Sports Psychology Coaching

About Bill Cole, MS, MA, The Mental Game Coach™

Bill Cole, MS, MA, has been a leader in the field of sport psychology for over 30 years, as a scholar, researcher, writer, teacher, coach, athlete, trainer, speaker and consultant. He is a thought leader in the worlds of peak performance, coaching and the mental game.

Bill is an internationally and nationally recognized authority on peak performance and coaching. An award-winning scholar-athlete, he has coached at the highest levels of major-league pro sports and big-time college athletics. A multiple Hall-Of-Fame honoree as an athlete, coach and school alumnus, he is an in-the-trenches coach and consultant and is the creator and developer of many leading-edge workshops, seminars and training programs.

Bill's imaginative, visionary work has been profiled hundreds of times in electronic and print media, including Golf Magazine, Tennis Magazine, Yahoo! Sports, MSNBC.com, The San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle, The San Jose Mercury News, The Denver Post, The Buffalo News, and many more.

He consults, coaches and speaks from a wide and deep background as a high achiever across many disciplines. He has achieved excellence in these arenas:

• World-Class ATP Pro Tennis Tour Sports Psychology Coach
• Two-Sport National-Level Athlete and Professional Athlete
• Founder and President of an International Coaching Association
• Professional Speaker and Trainer
• Published Book Author and Author of Over 360+ Articles
• Award-Winning Scholar and Academician
• Numerous Awards And Honors

Known as the Mental Game Coach™, Bill has traveled the world coaching high performers in pressure-cooker sports situations as varied as the Baseball College World Series, Wimbledon, the US Open and Davis Cup.

A prolific author, Bill has published training manuals, assessment instruments and audio products on sports psychology, peak performance, motivation, self-development, the paradox of success, mental toughness, team-building, leadership, achievement, mental training, coaching and other topics, in addition to the book Tennis The Mental Game.

A professional speaker, seminar leader and workshop leader for over 30 years, Bill Cole has spoken to a wide variety of audiences. He's an engaging, warm speaker and master storyteller. He was a member of the Board Of Directors of The National Speakers Association (Northern California) for two years.

Bill has been one of the most innovative writers and practitioners of the mental game of sports since the mid 1970's.

Playing Experience: Amateur, College And Professional

Bill competed at the national level in tennis and badminton. He reached the quarter-finals of the first US Intercollegiate Badminton Doubles Championships. He was a #1 high school tennis team player and #1 college tennis team player, won six Conference titles in college, and played in hundreds of competitive events over a career of 15 years. He was winner or finalist in 25 tennis tournaments and played professional tennis in the 1970's. In 1981, he posted a win over Steve Denton, who went on to become the fastest server (130 mph) in pro tennis history. He played the #1 pro tennis player in the world eyeball-to-eyeball in 1983 and lived to tell about it. As a kid, Bill was an All-Star Little-League baseball pitcher. He is scheduled for induction into the Buffalo Tennis Hall of Fame in the spring of 2008.

Academic Background And Training In Sports Psychology

Bill earned a Bachelor of Science in sport psychology in 1978 from The State University Of New York at Buffalo. As an undergraduate, he was awarded the Albert Zeigler Award for academic excellence. As a graduating senior (Cum laude honors), he won the prestigious Clifford R. Furnas Award as a University Scholar-Athlete.

He holds a Master of Science in physical education with specialization in sport psychology from California State University-Fullerton. He graduated in 1986, and, in his last year, was inducted into Psi Chi, The National Honor Society In Psychology. He holds a Master Of Arts In Counseling Psychology from Santa Clara University in northern California. Bill completed his first Masters degree under one of the top sport psychology consultants working in the world today, Dr. Ken Ravizza, author of the best-selling sports psychology book, Heads Up Baseball.

For 15 years Bill was on the faculty of four colleges and universities across the U.S., as a teacher educator, master teacher, stress management specialist, human development specialist and physical education specialist. He holds a Lifetime Teaching Credential In Physical Education in California. He has also received training in clinical and medical hypnosis and in counseling psychology.

Bill has had experience as a counselor at the college and high school levels, as a psychiatric recreation leader at a state mental hospital and as a psychotherapist in the outpatient division of a large mental health agency.

The Mental Game Of Tennis Expert

Bill's book, The Mental Game of Tennis, will be re-published, as a revised and updated edition, in 2008. This is the culmination of hundreds of interviews with world-class tennis pros, thousands of hours of coaching with players at all levels and countless hours of research into the sports psychology of tennis.

Bill's articles on sports psychology or features about his work have been published hundreds of times, including in major outlets like The Amherst Bee, The Woodlands Villager, The Woodlands Trails, The East Hampton Star, The USPTA NORCAL newsletter, The Tyler College Bulletin, Inside Tennis Magazine, Inside Tennis / Racquets Magazine, and Inside Racquetball Magazine.

International And National Clientele

He consults with athletes, parents and coaches from all around the United States and the world. Clients speak to him regularly by phone from Germany, England, Australia, China, Hong Kong and Mexico. He has provided sports psychology coaching services for individuals and/or teams in over 30 sports, plus dance, music, bridge, poker and blackjack at the youth, amateur, high school, college, and professional levels.

Client Successes

His clients have achieved sustainable successes at multiple levels. They have earned hundreds of rankings and honors, including State Championships, Sectional Championships, National Championships and International Professional Championships. They have achieved distinction as members of High School and College sports teams, and have won countless league and division championship titles.

To give you an example of the caliber of Bill's clients, he has been Mental Training Coach to a top ten world junior water-skier from Mexico, a top-ranked junior figure skater from Australia, a top-30 world ranked tennis pro from Israel, a winner of the Pan-American water skiing championships, a pro water skier, numerous college golfers, a junior golfer who played in the World Golf Championships, a pro golfer, High School quarterbacks and pitchers and England's number one female mixed martial arts competitor.

Bill's company has been under contract to the Joe Theil Worldwide Golf Schools as their sports psychology consultant, writing their golf psychology curriculum. Joe is a top-50 Golf Magazine golf coach and master PGA Professional.

Bill has been Mental Training Coach to numerous College All-Americans in multiple sports, including baseball players who have been drafted by seven major-league Baseball Teams – the Texas Rangers, the Atlanta Braves, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Oakland Athletics and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Bill provided sport psychology coaching for five Stanford collegiate baseball players who captured professional baseball contracts with major league pro teams with an average contract salary and bonus of $800,000. One player achieved a signing bonus of $1 million.

In the sport of tennis alone, Bill's students have earned hundreds of rankings, honors and tournament titles in every conceivable age level and division in four sections across the United States and internationally. He has coached seven National Champions. Among Bill's client achievements:

• Over 20 National And International Championships.
• 11 California State Championships.
• 34 United States National Rankings.
• 22 Top-Ten United States National Rankings.
• 32 #1 USTA Sectional Rankings.
• 70 Top-Ten USTA Sectional Rankings.
• 148 USTA Sectional Rankings in the East, Texas, Southern California and Northern California.

Sports Psychology Coach at Stanford University, where the baseball team was ranked #1 in the United States

A few years ago Bill was hired as the sports psychology coach for the Stanford University baseball team, and they were very grateful for his efforts and assistance there:

	"Bill Cole is one of the top peak performance coaches in the country. He crafted a powerful mental game peak performance program for us, ranging from being a consultant to the coaching staff, a mental game advisor to individual players, and team mental game coach for group sessions. He has demonstrated to us why he is an authority on sports psychology. He has truly helped us get to the next level of performance. Bill's peak performance system helped us tremendously in our march to reach the finals of the College World Series."
	Stanford University Baseball Team

Founder and President of an International Coaching Association

Bill is also the Founder and President of The International Mental Game Coaching Association (IMGCA), the leading worldwide organization dedicated to advancing the research, development, professionalism and growth of mental game coaching. In addition to IMGCA activities such as conducting Mental Game Certification training, he is the major contributor to the IMGCA website, which has valuable mental game information including hundreds of informative success articles for kids, parents, athletes and coaches. You can visit the IMGCA at: www.mentalgamecoaching.com.

International Coaching Experience

The Israeli Davis Cup Team had Bill on staff for three years as their Sport Psychology Coach. They said about his work, "Bill is a master mental game coach. He is one of the top peak performance coaches on the Pro Tennis Tour." When Bill worked closely with team #1 Harel Levy, Harel reached the finals of the Canadian Open, winning over $211,000 in one week. Bill started working with Harel when he was #278 in the world, and two years later, he achieved a world ranking of #30, and a seed at Wimbledon. In 2001 the team defeated Bulgaria to reach the final round in their section, the best result in Israeli Davis Cup history. They also had an important win over South Africa.

NCAA Division I Head Coach

As an NCAA Division I Head Coach at two west-coast universities (San Jose State and Cal-State Fullerton), Bill's teams competed against Stanford, Cal, Arizona, Pepperdine, Santa Barbara, UCLA, USC, San Diego, UC-San Diego, Idaho, Montana, Purdue, Washington, and many other national and regional powerhouse collegiate teams. He's coached two Junior College All-Americans. His San Jose State team reached a career high ranking of #8 in the NCAA Division I Volvo Tennis Northwest Region.

Honors and Awards

Bill Cole has received four Who's Who honors, two Hall of Fame honors and four academic awards.

• Who's Who in Professional Speaking
• International Who's Who of Professionals
• Who's Who in American Education
• Who's Who of Executives and Professionals
• Psi Chi, National Honor Society in Psychology
• The Albert Zeigler Award for Academic Excellence (as an undergraduate)
• The Clifford R. Furnas University Scholar-Athlete Award (as a graduating senior)
• Winner of the 2003 Distinguished Alumni/Wall Of Fame Award as an Outstanding Graduate of the Williamsville Central School District.
• Inducted into the Buffalo, New York Tennis Hall of Fame.

Mental Game Coaching Services Offered Through Procoach Systems

Bill Cole founded Procoach Systems, a company that offers coaching, training and speaking services in a broad range of fields. In addition to his sports psychology and coaching experience, his multifaceted career has taken him into the worlds of psychotherapy, education, business, politics, journalism, writing, music, the media and entertainment. Learn more about Bill Cole and the other services he offers at the Procoach website.

Professional Memberships

• The International Society of Sports Psychology
• The International Mental Game Coaching Association (Founder and President)
• The International Society of Mental Training and Excellence
• The International Stress Management Association
• The United States Professional Tennis Association
• The American College of Sports Medicine