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Table of Contents
Personal Word to Coaches................................................................ I
Personal Note to Skaters..................................................................IV
1. Introduction to Mental Training.................................................... 1
Dedications and Introducing the cast of characters (1)
Figure skating is a powerful teacher (5)
It’s cold in those darn rinks (7)
Thinking vs. Non-Thinking (10)
Quiz (11)
What kind of commitment do I need to make? (12)
Let’s get past “spooky” and “don’t know how” (14)
A total makeover or… (16)
Five beliefs this book is based on (18)
How to attack this book! (19)
What tools will you need? (20)
Life Skills (21)
How mental coaching works (22)
Segment Summary (24)
2. Let’s Get Started.........................................................................25
What is mental toughness? (25)
Four options for responding to competitive pressure (27)
The primary rule: Reduce the pressure (30)
3. Managing Nervousness at Competitions ...................................31
Framing your nervousness (32)
Two scenarios (33)
Nervousness at competitions (36)
Your early warning system (46)
How important is this competition? (49)
What can you control… what not? (52)
Judges (52)
Opponents (54)
Environment (55)
What do you think about before a competition? (56)
Havin’ fun (57)
Warm-up time (60)
Things to say to yourself (64)
4. Importance of Being Focused ...................................................65
Why stay focused? (65)
One skater’s example (67)
Increasing focus in practices (70)
Was I focused or just skating? (73)
Escape from pressure the wrong way (76)
Even on a bike for 7 hours! (77)
Rituals (78)
The “present second” concept (81)
Eyes (82)
The savvy six (83)
Sometimes it’s the little things (84)
Example of practicing with focus and intensity (86)
Focus involves commitment (86)
5. Self-Talk and Managing Negative Thoughts ..............................89
Self-Talk quotes (89)
Bad influence of negative thoughts (90)
How to manage negative self-talk (93)
Chloé’s comments about early mornings (98)
How thinking positively effects stress levels (99)
I’ve never been a good spinner (103)
Three possibilities – One choice (105)
Which reality is correct? (106)
I think my life (107)
Changing your thinking from negative to positive (111)
“What if” and it’s cousin “Ain’t it awful” (112)
Catastrophizing (114)
6. Visualization ...............................................................................119
Why visualization is important (119)
How to visualize (121)
Reminder: Practice makes permanent (124)
Other variations (125)
If it’s not happening easily, train yourself (126)
One hundred times a day for two years (128)
Using visualization in other activities (131)
Getting yourself on automatic (132)
Reinforce what you want to remember; erase what you
want to forget (132)
Erasing unconscious
conditioning (136)
7. Affirmations ................................................................................139
How affirmations work (139)
Implanting these messages in your subconscious (142)
Light legs (147)
8. Your Thinking Style ....................................................................149
Consequences of your thinking style (149)
How beliefs enter the picture (154)
The eight continuums (157)
How to make use of
that data (158)
Segment Summary (162)
Summary Of Your Progress So Far (162)
9. Beliefs .........................................................................................163
Increasing your belief in yourself (163)
Why can’t I find lost things? (164)
Managing your beliefs (165)
Changing negative beliefs (168)
Example of changing a belief (169)
Second example of changing
a belief (170)
10 Self-Image (173)
How self image effects behavior (173)
Areas of self-perceptions (174)
“Caps” on your perceptions (175)
Belief is more powerful than “evidence” (177)
Self-image exercise (179)
Re-adjusting your “caps” (184)
Another method (188)
My personal example (189)
11. Breathing ..................................................................................191
It’s importance (191)
Eight breathing lessons (192)
The breathing-thinking technique (197)
Using breathing to clear negative experiences (199)
In three… out six (200)
12. Managing Stress .......................................................................201
How thinking positively affects stress levels (201)
Feeding yourself thoughts (203)
Verbalize it (205)
Your “escape-to-place” preparation (207)
Going there (210)
When to use this process (211)
13. Dealing with Doubts, Fears,
and
Other Unproductive States .....................................................213
Handling pressure and the role of fear (213)
Three principles for dealing with fear (214)
Act as if… (216) Focus on romance (217)
Take Aways (218)
Who are you skating to please? (219)
What are you afraid of? (220)
What can you do about fears? (221)
Verification of “Act as if…” (223)
Keeping perspective (226)
Your thoughts and your non-verbals formula (227)
Fear Quiz (231)
Too much thinking (232)
The stair exercise (233)
Anger as an excuse to escape pressure (235)
On losing a jump (236)
Shifting your emotional state (238)
Climbing out of a deep hole using EMDR (242)
14. Goals .......................................................................................247
About Goals (247)
Find your mission (248)
Expectations and “caps” (250)
There are two kinds: Choose wisely (251)
Rule of thumb regarding goals (256)
Background or foreground (257)
More on developmental goals (258)
Developmental goals in other sports (260)
15. Motivation ...............................................................................261
Five areas that influence results
(eating/sleeping/water/fitness/ energy recovery) (262)
Momentum (263)
Models motivate (264)
Your mental diet of positives and negatives (264)
Calvin Coolidge quote (267)
16. Coaches ..................................................................................269
Focus on mistakes or successes? (269)
Working with coaches (273)
The coaches’ personal example (275)
Distinguishing between behaviors and the skater’s person (277)
The power differential (278)
17. Mental Game Plans: Five Case Studies .................................279
Adult skater at local competition (279)
Adult skater at adult nationals (283)
Debriefing another adult skater after her adult nationals (286)
Chloé’s game plan for Norths (294)
Chloé’s Pittsburgh
experience (296)
18. Applying Skating Learnings to Life ........................................297
The cross-overs: learnings from skating applied to the rest of your life (297)
In life… as in skating (300)
Excerpts from Lance Armstrong (301)
Timothy Gallwey quote (301)
19. Tools: Six Very Useful Ones ...................................................303
Written goals (303)
The Pop-Up Card System (304)
Creating the cards (305)
How the system works (307)
How to review your cards (308)
This management principle produces results (310)
Making your own audio tape (313)
Listening to bilateral tapes/CDs (315)
Listening to your own music (316)
How Michael Phelps uses music (318)
20. Other Thoughts ........................................................................319
Lesson from the golfers (319)
Different Strokes for different folks (321)
An exception to the general rule (324)
Applying these techniques and strategies to other sports (328)
21. The Cutting Edge ......................................................................329
The cutting edge in mental training (329)
Intention vs. will power (330)
My epiphany as a 15 year old (330)
Applying this to figure skating (333)
Things we know from quantum physics (335)
Intention Technology (336)
When the intention is in place… (338)
Four steps to install intention (340)
The power of mental messages (344)
Frank’s pre-launch routine (348)
Chloé’s Post-Nationals letter (351)
Performing in the Zone (352)
HeartMath’s view of the zone (353)
David Hawkins on the zone (353)
Post script to this chapter (355)
Appendix .........................................................................................356
Mental analysis questionnaire (357)
Quotes you may want to consider (360)
Possible cards you may want to consider (363)
Comments from people I’ve worked with (366)
Comments from my first student (367)
Annotated Bibliography ..................................................................369
Index ...............................................................................................373
Acknowledgements ........................................................................379
Life Skills Summary .......................................................................381
Request For Reader’s Feedback ....................................................383
Book Order Form ...........................................................................385
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