MIND OVER MATTER DR. DAVE SCHROERLUCKE LAUNCHES MENTAL PERFORMANCE CONSULTANCY Writer / Tyrel Kessinger
Dr. Dave Schroerlucke wants to help you perform better under pressure. After years of watching people struggle to overcome performance anxiety, he realized that performance pressure is simply part and parcel of the human condition. Rather than trying to help people avoid stressful situations, he has designed systematic methods for confronting them head on. In January 2019, Schroerlucke launched Ripe Minds, a sport and performance psychology consultancy that deals in the business of what he calls mindset training. “At Ripe Minds, my mission is to help individuals, teams and organizations
develop mindsets that promote selfawareness and optimal performance, particularly within the context of high-stakes or stressful environments,” Schroerlucke says. Simply put, Schroerlucke wants to help people achieve success under stress. Schroerlucke’s lifelong fascination with the mental side of performance led him to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology, with a specialization in sport and performance psychology. His doctoral dissertation, “Choke Artists and Clutch Performers”, involved a comprehensive review of the scientific literature on performance under pressure.
“The goal of the review was to distill what we’ve learned through decades of research down to the essential psychological traits and skills that distinguish people who excel in high-stakes situations from those that falter,” he says. The idea of focusing on the effects of performance pressure came to Schroerlucke over the course of 15-plus years as a math educator, during which he developed a special interest in helping students who are plagued by math anxiety. “Many people suffer from a debilitating fear of math that can be a major deterrent to pursuing a career in science and technology, and, for many students, a huge obstacle to earning a degree of any kind,” Schroerlucke says.
StMatthewsMag.com / JULY 2020 / ST. MATTHEWS MAGAZINE / 27
