What was last season like? How is this season going?
What about practice? Are you improving steadily?
If you are like most of us, skating can take you on a never-ending roller coaster of emotions depending on how it goes on the ice.
Did you know that mental training can help even out the emotional rollercoaster by reducing the frequency and magnitude of the dips
And that’s a good thing because a young athlete’s skating career is like a map, full of crossroads: the roads taken and the roads not taken.
How does a serious athlete or sports parent handle the ups and downs of what could be a 10 year plus career? A career that could span toddlerhood to adulthood.
When I work with skaters and their parents, instead of putting on band-aids from one crisis to the next, I like to work on a more fundamental level, through right thinking and healthy perspective.
Tiger Woods once said this:
I don’t think you’re ever there. You might never arrive, but if you do, you might as well quit because you’re already there. Can’t get any better. And as players, if you ever have that moment—you should never have that moment. You’re always trying to get better.
You are a work in progress. Once you reach your dream goal, there will be more, bigger and better dreams for you to aspire to.
Let this knowledge give you the freedom to leave expectations of perfection behind you. Stop measuring how far you are from your current dreams and pay attention to the journey you are on.
This is the only way you will be free to become the athlete, the parent or the person you want to be.
You train hundreds of hours on the ice, you have the skills to execute a great program inside of you. If you can just get out of your own way!
Mental skills training can make a difference because it can help you access what is already there during competition and practice.
Start here; download “Confidence Myth Busters,” a complimentary eBook and make a change.