I'm excited to announce the publication of three new e-books that ski racers, athletes, coaches, and parents will enjoy and gain real benefit from. These e-books introduce new and different ways of thinking about the psychology of ski racing, sports, and parenting. Most importantly, they are filled with useful information and powerful lessons that racers, athletes, [...]
Mitchell Gunn with permission There are two scenarios on race day that I hear frequently from the racers I work with and the coaches I talk to that are a source of immense frustration, poor skiing, and disappointing results. I’m going to discuss the first scenario in this article and the second scenario [...]
Mitchell Gunn, with permission What do you need to do to be totally prepared to ski your fastest on race day? If you ask the top-ten men and women on the World Cup, you will probably get 20 different answers. But, having asked this question of many world-class ski racers, I have found [...]
As any ski racing parent knows, it’s often a challenge to get your kids to the hill every morning on time and ready to go. I admit that I can be a bit of a taskmaster with my own kids on those morning when they’re dragging their feet. I will also admit that this ‘forced’ [...]
Thankfully, not me and not that bad! What you are about to read is based on a true story. And apologies in advance for its length. I had a feeling that the other weekend wasn’t going to go as planned. My wife, Sarah, had just left for ten days in Cambodia, so I was [...]
Just read a wonderful commentary about having ski racing children by former Burkie, Jesse James. If you have kids in ski racing, you'll nod knowingly and perhaps even shed a tear (as I did). If you're not a ski racing parent, but rather a parent of an athlete in another sport, you'll still relate to [...]
Mitchell Gunn, with permission One of the most frequent comments I hear from the racers I work with is: “I had a lousy day of training.” This statement was almost always accompanied by a variety of emotions that are neither pleasant nor helpful including frustration, anger, worry, doubt, and disappointment, and, occasionally, despair. [...]
I've been in the ski racing world since I was six years old. The first 20 years, I was a racer learning the ups and downs of ski racing the hard way, mostly through trial and error, and sometimes painful failure. That, I can say with 20/20 hindsight and absolute certainty, is no way to [...]
Mitchell Gunn by permission In the last article in my series on the gifts that Mikaela Shiffrin gave to ski racers for the holidays, I described how I have seen her evolve from consistent and rock-solid racer (and, of course, incredibly fast) into a risk taker on skis (who is now freakishly fast) [...]
SEMMERING, AUSTRIA - DECEMBER 28: Mikaela Shiffrin of the USA reacts in the finish area after competing in the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Giant Slalom Race in Semmering, Austria, on 28 December 2012 (Photo by Mitchell Gunn/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Mikaela Shiffrin My first two articles in this three-part [...]