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.
Football
Marc played professional soccer in the United States, Belgium, and Sweden, and holds a USSF "A" coaching license. His work in the game covers player assessment and selection, academy evaluation, first-team performance consulting, and career transition.
He has worked with Liverpool FC Academy, Manchester City, Leicester City, the England National Team, and the New York Red Bulls, and has consulted with academies and USL clubs across the United States. During Sven-Goran Eriksson's tenure with the England National Team, Marc was brought in to work on the psychology of penalty shootouts, and consulted with Eriksson's setups at Manchester City and Leicester City.
He is a recurring expert source for The Athletic on football performance psychology. Recent features include analysis of Cristiano Ronaldo's on-camera reaction to being substituted at the 2026 World Cup, Virgil van Dijk's captaincy at Liverpool, Arne Slot's mentality shift as Liverpool moved from chaser to front-runner, and how club rivalries seep into national-team dynamics.
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.
Writing
Marc publishes essays on performance psychology and philosophy at The Vivisector. The publication covers how people perform under pressure, how identity holds or breaks in high-stakes moments, and how to give meaning to the suffering that we will inevitably endure.
Selected essays
- What Game Are You Playing? July 2026. On knowing which game you are actually in.
- Momentum Mori July 2026. On momentum, mortality, and the shortness of every run.
- A Real Thing Happens Once June 2026.
- There's a Crack in Everything June 2026.
- Your Last World Cup June 2026. On career mortality, and how the best performers reckon with it.
- Stop and Smell the Robes June 2026.
- ChampMay May 2026.
- Showing Up May 2026. On the underrated discipline of doing the work when nothing feels certain.
- The Swing May 2026. You pull back to fly forward. Both hands are yours.
- The Dialogical Engine May 2026. On the internal conversation that runs every performance.
- My Oppositional Forces May 2026. On the forces that pull against each other inside every performer, and why productive friction is the point.
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.
Press & Publications
Books & Academic Publications
Assessment in Sport Psychology (with Robert M. Nideffer). Fitness Information Technology, 2001. A standard text on psychological assessment in sport, cited on the Association for Applied Sport Psychology's Certified Mental Performance Consultant exam reference list and held by the Olympic World Library.
Nideffer R. M., Sagal M.-S. "Concentration and Attention Control Training." Chapter in Applied Sport Psychology: Personal Growth to Peak Performance, 4th edition, Jean M. Williams, editor. Mayfield Publishing, 2001.
Rosnet E., Le Scanff C., Sagal M.-S. "How Self-Image and Personality Influence Performance in an Isolated Environment." Environment & Behavior, 2000, 32(1), 18-31.
Marc also contributed a chapter to the Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology and co-authored a chapter on identifying and developing world-class performers with Nideffer, Lowry, and Bond for the International Society of Sport Psychology.
Regularly Quoted As An Expert Source
- The Athletic Recurring expert source on football performance psychology, including features on Ronaldo, Van Dijk, Arne Slot, England-camp dynamics, and tennis (Alcaraz-Sinner chase psychology). Seven bylines between 2024 and 2026.
- The Telegraph Referenced in coverage of Sven-Goran Eriksson's Leicester tenure (2011).
- CNN.com World Sport "Ireland sends Sven's City soaring" (2007) on Stephen Ireland's Manchester City breakthrough.
- NPR Morning Edition "Think You're Multitasking? Think Again" by Jon Hamilton (2008), on the research on divided attention.
- The New York Times "Why Some Athletes Crack, and Others Don't"; "How a Triathlon Helped America Ferrera Defy Her Inner Critic."
- The Sun (UK) "Sven: Flop stars need a shrink" (2006).
- Goal.com, Times Live, mcfc.co.uk Manchester City-era coverage, 2007-2008.
- Fast Company "Can You Perform Under Pressure?" (issue 11, October 1997), covering the assessment work Marc led as COO of Enhanced Performance Systems.
- American Airlines' Celebrated Living "Sports Authorities" by Chris Tucker (Spring 2006). A three-coach profile with Jim Fannin and Jim Loehr; Marc's section is titled "Mastering Pressure."
Bylined Articles
- FourFourTwo Performance · "Manage the unmanageable" Advice on handling star-player behaviour in the dressing room, drawing on work with Manchester City.
- Success in Soccer · "Performing under pressure" Full interview by Manni Klar on improving a player's mental game (2005).
- Colorado College Bulletin · "Mind Game" On soccer, attention, and pressure.
- SOAR Magazine · "Agony of Defeat" On performance recovery after failure.
- Volleyball Magazine · "Win With Your Head" Ten mental-game principles.
- NEA Today, Competitor Running, Tennis View, Football Medic Additional bylined pieces on assessment, attention, and performance under pressure.
Broadcast
- FOX Sports Television appearance on sport psychology and performance under pressure.
- Men's Health Feature article on pressure, focus, and mental performance.
Podcasts & Video
- Giving The Game Away · "The Psychology of Sven's England" Feature-length interview on Marc's work with Sven-Goran Eriksson's England National Team, including the 2006 World Cup penalty-shootout preparation.
- Association of Sporting Directors Conversation with Haydn Roberts (2020).
- YouTube · "The Million Dollar Question in Sports Psychology"
A full archive of scanned print pieces is available on request.
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.