Greetings from Stubai Glacier in Austria! I’m here with an outstanding group of PG athletes from back East. My work with them includes both off-snow and on-snow mental training. Though the indoor work is valuable for laying the foundation for mental training, the on-snow work is the most directly powerful (and the most fun!) because [...]
Every sport has a competitive season that ends. For winter sports, it’s recently concluded and for spring sports, it is rapidly approaching. After a long and demanding season, you’re probably tired of your sport (regardless of whether the season was a triumph or a disappointment). It’s time to pack away your gear, kick back, relax, [...]
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, relax, and forget about ski racing for a few months, right? WRONG!!! Being the [...]
The start of a new sports season is the time to improve your fitness and further develop your technique, tactics, and over-all performances for the upcoming competitive season. How you use your training time may very well determine how well you perform and whether you achieve your sports goals for the season. Training is hugely [...]
Training is the practical foundation of ski racing success, meaning it’s what you do that determines whether you do or do not achieve your ski racing goals. That’s why it is the third module in my new 12-week online mental training program, which will begin on June 1st. The program provides racers, coaches, and parents [...]
One of the most frequent comments I hear from the athletes I work with is: “I had a lousy day of training.” This statement was almost always accompanied by a variety of emotions that are neither pleasant nor helpful including frustration, anger, worry, doubt, and disappointment, and, occasionally, despair. Moreover, I saw that this assertion [...]
I've been in the ski racing world since I was six years old. The first 20 years, I was a racer learning the ups and downs of ski racing the hard way, mostly through trial and error, and sometimes painful failure. That, I can say with 20/20 hindsight and absolute certainty, is no way to [...]
If you’re at all serious about your ski racing, this past summer should have been devoted to the process of making yourself the best ski racer you can be. There is one thing that you better have done and another thing that you likely will have done this past summer: engage in an intensive physical [...]
Frustration may be your most significant obstacle to achieving your ski racing goals. Every ski racer, from juniors to Olympians, has experienced the feeling of frustration when you’re not able to do something, whether physically (e.g., lift a weight), technically (e.g., maintain a wide enough stance), tactically (e.g., be patient with your line): you feel [...]
In this article, I’m going to talk about “mindset,” which I consider to be an essential contributor to athletic success and a mental area that has only come to light in my work with elite athletes during the past three years. This topic is also where professional and Olympic athletes offer wonderful examples in which [...]
