At the top of the Prime Sport Pyramid sits emotions. It's closest to the top of the pyramid because emotions will ultimately dictate how you perform throughout a competition. Emotions during a competition can cover the spectrum from excitement and elation to frustration, anger, and disappointment. Emotions are often strong and, most troublesome, they can [...]
Developing focus control is essential if you’re going to ensure that your focus style (as described in the July, 2010 issue of Prime Sport Alert!) helps rather than hurts your sports performance. There are several steps in the focus-control process. First, you have to identify your focus style and understand how it impacts your sport. [...]
Focus is the most misunderstood mental factor among athletes. Most athletes think of focus as concentrating on one thing for a long time. In fact, a number of years ago, former Australian Open tennis champion Hana Mandlikova said that she improved her game by staring at a tennis ball for ten minutes a day. She [...]
Though less common, letdowns in intensity can also cause your level of performance to decline. A decrease in intensity causes all the things that enable you to perform well to disappear. Physically, you no longer have the blood flow, oxygen, and adrenaline necessary for the strength, agility, and stamina you need to perform your best. [...]
It's natural to feel some increase in your intensity in a competition. You're putting yourself to the test and want to do your best. But when that increase intensity turns to anxiety that can hurt your performances, that can be a problem. But rather than just resigning yourself to feeling nervous and performing poorly, you [...]
I don't know Bode Miller personally, though I know athletes and coaches who know him well. I do know alpine ski racing. I competed internationally in my youth and have worked with ski racers, ranging from juniors to Olympians, on the mental side of the sport for 25 years. And I have followed Bode's career [...]
Prime intensity is the ideal amount of physiological activity necessary for you to perform your best. It is also the level of intensity that you perceive as most positive and beneficial to your sports performances. Unfortunately, there is no one ideal level of intensity for every athlete. Prime intensity is individual; it's different for everyone. [...]
In the last 15 years alone, there has been Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Jude Law, Eliot Spitzer, Kobe Bryant, Mark Sanford, Alex Rodriguez, David Letterman, the list goes on. Now, it?s d?j? vu all over again. Another successful man caught with his paws in the honey jar (pun intended). But not just any man. We?re [...]
So what do Tom Brady, LeBron James, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods, Usain Bolt, Annika Sorenstam, Michael Phelps, Lance Armstrong, and Lisa Leslie have that you don?t? This question has been on the minds of many people of late with the recent publication of Malclom Gladwell?s Outliers and Daniel Coyle?s The Talent Code. If you have [...]
I already wrote a post about Elizabeth Lambert, the newest? member of the Sports Hall of Shame, for her unsportspersonlike behavior during a recent college soccer game. But I had another perspective I wanted to share because of all the attention she has gotten in the media. I actually feel sorry for Ms. Lambert. Don?t [...]