Watching videos of yourself and World Cup racers is a valuable tool for improving technique and tactics, getting inspired, and increasing motivation, confidence, and focus. If you’re like most racers, you use it a lot during the winter as part of your training. Video enables you to more clearly understand and see what you need [...]
One of the booming trends in the 'youth-achievement-industrial complex' is computer coding camps (and after-school coding programs). Here is an article in which I was interviewed that discusses this new, and to me, troubling development. I think this trend is driven by two unhealthy forces. First, economic uncertainty that has created immense anxiety in parents for their children's futures. [...]
I was recently interviewed by Tackling College Sports on a wide range of topics related to sport psychology. You can listen to it here (scroll to bottom) .
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 [...]
I'm pleased to announce the publication by Human Kinetics of my latest book: Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence (co-authored with Dr. Elena Estanol). This is a follow-up to my first-ever 1995 book, Psychology of Dance, which I wrote with my late mother, Ceci Taylor. For those not familiar with my work in dance, I have [...]
There are many things that go into developing skilled tennis players. Physical conditioning, technique, tactics, and psychology require years of constant attention for young players to become the best they can be. Yet, underlying all of the information, exercises, techniques, and strategies are some basic and essential concepts that players and coaches must understand for [...]
Almost every dancer has at some time in his or her career experienced the feeling of complete self-confidence. Honed, strong, and relaxed, you know you are dancing well. It is a feeling of invincibility that usually results in a great performance. Self-confidence may be the single most important ingredient for successful performing. It enables you [...]
When I ask tennis coaches what is the biggest challenge and stressor in their work with young players, the almost unanimous response is PARENTS! Coaches indicate that more often than not parents interfere with rather than facilitate their coaching. This is an unfortunate situation as parents have a powerful impact on players. Considering this, it [...]
One of the most widely used techniques to increase motivation among athletes is goal setting. Having players establish goals at different levels of training and competition will improve their effort and intensity. In order to ensure the value of goal setting, there are several components that must be included in a well-organized goal setting program. [...]