18 03, 2016

Lesson #2 from Prime Ski Racing e-book: Five Steps to Skiing Fast

By | March 18th, 2016|Categories: Ski Racing|Tags: , , , , , , |1 Comment

A fundamental question I have been exploring in the many years that I have been working with ski racers is: What does it take to ski your fastest consistently? Of course, you have to be physically fit, technically and tactically sound, and have well-prepared equipment. And most racers and coaches would agree that an important piece of [...]

3 11, 2015

Fear of Failure – Part II (Total Failure)

By | November 3rd, 2015|Categories: Sports|Tags: , , , , , , |1 Comment

In my last post, Fear of Failure: Part I, I discussed the sad epidemic of fear of failure that I found to be rampant in America and that I see frequently in the young athletes with whom I work. I have discovered a new wrinkle to the fear-of-failure phenomenon that brings greater clarity to the problems [...]

26 10, 2015

Fear of Failure – Part I

By | October 26th, 2015|Categories: Parenting, Sports|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |4 Comments

Fear of failure is the single most common cause of performance difficulties for the young athletes who come to me for help. Whether they experience low confidence and extreme negativity, pre-competitive anxiety, a preoccupation with results, or severe self-criticism, in most cases, when we dig deep enough, we discover a profound fear of failure at [...]

14 09, 2015

The Challenges of Sports Parenting

By | September 14th, 2015|Categories: Parenting, Sports|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

I was recently interviewed by a Canadian parenting magazine (thus the title's reference to Sidney Crosby) on the challenges of being a sports parents.  There are some interesting perspectives that the parents of young athletes will appreciate and learn from.

11 05, 2015

With Off-Season Training, You Pay Now or Pay Later

By | May 11th, 2015|Categories: Ski Racing|Tags: , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

The off-season is now well underway and you are probably hitting the gym and, hopefully, hitting the slopes soon as well some time in the next few months. Though getting the miles on snow is very important, a key focus during the summer should be on building your fitness that acts as the foundation for [...]

28 04, 2015

5 Reasons Athletes Don’t Do Mental Training

By | April 28th, 2015|Categories: Sports|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

Over the many years that I've been working in the field of sport psychology, I have championed the benefits of mental training for sports to thousands of athletes. This work has ranged from talks to junior programs to ongoing consulting with individual athletes and teams. As many of you know from my dozens of articles [...]

27 04, 2015

Make Mental Training a Priority in the Off-season

By | April 27th, 2015|Categories: Ski Racing|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

This article is a challenge for you to take an essential, yet often neglected, piece of the ski racing success puzzle and make it a priority during the off-season. Let me elaborate in three ways. First, I speak to racers, coaches, and parents around world about the psychology of ski racing. Whenever I get the [...]

13 04, 2015

Next Race Season Starts…NOW!

By | April 13th, 2015|Categories: Ski Racing|Tags: , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

Note: This article is an encore presentation of a previously published article that never gets old. 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, [...]

7 04, 2015

There is No Formula or Timetable for Ski Racing Success

By | April 7th, 2015|Categories: Ski Racing|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

Wouldn't it be great if ski racing had a formula that you could follow to be successful? Imagine if you had a list of things you simply needed to do (for example: get into shape, hone your technical and tactical skills, get your equipment dialed in, tune your skis) and, voila, you would have a [...]

30 03, 2015

Points aren’t the Only Criterion of a Successful Season

By | March 30th, 2015|Categories: Ski Racing|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

With the season drawing to a close, 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 criteria that racers use to judge [...]