About
Marc Sagal is a sport and performance psychology consultant and executive coach based in San Diego, California. He co-founded Winning Mind LLC in 2001 with Mark Lowry and serves as its managing partner. The firm helps athletes, executives, and military units perform under pressure, and it administers the TAIS assessment.
Before Winning Mind, Marc was Chief Operating Officer of Enhanced Performance Systems (1995 to 2001), the firm founded by Dr. Robert M. Nideffer that pioneered attentional-style assessment. His client work spans three environments: elite sport, including Olympic and professional athletes and clubs such as Liverpool FC; business, including McKinsey & Company, Hewlett Packard Consulting, and J.P. Morgan; and the military, including US Army Recruiting and special operations units.
His work has been featured in CIO magazine, Men's Health, FOX Sports, and American Airlines' Celebrated Living. He has presented research at the European Association of Personality Psychology and the American College of Sports Medicine.
The TAIS Assessment
The Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS) is a psychological inventory developed by Dr. Robert M. Nideffer. It measures how people concentrate and how they relate to others when the stakes are high, and it has been used for decades with Olympic athletes, executives, and military selection programs.
Marc co-wrote the standard reference on assessment in the field, Assessment in Sport Psychology (with Nideffer, 2001), and has spent his career applying and refining TAIS-based methods. Winning Mind administers the TAIS today, and a practitioner certification program is launching soon.
Current Work
- WinningMind AI AI mental performance coaching for athletes, built on Winning Mind's sport psychology methods. Live for golf, soccer, and baseball.
- TAIS Certification A certification program for coaches and practitioners in TAIS-based assessment and interpretation. Launching soon.
- Winning Mind Consulting Performance coaching, team development, and selection work across sport, business, and military environments.
- Forbetra A real-time feedback platform for tracking progress against coaching objectives, which Marc helped design.
Book and Publications
Assessment in Sport Psychology (with Robert M. Nideffer). Fitness Information Technology, 2001. A standard text on psychological assessment in sport, cited on the AASP's Certified Mental Performance Consultant exam reference list and held by the Olympic World Library.
Marc also wrote a chapter for the Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology and has published widely on performance psychology. Earlier in his career he helped design AME (Athlete's Mental Edge), the first web-based sport psychology assessment and training program.
Background
Marc graduated Phi Beta Kappa in Philosophy from Colorado College and earned his MA in Sport Psychology from San Diego State University with highest honors. He holds a USSF "A" coaching license and played soccer professionally in the United States and Europe.
Contact
Email sagal@winningmind.com or connect on LinkedIn. For consulting engagements, start at thewinningmind.com.