It happens every winter. In December, January, and February, I get calls from national team athletes and parents of young racers who are struggling mentally in their ski racing and they have big races coming up. They want me to somehow fix them quickly. Though I think I’m pretty good at what I do, I’m [...]
Episode #19: 5 Keys to Quality Training of my Train Your Mind for Athletic Success podcast is the last of six in a series that examines the ways in which you can maximize your training efforts and the benefits that you gain from those efforts. This episode will explore five practical ways in which athletes can [...]
There is nothing more important to achieving your sports goals than what you do in training. It is during training that you ingrain the physical, technical, tactical, and mental habits that will come out in competitions. If you establish good habits, you'll have a good chance of having a good competitive performance. But if you [...]
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 [...]
In my fifth of 12 vlog segments devoted to athletes and coaches, I describe the essential role that your physical intensity plays in your competitive efforts. When I talk about intensity, I mean the amount of physical activation you feel in your body before you compete. Intensity lies along a range from really low intensity [...]
You have certain muscles in your body that are absolutely essential for ski racing including your quads, glutes, and hamstrings. The simple reality is that if you don’t actively strengthen these muscles, you will not be capable of skiing your best. You should think about your mind as made up of ‘mental muscles’, the same [...]
A nice article in the New York Times describes research that confirmed what many of us already knew, namely, that listening to our favorite music during intense workouts increases our efforts. Surprisingly, the research reported that music didn't make the workouts any less unpleasant or bearable, just that people try harder. It was not clear [...]
Here's an encore representation of one of my favorite ski racing posts. You can begin to develop your mental skills in the gym.
I have been thinking a great deal about what it takes for athletes to achieve what I consider to be an essential goal in all of your efforts, namely, when your game, match, round, race, or other type of competition concludes, you are make two statements: “I was as prepared as I could be to [...]
In my last post, I introduced you to the importance of intensity in your cycling. I indicated that all of the mental preparation in the world will go for naught if you are not also physiologically prepared to ride your best on race day. After a good pre-race warm-up on your bike or trainer, reaching [...]
