copy Book shipped directly to you)

A practical guide for coaches to build healthy parent relationships, reduce conflict, increase buy-in, and reinforce peak performance behaviors at home.

Testimonials

I want to let you know how much I enjoy and respect your series, “14 Steps.” I coach a small high school and your program not only helped my team play better under pressure, it significantly helped my 17 year old daughter who’s a three sport athlete. She used to think too much and get too nervous going into games. Now she plays the way she practices, relaxed and aggressively. Thanks for your product.

Gail

Dr. G, You did a GREAT job with 14 Steps. I can’t tell you how much it has helped me relax and focus! My congrats and sincere thanks.

Gianluca

My coaching staff listened to the audio with me and are all very excited, so excited in fact that we are hosting a workshop for parents. I shared the audio directly to a couple of parents. The response was so positive these parents have actually volunteered to participate in helping to run the parent workshop. They listened to the audio’s and consciously put into practice some of your parent guidelines. As a result, not only are they enjoying closer relationships with their children, but the kids are enjoying their sport again!

Tim

I was listening to your “Parents” audio today on my drive and I have to say it opened my eyes! Especially the part where you talk about “good” and “bad” nervous. What a life skills gift to teach parents how to teach their kids how to roll with the “juice” that naturally comes up as you’re about to perform! The “Juice” is normal, it is what will fuel you. Don’t fear “The Juice” embrace it. Such a great audio! Thank you.

Wesley

This is a GREAT tool to use with any sport parents. I had the parents…listen to it in one of our meetings and I couldn’t believe the response. It opened their eyes. Doc, you have such a great way of presenting things. Your humor makes parents willing to listen to all the things they’ve been doing wrong and what they need to do to change without getting defensive. Bless you

Ray B

A real breakthrough book for athletes! … I was able to put the breakthrough therapy of `brainspotting’ to immediate use with my clients and the results were spectacular! … The authors wrote this book so that athletes could also benefit. … I recommend this not just for therapists who work with athletes, but for athletes themselves!

Amazon Reviewer

An eye opening approach to working with athletes. As a former athlete and current coach this book has opened my eyes to outside factors that can truly have a very debilitating effect on the performance of athletes. The challenges of sport require mind and body to be in sync and athletes may experience the ripples of underlying problems coming out in their play that may have no relation to sport, and may not have happened recently. The authors have found a new approach to understanding and treating the most unreachable athletes. I suggest this book for any counselor, coach, teacher, parent and or athlete that may be looking for answers as to “Why?”. It’s all relevant when it comes to life experiences and this book explains why sport is no exception.

Amazon Reviewer

Dr. G, I just finished reading This is Your Brain On Sports and I absolutely loved it! It opened my eyes to what really causes athletes to fall apart and it will help me be more effective with my players!

Frank

Thanks so much! I finally learned how to get my parents on the same page that I’m on. They’re actually helping me now! Go Figure! It has made things so much much easier for me to do my job. I think this is a critically important book for coaches in any sport.

Jack

I just love your new book! Parents on my team were driving me nuts and making me really angry, getting in the way of me doing a decent job of coaching. This book has helped me get things in perspective and to recruit my parents to help me! I feel like I now have a much better understanding of where they’re coming from and how to effectively work with them. Thank you! Thank you! I won’t quit coaching after all!

John B

Congratulations on your program, “14 Steps!” They are truly outstanding and thoroughly cover all the mental aspects of sports which are challenging to athletes and coaches. We are using them this year as part of our weekly training program and the kids love your stories and teachings!

Ken S.

Your new program has really helped both of my kids even though they are in different sports! My daughter used to get too nervous before she played and she told me how much more relaxed and focused she feels now and I can see it in her level of confidence and success on the field. My son had a long history of doing better in practice than competition, leaving him frustrated and us not knowing how to help him. What a difference I see in him now when he competes under pressure. Thanks so much — you’re a great teacher!

CR – Parent

I’m a XC and track runner and my parents just bought me your new program! My nervousness has caused me to really hate a sport I once loved and I wondered if I should quit. After working with your downloads I’ve noticed a huge change in my attitude and no longer feel sick to my stomach before races! I don’t know how to thank you!

RJ

I’ve been coaching 20 years and this is one of the most versatile mental toughness training sets I’ve run across. It’s loaded with great exercises and stories that really work. I strongly recommend it to all my athletes.

Dennis

I have downloaded your 14 Steps to Mental Toughness and have been listening to them with my son. I must say that it is having a very positive impact on both of us!! We live in the UK where this type of science is not well known, but now I am persuaded by it! I am so grateful that I discovered your work as my son is only 17 so has plenty of time to benefit.

Mohammed

I’ve downloaded your 14 Steps and have been listening to them with my son. It is having a very positive impact on both of us! I am so grateful that I discovered your work.

Mohammed

Coach G, Thanks for the downloads. I absolutely love the content. You have opened my kids eyes and I have seen the difference immediately in their smiles and improved play. What a gift!

Kris

Amazing Book! Purchased this book for my husband and once he started reading the book, he couldn’t put it down. He said it was fascinating and so “spot on”. My husband played professional ball and my son is currently at a Div I college playing ball. My husband said that if he knew what this book speaks of back when he played pro ball, he would have had a longer pro career. Every athlete, coach, and parent (especially father) of an athlete will benefit from reading this book.