As I noted in my most recent blog post, Olympians use imagery as a tool to help them prepare themselves mentally to perform their best. In my ninth of 12 vlog segments devoted to athletes and coaches, I describe what mental imagery is (here’s a hint: It’s not just picturing yourself performing in your mind’s [...]
Sports Illustrated just published a great read about Mikaela Shiffrin that describes not only a significant shift in mindset she made that helped her overcome her pre-race anxiety, but also what has made her so successful over the short, but brilliant, arc of your career. For any ski racer (or athlete) who aspires to be [...]
I have a lot of pet peeves when it comes to young ski racers in their training and race efforts. For example, it drives me crazy to see them slip a training course, yet barely inspect it because they figure they can learn the course in the first few runs (but you can’t do that [...]
Happy New Year!! And with 2018 just around the corner, many of us are thinking about the New Year's resolutions we want to establish in which we want to be a better us in some aspect of our lives. If your New Year's resolution is to be the best athlete, coach, or parent you can [...]
Over the last few decades, I have worked with many ski racers, from juniors to World Cuppers. One thing I have noticed is that the most powerful work I do with racers isn’t your typical mental training where I teach them about positive thinking, mental imagery, routines, and how to stay intense and focused (though [...]
In my seventh of 12 vlog segments devoted to athletes and coaches, I examine the impact that frustration has on athletes in their training and competitive efforts. Frustration is typically defined an emotional reaction that arises when the path toward a goal is blocked and can’t be readily cleared. Common sources of frustration for athletes [...]
The race season is now upon us and race day is a stressful time for racers and parents alike. Young racers are putting their efforts on the line and must accept that those efforts don’t always pay off in our sport. Parents want the best for their children and it pains us beyond pale to [...]
When you wake up on race day, you have a lot on your mind. And if you’re like most racers, one thing on your mind is your fellow competitors. How fast they will ski today and whether you will beat or be beaten by them. But I would argue that those competitors are the least [...]
In Part I of my two-part series on values in ski racing, I explored the essential importance of values as the foundation of your children’s ski racing experiences. I also described what I consider to be healthy and unhealthy values. In Part II of this series, I discuss how you can ensure that your young [...]
For many of the top ski racers in the U.S. and around the world, the race season as already begun with World Cups in Soelden and Levi and FIS races in Colorado. For everyone else, your first races are anywhere from a few days to a few weeks away. At the beginning of the fall, [...]
