NEXT LEVEL SKIING S4: E5 | GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY FEATURING ALEX COHEN

by Wagner Skis / Dec 13, 2021

S4: E5 | Get Out of Your Own Way featuring Alex Cohen

Today we are talking with Alex Cohen. Not only is he a sports psychologist for the US Olympic and Paralympic Teams, he also has a lot to share with everyday skiers. In this episode, Alex talks about the importance of having a game plan, getting out of your own way, and the myths about flowstate. He talks about how Olympians get to where they are and how he got to where he is in life.

Alex has learned a lot over the years and shares some of that knowledge with you today. This is sure to be an episode with so many takeaways, you’ll have to listen to it more than once.

Alex Cohen, the senior sports psychologist for the US Olympic and Paralympic Teams. Alex dives in deep with the team when it comes to mental strategies, mindfulness, and other skills that can transfer over to their daily lives.

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Epsiode Notes

2:10 - Psychological flexibility
3:20 - Performance readiness
5:00 - How to hold focus when mind wanders, worries
5:25 - The difference between awareness and attention
6:00 - Blocking out negative thoughts is not always the best strategy
6:45 - The goal is to avoid avoiding
8:20 - Rethinking positive thinking
10:20 - Internal and external focus. The difference between thinking and attention
11:10 - Adopt an external focus
13:00 - Executing good technique without getting tangled up in it
13:30 - The further away the focus, the more effortless it is
16:15 - Train with external focus
18:00 - The trouble with chasing “flow”
18:20 - Have a plan for the 90% of your time you are not in a flow state
20:05 - Make a plan ahead of time for your mind
23:10 - Injury recovery tips
25:30 - Mindfulness and the value of actions
27:50 - Accept and commit therapy
30:00 - Best advice: plan ahead. Planning is a genuine form of control
31:40 - Get out of your own way