My new 12-week online mental training program will explore five important areas related to the psychology of ski racing: attitudes, obstacles, preparation, mental muscles, and tools. This article will introduce you to the first essential area—attitudes—and explain why they are so important to ski racing success. The dictionary definition of attitude is “The way you [...]
The race season is almost over. For every racer, it is 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 their [...]
Join in the world’s first and only online mental training program just for ski racers! Every ski racer wants to be as prepared mentally as they are physically and technically. But there hasn’t been a way to offer racers a high-quality and affordable mental training program developed by someone who really knows ski racing. That is, [...]
One of the most popular phrases in sport is "peak performance." Athletes in all sports typically think of peak performance as performing their best, as being at the top of their game. That sounds good, doesn’t it? Who wouldn’t want to achieve peak performance? And when I came out of graduate school, peak performance was [...]
Whenever I talk to racers, I ask them what aspect of our sport seems to have the greatest impact on how they ski. Almost unanimously they say the mental part. I then ask how much time they devote to their mental preparation and their answer is almost always little or no time. Despite its obvious [...]
It’s hard to believe, but there is only about a month of the race season left. After many days of training and racing this winter, 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, [...]
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 [...]
Most racers and coaches think that, to get the results you want, you need to focus on those results. But, here’s the paradox: Having an outcome focus actually reduces the chances of your achieving the results you want. Here’s why. First, when does the outcome of a ski race occur? After you cross the finish line, of [...]
Mitchell Gunn with permission There are two scenarios on race day that I hear frequently from the racers I work with and the coaches I talk to that are a source of immense frustration, poor skiing, and disappointing results. I’m going to discuss the first scenario in this article and the second scenario [...]
Mitchell Gunn, with permission What do you need to do to be totally prepared to ski your fastest on race day? If you ask the top-ten men and women on the World Cup, you will probably get 20 different answers. But, having asked this question of many world-class ski racers, I have found [...]