Ski Racing: Prime Ski Racing Pyramid
In an earlier post, I defined Prime Ski Racing as “skiing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions.” Prime Ski Racing is a goal toward which every racer strives, the result of which is to maximize your ski racing efforts and enable you to achieve your racing goals. But few racers, coaches, […]
Read MoreSki Racing: Mikaela Shiffrin: Phenom (and a Good Person too)
If you haven’t heard of Mikaela Shiffrin by now, you’re obviously not following ski racing. Though the 15-year-old Mikaela has been on the radar screen of people “in the know” for several years now, she entered the international ski racing stratosphere last year at Topolino (for those not that well versed in ski racing, this […]
Read MoreSki Racing/Parenting: Do You Want a Gifted or Hard-working Ski Racer?
Giftedness is revered in our culture; inborn talent—whether intellectual, athletic, or artistic—ensures that children will be successful. How many times have you heard “Bode Miller was born to ski race” or “Lindsay Vonn was destined to greatness?” Well, let me clear something up: No one is born to do anything, certainly not to ski race. […]
Read MoreSki Racing: 5 Things I Hate to See Racers Do in Training
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 […]
Read MoreSki Racing/Parenting: Raise Successful Achievers
Parents who want their children to achieve something called “success” may find that this goal conflicts with their desire for their children to also become happy. Achieving success, as typically defined by our culture, emphasizes wealth and social status, and is often at odds with what the research has shown to produce happiness. A perusal […]
Read MoreSki Racing: Achieve Prime Confidence
Prime confidence is a deep, lasting, and resilient belief in your ability to achieve your goals. Prime confidence keeps you positive, motivated, intense, focused, and emotionally in control when you need it most. With prime confidence, you’re able to stay confident even when you’re not skiing well (it happens to even the best ski racers […]
Read MoreSki Racing/Parenting: The Dark Side of Pursuing Ski Racing Superstardom
With the 2010 Vancouver Olympics in our rearview mirror, it is a joy to bask in the reflected glory of such superstars as Lindsey Vonn, Marlies Schild, Julie Mancuso, Maria Riesch, Bode Miller, Didier Defago, and Carlo Janka. And with the 2011 World Cup season already underway, we can look forward to intense battles between […]
Read MoreSki Racing: Don’t Praise Your Children!
Please be prepared. I’m going to go on a bit of rant now. I just can’t hold it in any longer. I see parents doing this constantly and it’s killing me because they know not what they do and they are actually hurting their children’s personal and ski racing development. What am I referring to? […]
Read MoreSki 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 […]
Read MoreSki 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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