Athletes

Being myself an athlete (former French national level swimmer, triathlete, skydiver and still runner), I fully understand the challenges you are facing in your day to day practice and during competition.

Mental training is a component that some athletes dismiss, but is crucial in maintaining composure under stress and to improving athletic performance. While most mental coaches and sport psychologists act upon the mental, I also teach how to control your emotional state, which appears to be as important.

You can start to assess some key mental skills with the Wheel of Mental Performance.

I developed a unique approach which cross over coaching, mental training and emotions management to enable you to perform to your full potential and maintain a great Sport / Life balance, finding meaning and fulfilment beyond performance.

Powerful Coaching conversations to draw out your internal mental and emotional roadblock and that you are not aware and create awareness (what’s most important for you? For what reasons? What are your biggest fear and what’s holding you back?) and to support you in taking real actions and keeping focused toward your goals.

Mental Training (ie sport psychology coaching) is like taking your brain to the gym, to strengthen and stretch it just as you do with your body. I use various techniques like Personal goal setting, Power words (or Positive Self Talk), Positive Images (or Mental Imagery) and Present Focus, which have proven to be effective with top athletes including Olympic Gold medalists.

Building Personal Resilience induce emotion-management techniques which directly impact your heart rate and physiology for an optimal physical, mental and emotional performance. These techniques, added to the possibility to receive objective, realtime feedback through some specific devices, allow the athletes to better self-regulate their tension and emotional responses, especially in challenging situations, and have proven to be very effective in improving performance and endurance in many different sport such as golf, tennis but also in team sports like soccer, basketball or hockey. As Tiger wood once said: “the guy who is controlling his emotions is going to win“.

My clients include:

Michigan Lakeshore Aquatics team with Devon Nowicki, US National Champion in 2019 (100m breaststroke)
Grand Valley State University cross country team (multiple US NCAA Division 2 National Champion)
Mohamed Agili, African Game Champion in 2019 (400m free) and participant to the World Championships in 2017
Pierrick Fournier – Junior European Championship finalist in 2019 (4*200m free)
Elite and International referees at the French Handball Federation (FFH) and International Handball Federation (IHF)
College level golf players on their way to become professional

My coaching is for:

Serious and committed athletes looking for that competitive edge.
Casual athletes wanting to improve their game and performance.
Young athletes wanting to get more consistent results.

I offer:

Individual coaching,
Group/Team coaching,
Coach coaching,
Workshops,
Talks

Contact me to discuss about your goals or concerns and I’ll offer you some first suggestions and propose a you a customized program to support you.

Hanna G. student and long-distance runner at Grand Valley State University

“Evan’s mental strategies have helped me tremendously in both workouts and important races in my 2018/ 2019 season. By providing me with a personal visualization before the 2018 Division II National Cross Country Championships, I was able to go into the race relaxed and focused, knowing that I would run my race no matter what the situation was. It ended up being a very tough course with crappy weather conditions, but instead I focused on positivity and giving my best on that day. I ran the race of my life, finishing 6^th place overall, becoming an All- American and helping my team win the National Title. I used the same positive approach for a fast indoor 5k a week later and was able to improve my PR by almost 30 seconds and qualifying for our Indoor Nationals, something I didn’t think I would be able to achieve.

Evan has successfully proven to me the effectiveness of not just physical training, but also improving my mental game. He has simple, yet amazingly applicable tools for elevating yourself and thus elevating your own performance!”

John Groendyk – GVSU Track and Field

The first part of my outdoor season was awful, races were not going well and I was nowhere near the time needed to qualify. For me, my dream began to fade away when a left leg injury occurred mid way through the season. Each day of running the pain seemed to get worse and worse. This led me to start doubting my ability.

Before my indoor national meet in March, my coach had introduce me to Evan Bernache. We worked on developing a mental preparation plan for how to handle racing at such a high level. This payed off as I became an all-American my freshman year. Having helped me before, Evan and I began to talk about how I can mentally train to overcome my injury. Through some imagery work, I was able to picture characteristics of strength and stamina needed to pursue my dream. After a couple sessions with Evan, the image helped me mentally beat my injury. During the finals part of the season I raced an incredible conference meet and placed second in the 1500. I received male conference freshman track athlete of the meet. Thanks to Evan’s mental prep I felt no pain during the race, something that had not happened for weeks. A week later I had one more chance to qualify for the nationals meet. With Evans mental prep I ran an incredible gutsy race. Although I did not qualify, I ran the second fastest time I have ever ran, I couldn’t have been more satisfied with myself. The time and effort Evan put into my training truly made a noticeable difference. I am incredibly grateful to have worked with him. His knowledge and care for mentally preparing athletes truly made all the difference in the world. Thank you for everything Evan!