Self-confidence: The mark of a champion. That secret ingredient that all great athletes seem to possess, regardless of what level they compete at. Can you “grow it?” If so, how? Are there specific things that parents, coaches and teammates do that can kill it? Self-confidence is that intangible factor, a “cousin” to PMA, positive mental attitude that keeps an athlete working hard regardless of how many times he/she may fail or how many obstacles get thrown in his/her path. Self-confidence can give an average athlete or team the courage and focus to defeat a stronger opponent. Self-confidence can motivate you to attempt and accomplish the impossible. Likewise, lacking self-confidence, an athlete or team will consistently perform way below their potential. Low self-confidence can kill an athlete’s enjoyment of the sport and turn him/her into a dropout statistic. 

This is a deel!!! Remember, every athlete/person feels these so-called negative feelings when they fail or consistently mess up. Experiencing the feelings of failure doesn’t mean that you are a failure. Making mistakes and failing are temporary events. As long as you pick yourself up and keep going, they are NOT permanent. The feelings that go with them need to be reframed by you as you experience them. That is, you must get in the habit of changing the meaning of these feelings of discouragement, disappointment, frustration, self-doubts and anger. Recognize them for what they really are: The doorway to success. See them. Experience them. Tell yourself that they are supposed to be there and keep moving forward towards them!

What are the psycho-physiological elements that are most often associated with the ideal, internal psychological climate? When you are performing at your best what feelings are usually present?

1. MENTALLY RELAXED - a feeling of inner calm with a high degree of concentration  
2. PHYSICALLY RELAXED - a feeling that the muscles are loose with fluid, precise, sure movement  
3. CONFIDENT AND OPTIMISTIC - a feeling of self confidence about being able to perform well  
4. FOCUSED ON THE PRESENT - a feeling that actions are occurring automatically and effortlessly with no thoughts of past or future  
5. HIGHLY ENERGIZED - feelings of joy, ecstasy, intensity and power  
6. EXTRAORDINARY AWARENESS - acutely aware of the body and others around you  
7. IN CONTROL - largely subconscious control with a sense of being able to automatically make all the right moves  
8. IN THE “COCOON” - a feeling of being insulated from distraction, anxiety or fear  
   

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Have you ever experienced any or all of these feeling states while competing? Do you think having these feelings present would help you to perform at your best? You can learn to bring on or orchestrate these and/or other feelings that are associated with your own best performance

- DON’T COMPARE YOURSELF - Ever wonder why you continually doubt yourself and 
struggle with low self-confidence? The reason comes down to one simple verb: “COMPARE.” When you compare yourself with other athletes you set yourself up 
to feel badly about yourself and fail. Why? Because most of the time when you compare, you will over-inflate the other person’s strengths, minimize or ignore their weaknesses while over-inflating your weaknesses and minimizing or ignoring your strengths. Not exactly a good formula for building self-confidence! Comparison is a losing game because you’ll always manage to 
find someone better than you. Instead, keep your focus on YOU. Measure yourself against yourself. Sure, there’s a benefit to seeing someone much better than you perform and modeling yourself after them. They may have a certain style, skills or technique that you’d like to emulate. This is the only positive way to focus on someone else. This isn’t comparison. Comparison 
usually involves a negative appraisal of yourself in relation to others. Stay away from it!

 Comparison is hazardous to your self-confidence and performance health.

Go for the best and improve!!!

Peotr Julianov/ CST

       If you want to most consistently be a peak performer you have to learn how to effectively use and balance your goals and expectations. Let’s start with some simple definitions: Goals & Expectations: What are they? Even though these have slightly different meanings, you can use them interchangeably. Goals and expectations are related to the OUTCOME. They are always FUTURE oriented. They reflect what you WANT out of your sport/life, from a particular season or from this immediate performance. Goals and expectations reflect what you plan to accomplish and what would make you feel successful as an athlete.
        Having goals or expectations for yourself is absolutely critical if you want to be the best in your sport. Your goals/expectations serve as a TARGET to aim for. They give all your training efforts a MEANING and a DIRECTION. They also provide the FUEL and ENEGRY that you’ll need to consistently move forward towards success and turning your athletic dream into a present day reality. Without well-defined goals, your overall training will be inconsistent, misdirected and disorganized. Some days you’ll train hard, others you’ll just go through the motions. Goals serve as a source of motivation to keep you keeping on, especially when the going gets rough and discouragement sets in.
       When you have goals and expectations for yourself, you are setting a higher standard of performance. You are internally demanding more of yourself. You are challenging yourself. Such high standards and challenges are necessary for you to take your training to the next level. It’s these inner demands that you place on yourself that will ultimately propel you forward towards your dream. In the end, that the demands that you place on yourself will make you a much better person and athlete as they move you towards personal excellence. In this way, your goals and expectations help you “push your envelope” and step outside of your comfort zone.

      It’s your goals and expectations that keep you motivated to train. Your goals provide you with an important answer to the often-asked questions: “Why bother?” “What’s the point of all this hard work?” “Why am I making all these sacrifices for anyway?” “The coach isn’t looking now, why should I keep going hard?” “After such a devastating failure, why should I continue to work hard?” Having goals and expectations for you helps you get through the sometimes very rough patches of your athletic career and the oftentimes tough, daily grind of training. They are your answer to all of these “why” questions. Simply put, your goals and expectations, if they truly belong to YOU and are genuinely important to YOU, they will provide you with a compelling enough reason to sacrifice, work hard and discipline yourself. If your goals don’t really belong to you, if your parents or coaches force them on you, if you’re just doing this to make others happy, then when the going gets rough, your reaction will be to want to pack it up, hit the road and bail out.
       One of the key points that, taking your goals and expectations with you when you go to practice is critical to your ultimate success as an athlete. In practice they represent an extremely valuable piece of training equipment.  Whenever you train, the quality and intensity of your training will always be high. As a result you will be more focused, your practices will have more meaning to you.But this is only one part of the championship formula when using goals and expectations.
     The other just as critical part is to know when it’s time to mentally set your goals and expectations aside. Perhaps one of the more common and costly mental mistakes made by athletes at every level is to take their goals and expectations with them into the competitive playing arena. It’s this mental mistake that leads to choking, tight, tentative performances and bitter disappointment. Example: walk on the basketball court for a big game with your expectations under your arm (“I’ve got to score at least 12 points!”) or for race(I have to run…..) for this mater and you’ll be sure to leave an unhappy and frustrated underachiever. This is one of the cardinal rules in sports psychology and peak performance. Take your goals with you whenever you practice and train, but NEVER, EVER when you compete when and it counts. Let me repeat this because it is so important. DO NOT BRING YOUR GOALS AND EXPECTATIONS WITH YOU WHEN YOU COMPETE. Why?
      While your goals and expectations may motivate and focus you in practice, they rarely work that kind of positive way in competition. Concentrating on your goals when you compete, focusing on how important this game, match or race may be, thinking about the outcome of the contest and how you really need to beat this opponent and that one will distract you from what you need to focus on in order to perform to your potential. At competition time, your goals and expectations will weigh you down and sink you. They will tighten your muscles, kill your nerve and fill your heart with dread. It’s this outcome focus on goals and expectations that is so poisonous to the athlete’s performance.
      An emphasis on outcome, (goals & expectations), right before you compete will always crank up the level of seriousness of the performance and what’s at stake, while simultaneously killing your fun and enjoyment. This is a deadly one-two combination that will KO your performance! If you’re not having fun going into and during a performance, then you will be physically and mentally tight and it will be IMPOSSIBLE for you to play to your potential.  THE secret to do your best is being loose and relaxed while you’re performing.

     So take your goals with you when you train. Think about why you’re training and what’s at stake. Connect what you’re doing right now in practice with your ultimate goal. However, understand that when you go to compete you must leave your goals back home. Do not bring your goals and expectations into the competition. Forget about what’s at stake, who your opponent is, how important this competition may be or who’s in the stands watching you. If you get it into your head that you “have to,” “got to,” “need to,” “must,” in relation to your performance in this race, game or match, then you are overly focused on outcome and, as a result, will be much more likely to choke your guts out.
    Keep in mind that the way to get that all-important victory is a paradox. If you really want to win then winning must be the farthest thing from your mind at race/ game time. If you really want to kick your rival’s butt, then you must banish thoughts of him/her from your mind and instead concentrate on yourself. If you desperately want to impress the coaches or a scout watching, then your focus must be on YOU and NOT on THEM! You will get what you WANT when you DON’T focus on it during competition. Similarly, you will get exactly what you DON’T want during competition when you focus on what you WANT too much.  

Do this exercise a few days before contest- competition: “Write down everything that you want to have happen, all your outcome goals and expectations. Put them all down on paper and take one last good look at them. When you’re done examining them, take all those outcome goals and lock them in a drawer, out of sight. Do NOT take them out and look at them until AFTER the competition is over!” This is the best way to insure that you have the best chance to perform at your best. Goals and expectations are part of your practice “equipment.” , they are only to be used in practice and NEVER when it really counts!

Let me help to work your mind game. Coach Peotr Julianov

 Almost every athletic training program that produces champions has an Olympic weightlifting program. Olympic weightlifting is a discipline that aids with concentration and forces you to focus on your technical abilities. You may be thinking you don’t need that kind of discipline in your regular exercise program at the gym – but you do! Every time you go to the gym, you hear people complain they have “hit a plateau” or aren’t “seeing results”. The reason is exercise machines only work limited groups of muscles. For overall conditioning and to lose weight, incorporate an Olympic weightlifting program into your regular routine. You will be amazed at the results.

 A good Olympic weightlifting program will have key elements whether training for competition, to play another sport, or to be physically fit. The first element is concentration on the core muscle group for balance and stability. Without the ability to stabilize the body, weights cannot be safely lifted. You need to be able to control your body and thus the weight. An athlete must be strong in every area, because one weak point can cause instability for the rest of the muscles(chain is as strong as it is weekest link) 

The second feature of a successful Olympic weightlifting program is the development of strong and flexible joints. One of the prime methods for improving joint strength is through weight-bearing exercises. Moves, such as the  clean and jerk, and the power snatch, use joints, tendons and ligaments in a way that they are strengthened. This contributes to the core stability of the entire body.

A third element of a productive Olympic weightlifting program is to train all the muscles, not just particular muscles. Once again, this approach leads to a stable body unit that can exert power during a lift. Focusing on one set of muscles is what often leads to injury. When you need to call upon your core muscles, or your leg or shoulder muscles, the body should be ready to respond.

When I do Pilates or Yoga it will develop core? Yes it will. This is what I call” Hollywood conditioning” if it is done without another aspect of fitness. Hey nothing wrong with these activities. I myself do and teach Yoga. Yoga makes me feel great,  it allows me to relax and help develop body awareness. This is a  great building block for the complete ATHLETE. It is very important to note: if you want to be great (not just good) you should have a complete training program ” strength - speed - endurance - flexibility - coordination and mental/sport psychology skills. 

Colorado Sports Training offers all training aspects for the complete athlete. Call Peotr for more info 303 601 1671

If you have been watching the Olympics, mental game talk is everywhere. The Olympics bring pressure to athletes, no doubt. Athletes who have trained for years compete for their country and personal pride, but only the mentally tough survive.

Denmark’s curler Madeleine Dupont cried after she missed two critical shots for her team during a match against Canada. Canada ended winning the match 5-4. Did the pressure of the Olympics get to her? Did she choke at the wrong moment? Later, she blamed the Canadian crowd stating that they intentionally distracted her during her shots.

“I could not control the weight on the last shot in the 10th. It should have been way slower, but when there are 6,000 people yelling, it’s pretty hard to find out how hard you kick off. It’s just so hard to focus. You’re trying, but it’s just not the same as if it was silent,” said Dupont after the match.

OK, so the fans were not displaying proper etiquette for a curling match… But are they really to blame for Dupont’s lack of focus and misses? I don’t believe so. Tennis or golf fans might say otherwise. But in baseball, football, basketball and many other sports, you can heckle the opposing team all you want. It goes with the sport.

Maybe Madeleine Dupont was not ready mentally for the big stage of the Olympics and the potential distractions that come with international competition? She said two critical statements in her interview following the loss, which gives up clues to her mindset: (1) She could not control the weight on the shot - or she lost her touch for the shot, and (2) It’s hard to focus with distractions - she let the crowd get to her.

I’m not mocking Dupont for choking or blaming the crowd. Instead, I want to help you learn a valuable lesson….

When an athlete loses her touch - a softball pitcher who can’t find the strike zone, a golfer who three-putts from 20 feet, or a basketball player who throws up an air ball - for no apparent reason, you have to look to the athlete’s mental game. Why would a competitor lose her touch in the final two shots of a match? Fear of losing? Afraid of letting teammates down? To tense to make the shot because the entire world is watching? Yes, we can feel the pressure of the Olympics just by watching.

However, don’t not blame the crowd or another external distraction for losing focus. You never want an external distraction to derail your focus. External distractions are stuff that happens around you - or any distraction that is triggered externally and not all on your own.

Coping with External Distractions

Coping with distraction is a part of sports athletes must learn. Basketball players have to deal with hecklers all the time when shooting a free throw, for example. How do you deal with external distractions? Top athletes use preshot routines to help them stay tuned into the right performance cues.

For a basketball player, a free-throw routine shields your mind when the pressure is on to make the shot. Total absorption in the steps of the routine helps to occupy your mind and thus deflect distractions that may come into your mind, such as crowd noise. Your mission is to focus on your performance cues within the routine, which also serve to keep you focused in the process and not worry about missing the shot.

Performance Cues of a Preshot Routine

Preshot routines help you stay focused on execution and deflect distractions. Mostly used by sports with self-paced tasks, such as a serve in tennis, shot in curling, or a free-throw in basketball, preshot routines spell out what you need to focus on prior to execution of a skill, also called performance cues.

The starting point in a good preshot routine for free-throws is to release the last play and don’t waste energy on what just happened. Take a deep breath and feel balanced on the foul line. Your mind should be clear and ready to focus on the target. Set up to the line as you always do in your foul shot routine. Bounce, twirl or hold the ball in a way that feels good to you (or do what you usually do here). Feel the weight of the ball and center yourself on the line.

Next, create a good mental picture of the ball’s trajectory and visualize it go in, or just “sense” the ball going in the basket. The key here is to create a positive picture or feeling in your mind to boost confidence. See it, hear it, feel it, or think about it going in, and know it is going in. If you get a bad picture or thought here, STOP immediately and restart your routine from the beginning.

I think in Dupont’s case, her mind drifted to the noise of the crowd shouting during her shots. She was unable to recognize that her mind was drifting. Focused athletes won’t hear a gun go off if they are into their performance. But if you give the distraction energy or attention, you’re no longer focused on your routine. You want to recognize distractions quickly as they come into your mind. Only then can you refocus on the task at hand and not let the distraction cause a critical miss.

One more tip: If there’s a potential for external distraction in your sport, prepare yourself mentally for what’s to come. Practice in conditions (or distractions) that match what you will face in competition. I know it’s hard to simulate the pressure of the Olympics, but prepare yourself for distractions present in competition that you wouldn’t usually experience in practice.

With Colorado sports training you can prepare for any hights. Thank you Coach Peotr

Signs That You Are Stuck in a Practice Mindset

Most athletes understand that the goal of practice and training is to perform better in competition.   They develop confidence from practice and training, but when they step onto to the court or playing field, confidence dissipates or dwindles. When you think about it, it does not seem rational that an athlete can gain a high level of confidence from practice and then not have the same level of confidence in competition.

Some athletes simply get trapped in the practice mindset. They cannot let go of training and forgot the REAL purpose of training and practice. You have to keep in mind that the purpose of training is to develop confidence so you can perform their best when it counts - in competition. World-class athletes have a balanced routine between training and competition. They are dedicated to training and improving their skills AND have the utmost confidence in their ability when they compete. You must learn to balance both the practice mindset and the performance mindset. One without the other will prevent you from achieving your full potential in sports.

If you have the practice mindset down pat, but fall short in competition, then we need to discuss how to best transfer your practice or training to competition so you can play up to your true abilities. A “gamer” is an athlete that can get the most out of his or her ability and get the job done in crunch time. This should be your goal.

The practice mentality is characterized by high dedication, unwavering motivation, commitment to your goals in sport, analytical behavior, a cognitive mindset, improve technique, strive for perfection, and focus on improvement. On the other hand, the performance mentality is about a complete confidence in what you trained, an automatic or reactive mindset, the ability to win ugly or just get the job done without regard to how you get it done, and the mindset to rely on instincts or what you have practiced.

You now understand that balance of the practice and performance mindsets are necessary to achieve your athletic potential. It’s fine to strive for perfection and focus on future improvement, but when these characteristics are taken to an extreme, they can harm your performance in competition.

Here are a few common signs athletes you may be stuck in a practice mindset:

- You perform consistently well in practice, but fail to exhibit the same levels of performance in competition.

- You enjoy your practice routines or training more than you enjoy the thrill of a close competition.

- When you compete, your physical performance is hindered by over training or you have nagging overuse injuries.

- When competing, you are too obsessed with perfect mechanics or worry too much about performing with the correct technique.

- You have a hard time playing in the present moment especially when not performing up to your own standards. You work too much on fixing what may be wrong so you can play better the next event rather than trying to get the most out of your game today.

- You become very analytical about mistakes and dwell on errors. You spend too much energy trying to fix your technique that you lose sight of the real objective.

- You simply can’t trust what you have practiced or trained. You tighten up and over control your movements, swing, or serve in competition.

- In crunch time or during importance competitions, you are unable to perform with freedom and confidence. You tighten up and worry too much about mistakes.

- You try too hard to be perfect with your game and lose composure when your performance does not go exactly as planned.

If you can identify with one or more of the above scenarios, please contact Petr Julianov   so you can free yourself from the practice mindset and perform with greater confidence and consistency in competition

Everyone has different thresholds which are dependent both on genetics as well as learned and conditioned behaviors. When our minds (mental or emotional components) become overloaded, we suffer from a multitude of symptoms that everyone calls “stress”. When our bodies have been overworked, they break down. Our immune system weakens and we are more susceptible to illnesses. We also become more prone to injuries.

So, how do you know when it is time to take a break? There are both mental/emotional elements as well as physical components to consider.

Answer these questions on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being extremely poor and 5 being very good. Here are a set of questions to consider.

1. How well are you sleeping? 2. How good is your tolerance for problems, issues or confrontations that arise compared to normal? 3. How optimistic are you about things? 4. How well can you focus on things that need to get done in your life? 5. How well are you coping with disappointment, loss? 6. How vigorous and energetic do you feel? 7. How confident or doubtful are you about reaching your goals? 8. How achy or sore do you feel? 9. How tight are your muscles feeling? 10. How well are you recovering from an injury?

You are looking for a change in your physical and mental condition. You need to discern your normal disposition with a change. If you are normally a little sore after a hard workout the day before, it would be natural. If you feel disappointment about a bad race or not getting a promotion at work, it is understandable. If you are normally intolerable of problems, issues or confrontation — it is not necessarily an issue of over-doing things. It may be your nature.

Answering these questions with candid insight will lead you to the answer to the issue in question — do you need to back-off? Some of the items are objective. The scale is subjective. But, that in and of itself is telling. Subjectivity means from your perspective. At what point do you need to consider time off? If you have a deviation of 2 points or more (i.e. from a score of 2 to a score of 4) in three to four categories you may need some time off.

What happens if you don’t listen to your body (and mind)? Breakdown is inevitable. That breakdown can be emotionally or physically. When we don’t listen to our bodies, it will scream louder for attention. Will power will only take you so far. And then not even will power can sustain you.

For all athletes the question most commonly on their minds is - what are the effects of time off?

Losses: Good research exists on the “de-training” effect of athletes. Consider some research evidence: It requires four weeks for a runner’s legs to return to normalcy after a marathon. (This is cellular level damage the not subjective “I think I feel good enough to run.”) After 15 days of rest there is between 4-8% drop in your ability to maximally process oxygen (VO2max).

Blood volume decreases up to 10% after a three-week lay-off. After 10 days off it will take up to 30 days of training to recover the muscle enzyme levels critical to performance. Heat acclimation may be lost as well.

Gains: Time off allows for muscle recovery. Remember, training breaks down tissue and it is the rebuilding of the muscles that make us stronger/faster. It also allows for a mental break from intense and consistent training.

So, how much time off is enough? It is reasonable to expect that a more seasoned runner could take off more time with less effects. If you are going to completely take time off, you might as well do it for a month. Most of your conditioning will be lost within the first two weeks, so why not fully recover with four weeks.

Perhaps a more ideal approach (supported by research) is to do two high intensity workouts per week. Rest the remaining five days in the week. The evidence is strong that little conditioning will be lost over the four week period and your body and mind should recover perfectly.

A couple ideas for workouts: Get out on paths and trails. Get well warmed up with 10-15 minutes of easy running. Then, go 15 minutes at 5k to 10k pace and then warm down. You can also do Fartlek (Swedish for “speed play”) workouts. Get warmed up with 10 minutes of easy running then “play” with different paces over varying terrain. If you like the track, go do high intensity, short distance repeats (12-16×200 walk 200 recovery; or, 8×400 fast jog 400 recovery). Go from very fast to 5k to 10k to jog alternating in 4-5 minute intervals. Even very high intensity non-running workouts (i.e. cycling intervals) can maintain conditioning.

 For more information how to plan your training prosses call 303-601-1671 or email liftbar120@comcast.net

Thank you very much.

Colorado SportsTtraining

Nearly every sport requires strength, but what each sport really calls for is sport - specific - strength. Mxs plays an important, if not the determinant, role in creating sport - specific strength. An athletes ability to generate MxS depends to a great extend on the diameter or cross-sectional area of the muscle involved, more specifically, the diameter of the myosin filaments, including their cross bridges; the capacity to recruit FT muscle fibres; and the ability to synchronize all the muscles involved in an action.

Muscles size depends greatly on the duration of the hypertrophy phase, where the diameter of myosin/actin and the increase in protein content in the form of cross bridges depends on the volume and duration of the Mx S phase.

STRUCTURE OF THE MUSCLE Celle

A muscle consist of special fibers of a few inches long to more then 3feet that extend the entire length of the muscle. This fibers are grouped in bundles called FASCICULI, held together by a sheath called the PERIMYSIUM. Each fiber contains many threadlike protein strands called MYOFIBRILS, which hold the contractile units, the SARCOMERES. Each sarcomere contains a specific arrangement of the contractile protein’s myosin(thick filaments) and actin(thin filaments), whose actions are important in muscle contraction. The ability of a muscle to contract and exert force is determined by its design, the cross-sectional area, the fibers length, and the number of fibers within the muscle. The number of fibers is genetically determined and is not affected by training; however, the other variables can be. Dedicated training increases the thickness of muscle filaments, increasing both muscle size and force of contraction.