Journal of Excellence – Issue No. 9 Schinke, Peterson & Couture 9  2004 Zone of Excellence - http://www.zoneofexcellence.com A Protocol for Teaching Resilience to High Performance Athletes Robert J. Schinke, Canada, Christopher Peterson, USA and Roger Couture, Canada Robert Schinke (Ed.D) is an Assistant Professor in the Sport Psychology Program at Laurentian University. He is the Senior Associate Editor of Athletic Insight and the Review Editor of Avante. Robert also consults mostly with professional boxing and golf. Email: rschinke@nickel.laurentian.ca Christopher Peterson (Ph.D) is a Full Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Michigan. He has published prolifically in the area of optimism and explanatory patterns, and his populations of interest have included professional athletes. Email: chrispet@umich.edu Roger Couture (Ph.D) is a Full Professor and Coordinator of the Adventure Leadership Program at Laurentian University. His areas of interest include Social Cognitive aspects of Sport and Exercise Psychology. Email: rcouture@laurentian.ca Abstract Researchers and practitioners interested in elite sport have long considered why some national team athletes are more resilient than others during major games. Over the past decade, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have created a resilience training protocol to improve the output of staff in insurance companies and students in under- graduate programs. A parallel training program has been devised to enhance the self-esteem and optimism of children in primary school. Preliminary studies indicate promising results. Recently, two of the authors herein have designed parallel training modules for national team athletes and coaching staff. Here we build on one facet of our resilience training program previously overviewed by Schinke and Jerome (2002); optimism skills. Three optimism skills are included this paper: (1) the evaluating of assumptions, (2) disputing, and (3) de-catastrophizing. This paper outlines the chronological steps of the three skills that are currently being taught to our international amateur athletes. Practitioners working with elite sport popu- lations including coaching staff and mental training consultants have always searched for methods to foster exemplary athlete and team performance. Among the most popular and informative methods used to understand and then assist athletes with their perform- ances are those that encourage stimulated recall. Interviews, such as those conducted by Orlick and Partington (1988) for in- stance, are one way of understanding how athletes view their performances and the