Special Guest Blogger: Rebekah Dixon
Visit Rebekah’s Website http://www.RebekahDixon.ca and be sure to follow her on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Youtube.
Mental Training is a hugely important yet under-utilized piece of the training puzzle. In my experience, most of the struggles skaters experience can be minimized with consistent mindset training. Positive, intentional thoughts fuel your mind like healthy food and exercise fuel your body. Developing strength and balance between mind and body through mental training can transform your performance on and off the ice.
When I started working with Meagan, she already had experience with sport psychology and had a great base knowledge of how her mind impacted her skating. Together we have focused on fine tuning her mind-body connection and preparing her to be in the best mental shape of her career going into the Olympics. Next week she and Eric will compete at Nationals, with the goal of winning their 7th National Championships. Here are a few examples of the tools that Meagan will be utilizing to achieve that goal.
- Controlling Competition Nerves – Bringing attention to how Meagan’s nerves show up both physically and mentally during competition. Creating a script that uses breathing techniques to focus and calm her body and mind, ultimately controlling the nerves using her breath. Having her record the script and then listen to it before and during competition.
- Eliminating Distracted Thoughts – Teaching her “to get in the zone” by shifting the focus from feelings in the moment to the keywords for success on each element. This involves the process of flooding the mind with keywords, completing the element, detaching from the outcome and letting it go.
- Determining a Recipe for Success – After a great performance or practice we Mind-Map to determine the factors that contributed to the success. Success leaves evidence! This is a process of recognizing the key factors so that they can be replicated to create consistent high-level performance.
Until Next Time,
Keep Your Brain in the Game
P.S. come visit my booth at Skate Canada National Championships to talk mindset!
