The race season is finally over. After a long and demanding winter, you’re probably tired of skiing (regardless of whether the season was a triumph or a disappointment). It’s time to hang up your skis, pack away your gear, kick back, relax, and forget about ski racing for a few months, right? WRONG!!! Being the [...]
With the season now over (well, almost in some parts of the world), it is, for every racer, a time of reckoning in which you look back and evaluate what kind of season you had: one to be proud of or one to reflect back on with disappointment and perhaps regret. One of the primary [...]
I’ve been involved in U.S. ski racing for—Yikes!—more than 50 years. I started ski racing as a “Chipmunk” at Mad River Glen, then moved on to the Valley Junior Racing Club (at then Glen Ellen, pre-GMVS), Burke Mountain Academy, Middlebury College, the University of Colorado, and even two seasons on the old pro tour. Since [...]
In the 12th and final segment of my vlog series devoted to the psychology of sport for athletes and coaches, I explain the seven reasons that prevent athletes from making a commitment of time and energy to mental training. As I’m sure you would agree, the mind plays an essential role in athletic success. Yet, [...]
I've only met Alice Mckennis a few times, but I've always admired her love of ski racing and the tenacity she has applied to our sport to find the success she has demonstrated recently (5th in the Olympic DH; 3rd in the World Cup DH at Are, Sweden). But my respect and appreciation for Alice [...]
It’s hard to believe, but there is only about a month of the race season left. After many days of training and racing this winter, the end is in sight. At this late point in the season, you will have fallen into one of three camps as far as how your season has gone. First, [...]
In my 11th of 12 vlog segments devoted to the psychology of sport for athletes and coaches, I explain why fun is a powerful mental tool that is under utilized by athletes and coaches alike. In fact, when I ask the athletes with whom I work what is the most important contributor to their success, [...]
Over the last few decades, I have worked with many ski racers, from juniors to World Cuppers. One thing I have noticed is that the most powerful work I do with racers isn’t your typical mental training where I teach them about positive thinking, mental imagery, routines, and how to stay intense and focused (though [...]
The 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea was a spectacle of athletic greatness. We watched remarkable feats of physical prowess from athletes as wide ranging as alpine and Nordic ski racers, figure skaters, snowboarders, sliders, and, yes, even curlers. We shared in the emotional highs of victory and the emotional lows of unexpected [...]
The New York Times published an outstanding piece in which Olympians describe in video how they use imagery to prepare for their upcoming events and to rehearse their ideal performances. As many of you know, I believe that imagery is the most powerful mental tool there is and if you're not using imagery regularly in [...]
