Perfectionism is a hot topic to explore in sport psychology. When you’re working with athletes that are striving to be the best in the world, how can you tell them that perfectionism isn’t something they should be trying to achieve? Could an athlete’s perfectionist tendencies actually be beneficial? There is a difference between striving for [...]
Tag Archives | sport psychology
Why Do I Keep Sabotaging My Performance?
When it comes to sport psychology and working on your mental game, I have to remind people that first and foremost, there are some realities to how we operate. In fact, we are animals before we are humans, and we are humans before we are people. And believe me, when it comes to emotions and [...]
3 Reasons You Should Set a Race Goal
In honor of my upcoming workshop at the Wipro San Francisco Marathon Expo, I decided to write a post for all of you amazing athletes out there with an upcoming race! (If you’re going to be out at the expo the day before marathon, come check out my workshop at 9:30a the day before the race! [...]
Getting Pre-Performance Nerves
The Mental Skills Coach is going to Snowboarding Camp… and she’s nervous. Pre-event jitters. It’s normal to be nervous when you’re taking on a new endeavor or getting ready for an upcoming event. For some of you, the closer you get to the “big day”, the knots in your stomach get tighter and the voices [...]
How Your Ego Impacts Your Performance
The topic of humility has been coming up in my work a lot lately. It first came up while I was reading the book Assault on Lake Casitas, by Brad Alan Lewis. The book is the story of Lewis’ journey to the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games where he competed in the double scull. (It [...]
Improving Confidence and Riding Aggressively
In cycling, there are a few situations I hear about over and over again when it comes to feeling anxious on the bike. Steep fast descents, tight technical turns, and riding in a pack are situations that can get your heart pumping and your hands sweating. During these moments, some cyclists will find themselves hitting [...]
Mental Preparation for Climbing
Climbing! As we move into the mountain stages of the Tour de France, this Mental Skills Minute will be focused on climbing. If you are filled with dread every time you approach a climb, you are burning matches that you are going to need in order to make it over the top. Stop wasting matches and [...]
Keeping Your Cool After a Bad Stage
The topic for this Mental Skills Minute is all about recovering from a bad stage. In a stage race as long as the Tour de France, you are bound to have a day that doesn’t go as planned. When you have a day that doesn’t go as well as you hoped it would, you need [...]
The Missing Link in Goal Setting
This blog post was inspired by a recent conversation I had as well as a request from a fantastic follower on Twitter to write something about discipline. It also happens to tie into the most recent chapter I have been working on – goal setting. We have all had the experience of wanting something to [...]
You Have More Power Than You Think
This blog post has been inspired by a quote I put up on my Mental Skills Training FB page a week or so ago. After I came across the quote and posted it on my wall, I decided to use the quote with a team I was working with to create a theme for our time [...]
How to Overcome an Injury
Overcoming an injury. I could probably write about this topic every week and it would resonate with someone who reads it. For people who use their bodies for exercise and sport, whether you are doing so for your health or your profession, sustaining an injury can be devastating. I was recently catching up with a [...]
Turning Something Bad into Something Good
“What is the point of poison oak? What possible service does it have on this earth?” This is what I asked my husband a couple weeks ago when we were on a hike. His response was, “It has to serve some purpose; maybe something eats it.” So I made it my mission to find out what purpose [...]
Winning When You Lose
Recently I had the opportunity to fly down to see the first stage of the San Dimas Stage Race in Glendora, CA. My post today was inspired by a quote I read from Mara Abbott in an article on cyclingnews.com about the 3rd stage of the race. Mara held onto the leader’s jersey until the final [...]
Persistence
Life is full of lessons if you are open to learning them. As I work on my website today, the lesson I am learning is about persistence. Sometimes in life, things don’t go as smoothly or easily as we would like. Such is the case with the work I am doing today. Ultimately, the work [...]
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