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 [...]
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 [...]
‘Tis the season for qualifying. You may want to make the cut for the state championships, U16, U18, or U.S. nationals, or the NCAA championships. You may even have been hoping to qualify for the Sochi Olympics. I can assure you that you are not alone whatever your situation or whatever you are feeling. This [...]
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.
Here's a link to a great video in which three of Canada's top female ski racers demonstrate and discuss how they use positive self-talk and mental imagery to prepare them for success.
As I noted in an article I wrote last winter, Ski Racing is One Brutal Sport. The fact is that our sport throws so much at racers, it can be a more than a bit overwhelming. Just a few of the challenges that racers must confront include the course itself, terrain, snow conditions, and weather. [...]
It's hard to believe, but I’ve been back on snow working with racers since October 16th and that rollercoaster called another winter of ski racing is well underway. Racers aren’t only members of the ski racing community who experience the intense ups and downs of our sport; their parents do too. The fact is that [...]
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 [...]
Greetings from Loveland, Colorado, where John Hale and his crew have done another remarkable job of creating mid-season training conditions by the middle of October. As I am out here helping prepare a variety of racers for a very busy early season of races, I have been thinking a great deal about what it takes [...]