Hopefully, you’ve spent the summer getting ready for this winter of racing. If so, you should be stronger, better technically, and more mentally prepared than ever before. You're now entering the final stage of preparations for the upcoming race season with a final period of conditioning followed by getting back on snow and tuning up [...]
Not long ago, I completed what has turned out to be a three-week international tour of sport psychology. During my trips, I have worked with athletes and coaches from the U.S., Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, and Russia in Argentina, California, Oregon, and Switzerland. One question that has emerged during my travels involves the role of mental preparation in athletic development. But before I get to that question, let me provide some back story. Whenever I speak to athletes and coaches, I ask them how important the mind is to sport success. With few exceptions, the response is that the mind is as or more important than the physical and technical side of sports. I am obviously biased given my work in sport psychology, so I won’t take a position on which I believe is more important. But I will say that the mind is an essential piece of the sport performance puzzle. Consider the top-10 athletes, male or female, in any sport. Are they all gifted? Yes. Are they all in exceptional physical condition? Yes. Are they all technically sound? Yes. Do they all have the best equipment? Yes. So, on game day, what separates the best from those who are close, but can’t quite get to the top? All of these other factors being equal, it must be what goes on in their minds.
Note: This article is an encore presentation of an 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, kick back, [...]
No, this article is not a lame attempt at self-promotion. Rather, it 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 North [...]
Great video of why Ted Ligety, the 2014 Olympic gold medalist in giant slalom, is so dominant. He just skis better than everyone else!
It’s hard to believe, but there is only about a month of the race season left. After many days of training and racing, the end is in sight. At this late point in the season, you will have fallen into one of three camps as far as how your season has gone. First, you may [...]
Here's a great article about how Winter Olympians use mental imagery. It supports my belief that mental imagery is a powerful and essential tool in an athlete's toolbox.
A great profile of Ted Ligety last Sunday. A worthwhile read that offers insights into what has made him such a success in ski racing. Like Bode Miller, Ted chose an unconventional approach to greatness. Important lessons to be learned for all.
Are you really surprised that Bode Miller has begun this Olympic season with such success? Three World Cup podiums to start off the season? In one way, I am really surprised, while in another way, I’m not at all surprised. I’m surprised for several reasons. First, Bode is not, by ski racing standards, a young [...]
Mikaela Shiffrin is, at only 18 years old, the top slalom ski racer in the world, the Olympic gold medalist in slalom in Sochi, and a veritable fount of lessons that athletes, coaches, and parents can learn from to help athletes achieve their competitive goals. After reading a profile of Mikaela in The New York Times recently (be sure to watch the videos in the article), I felt five more lessons crying out to be told. With all due respect to Dan Coyle (author of The Talent Code) and other recent authors, “10 years 10,000 hours” isn’t enough to achieve athletic greatness (BTW, here’s a great rebuttal to that argument). It is abundantly clear that much of what makes Mikaela exceptional can’t be taught. Early videos of her demonstrate a feel for the snow and a sense of balance that just isn’t trainable. I’m going to argue that Mikaela is just wired differently than us mere mortals. Of course, that inborn hard wiring wouldn’t have been enough to take her to the top of her sport without the drive that enabled her to put in the long hours of training to master the physical, technical, tactical, and mental aspects of ski racing.