Our Mission

Make mental training
evidence-based.

Just like your physical training already is. You train your body against numbers, reps, splits, load, velocity. The mental side of your game has been coached on instinct and clichés for about as long as sport has existed. Sports Mental Skills Training exists to close that gap.

Get your score, free See how it works

We believe in science

A system, not a slogan.

We built a system that measures the mental factors behind performance, tracks what changes when you train them, turns that into recommendations you can act on, and shows you the evidence at the individual, team and aggregate levels.

That system is the point. It is the difference between training your mental game and guessing at it. We are committed to building it, testing it, and improving it against what the data actually shows.

Resolution

26 specific parts of your mental game.

Measured across three domains, so what comes back is specific enough to train.

Mental Abilities

Processing, focus, and cognitive consistency under competitive conditions.

Mental Skills

Confidence, imagery, arousal regulation, and composure in competition.

Health & Well-Being

Sleep, recovery, nutrition, and overall resilience supporting performance.

That resolution is deliberate. It is the difference between being told what kind of athlete you are and being told what to work on Tuesday.

Repetition

And built to be taken again.

Mental skills are not a personality type. They move. So the measurement repeats, and you watch the number move with it.

01

Measure

The MSQ scores you across all 26, free, in about ten minutes.

02

See it

Your results, in plain language, with the evidence behind them.

03

Train it

Recommendations aimed at the specific parts holding you back.

04

Measure again

Retake it and find out whether the training actually moved anything.

SMST is committed to

What you get from us.

Four of these cost nothing, and they are not a trial. They are the part we think every athlete should have access to.

FREE

Evidence on what moves your performance

Which mental factors most affect how you perform, specific to you, not to athletes in general.

FREE

Mental training recommendations

What to actually work on, tied to what your own results show.

FREE

The evidence itself, open to you

See how mental factors affect performance, at the individual, team and aggregate levels.

FREE TO START

Tools that measure your mental skills

Starting with the free MSQ screening and going as deep as a full evaluation.

Access to services

Coaching, evaluation and assessment, treatment, and self- and team-training, delivered by a licensed psychologist.

In-depth analytics

Individual and team level analysis, for athletes who want the full picture and for programs deciding where to put their attention.

We would like to partner with you.

Your individual results are yours. When what you tell us informs the wider evidence base, it does so in aggregate, with no individual athlete identified, which means the work you do on your own game also sharpens the picture for every athlete measured after you.

Thanks for visiting. The MSQ is free and takes about ten minutes. That is where it starts.

Take the MSQ, free See a sample report
Train Your Edge

Talent got you here.
Your mental edge
makes you different.

Every athlete trains the physical side. Almost nobody measures the mental side. The Mental Skills Questionnaire scores you on 26 specific parts of your mental game, free, in about ten minutes. Then you train what it finds and measure it again.

Get your score, free See a sample report

32 questions, about 10 minutes. Built by a licensed psychologist.

What you get

Your mental skills, mapped.

The MSQ shows you where your skills are and what needs training.

See how it works →
Example report, sample scores
Mental Abilities
74/100
DevelopingPeak

Processing, focus, and cognitive consistency under competitive conditions.

High performance zone
Mental Skills
58/100
DevelopingPeak

Confidence, imagery, arousal regulation, and composure in competition.

Room to develop
Health & Well-Being
82/100
DevelopingPeak

Sleep, recovery, nutrition, and overall resilience supporting performance.

High performance zone
0–33: Developing
34–66: Building
67–100: High performance

Two paths. One science.

How do you want to use the MSQ?

🏃

I am an athlete

Take the MSQ to map your mental skills and start your training with no cost and no commitment.

  • 31-item Mental Skills Questionnaire, free every month with an account
  • Reporting on mental skills, mental abilities, and health
  • Proposed training plan and priorities
  • Tracking over time and access to mental skills analytics (with an individual membership)
  • Access to schedule a full mental skills evaluation, mental skills coaching, and have your results certified for sharing with coaches and recruiters (with an individual membership)
Take the MSQ for Free
🏆

I am a coach or program

Deploy the MSQ across your program to train and develop with evidence-based direction.

  • Monthly aggregated reports and recommendations
  • Access to a team dashboard
  • Access to referral information for mental skills evaluations and coaching
Become a team/program member
Schedule a consult

The emerging data advantage

Mental performance science, built on real athletic data.

Every assessment captures not just mental scores, but the sport you play and how you felt you were performing when you took it. Over time, that data reveals patterns no coach could see before.

This is a direction, not a destination. We're building toward per-sport correlations between mental skills and on-field performance outcomes. The data collection starts the moment you take the assessment.

See how the data story works →
Illustrative vision, not live data

Emerging Capability

Per-sport correlation mapping

Connecting mental performance scores to sport-specific performance outcomes across a growing athlete population.

📊 Insight engine in development
Data collection begins at first assessment

Your path

Ready to train your edge?

Here are your steps.

1

Take the MSQ

Map your mental skills with the questionnaire.

2

Become a member

Unlock monthly tracking, trend charts, and analytics.

3

Take the full mental skills evaluation

Go deep with a comprehensive evaluation by a Licensed Psychologist.

4

Start mental skills coaching

Train one-on-one with an SMST endorsed coach.

5

Explore our services

Compare membership, coaching, and full evaluation, and find your starting point.

Take the MSQ Services
For Athletes

Talent got you here.
Your mental edge
makes you different.

The Mental Skills Questionnaire gives you a real read on where your mental game stands, across three domains and 26 specific measures. About ten minutes, and it costs nothing.

Get your score, free See a sample report

Your individual scores are yours. Coaches see team averages only, never your name against a number.

What you'll learn

Every dimension that shapes performance.

Mental Abilities

The cognitive foundation that holds up under competitive pressure.

  • Intellect
  • Executive Functioning
  • Processing Speed
  • Conscientiousness
  • Extraversion
  • Neuroticism
  • Openness

Mental Skills

The trained mental behaviors that separate good from great.

  • Acceptance
  • Self-Efficacy
  • Meaning & Joy
  • Resilience
  • Positive Self-Talk
  • Imagery & Confidence
  • Goal-Setting
  • Arousal Regulation
  • Attentional Control

Health & Well-Being

The physical and personal foundation that sustains peak performance.

  • Sleep & Recovery
  • Nutrition
  • Relationships
  • Overall Well-Being

Scored as a single domain to protect privacy and clinical integrity.

After you take the MSQ?

1

Take the assessment

32 questions. About 10 minutes. Create a free account to begin.

2

Get your scored report

Scores across all three domains, placed in performance bands. Framed for action, not diagnosis.

3

Decide your next steps

Explore our services, become a member, schedule a full evaluation, or start coaching.

Want to go deeper?

The questionnaire and your report are free. Becoming an individual member unlocks your results over time: history and trend charts, mental skills analytics when live, one certified share of your profile with a coach or recruiter each month, and access to a full mental skills evaluation and coaching.

$9.99/month membership. The questionnaire and your report are free. Membership unlocks your results over time: tracking, trend charts, and analytics.

$9.99/month. Auto-renews monthly, cancel anytime.

See all pricing →

Ready for a full evaluation?

The Full Mental Skills Evaluation is a comprehensive clinical-grade assessment. Full written report, Dr. Quinn's clinical interpretation, and a personalized training plan.

Book a Consultation →
For Programs & Teams

The best coaches
don't guess.
They know.

One link scores your whole roster. You get an aggregate read on where the team is strong and where it is fragile, before the season tells you. Individual scores stay private to each athlete.

See a sample team report Book a Team Consult

Built and reviewed by a licensed psychologist. Aggregate and anonymized, always.

The program case

Mental readiness is a team metric.

Most coaches train the physical game obsessively and guess at the mental game. Mental Skills Questionnaire makes it measurable.

Send your roster the assessment link. Every athlete completes it on their own time. You get an anonymized aggregate dashboard showing your team's collective strengths and where collective work is warranted. Individual scores stay private to each athlete.

  • Deploy to any roster size with a single link
  • Anonymous aggregate reports by domain
  • Individual results stay private to each athlete
  • Dr. Quinn available for team workshops and consults
  • Longitudinal data across a season or multi-year program
Example team dashboard

Team Aggregate, Spring 2026

24 athletes  ·  Assessment completion: 92%

Mental Abilities 71/100
Mental Skills 54/100
Health & Well-Being 78/100
Focus area: Mental Skills. Arousal regulation and imagery scores below program average. Recommend targeted workshop.

Ready to get started?

Let's talk about your program.

Every team situation is different. A quick consult with Dr. Quinn will clarify the right deployment approach and pricing for your program size.

Book a Team Consult
The Data Story

Mental skills
science with memory.

The Mental Skills Questionnaire captures not just your scores, but the context around them: your sport, your recent performance level, how you felt going in. That context is where the real intelligence lives.

The flow

From first question to long-term insight.

1

Sport + Performance Baseline

Before the first question, you tell us your sport and how you've been performing lately. A quick self-rating, your recent trend, and an optional primary metric. This captures your performance context, not just your mindset.

2

The 31-Question Assessment

Mental Skills Questionnaire measures three domains across 26 sub-dimensions, with 3 embedded validity items. Calibrated Likert items developed and reviewed by Dr. Quinn. Takes about 10 minutes.

3

Your Scored Report

Domain scores, band placement, and a performance-framed interpretation. Where you are strong is celebrated. Where you have room to develop is framed as exactly that: room to develop.

4

Longitudinal Tracking

Each assessment you take is another data point. Over time, you and Dr. Quinn can see which domains move with training, which are stable, and how your mental performance correlates with your on-field results.

5

The Emerging Intelligence Layer

Across a growing athlete population, those individual data points start to reveal patterns. Which mental skills correlate with performance in which sports? That's the question we're building toward. The data collection starts today.

In development
Illustrative sample only

Performance Baseline Capture

Collected before the assessment begins

Sport
Basketball  ·  College Division I
Recent performance (self-rated)
68 / 100
Recent trend
↑ Improving

Trend Over Time

Mental Skills domain, 4 assessments

Sep '25Nov '25Feb '26Apr '26
+23 pts over 7 months
Mental Skills improving

Train Your Edge

Services.

Start with the score. The Mental Skills Questionnaire and your report are free and they stay free. Everything below is for athletes and programs who want to do something about what the score says.

See it before you decide anything

Sample reports

Look at exactly what an athlete receives, and what a coaching staff receives for a whole roster. Real format, invented numbers.

Athlete report Team report
For Athletes

Individual Membership

Membership

The questionnaire is free. Membership unlocks your results over time, plus deeper access.

$9.99/month
Auto-renews monthly. Cancel anytime.
  • Your monthly MSQ results, saved and tracked over time
  • History and trend charts
  • Access to mental skills analytics (when live)
  • One certified share of your profile with a coach or recruiter each month
  • Access to a full mental skills evaluation and coaching
Become a Member

Mental Skills Coaching

One-on-one sessions, available to members.

$200/session
Available to members
  • 50-minute individual session
  • Targeted mental skills training
  • Delivered by SMST endorsed coaches
  • Evidence-based and designed to deliver personalized performance results
  • Performance coaching, not therapy
Book a Session

Mental Performance Coaching

Build unshakable confidence. Perform better. A 3-month personalized program for high school and college athletes, delivered by Certified Mental Performance Consultant® (CMPC) and former Division I baseball player Will Nigut.

In three months, you'll:

  • Trust yourself more than you second-guess
  • Bounce back from mistakes and bad games faster
  • Stay calm and focused when the pressure is on
  • Consistently perform closer to your potential
  • Enjoy competing again
Three-month program  ·  Pricing on consult
Coaching

Sports Injury & Performance Care

Recover from injury, address what is holding you back, and build the physical capacity to compete at your best. Individualized care for athletes from Ryan Kelly, chiropractor and certified strength and conditioning specialist.

  • Injury, movement and strength assessment
  • Sport-specific performance testing
  • An individualized treatment and recovery plan built around your goals
  • Hands-on treatment including shockwave therapy, dry needling, myofascial therapy and chiropractic care
  • Direct access to your provider
Van Meter, Iowa  ·  Pricing on consult
Request a Consult
Comprehensive Evaluation

Full Mental Skills Evaluation

An innovative full evaluation performed with a Licensed Psychologist, providing comprehensive data analytics of your mental skills using validated assessment measures to best position optimal training and performance.

$2,000
Flat fee  ·  Invoice or book via SimplePractice
Request a Consult
For Programs & Teams

Team Membership

Deploy Mental Skills Questionnaire across your entire roster. Aggregate reporting, anonymous data, private individual scores.

Talk to Dr. Quinn →
Monthly
$500
/month  ·  First month free
3 Months
$1,300
$433/mo avg
Best Value
6 Months
$2,500
$417/mo avg
12 Months
$4,500
$375/mo avg

Team pricing is billed via invoice. First month of the monthly plan is free. Contact Dr. Quinn to discuss roster size and deployment approach.

About

Performance coaching,
grounded in science.

Dr. Aaron Quinn, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist

Dr. Aaron Quinn, Ph.D.

Licensed Psychologist (Iowa)  ·  Health Service Provider

First and foremost, thanks for visiting Sports Mental Skills Training. I am a Licensed Psychologist with a lifelong passion for sports, exercise, and performance psychology. I've spent years as an athlete and now as a professional working with athletes and performers. The time I spent focused on the mental side of sports completely changed my performance and my life, and this continues to be the case. My life's work is to pass on all that I've learned to others, and I've put together multiple services to help make that happen. I am grateful that you are considering one of my services, which I believe will improve your performance and, hopefully, your life. Here's some more about me.

Upbringing and Athletics

I grew up in New Haven, CT, and set my sights on a career in professional sports, with the dream of playing for the Boston Red Sox. That never happened. I did, though, play high school basketball and baseball at Fairfield Prep (CT) and Avon Old Farms (CT), and I played college baseball at the University of Connecticut. At UConn, my mind (slowly) developed, and I became a pretty good pitcher who helped UConn win the Big East title in 1994. After UConn, I was fortunate to play four years of professional baseball before attending graduate school at Iowa State University.

Graduate Studies and Professional Life

I spent nearly a decade in Ames, Iowa, at Iowa State University. First, I earned a master's degree in Exercise Science, then moved into the Doctoral Program in Counseling Psychology. At Iowa State, in addition to my studies and research, I served as a graduate assistant in the athletics department, working with Football, Baseball, Swimming, Volleyball, and Administration. After Iowa State, I went into private practice, worked as a government consultant, and worked in the business start-up space. A portion of my practice has always focused on athletes and performers, and I have worked with athletes, performers, and teams from many Division 1, 2, 3, and NAIA schools, as well as professional and high school athletes and performers.

Personal Information

I am married (Courtney) and have two kids (Austin and Ava) who are all grown up now. I live on a hobby farm in Van Meter, Iowa, and I spend my time working, exercising, trying to be a handyman, and working to be the best version of me so I can best be helpful.

Again, thanks for visiting Sports Mental Skills Training, and I look forward to working with you!

Located in Urbandale, Iowa.

Working with athletes and teams locally and remotely. The assessment and portal are available to athletes anywhere.

Help

We're here to help.

Please reach out to admin@sportsmentalskillstraining.com for your service request, and we'll have a support member facilitate your request as soon as possible.

Email Support