If you have been around the sports world long enough, you have read Michael Durant’s famous quote: Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.
Continue reading “Hard Work, Talent and the Champion Mindset”
How to Take Charge of Your Training (For Best Results Part 2)
In Part 1, For Best Results; Take Charge of Your Training, you learned that for effective training leading to maximum improvement in the minimum amount of time, you need to:
- Know your goals, and follow your plan.
- Take responsibility for your journey.
That in order to reach your dream, you need to have clear goals, and take charge of your figure skating journey. By sitting in the driver’s seat of your skating journey bus, you know that you are going in the right direction toward your ultimate goal.
Continue reading “How to Take Charge of Your Training (For Best Results Part 2)”
For Best Results; Take Charge of Your Training (Part 1)
When go out onto the ice to compete, once the gate closes, you are on your own. Your coach and the rest of your team (parents, support coaches, trainers, mental game coach) can help you prepare, but you are the only one that can make the magic happen.
The truth is, whatever your sport, the only person responsible for your success is you. Coaches appropriate to your level may come and go throughout your development, but you (and your parents) are in it for the long run.
Continue reading “For Best Results; Take Charge of Your Training (Part 1)”
How Deal With Setbacks: Growing Skaters
Many parents become concerned, even upset when their child stops making progress, or seems to regress in skills. Skaters are frustrated and angry because they can’t seem to land the jump like before, and life can be difficult to say the least.
Before you start questioning your coach’s competence or blaming it on your child’s work ethic, please read this.
Dealing With Mistakes Can Save Your Season
In the 2016 World Figure Skating Championships, about a year ago, Gracie Gold, a favorite for the title, struggled and missed the podium. Instead of pausing to take what could be learned and putting the rest in the past, she went down the rabbit hole of self doubt (see previous article and video interview here). Continue reading “Dealing With Mistakes Can Save Your Season”
Why a Growth Mindset is Key for a Strong Mental Game
Does your mindset keep you in a cage?
A strong mental game requires a mindset of Learning and Growth.
The top performers in any profession understand that:
- Mistakes, challenges and “impossibilities” are opportunities for learning and innovation.
- They keep the big picture in mind. It is not about achieving the goal, it is about the journey.
- They never get “it” done, that there will always be a new adventure waiting.
- They are always capable of change or improvement and new ways of looking at things.
- They can take any criticism, failure or weakness and make it work for them.
Continue reading “Why a Growth Mindset is Key for a Strong Mental Game”