Ben Loeb

Ben Loeb teaches a sport psychology course at Rock Bridge High School in Columbia, Missouri, where he also coaches both the boys’ and girls’ tennis teams. The teams he has coached had won over one thousand dual meets, seventeen state championships, and thirty-eight Final Four appearances by the end of May 2018. Before coaching at Rock Bridge High School, Ben coached at Hickman High School in Columbia. He also coached the women’s tennis team at the University of Missouri–Columbia while achieving an Educational Specialist degree from the College of Education. In addition, he has coached in many United States Tennis Association sectional and national team events. Ben has applied sport psychology concepts with his teams for over thirty years. He has also received many coaching achievement honors, including awards from the United States Professional Tennis Association, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, the Kiwanis Club of Columbia, the Columbia Tribune, and the National Federation of High Schools at both the state and the sectional level. Ben has developed a curriculum guide of readings and exercises for his sport psychology class. In 2011, he proposed the course to the Columbia Public School District, one of a growing number of school districts offering this type of course at the high-school level in the United States. In addition, Ben has attended many sport psychology/mental toughness work- shops. Some of the more notable workshops have been two with Dr. James E. Loehr (Mental Toughness Training; Tennis University II), the Mental Toughness Certification Training Program through the Human Performance Institute (Lorenzo Beltrame), the Positive Coaching Workshop with Dr. Rick McGuire (University of Missouri), and two Prime Sport webinar series with Dr. Jim Taylor. Finally, Ben has done extensive research to further his education in this field. He has attended many coaching conferences that have included sport psychology sessions. He has also presented at coaching conferences in Texas, Illinois, Missouri, and Nebraska. He is a member of the Association of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) and a professional affiliate member of the Society for Sport, Exercise & Performance Psychology Division 47 of the American Psychological Association (APA). The author can be reached by email at ben@benloebcoaching.com.