Author: Dr. Jim Taylor

Recent Posts

Ski Racing: Confidence Matters

Confidence is the single most important mental factor in ski racing. Confidence is also a mental area that is ripe for change and, between now and the new year, I will not only be offering you insights into how confidence impacts your ski racing, but also many practical tools for developing confidence. Confidence is so […]

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Ski Racing: Challenge Your Ski Racer…the Right Way

We live in an achievement culture in which many parents feel pressure to “fast forward” their children’s development as ski racers (and students, for that matter). Unfortunately, in their efforts to speed up their children’s progress, parents are in danger of setting them up for failure and slowing rather than speeding up their development. By […]

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Politics: Consumers Should Be “Too Big to Fail”

As distasteful as it was to see the financial, insurance, and automotive industries bailed out for their greedy and reckless behavior, it seems clear that President Bush’s and President Obama’s decisions to do so were correct. Allowing the “too big to fail” companies to fail, however much they deserved to die a slow and painful […]

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Ski Racing: Motivation to Succeed

Motivation is the foundation of all of your efforts to achieve your ski-racing goals. Without your desire and determination to become a better ski racer, everything else you do won’t matter. It’s simple. To become the best ski racer you can be, you must be motivated to do what it takes to maximize your ability. […]

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Ski Racing/Parenting: Fear of Total Failure

In my very first Kids & Culture Alert! e-newsletter published in April of 2005, I discussed the sad epidemic of fear of failure that I found to be rampant in America at that time.  Well, over five years later, fear of failure is still the most pervasive and debilitating issue among young athletes and other […]

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Ski Racing: Prime Profiling: Physical Testing for the Mind

The first step toward achieving your ski racing goals involves gaining a better understanding of yourself as an ski racer. Becoming the best ski racer you can is complicated; there’s conditioning, technique, tactics, equipment, and more. And you probably have a busy life filled with ski racing, school, work, family, social life, and other activities. […]

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Ski Racing/Parenting: Strive for Excellence, Not Perfection

Perfectionism is one of the most destructive diseases among American children today. Perfectionism is a double-edged sword. One edge of the sword drives young racers to be perfect. These children push themselves to win races, qualify for the next level of competition, and set extremely high goals for themselves. The other edge of the sword […]

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Ski Racing: Prime Ski Racing Attitude

In a recent post, I introduced you to Prime Ski Racing which I defined as “skiing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions.” Before you can begin developing the essential mental skills that help you experience Prime Ski Racing, you need to establish the right attitude toward your ski-racing participation. This attitude […]

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Ski Racing/Parenting: Parent and Child Responsibilities in Ski Racing

For your children to have a great ski racing experience which, for me, means having fun, developing essential life skills, and achieving their goals, both you and your children must understand and fulfill your respective responsibilities and those responsibilities alone. Taylor’s Law of Family Responsibilities states that if family members fulfill their own responsibilities and […]

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Ski Racing: Prime Ski Racing is the Goal

When you ski race, you will, in fact, be competing in three competitions. The obvious competition is the one that occurs against the rest of the field, the goal of which is to get the best result possible. But before you compete against the field, there is another competition you must win, namely, the race […]

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