I was speaking to an Olympic athlete with whom I work after his country’s national championship recently and he told me that all he could think about before the event was how much he didn’t want to be there. He was burned out and just wanted the season to be over. Yet, this athlete also [...]
Drawing on his own elite athletic experience and decades of consulting with professional, Olympic, and junior-elite athletes, Dr. Taylor demonstrates the importance of mental preparation for sports performance. This podcast, based on his book, Train Your Mind for Athletic Success: Mental Preparation to Achieve Your Sports Goals, focuses on five mental “muscles” that most influence [...]
As parents, you hate to see your children disappointed. They are sad, downtrodden, and seem to have the weight of their lives on their shoulders. Your hearts ache for their pain and you want to do everything you can to relieve them of that disappointment. But that would be a mistake! Certainly, disappointment is not [...]
Regardless of what sport you participate in, you have a championship season within your competitive season in which the stakes rise and how you perform counts the most. Yet, this is also the time of year when many athletes and teams aren’t performing at all well because of fatigue after a long regular season and [...]
In addition to working with young athletes in many sports, I also consult with sport parents to help them to provide to their young athletes the most positive support they can. Being a great sport parent is no small feat or easy task these days for several reasons. First, we live in a youth-sport culture [...]
The tough question that every athlete asks is: How do I perform my best when it matters most. Especially for young athletes who are still developing, it is essential for you to continue your technical and tactical development because without it. At the same time, on game day, I believe that too much thinking about [...]
I’ve been working with a world-ranked junior athlete over the last few months and, in exploring why she doesn’t take more chances when she competes, she told me that a big goal of hers recently has been to “risk it for the biscuit.” I had never heard this expression and I laughed hysterically for almost [...]
Whether you’re just beginning, in the middle of, or just ending your sport’s season. Whether you’re having a great season and want it to continue, having an okay season and want to improve on it, or it has been a disappointing season so far and want to turn it around. Whatever your sports situation, you [...]
For you to become the best athlete you can be, you have to be darned serious about their sport. You must be motivated, intense, focused, and give your best effort every time you train and compete. You have to put in the time in the gym, watch a lot of video, keep your equipment in [...]
In 2011, when my daughters were five and three, we joined the Sugar Bowl Ski Team. At that time, I wrote an article titled, “Momma, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be…Ski Racers.” In the article, as our family was just entering the ski racing world, I expressed considerable ambivalence about whether I wanted [...]
