No one area of preparation for play is receiving as much attention as mental preparation. In monitoring the play of elite teams one thing is blatantly evident. Technical skills alone do not account for the continued success of the vast majority of teams. In addition, excellent ice conditions and running surface inserts in stones have removed much of the good fortune factor. I would like to believe that improved coaching skills has leveled the playing field among teams either fortunate
Early this morning (04.11.13) in the town of Augusta, GA, the first tee shots will have been played to commence the battle for the coveted “Green Jacket”, emblematic of the championship of “The Masters”, the first of the four major golf tournaments for 2013. The Masters is the only one of the four (can you name the other three?) that’s played on the same golf course each year, Augusta National. Those who watch the 72 hole event each year on
Hundreds of years ago those hearty Scots were seen sliding large chunks of granite on frozen lochs in the winter and attempting to manipulate a small, feather filled ball into holes in the ground in the highlands of their beloved piece of an island in the North Atlantic in the summer. These were the origins of the sports we now know as curling & golf. At first glance curling & golf seem like oddly different offsprings of the same culture but
I never stressed winning. I wanted the score to be an end result of practice. –John Wooden After several years of emphasizing process-oriented thinking as opposed to result-oriented competition I realized that it was time to determine what is the process. What are the components that helped take our varsity women’s curling team to two OUA and two CIS championships as well as gold at the Karuizawa International Championships? Well, last spring I assigned myself the task of identifying and
Hopefully you will have read the previous blog about the question I get asked more than any other; “Why am I so inconsistent?”. As stated in that blog, the reasons are varied but I feel there are two “culprits” that mitigate against a consistent performance. The one I dealt with in the last post was a lack of knowledge/awareness of your own skill set. To that end, I’m a huge fan of the use of a video recording device. I
When I conduct camps (at just about any level), clinics or team consultations, the one question I get asked more than any other goes something like this, “I’m happy with my skill set as it’s equal to the amount of time I want/can put into it but it’s frustrating when I play poorly so how can I be more consistent?“. As with so many questions of this nature the answer is multifaceted but that said, I’ll deal with what I feel