Take Risks for Athletic Success
This article will explore the essential role that risk taking plays in athletic success. Before I continue, though, let me preface this discussion by saying that, when I talk about taking risks, I don’t mean taking stupid risks such as texting while driving, jumping off the roof of your house, or taking drugs. That’s not […]
Read MoreFour Reasons Why Your Kids Should Play Sports
As any sports parent knows, it’s often a challenge to get your kids to the practice field, court, course, hill, or what-have you every day on time and ready to go. I admit that I can be a bit of a taskmaster with my own kids (who’s main sport is ski racing) on those days […]
Read MoreA New Book Deal!
I’m excited to announce that I have just signed a contract with the publisher Rowman & Littlefield to write my 15th book, tentatively titled, Train Your Mind for Athletic Success. This book will be based on my Prime Performance System which is my framework for the role of the mind in athletic performance that I have […]
Read MoreMake Mental Imagery a Part of Your Summer Training
If you do anything to work on the mental side of your ski racing during this off season, it better be mental imagery. Why, you ask. Because there is no more powerful mental tool than mental imagery and it can have a huge impact on your ski racing. And here’s my challenge to you: If […]
Read MoreStill Time to Enroll in My Online Mental Training Course
Just a quick reminder that my new Prime Ski Racing online mental training course has held its first session, but there’s still time to enroll (I’ve had several people sign up since the Wednesday class). When you enroll, you can catch up by watching the first session on the course’s private YouTube channel. Here’s what […]
Read More3 Keys to Making Mental Training Work in Sports
When I speak to athletes and coaches, I ask them how important the mind is to sports success. With few exceptions, the response is that the mind is as or more important than the physical and technical side of sports. I am obviously biased given what I do for a living, so I won’t take […]
Read More3 Keys to Making Mental Training Work in Ski Racing
On June 1st, I will be launching my first-ever 12-week online mental training course designed specifically for ski racers. My motivation to develop this course was a need that I saw for racers and coaches to treat mental training the same way they do physical and technical training. So, I looked at what made physical […]
Read MoreMore Evidence That ‘10,000 hours’ is Wrong
I guess I’m on a bit of a rampage providing evidence that some of our achievement culture’s most cherished beliefs about performance, specifically, grit and the ’10 years, 10,000 hours’ rule, are not all they are cracked up to be. To add further fuel to the fire, here are two articles that provide persuasive arguments […]
Read MoreDeliberate Practice is Overrated (Sorry, Malcolm Gladwell)
I’ve never been a big fan of either grit or deliberate practice. Of course, they make intuitive sense and have a lot of appeal because they send the message that if we do the right things, anyone can be a champion. Unfortunately, as I describe in my Prime Performance System (and those are just the psychological […]
Read More5 Mental Tools for Athletic Success
This post is the last of my five-part series describing my Prime Performance System which encompasses everything I know about the psychology of sport. This post will introduce five practical mental tools you can use to get the most out of your competitive efforts. These five mental tools are the final piece of the prime […]
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