Imagine the pressure that Steffi Graf or Stephan Edberg feel in the final set of a Grand Slam event. Thousands of people are watching, there is money and the title on the line. I’ll bet you have felt similar pressure in matches you have been in. They might not have been at Roland Garros or [...]
Whenever I ask athletes how important mental preparation is, compared to physical and technical preparation, to achieving their competitive goals, everyone says either as or more important. But when I ask them how much time they devote to their mental preparation, they say, “little or not time.” Athletes in all sports spend many hours each [...]
A primary responsibility of dance teachers is technical instruction. However, this task does not simply involve demonstrating a particular technical skill, then having the dancers perform it. Rather, instruction is a complex interaction of physical, motor, psychological, and communication skills that occur between the dance teacher and dancers. As a result of this complexity, the [...]
One of the most difficult things professional players have to deal with is maintaining concentration throughout the whole match. With increasing pressure and fatigue, thoughts can wander, resulting in mistakes and lost points and games. The same thing can happen to recreational players during matches. Things may pop into your head that have nothing to [...]
A source of stress and frustration for the dance teacher is often parents. This is disturbing because teachers and parents are the two groups who have the greatest impact on the young dancer. Clearly, if they are at odds, it is the dancer who will suffer. The goal then is to move teachers and parents [...]
The most common question I was asked before my first Ironman was, “What time are you shooting for?” In my naiveté, I always responded, “Well, if all goes well, under X hours” (I will keep you in suspense until the end of the article before I tell you how I did). If you answer this [...]
Perhaps the single most important mental ingredient professional tennis players such as Jim Courier and Monica Seles need for success on the tour is self-confidence. Entering Centre Court at Wimbledon to play the finals against a hard serving, net rushing opponent can raise doubts in even the best players. But these professionals overcome uncertainty by [...]
It’s late October and you’re heading into the holiday season with feelings of dread rather than cheer. You may have been pretty good about eating healthily and working out regularly, but you know that November and December are different. You’ll be busy with holiday parties which means eating more. To make matters worse, it’ll be [...]
Over the past few years we have offered a variety of information on the mental aspects of dance training and performance in Dance Teacher Now. These articles described many techniques that can be used to develop dancers mentally so they may perform their best. However, it may have been unclear how these methods could be [...]
Dance, as a vocation or avocation, requires dedication, discipline, and other difficult decisions. Dancers may face choices that can impact their immediate lives and long-term development as performers and people. “Students are left principally to their own devices to figure out what dancing is all about,” states Teri Loren, author of The Dancer’s Companion: The [...]