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Kristen Piché
- Sep 3, 2018
Perform at Your Best By Choice Rather Than By Chance
Popular sport psychology states 4 characteristics of a successful athlete: Physical ability Physical training Mental training Drive/desire A foundation of quality physical training is an obvious requirement for skaters who are seriously pursuing an elite level. What is not so apparent is the plateau that can appear in physical training or performance due to a deficit in mental fitness. What you think affects how you feel and perform. Sport psychologist Gary Mack and co-author
Kristen Piché
- Oct 6, 2017
Create More Best Moments
Photo Credit: Stephan Potopnyk Knowing some of the behaviours and actions that brought you to your best moments will allow you to create more situations for yourself to repeat and bring new and even bigger peaks in your skating. The zigzag line below represents the peaks (best moments) and valleys (low moments) in your past skating experiences. Draw your own zigzag line on a piece of paper with between 3-6 peaking points at the top. Write down the moments where you felt at yo
Kristen Piché
- Sep 11, 2017
Skating in Spotlights
All photos by Chris Robart If you’ve ever been in Toronto near the end of summer, you’ve likely heard of the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE); also known as The Ex, Canada’s largest annual fair. There are tons of attractions, including a dog show, rides, games, and deep-fried everything. The ice show is one of the main events with 6,000 seats full—often an hour before the 30-minute show even begins. This year I entered the professional figure skating world with my first con
Kristen Piché
- May 4, 2017
Goal Setting is Not About Pursuing Happiness
Most of us are familiar with “the pursuit of happiness" from numerous films, books, and songs that have adopted this phrase as their title. Yet, this notion of pursuing happiness is ineffective because it isn’t something to be sought after, rather it seeks you, and comes to you when you are ready for it. If you are looking for happiness, it is safe to say that you are on some level unhappy or looking for change in at least some areas of your life. The first important thing to
Kristen Piché
- Feb 8, 2017
Slow Down, Your Time is NOW
Do you ever feel like you have so many things on the go at once that it becomes overwhelming to make sure that you’re giving enough attention to anything? For you it might be things like school/work, skating, social time, and other activities. For me, it’s my performance coaching, on-ice coaching, planning my yoga teacher certification, my work with FSF magazine, and skating for myself. Honestly, I LOVE it all! However, I sometimes feel like I have so little time to fit every
Kristen Piché
- Jan 22, 2017
How To Handle Competition Jitters
Photo Credit: Stephan Potopnyk *I wrote this article for Figure Skater Fitness Magazine, published: January 2016 issue. Everyone experiences the jitters—nervousness before competing. Even the champions have them when they are about to compete. Tara Lipinski once said that the night before her long program at the 1998 Olympics she almost decided not to compete. She was so nervous, upset and anxious that she actually thought about pulling out of the competition. It’s a Good thi
Kristen Piché
- Jan 3, 2017
3 Tricks to Help You Stick to Your Goals in 2017
Personally I love the concept of new years resolutions, after all it’s goal setting. The only problem with new years resolutions is that most people tend to fall off track, stepping back into old habits, only a couple of weeks after setting these good intentions. Research shows that it takes 90 days to fully adopt a new habit. This is easier said than done. I’m sharing with you a few simple tricks to set your goals in motion and truly hold yourself to them. Trick #1: START WI
Kristen Piché
- Dec 5, 2016
Inside Figure Skater Fitness
As a member of the figure skating community you’re probably already, in some way, familiar with Figure Skater Fitness (FSF) Magazine. It’s the best resource for the various dynamics that make up what’s known as the “complete package” in a figure skater. Sections in the magazine include education on fitness, nutrition, injury prevention, mental training, and glamour specifically for figure skaters. I can’t tell you how much I wish I had access to this kind of information when
Kristen Piché
- Nov 8, 2016
3 Hard Truths in Every Quest for a Goal
About three months ago I set a new goal to run my first half marathon race at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on October 16th—which I successfully achieved, but not without a few significant challenges along the way! The distance is 21km, which was way more than I had ever run at once. I have to wear knee braces while I run due to a very common knee injury in figure skating called petellofemoral pain syndrome, a condition in which the cartilage under the kneecap is
Kristen Piché
- Sep 5, 2016
Summer Endings: Olympia Sports Camp
As the summer comes to a close I could not feel more grateful for the experiences I had over the past couple of months. I took on some new endeavours and found myself in places I didn’t expect. Some of these undertakings include coaching hockey players with the Power Skating Academy, teaching off-ice yoga at GTSA, and working with Flexafit—leading Figure Skater Bootcamp classes as well as marketing and writing for Figure Skater Fitness Magazine. All of these things have helpe
Kristen Piché
- Aug 1, 2016
Skating, School, Family & Fun - Set Goals In Various Areas For The Biggest Impact
Photo Credit: Stephan Potopnyk Do you set goals in various areas of your life, such as skating, school, family and fun? Maybe you’ve only been setting objectives for skating while allowing other areas of your life to work themselves out. First, I want to point out that if you’re setting goals in any area, you are on a path leading to success. Those who set goals in any way prove to lead happier, more successful lives than those who do not set goals. However, if you want your
Kristen Piché
- Jul 4, 2016
The Effect Of Creating A Vision Board
A vision or dream board is a visual representation of your goals. The idea is based on attracting the things you want into reality. This is the same principal as visualization—something that top athletes practice all the time, especially leading up to competition. According to Psychology Today when you visualize yourself performing an element, such as a jump, you are activating similar brain patterns as when you are actually doing that jump. Visualization has proven to be a v
Kristen Piché
- May 3, 2016
The Gremlin Of Comparison
Have you ever fallen down the comparison hole? …Say you’re browsing on Instagram and see an unbelievably cool picture of your friend’s room with a view of the mountains that she wakes up to on her vacation while you’re stuck inside of your bedroom at home, without much of a view, studying. Or someone you know announces that they just got the latest Edea Piano skates after they just got a pair of Ice Fly’s only a couple months ago and you still have a while before you’re getti
Kristen Piché
- Apr 4, 2016
It's End Of Season - Invigorate and Revitalize Your Goals
Photo Credit: Stephan Potopnyk Spring is here! (sort-of) In Toronto we haven't quite said goodbye cold, goodbye snow, goodbye heavy winter gear yet. Still, around the corner there's warmer air, longer and brighter days, and birds chirping - signifying the start of flowers blooming, liveliness, and renewal. The dark and muted tones of the outdoors will transform into lush and vibrant landscapes. Mother nature is flourishing and calling us to do the same. Spring is the perfect
Kristen Piché
- Mar 7, 2016
Your “Why?” - An Important Step In Goal Setting
Photo Credit: Stephan Potopnyk Why do you want to achieve the things that you want to achieve? This might sound like a redundant question yet without it your goals can become misguided. I often notice skaters setting big, audacious targets without really taking the time to think about why they want to attain them. Sometimes this can lead to setting the wrong goals (i.e. something that others want or want for you), or it can block the essential motivation required to fuel your
Kristen Piché
- Feb 1, 2016
You Don't Have To Suffer To Succeed
Photo Credit: Stephan Potopnyk Achieving your goals means all consuming, tireless work, suffering, and delaying gratification in order to get what you want, right? Not entirely. Yes, fulfilling your ambitions requires you to work you butt off. But you can actually have a good time working your butt off! Or at the very least, willingly take on the various challenges that you will face along the way because your objectives and intentions truly light you up and make you feel ali
Kristen Piché
- Oct 23, 2015
Dealing With Roadblocks: Interview With Cassandra Bilsborough
Photo Credit: Stephan Potopnyk For better or worse, no matter how much you dream, plan, and set goals, sometimes things just don’t go the way you want them to. Sometimes we are forced out of our plans - out of an entire competitive season, for example, due to unforeseen circumstances, like an injury, or skates that just aren't working for you. When this happens we can either keep fighting and stressing over it or we can accept the situation for what it is. And although it can
Kristen Piché
- Aug 9, 2015
The Truth About Goals
When we talk about goals we often focus on the goal itself, the end result that we’re looking for. We talk about doing great things, contribution, change, and achievement. But really the destination is only a part of what it means to go after a goal. Furthermore, the destination is never really the end. There’s the process of reaching a goal and then there’s the evolution of that goal. It’s a progression of intertwining events and obstacles. And if your goals are big enough,