3 ways to run faster

3 ways to run faster

There are basically three ways to run faster.

  1. Improve your physical fitness – endurance, muscle size, mitochondria proliferation (ability to turn food into energy for your muscles) etc.

  2. Improve mechanical efficiency – reducing the ‘unproductive’ movement in your running so all your energy and effort goes towards moving you faster.

  3. Increase your capacity to be uncomfortable – be able to push yourself harder for longer.

These all make intuitive sense: if your muscles are smaller and weaker, you’re wasting energy with bad form, and you slack off halfway through the race . . . you’re not gonna be your fastest.

On the other hand, if your muscles are strong, ALL your movement helps you go from point A to point B, and you’re able to push to your physical limit, you’ll be much faster.

These qualities develop together:

As you train hard to make your muscles stronger, you’re practicing enduring discomfort – or even welcoming it. Through that same process, you’re also learning, intentionally or not, more efficient patterns for your physical movements.

In clinics and 1-1 coaching sessions I frequently talk about the parallels between mental and physical training. This is a perfect example of that — Each of these mechanisms is present in mental training as well.

How do each of these show up in mental training?

  1. FITNESS: The equivalent of this would be the brute-force strength of your mind to focus on what you choose, shut out externalities, and overcome strong emotions.*

    We practice this with mindfulness, breathing techniques, and high-pressure drills, along with any other skill that requires constant focus.

  2. EFFICIENCY: Mental efficiency comes about through avoiding anything that takes our focus off of the task at hand, thus avoiding the mental ‘work’ of re-focusing.

    We practice this by making competition-day plans, deciding our process ahead of time, and finding non-distracting ways to spend our down time.

  3. CAPACITY: This one is the doozie. A huge amount of mental performance comes down to this skill, that we rarely consciously practice. The mental equivalent of enduring physical discomfort is simply enduring mental/emotional discomfort – high-stress situations, nervousness about a strong opponent, fear that we won’t get the result we want, anger at a bad call, frustration or sadness over a disappointing loss . . . the ways this skill comes up are endless.

    We practice this skill with mindfulness, high-pressure scenarios, and visualizing stressful situations. We also practice this anytime we choose to accept any kind of discomfort rather than fighting it.

Where else does this show up?

All of these are present in many areas of our lives.

Fitness: Directing focus to a given task is essential for most of our day-to-day activities (though it can be highly context-dependent – as a kid with severe ADHD I couldn’t sit and do homework for 5 minutes straight, but put me on a fencing strip and the rest of the world disappeared)

Efficiency: I’ve noticed a massive difference in my own productivity and stress when I’m able to eliminate distractions from my phone or extraneous to-dos (task-switching is a killer!)

Capacity to be with discomfort: This is part of every argument, every difficult conversation, even every important decision you have to make. Anytime you have that deep worry that you could be doing something better in raising your kids — all of those are moments when you either can handle the difficult feelings, or they spill over into stress that affects everyone around you.

What’s the takeaway?

Be aware of which skill you’re using, and where you may want to do a bit more work.

All of these will develop together, but sometimes one lags behind, and needs extra attention.

What to do:

Take 5 minutes now to write out a few examples of how each of these areas of mental skill comes up in your life. 

Write down 2-3 ways you’re already succeeding at each of them. This is important; do not skip this step.

And, if you like, pick one (1) to work on improving. Just one for now.

Let me know how it goes!

P.S.

If you want to get on my waiting list for 1-1 coaching, click here to fill out my client interest form and be notified when I have availability.

Also keep an eye on these emails for news of upcoming clinics, or if you’d like to host a clinic at your club, contact me directly to discuss.

The voice in my head

The Voice In My Head


There’s a voice in my head, and I don’t like it.

It’s telling me I have to win.

I have to train more, work harder, do better—and the thing is, it’s making me worse.

Let’s step back for a moment, I’ll give you some background, and the rest of this will make more sense.


Four Years Ago

I quit fencing competitively in 2014 because I was putting too much pressure on myself, and fencing had become a chore to push myself through instead of something I looked forward to.

Four years ago, in the fall of 2018, I moved to New York to fence competitively again, with the goal of making it to the Olympics in 2024.

I’ve gone through various ups and downs since then. The pandemic was a setback, I bounced back well and my results improved in the 2020-2021 season—but they didn’t improve enough; I wasn’t on track to qualify for world cups, much less qualify for the Olympics.

At a training camp over the summer I had a moment where I realized, once again, that I was pushing myself too hard; instead of something I was excited to do, it felt like a job that I had to do. 

It was time for a serious reevaluation.


July, 2022

That week I took a serious look at a couple things, and made some big decisions. I ended a partnership that I had been in for the entirety of the pandemic, and I let go of the dream of going to the Olympics.

I didn’t just give up though, I thought about what I really loved about fencing and competing, and I realized that even if I couldn’t make it to the Olympics, I would love to fence in a world cup again, and so I set my new goal for the season, and possibly for my whole fencing career—to qualify for a world cup.

After a 6 week break, with a completely new approach to competing and a lot less pressure, I began training again in September. A few weeks later, after rigorous mental preparation (and much less rigorous physical preparation) I went to the first NAC of the season, and was blown away by getting 3rd in Div I; equaling my best result ever and accomplishing something I’d truly barely dared to dream of for a decade.

With that result, I qualified for the first two world cups of the season.

Two weeks ago, I went to my first world cup in a decade. I didn’t do amazingly well, but fenced at a competitive level with some of the best fencers in the world. That experience brought me a deeper sense of confidence, and a feeling that I was finally, after all these years, back where I wanted to be.

And that’s when the voice came back.

December 2022 –- Present

The voice that was pushing me all those years ago, the voice that I rejected over the summer when I acknowledged that I wasn’t on a path to the Olympics, the voice that had gotten in the way of my fencing far more than it ever helped, despite that it was trying to make me better.

It was the voice of needing to look good instead of be happy, the voice of insecurity saying I wasn’t good enough unless I did more, and better.

That voice was whispering in my ear all the time.

“But look, you did it. You got to a world cup, without even training that hard—imagine what you could do if you really worked at it. You can do more, you can go farther. Train harder, fencer harder, work harder. You can’t mess this up.”

It was there when I woke up in the morning, telling me I should go to the gym and lift weights, instead of getting focused for my work day.

It was there when I went to practice, telling me I needed to fence smarter, improve more with every bout, get the most out of every lesson (and, by the way, I needed to take more lessons)

It was there when I went to sleep, telling me I needed to go to bed earlier so I could be more recovered so when I woke up in the morning to go to the gym I could get in a good workout and focus at work before going to practice and squeezing every bit of training I could out of the day before coming home and getting to bed . . . late again.

That voice is insidious, and sneaky, and hard to hear but harder to ignore. It gets in my head and makes it hard to see what I really need—because that voice is blinded by what it it thinks I want.

I don’t really want to go to the Olympics, or win nationals, or even get another top 8 at a NAC.


Sure, I would like to do those things, it would be nice.

What I really want is to feel good about myself, to feel comfortable and secure in my own skin—and I have slowly come to realize that I will never get that from winning fencing competitions.


So, this week I’m once again stepping back from the voice that pushes me, stepping back from training like it’s my job.

I’m refocusing on why I like fencing, and doing it in a way that fits in with my life, and my values, and my mental health.

And you know what?

I think I’m going to fence better this way too.

I guess we’ll see at the January NAC. Even as I write that I hear that voie—I feel it in my body, saying “you have to prove you’re right, you have to do well, get a good result!”

But I don’t.

What I have to do, is seek out a state of mind that allows me to be happy with my fencing, and myself, regardless of what the outcome is. 

Because win or lose, I’m fencing to have fun.

P.S. If you’ve got a voice in your head that won’t shut up, or keep having doubts about your fencing—well, I don’t have all the answers, but I’m happy to talk it through with you, and I have a few ideas and techniques that might help.

Click here to get on my waiting list for 1-on-1 coaching and I’ll reach out to set up a consultation (the initial consultation is free of charge)

Tournament Report Vancouver World Cup December 2022

Tournament Report Vancouver World Cup December 2022

Below is my personal tournament report I wrote after fencing in the Vancouver World Cup last weekend.

This is completely unedited and exactly how I wrote it for myself.

I write a report like this after every major competition. I haven’t always done that, but I think it is wonderfully helpful and is now indispensable to me.

Read on to see my thoughts and takeaways from my first world cup in 10 years.

If you’d like to learn more strategies like this to maintain and improve your mental state during competitions, click here to get on my waiting list for 1-on-1 coaching.

Overall

Thoughts


Proud of myself. Prepared well, went in with intention, and focused on things I could control. Used resources I thought would help me, and even the mistakes I made were extensions of things I was doing on purpose that didn’t work out as I hoped, rather than fundamentally different from what I wanted to be doing. Overall, a win.

Positives

  • Warmed up well for pools and fenced hard from the beginning

  • Prepared mentally with clear goals – both outcome and process – and resources to support myself

  • Stayed with myself through the emotional ups and downs and high pressure of returning to the international circuit after a decade away

  • Used my time pretty well during breaks and was super ready to fence when I planned to be

  • Made an adjustment in-bout that was crucial to getting myself back into it, and stuck with it for several touches

Changes/adjustments for next time

  • Be more conservative about warming up before I know when I’ll be fencing

  • Practice and have mental warm up routine ready – short and long versions

  • Make spaghetti at the airbnb the night before instead of getting pizza (or going anywhere for dinner)

Things to repeat

  • Clear goals ahead of time

  • Focus on what I can control

  • Let go of details like what I have for dinner

  • Eat right after pools; have variety of foods available

  • Go to venue day/night before

  • Perform PERFECT checklist

  • Complete relaxation after pools if flighted

Leading in

Background

Coming off a half week of work and feeling behind/stressed around that, I didn’t feel like I had the time for the preparation I wanted to do, and certainly didn’t feel abundantly spacious and relaxed as I hoped to. Aside from that, training pretty consistently and taking lessons ~2x/week.

Had significant pain in my chest from unknown cause; interfered with breathing deeply and got irritated from fencing on Monday and Tuesday. Mostly inhibited taking a deep breath to relax between touches; otherwise annoying but apparently not an issue.

Very excited to get new jacket, mask, and bag from BG right before the competition.

Week before

Flew out on Thursday to fence on Friday.

Practice on Monday and Tuesday, lesson on Tuesday (stayed later than I wanted to for the lesson)

Tuesday fenced 4 or so hard bouts.

Stayed up a bit late packing on Wednesday but not super late. Slept poorly; about 5 ½ hours total that night.

Travel/day before

Travel went smoothly with low stress, but took allllll day and was very tiring. Didn’t arrive in time to register/do weapons check that night but went to the venue.

Wandered around a bit, agonized about dinner, and eventually stopped at a random pizza place; didn’t love that choice but it was fine.

Not much to do at the airbnb to get things ready for the morning but didn’t feel abundant time to do it. Meditated before bed, 20 min or so. According to my watch I got to bed around 9:40 local time and woke up around 5:30, with 7h22m of sleep total.

Day of

Morning/before venue

Woke at 5:30 (to my alarm) got up slowly, meditated, bathroom, shower, etc. — made decaf tea and left around 6:30-6:45.

Got a sandwich, pastry, and muffin and went to the venue.

Arrival/warm up

Arrived shortly after 7, registered, went through weapon check. Done by 7:30 I think?

Sat down, had some breakfast – pastry and some sandwich.

Got some work done on my chest and shoulder by the trainer. Seemed to help.

Relaxed warmup and lesson. Fenced a couple bouts, forget with whom. Called to strip a little early, did PERFECT checklist and part of worksheet at pool waiting to start.

Pools

Started from the beginning with a plan Alexey gave me — be patient and prepare short. Won first bout with Andrasfi that way, and then won the rest except for the bout with a Danish guy (Konigstad I think?) who rushed and fenced faster than I was ready for.

Overall excellent performance and good sticking to the plan, finished 4-1 with decent indicators.

Break

Immediately relaxed, undressed, and changed completely into dry clothes, ate, and relaxed.

Waited around for a while, eventually went outside and walked around. Had some nervousness/anxiety about getting warmed up again in time to be ready for DEs; was not focused on resting physically.

Timed my warm up to be ready to go around the time that second flight of pools ended, figured I’d have some time to chill waiting for the tableau. Went through the full warm up routine (8 strips etc.) fenced a few bouts and took a second lesson. Felt tired already during the lesson.

Had a bye, didn’t fence for another hour and a half after the end of pools, leading to 1. an awkward amount of time to wait 2. an overall 4 ½ hour wait between pools and DEs and 3. the need to warm up a third time before my DE. 1/2 warm up (4 strips etc.) and fenced a few touches with Tristan.

Same plan for fencing as in the pool – patience and short preparation.

DE

Bye first round.

Akira Kamata, JPN, to make the 64.

Lucky/lazy first touch, then got down by 4.

Tried to draw him out, unfortunately it worked and I wasn’t prepared – I felt frozen and like my reactions simply weren’t happening; that said for the most part I refrained from rushing the bout or overcommitting for no reason.

First period ended 12-8 against I think? Got it to 13-all at the end of the second period, then lost the next two touches.

Brought it back with the same idea as the plan I started with but I think preparing a little shorter and successfully responding when he committed. Pushing him back to the end did not seem to do me any good.

He committed fairly readily after enough preparation and I was able to take over easily when he did, provided I was preparing at a good distance. Seems like a bout I can win next time if I approach it correctly from the beginning.

Notes

  • Competition was flighted so had to wait for another round of pools to finish after mine before DEs

  • Did not return to 5-3-1 or other skills throughout

  • Successfully slowed down the bout a number of times – both pools and DE – though never pushed to the point of a yellow. I think that will be a tertiary goal for me at the NAC or next WC

[End report]

P.S. If you’d like to talk through your tournament preparation and have some help in figuring out what works best for you, click here to get on the waitlist for 1-on-1 coaching

I've been nervous all week

I’ve been nervous all week

It makes sense. I’m on my way to the biggest competition I’ve been to in over a decade, with higher hopes than ever before — as much as I try to control my expectations, my mind keeps drifting to what could happen, and how great it could be.

I haven’t done the mental preparation I wanted to. I hoped to do some visualizations to get used to the feeling of being there, on strip, at a world cup (that’s what visualization does, or part of it — it acclimatizes you to the environment you’re going to be in) but I didn’t do that.

What I did do was repeatedly come back to the thought that it will be okay. I reminded myself that I’m doing this because I like it, and — even at this level — because it’s fun. I focused on the fact that my life is stable, and I have other things grounding me that are much more important in the long run than fencing. And I intentionally released my efforts to control the outcome.

When I’m under pressure I often feel locked up and tight, unable to be smooth, relaxed, or creative. Often it feels like minor details are of ultimate importance, and the slightest thing being out of place can be upsetting, even throwing off my mental state.

As I’ve practiced self-awareness I’ve come to realize my effort to control details in those moments is really me trying to control the outcome, and to control how I feel.

Both of those things are out of my hands.

I can influence the outcome, and I can can choose how to respond.

I can affect how I feel, and I can choose my perspective.

But I’m trying to control what happens around me so I don’t feel danger or discomfort, and that doesn’t work. 

So, as I’m looking ahead to my first world cup in a decade — and my first after quitting the sport in frustration and then coming back to chase a childhood dream — I’m reminding myself to focus on the few things I can control, and let go of the rest.

To let it be whatever it’s going to be.

(and even as I wrote that, I could feel my body relax)

If you’re competing this weekend, good luck and have fun!

Best,

Corwin

P.S. If you’d like to make sure you do the mental preparation you need for your next competition, click here to get on my waiting list for 1-on-1 coaching. 

I’ll guide you through a step-by-step process to ensure you’re as relaxed, confident, and ready as you can be.

How I’m preparing for the World cup this weekend

It can be hard to connect with theoretical ideas around training and competition prep.

I’d like to share some of the things I’m doing to prepare for the upcoming World Cup in Vancouver. 

1. Review what I did before the last competition.

The last competition I fenced in was the October NAC, and it was a great day for me. Despite getting off to a slow start in pools, my preparation paid off and I eventually came in 3rd. Of course I’d like to repeat that success, so I’m going to look over what I wrote down after that competition about how I prepared and what seemed to help.

2. Plan a low-stress week with extra down time leading up to the competition.

I want to make sure I go into the competition relaxed and un-stressed, so I’m going to make sure I have few commitments the week prior to the competition, and give myself extra down time in case anything unexpected comes up.

3. Get extra sleep.

Something that’s been hard for me but is a reality I need to accept is that sleep is more important than training. I don’t feel like I’m accomplishing anything when I sleep more, but I feel better and perform better. In any given week, sleeping enough is more important than training enough.

4. Focus on what’s going to help my performance in the short term.

I know things that help me long term – bouting consistently, crosstraining, lessons, technical drills, footwork, and so on. But I have limited time, and only a few of those are going to impact my performance in the next couple weeks. The most important for me will be footwork and lessons, and I can set the rest aside for the moment.

5. Keep my perspective (and have fun)

I’m going to stay focused on the fact that I’m fencing because I enjoy it, and competing because it’s fun. I know that if I lose sight of that, competing becomes stressful and I lose my ease and creativity on the strip. Having fun with my fencing really will be my #1 goal for this competition — for those who have worked wit me, my ‘process goal’ each time I step on the strip.

6. Be ready with my mental training resources and competition day plan.

Just like I did for the NAC, I’m going to have a plan for the day, some specific mental training skills to use, and the SharperMind Training Competition Day Worksheet and Perform PERFECT Checklist printed off and ready to go. (You can get the perform PERFECT checklist by signing up for my email list)

P.S. If you want to prepare for competitions like this but you’re not sure how, I can walk you through this process step-by-step.

If you’d like to get on the waitlist for 1-on-1 coaching and be notified when I have an opening, click here

You are a (perceived) threat!

So what do I mean by ‘perceived threat’?

Your body—your nervous system in particular—responds to danger. If you see sudden threat to your safety, like a stranger jumping out at you with an axe, or a car speeding toward, you’ll get an adrenaline rush and go into fight-or-flight to help you get out of danger and back to safety.

But, there’s an issue with this whole process: you don’t just go into fight-or-flight when you’re actually threatened, it happens anytime you think you’re threatened.

The problem is, your brain reacts to threats against your own self-image or your social standing the same way it reacts to threats to your physical safety.

For example, seeing your next DE bout is against a really good fencer might make you release some adrenaline, because you are afraid you’re gonna lose.

I know for me this often happens—I have this little voice in my head that goes ‘if you don’t win this one, you’re not really a good fencer, and you never will be!’

When I can step back, I see that that’s not true, but if I let my brain run on automatic, those thoughts make it really hard to focus.

So that’s where the term ‘perceived threat’ comes in. It’s anything our nervous system reacts to as if it’s dangerous to us, even when it’s not.

But on a positive note, remember: some of your opponents are going to be a ‘perceived threat’ for you . . . But for others, (or maybe even the same ones) you’re also gonna be a ‘perceived threat’ to them.

So, what can you do about it?

You’ll have to see my next post for the answer to that one ;-)

OR—sign up for one of my upcoming clinics to get real-world practice handling difficult moments or panic in a bout.

The number one thing I'm doing differently - and how it's helping

I started competing nationally when I was 13. For years, I went to competitions hoping to do well, but my results were hit-or-miss. Even if I was physically prepared and well-rested–I routinely took 3-4 days off of training before a competition–I didn’t know the best way to prepare myself to be mentally present.

I don’t just mean I didn’t know the best techniques to use, etc. – I mean, of all the things I was doing, I didn’t know which ones were actually helping me. 

Over the years I eventually learned some things that I knew would help me. I found that listening to music helps me stay engaged with something but stay focused. I learned that it’s really important to eat during and after pools, or I run out of energy real quick in DEs. And maybe the biggest thing – I learned I better not go around talking to my friends when I’m trying to fence, or I’ll lose focus completely.

Now, that list is for me, personally, and it will be different for each person reading this. But what’s important is that I started to recognize what helps me succeed, and what gets in the way.


It’s a pretty simple process, and really boils down to asking myself three questions:

  1. What mindset do I want to be in during the competition?

  2. What can I do that will help me get to that mindset?

  3. What can I do to support myself in staying in that mindset?


Once I have answers to those three questions, I know what I can do to prepare myself for the tournament.

I can’t always do everything on my list - but when I lay out the steps I need to take to prepare, it helps me choose my priorities, so I can focus on the things that will make the biggest difference for me.

For example, for me it’s very important to make sure my equipment is working reliably before I leave for the competition, so by planning ahead I can take time the weekend before and get everything in order.

Another advantage of doing this is that even if something doesn’t work out the way I wanted, I feel more prepared to handle it when I have a plan in place.

Sometimes I’m wrong about the best way to prepare - and when that happens, because I have approached the process intentionally, I can learn from that and adjust for the next time.


Sometimes things come up that I don’t expect - but because I know I’m as prepared as I can be, it doesn’t throw me off; I just find a way to adapt and move on.

The process I go through personally is a little more in-depth than what I outlined here - if you’d like a full list of the questions I go over before competitions and an example of a post-competition report I wrote out for myself, just email me and let me know and I’ll send those right over to you!


Fencing better under pressure

Have you ever struggled to fence your best under pressure? Of course, pretty much all of us have. I have a trick for preparing yourself for high-pressure situations. But first - a quick announcement and a special offer for March.

My birthday is this month! And to celebrate I’d like to offer YOU a gift - private coaching for half price!

The next 5 people to sign up and prepay for a month of coaching sessions with me will get half off the package - 4 sessions, $400 value, for only $200 - with an additional 10% off if you pay in full before the first session. Click here to learn more and get started.

Now that’s out of the way, how to get better at fencing under pressure? Well, there are a lot of ways to help with this - some of which I cover in my Diamond Mind clinic, which you may have attended - but one simple way is to add pressure to your normal practice sessions.

What feels like pressure is different for different people, but a few options are

  • Have a teammate referee your bout with a timer, hand signals, and whatever else they can do to make it seem like a competition

  • Fence with something on the line - make a bet that the loser has to do 20 pushups, or buy the winner a gatorade

  • Film the bout and tell your coach you’ll show it to them later (knowing we’re being watched puts pressure on most of us!)

  • Have someone try to distract you during the bout

Make sure when you’re fencing in this scenario you use all the tools you have to stay focused! Don’t let it just be a case of ‘pressure’s on so ya fence bad’ - do whatever you need to to take control of your focus and stay on track. If you’ve taken my clinics, you know what to do.

If you haven’t - or you need a refresher - take advantage of the chance to get coaching sessions for half off this month, and sign up now!

Or, if you’d like to attend my personal mental training sessions FOR FREE, just reply to this email and let me know and I’ll send you the information for the zoom call. Currently my training sessions are Wednesday evenings, 7-7:30pm eastern time.

P.S. if you’re not already subscribed, click here to sign up for my mailing list.

Announcement - Free Mental Training Sessions!

I’m excited to announce that I am opening up my own personal training sessions for you to join - for free!

I want more fencers to have the opportunity to have a structured mental training practice, so I’m inviting you (or the fencer you support) to join me each week for my own mental training.

All you have to do is reply to this email and let me know you’re interested, and I’ll send you the details and zoom meeting info so you can join. Currently, sessions are Wednesday evenings 7-7:30pm eastern time.

If you’d like to attend but the timing doesn’t work for you, let me know and I’ll post a recording on my website.

Be aware that I will not be walking you through the exercises - I will simply provide the structure of what we are doing each session and let you know when to start and stop each exercise. If you would like more guidance on the exercises or to learn them, I recommend private coaching sessions - click here to learn more and get started.

Remember, win or lose - stay strong.


P.S. if you’re not already subscribed, click here to sign up for my mailing list.

The #1 trick to stop beating yourself up and learn from your wins AND your losses

One of the biggest traps I fall into - and one of the worst for my mental training - is to think that I’m doing something right or wrong. It might seem like that’s accurate, but it’s really not; It’s not right or wrong, it just happened to lead to the result I wanted, or it didn’t.

See, the problem is that when I think I did it right, I stop thinking about what to do differently or improve - and even worse, if I think I did it wrong then I stop thinking altogether and instead I beat myself up and get upset.

The best way I’ve found to handle this is to approach everything I do to prepare for competitions with curiosity. 

When I’m curious about what I’m doing, and how it’s going to impact my training or my results, I immediately move away from a place of putting pressure on myself, and judging every little thing I do.

Curiosity is the opposite of judgment, and when we approach things with curiosity, we can see them more clearly.

Of course it’s not always that easy - if you wake up tomorrow and say ‘great, I’m going to be curious about everything and not judge it at all ever!’ you may still find yourself criticizing something you’ve done, or being mad about how you handled a challenge, or whatever.

Just like everything else in mental training, this is a practice and it doesn’t happen overnight.

The skill I would recommend practicing to help get yourself into a mindset of curiosity is mindfulness.

Remember - Mindfulness is observation without judgment, and when we practice stepping back and observing what we are doing, or what’s happening within us, it lets us move into that mindset of curiosity.

Think you might try this? I’d love to hear about it! Reply to this email with something you’ve noticed by approaching things with curiosity. Any step forward is a win!

**also note - if you aren’t an athlete yourself, but you’re supporting one, this approach will work for you too! You may find it’s less stressful (and more fun) to watch your athlete with a mindset of:

“I wonder what’s going to happen next?” instead of 

“Oh my god I hope they win or they’re gonna be so sad and I’m gonna be so upset!”

Let’s get out there and get curious. Win or lose - stay strong.

P.S. if you’d like help implementing these ideas, remember I’m now offering private coaching - click here to learn more and get started.


P.P.S. if you’re not already subscribed, click here to sign up for my mailing list.

How to relax

Relaxing is important. 


Many of us have been told to relax over and over - and we generally know being too tense isn’t good for most things we want to do (For more on that, see my guest post on the topic with the Academy of Fencing Masters blog)

The problem is, relaxing is a little bit like not thinking about pink elephants - when someone tells you to do it, that usually only makes it harder.

Maybe a better example of something like this is what happens when you try to breathe normally. Do it now, see what happens. Not slow, not fast, not deep, not shallow - just breathe totally normally.

Hard right? If you’re anything like me, trying to breathe normally made you think about your breathing, and that made you change it, and then you weren’t breathing normally, when before trying, you were.

What I’m trying to say is, sometimes trying to relax can be counter-productive. BUT - that’s only because you’ve never been taught how to relax. See, relaxing is a skill, and while most people have never practiced it, you can get better with training. 

In this post I’m going to outline the two methods I recommend for training yourself to relax. Both of these are simple to use, take no equipment, and with practice, can help you relax a lot in just a few seconds.

For both of these, when you are learning or practicing them, sit or lie down comfortably and try to put yourself in an environment that will help you relax. For many people that would be dim lighting, quiet, and without distractions, though for you it may be different.


Method 1 - Attention and Intention

This technique is super simple. It is the practice of focus all your attention on a muscle or body part, while consciously willing that area to relax. Adding imagery can also help.

What to do

  1. Make sure you are sitting or lying comfortably.

  2. Focus your attention on an area of the body you’d like to relax, like your shoulders, hands, or face, or a specific muscle group, like your quadriceps. 

  3. As you put all your attention to that part of your body, have the intention to relax. Don’t try to push it or force anything - this is about allowing the muscles to un-knit and be loose, not about forcing them.

  4. As you rest your attention on that part of your body, imagine it is becoming heavier, or turning into a liquid, flowing down toward the ground, letting go of all resistance to gravity.

You may notice some discomfort as you do this - sometimes our muscles are tight to protect us from pain or some other uncomfortable sensation. That is okay. If that happens, it’s up to you whether you want to continue to relax and accept the discomfort, or to let that tension stay in that part of your body to protect you.


Method 2 - Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)

If you’ve taken a live training with me, you may have heard me talk about this technique in the past. This is the practice of bringing tension into our muscles to then allow them to relax more fully. To do this, we link our tension and relaxation with our breath. Unlike the Attention and Intention method, this method is active.

The ‘progressive’ in ‘progressive muscle relaxation’ refers to moving progressively through the body. You can use smaller sections, but for now I suggest starting with the following four areas;

  1. Face, head, and neck

  2. Arms and shoulders

  3. Torso - chest, back, and abs

  4. Hips, but, and legs

You don’t need to do it perfectly to get a benefit from it - just go through the cycle of tension and release.

What to do

  1. Make sure you are sitting or lying comfortably.

  2. Take a deep breath in, and as you breath in, tighten up the muscles in your face, head, and neck as much as you can.

  3. Hold for 3-5 seconds

  4. When you release your breath to exhale, release all the tension you were holding - all at once.

  5. Take another deep breath, this time without tightening up, and let yourself relax your face, head, and neck for a full inhale and a full exhale.

  6. Repeat steps 2-5 for your arms and shoulders. I find it helps to make fists when I want my arms to be tight, and to lift my shoulders up towards my ears. Remember to take an extra breath to relax after you let the tension go!

  7. Repeat steps 2-5 for your chest, abs, and back.

  8. Repeat the same steps for your hips and legs.

  9. Once you’ve tightened and relaxed all four areas of your body, you can go back and do it all again, or go on to step 10.

  10. After you’ve completed all the cycles of tension/release you are going to do, take 3-5 slow, deep breaths, and let yourself relax as much as possible the whole time.

Once you’ve practiced this technique and are comfortable with it, you will find you can get a lot from a cycle of tension/release on just one part of the body, especially in moments of stress.

So - use these techniques after a long day, when you’re stressed and can’t sleep, or on the strip if you feel yourself tightening up and losing fluidity and ease of movement - and more importantly, practice them outside of those moments, so when you really need to relax, you can.

How to set goals

How To Set Goals in 4 Steps

For more on the importance of SMART goals see my first guest post with the Academy of Fencing Masters blog

If you read my post with the Academy of Fencing Masters blog, you know what I have to say about the importance of goals and what makes a good one - they should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) and stated in a positive way (you should be better than a rock at accomplishing your goal). That still leaves the question of how to actually go about setting a goal that works for you.

I am going to outline a step-by-step process I recommend for finding a goal (or goals) that works (or work) for you.

First step - pick a goal

The first think you are gonna do is think of something you’d love to be able to say ‘I did it!’ about. It doesn’t have to be anything particular, the first step is just to pick something.

If you can’t think of anything you love right away, take a moment. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and let your body relax (especially your shoulders). Then take another deep breath, and ask yourself ‘what would be exciting to accomplish?’

Whatever comes to mind - that’s your goal. If you don’t know if it feels right that’s fine - you can always change it later. Remember: this is a skill that you are practicing, not a one-step process that you can be perfect at immediately.

Next - pick a time frame

Second, think about how long you’d like to give yourself for this - that will decide if this is a short- mid- or long-term goal. If this feels like something you can accomplish in a few days or weeks, even a month or two, I would call that a short term goal. If it’s a few months to a year, that’s a mid-term goal. Anything that is multiple years out - that’s a long-term goal.

You might prefer to start with a long-term goal and then set intermediate goals to help you get there - or you might want to start with something short-term that you can feel connected to right away.

There is not a right or wrong place to start with goal setting - you’ve gotta start somewhere and wherever you are right now is fine.

Make it real

Third, sit with that goal for a moment. Notice what it feels like when you think about reaching it. 

Is it exciting, and a little bit scary? Perfect! Or, does it feel uninteresting, not very satisfying to accomplish? This goal may not be challenging enough, or you may want to go in a different direction. Does it feel overwhelming and terrifying? That goal may be a bit too much for right now - maybe set a smaller goal for the moment and come back to that one later.

As you’re thinking about whether this goal feels right for you, take a moment and write down:

  1. What will you have to do to make this happen?

  2. Do you want to do that?

  3. What will you need to NOT do, or let go of, to make your goal happen?

  4. How much time and effort will it take?

  5. If all of that is correct - will it feel worth it when you accomplish your goal?

Review time!

Fourth, put it through the SMART and positive filters. Can you do it better than a rock? is it Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-oriented? If it doesn’t fit for any one of those criteria, what can you change or adjust so it does? (for more on SMART goals, see the post I mentioned above with the Academy of Fencing Masters)


Take a few minutes to fine-tune your goal and make sure it fits the above criteria, and then you’re good to go!


Once you’ve gone through this process once, it will be easier the next time - and the next, and the next. It’s often helpful to have a goal to work towards, and over time you will get better at choosing goals that match what you really want. It doesn’t need to be perfect right now, this is just a starting point.

In conclusion

If you don’t accomplish what you set out to, take another look at what happened. Where did your hopes and expectations depart from reality? Were you mistaken in what you thought it would take to accomplish your goals? Were you correct, but you weren’t able to do as much as you thought? Did something get in your way?

Or, if you did succeed, what made that possible? What set you up for success that you can do again in the future? 

Remember, goals are entirely personal. There is no right or wrong goal to choose to work towards, and it doesn’t make you a better or worse person to accomplish your goals. Hopefully, though, it make you happy.

Remember to subscribe to my email list to get my Diamond Mind Mini Guide for a step-by-step guide for doing your best under pressure.


A conversation with Natalie Vie, US Women's Epee National Team Member

Recently SharperMind Training’s Jason Pryor (2016 Olympian) had a chance to sit down with Natalie Vie, 2-time US National Champion and current National Team Member, to chat about mental skills training, performance, and their mutual reliance on their mental game as a hidden weapon when it comes to competing with the best in the world. We hope you find this as insightful and informative as we did!