Skip Bayless, perhaps the most hated media personality in all of sports, recently made some remarks about Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott that most people considered over-the-top insensitive — even for Bayless.

Unfortunately there is still the internalized perception that football is a “manly” sport and that “real men” don’t talk about their feelings — that to ask for help amounts to admitting weakness — and thus mental health issues are often brushed aside.

The pressures of modern youth sports are creating stress related mental health issues in young athletes. But there’s a non-traditional way of addressing this stress. That’s what we learned during our interview with Bradley Donohue, a psychology professor at University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), and director of The Optimum Performance Program in Sports (TOPPS), a mental health program for athletes.

An athlete looking to get faster or stronger might spend time in the gym or working on their skills with a coach.

On fields, courts, tracks, and arenas everywhere athletes are pushing the limits of what the human body can do (and what their own bodies can do). The difference between winning and losing may come down to fractions of a second, a single decision to go left rather than right, or the ability to endure just a little bit more.

I had the pleasure to interview Licensed clinical psychologist Brad Donohue. Brad is a UNLV professor of psychology and director of The Optimum Performance Program in Sports (TOPPS) — a mental health program targeted specifically to college athletes. He also writes a regular column for Psychology Today.

A number of bloggers have asked us to discuss sport performance optimization exercises that are supported in science. In answering this call, we’d like to report the results of a study that compared the effectiveness of 3 exercises that were designed to improve running performance (systematic motivational exchanges, yoga, discussion about competitive running), and show how this information can be used to assist athletes immediately prior to competitive events.

Imagine that you are a coach. You notice that your team tends to take their strength and conditioning workouts less seriously, when compared to their other training. You want to motivate your athletes to work hard and stay engaged during this training. Would it be better to discuss the negative consequences of not getting stronger? Or focus on the potential benefits of increasing their strength?