News Release: January 18, 2022 - Silicon Valley, California
The International Mental Game Coaching Association Announces Michael Mancini Is A New Level I Certified Coach.
Michael Mancini based in South Bend, Indiana, has earned the Level I Certification from the International Mental Game Coaching Association training program. Michael was awarded the title of Certified Mental Game Instructor, (CMGI).
Bill Cole, MS, MA, Founder and President of IMGCA stated,
"Michael Mancini loves sports. He loves coaching sports. He loves people. He loves seeing people learn, develop and perform to their potential in sports. Mike has had a long-term love affair with sports psychology going back many years.
Mike completed his IMGCA Level I program in record time and with amazing results. He achieved the highest final exam score in IMGCA history, missing only one question out of 100 questions.
Mike is now involved deeply in his IMGCA Level II program.
This gives you some insight on the quality of Mike as a learner. Mike not only loves learning, but he’s an expert at learning. He’s been a teacher, a coach, and administrator, and he knows learning inside and out. He ought to. He’s the Director of the Professional Development Department at Indiana University in South Bend, Indiana.
Getting back into the sport psychology, mental game coaching field is a natural for Mike because he’s virtually been involved in sports psychology his entire life, as an athlete himself, coaching other people, and now working with his own kids. Mike has a real natural affinity and inborn insights about the mental game. That’s how he catches on so quickly and that’s how we’ve been going so fast in his classes.
Mike is a pleasure to know as a person and he’s a real joy to coach because he’s made of the right stuff. He’s a great person with solid values. He knows what’s important in life, and he’s just great to be around. Mike is the perfect type of mental game coach to advance this field. He’s the real deal. Mike has everything needed to continue being a leader, and to improve mental game coaching.
Mike is down to earth and sincere, friendly, an excellent listener, and always has a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. He’s naturally adept at rapport skills, communication, and has a wonderful ability to connect with people rapidly and make them feel comfortable. These are all perfect mental game coach skills that Mike already possesses.
Mike is also blessed with a deep curiosity about all things mental game. He contributes to our coaching sessions fully, always comes very well prepared, and asks very incisive and deep questions that always makes each session very interesting for me as well.
Mike has always been involved with sports, specifically baseball, and then later in life, hockey. He played baseball since the age of seven all the way through high school, and then after high school he was always part of the game in various informal ways such as volunteering and coaching. Mike coached formally at the middle school level for five years and he is currently helping coach a youth travel baseball team.
Mike brings a rigorous, scholarly, yet practical orientation to his mental game coaching education. He has a bias for action and for getting things done and for being very pragmatic when it comes to delivering mental game coaching services. I am absolutely convinced that Mike Mancini will continue to be a leader not only in his university work arena but also in the mental game coaching field. I can see him not only developing into a superb mental game coach, but also in creating potent mental game coaching programs for various sports, and by deeply impacting everyone he coaches.
Mike Mancini is a true leader an education and coaching. It’s been my pleasure to have him in the program.
Mike's Motivations For IMGCA Certification
Mike has always had a passion for sports and he actually started a graduate program in Sports Psychology at Michigan State University in 1984, after doing his undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Notre Dame. From his perspective at the time, it looked like the field was very much in its infancy and the few Sports Psychology professionals that were practicing in that arena were coming out of Ph.D. Counseling Psychology programs. He ended up leaving the program and pursuing other options, based on not wanting to pursue a clinical perspective. He has always kept that passion for sports to this day.
During the pandemic he discovered meditation and mindfulness and has started practicing that with tremendous results on a personal level. Combining that with having an 11 year-old son who is sharing a passion for sports, as well, this has Mike rediscovering the field of Sports Psychology / Mental Performance again. His son loves to play, but also has had some performance issues that have shown up during the last year. So, Mike started to share some meditative practices with him. As they got into that, Mike noticed that as he started to get into higher levels of his sports (baseball, hockey and golf), he has seen some mental performance issues pop up for him in those areas as well. He and his son are great at practice but play less well during actual games. So, Mike began his search to find techniques and methods to help them play more to their potential. Mike noticed that the meditation and mindfulness practices certainly are part of that, but he wanted to go beyond that and learn mental strategies and techniques specific to sports. He found Harvey Dorfman's books on Mental Performance as it relates to baseball, as well as Dr. Ken Ravizza’s and Dr. Tom Hanson's work in that area as well. So, he started to dive into those works. Along the way Mike also read Bob Tewksbury's and George Mumford's work on Mental Performance. All of that has led Mike to think of trying to do something not only for his son, but for other youth players. Mike would like to coach his son’s teammates and perhaps others in that age group of middle to high school players. The lessons learned in the mental performance arena can go a long way to not only improve a young person's performance on the field, court, ice, etc. but also in navigating through life. Mike specifically wants to work with youth on the mental performance side, as the sports environment has always been his passion, and lessons learned there can truly translate into other areas of their lives.
Mike’s Professional Background In Psychology
Mike started a graduate program in Sports Psychology at Michigan State University in 1984 after doing his undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Notre Dame. He really enjoyed reading a wide variety of sports psychology books and in particular, books on baseball psychology. Mike has put together a set of lessons to work with youth in sports based on that research.
Mike is a 1984 graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a BA in Psychology.
Mike is also a 1989 graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a Master of Science in Administration.
He also has done some graduate work in Sports Psychology, at Michigan State University.
Mike’s Other Business Background
All of Mike’s work has been in higher education, either working individually with students, fundraising, or, now in an administrative area running a department. Mike is the Director of the Professional Development Department at Indiana University in South Bend, Indiana.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-mancini-bb168545/
https://www.iusb.edu/professional-development/index.html
Overview of IMGCA Certification Programs
Level I IMGCA certification requires two hours of live private in person or web-based video 1-1 coaching with Bill Cole, MS, MA, IMGCA President. Level I students are required to view 13 videos, listen to over six hours of audios, understand two assessments and read 20 articles. Level III and IV IMGCA certification students have access to over 120 hours of IMGCA pre-recorded audio classes, over 500 mental training videotapes, over 50 content articles and 12 assessments. Across all certifications, IMGCA has over 140 specialized sport psychology content articles. New content is being added continuously.
Each student completes reading assignments, written homework, practical application of the class content and coaching practicum with groups, teams and individuals as applicable, and coaching feedback evaluations. Each student passes the IMGCA Level I certification written examination.
This sport psychology certification training is provided by the International Mental Game Coaching Association, based in Fremont, California. The IMGCA was the first international mental game coaching membership organization, created January 1, 2006. It remains the only international mental game coaching membership organization in the world today. The mission of the International Mental Game Coaching Association is to advance the research, development, professionalism, and growth of the discipline of mental game coaching worldwide. The IMGCA is comprised of individuals and institutions interested in sports, movement, health, fitness, business, the arts, achievement, work-life balance, stress control, and peak performance. IMGCA members come from all walks of life, and have varied backgrounds in sports performance, coaching, teaching, writing, business and consulting. They are professionals, students, parents, and interested observers of the mental game.
Topics Of Study In The IMGCA Certification Programs
With IMGCA you can learn over 700 topics, issues, techniques and methods of the mental game:
https://www.mentalgamecoaching.com/IMGCACertification.html#TopicsOfStudy
Just a few of the areas of study:
- Attention and Concentration Control
- Assessments, both written and oral
- Coaching communication
- Enlisting parents and coaches as allies
- Motivation and goal setting
- Individual differences and customization of coaching plans
- How to read people and understand them better
- How to create rapport
- Using metaphors and analogies in coaching
- Creating a coaching dialogue
- Coaching vs. consulting vs. training vs. teaching
- Conducting the first coaching session
- How to get clients and have a busy practice
- How life stress events intrude on sport performance
- Common mental obstacles to peak performance
- Coaching parents of athletes
- The inner game and zen sports
- Top ten mistakes coaches make in building their business
- Running your business day to day
- Business policies and procedures
- Understanding why and how mental game coaching works
- Personal qualities of a great mental game coach
- Your personal values and how they impact your coaching philosophy
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