Note: This article is an encore presentation of an article that never gets old. 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, [...]
With March now upon us, the end of the season is in sight and some of the most important races of the season lie just ahead. As you prepare these big races, whether the State Championships, Junior Olympics, NCAA Championships, U.S. National, Topolino, Whistler Cup, or the World Cup Finals, you’re looking for any edge [...]
Thinking. The capacity to reflect, reason, and draw conclusions based on our experiences, knowledge, and insights. It’s what makes us human and has enabled us to communicate, create, build, advance, and become civilized. Thinking encompasses so many aspects of who our children are and what they do, from observing, learning, remembering, questioning, and judging to innovating, arguing, deciding, and acting. There is also little doubt that all of the new technologies, led by the Internet, are shaping the way we think in ways obvious and subtle, deliberate and unintentional, and advantageous and detrimental The uncertain reality is that, with this new technological frontier in its infancy and developments emerging at a rapid pace, we have neither the benefit of historical hindsight nor the time to ponder or examine the value and cost of these advancements in terms of how it influences our children’s ability to think. There is, however, a growing body of research that technology can be both beneficial and harmful to different ways in which children think. Moreover, this influence isn’t just affecting children on the surface of their thinking. Rather, because their brains are still developing and malleable, frequent exposure by so-called digital natives to technology is actually wiring the brain in ways very different than in previous generations.
Greetings from beautiful Loveland, Colorado, where the air is thin, snow is amazing (kudos to John Hale and his crew!), the nights are cold, and the days are warm and sunny (in other words, ideal conditions for early season skiing). I’m out here this week and again next week working with racers as they put [...]
Many sports, including baseball, football, tennis golf, track and field, and many others, are comprised of a series of many short performances with breaks of various lengths in between. For these sports, whether between at-bats in baseball, downs in football, or points in tennis, being well-prepared for the first performance is not enough. Competitive routines can be invaluable in ensuring that you are prepared for every performances within a competition. One thing that I found that separates the great athletes from the good ones is their ability to be consistently ready for every performance. By being totally prepared for every performance, you can be sure that you won’t give your opponents “free points” because you weren’t ready. The time between performances is essential to consistent competitive performance. What you think, feel, and do between performances often dictates how you perform. You must take control of the time between performances to be sure that you’re totally prepared. I use a four-step competitive routine called the Four R’s. The first R is rest. Immediately after the conclusion of the previous performance, take several slow, deep breaths and let your muscles relax. This is especially important after a long or demanding performance in which you become fatigued and out of breath. It’s also important near the end of a long competition in which you’re tired and need to recover as much as possible to be ready for the next performance. Deep breathing and relaxing also help you center yourself and better prepare you for the next R.