We’ve all heard the saying “Perfect Practice Makes Perfect“, but until recently, it wasn’t clear WHY it had such a powerful and long-lasting effect on our brains. All competitive athletes understand the concept of Muscle Memory, but the reality is it’s Mental Memory that creates the instantaneous and autonomic reflexes that make champions. This is […]
Archive for the 'Training and Drills' Category
If you weren’t sure if practicing makes a difference, here is an interesting chart showing that minutes make a difference. Of course if you are going to practice, you need to use Deliberate Practice techniques to make sure you are improving while you are practicing. Practice does NOT make perfect – Practice makes permanent. Only […]
In peak training phases, Michael Phelps will swim at least 80,000 meters a week, nearly 50 miles. That includes two practices a day, sometimes three when he was training at altitude. All elite athletes face the dilemma: How much is enough versus too much? Most athletes however it’s a case of too little and too […]
I recently visited a bookstore in Broadbeach on the Gold Coast (Australia), which has a great collection of used books, and found the ultimate squash classic by World Champion Jahangir Khan aptly named Winning Squash. Once you’ve mastered the basic strokes and court movement principles, as an elite squash player, you need to get into […]
Just in case you missed it, there is a new page on this blog with a list of mental toughness books that I recommend. They are primarily focused on racket sports, but I add to the list on an on-going basis. I will also be creating a new list of sports psychology books that go […]
I often tell people it’s wise to “take 1 step back to take 2 steps forward”, but it’s rare those who actually follow through. The reason is that the brain operates with what academics call “positive intent“. The brain’s desire to please itself here and now rather than later on. It’s a complex psychological force […]
In a previous post, I discussed how much you should train and introduced the concept of overtraining with Olympic training anecdotes. I got quite a bit of feedback with one common question: How can I tell if I’m over training? From The Sport Psych Handbook, here are the physical and psychological symptoms you should look […]
I don’t know about you, but I never thought I’d see the day when Mark Spitz’s record of 7 Gold Medals would ever be broken. Primarily because athletes today are so specialised that it would take a super-human to win THAT many medals against the specialists… But Michael Phelps did it with 8 Gold Medals […]