Kevin Blue is the Athletic Director at UC Davis, and was formerly Senior Associate Athletics Director at Stanford University. Blue graduated from Stanford in 2005 as a four-year letter winner on the men’s golf team and went on to earn his PhD in Sports Psychology at Michigan State. He still coaches golf for both amateurs and professionals.

According to Blue, sports like golf can be more mentally challenging than others, but all sports require mental training to improve performance. Blue advises that to mentally prepare, athletes should mimic the emotional and mental stresses of competition in a practice setting. This includes rehearsing all the experiences you would feel, especially any nervousness you might be feeling. By preparing in this manner, athletes improve mental performance in competition because they already experienced the emotional stress in practice.