Interesting insights from athlete meetings

Many times all an athlete needs is someone to listen and help them work through whatever the issue is at the moment. Numerous times I have found that athletes will either answer their own questions or come up with a solution that is all their own. The great thing about this is that they came up with it themselves and it's theirs, no one can take that away. It is always great to see the look on my athlete's face when they come up with an idea and realize the impact it will have. It's a beautiful thing!

For example this week during one of my athlete sessions, we compared her thoughts/feelings of tumbling to downhill skiing. In tumbling she felt constricted and pressured, in skiing she felt free to make her own decisions. Pressure was the difference and that difference was making a huge impact on her ability to perform. The key is taking what she learned from the discussion and then figuring out how she can deal with the pressure surrounding tumbling.

Another example is the importance of focusing on the positive. From my own personal experiences I have seen first-hand the impact of changing your self talk from negative to positive. For me it was climbing on my road bike. I use to look at hills (and sometimes still do!) with great disdain and fear. Then one day I decided to look at them like a challenge and that it was only going to make me stronger and better. On that day, climbs were not as bad. I shifted my focus to my pedal stoke, my breathing, what I could control. I still do not particularly love them, but I don't hate them as much! But it is an on-going battle of will and mental fortitude to remind myself of the correct cues to focus on.

Takeaways from this post:
- Always be learning and apply what you learned.
- Focusing on the positive is key!