It's All In Your Head
David Cook is one of the most sought out sports psychologists in America. Now, he wants to help men of God reach their potential by understanding the body-mind-heart connection

David Cook is one of the most sought out sports psychologists in America. Now, he wants to help men of God reach their potential by understanding the body-mind-heart connection.

Seven years ago, a trip to a Promise Keepers event changed everything for a sports psychologist named David Cook. Cook was head of the graduate sports psychology department at Kansas University and had been instrumental in helping legendary coach Larry Brown turn a selfish group of athletes into the 1988 NCAA Champions.

Still, Cook says, “The Lord gave me the vision that [sports psychology] really didn't have eternal value. What really had eternal value was to help men that feel ordinary in life to become extraordinary in life and for eternity.”

Cook took an enormous leap of faith by leaving Kansas and moving back to his home state of Texas, where he started helping not just athletes but business leaders as well.

Cook's move led to a job as the sports psychologist for the San Antonio Spurs. During his time there, the team won a pair of championships, including the franchise's first ever in 1999 and another in 2003. Cook has also worked with five first-time PGA champions, not to mention major corporations such as Exxon and American Express.

His techniques are based heavily, if not solely, on biblical principles. Cook says that “the extreme fear of failure” is usually the most pressing issue: “In our society, there's a formula that says a man's self-identity equals performance plus the opinions of others. That is the perfect formula for fear of failure.”

Cook is quick to point out that success in sports, in business or in life goes deeper than how a man thinks. In fact, he believes it is dependent on a balanced relationship between the head and the heart.

“If you think well but you have the wrong perspective in life-your heart is not right-you will carry a burden,” Cook says. “The heart is the direct relationship with the Lord. If your heart is right with the Lord, there's no fear. There's freedom.”

Ultimately, Cook wants to use his platform as a way to help average guys—Christian men in particular—reach their fullest potential. That desire is tempered by a strong understanding that ultimate success has nothing to do with trophies or promotions.

Cook concludes, “Helping somebody run faster, throw better, shoot better, make more money, reach a higher level of performance has no eternal value. If I had ended my life only helping people attain a higher level of performance, then in the long run I would have wasted the greatest opportunity given to me.”

By Chad Bonham, contributing editor to New Man.