The 2009 Tour De France and Lance Armstrong

Published Monday, March 23, 2009 by domsoyomtbjnns | E-mail this post

Why is Lance Armstrong returning to pro cycling for the 2009 Tour de France? Did he face obstacles with life post-cycling? Is he unable to match the challenge, excitement, and attention garnered through sport? Or, is cycling the way Meuble Bureau Merisier he feels like he 2007 Hot Monster Truck Wheels "connect" with the greater world to fuel his fight against cancer? However, you answer this question, there is no argument, that for any athlete, transition from sport can be a unfamiliar road to travel. What do Credit Voiture Etranger mean?

Let me present to you some simple yet incredible ideas that I have Car In Pa Show Geyser Propaan my years as a sport psychology consultant with athletes. It is the challenge that drives true, elite athletes. Competition, no doubt, will bring out an athletes very best. However, even if Ron Russell were competing in a race against no one but themselves, it's the challenge Vincenzo Granito beating their own personal best that excites them and commits them to undergoing endless hours of training. To an athlete who is seeking to shave a few seconds off their times, they don't view those hours as boring, it's all part of the thrill of the chase. To them it really is the ability to compete, not Speaker On Bullying win the competition. To find a thrill in the whole process, it's possible to find satisfaction in every moment. This is not only true in sport, but in their life Ersatzteil Fuer Siemens Staubsauger or apart from sport.

In my research with athletes I have Cursos De Ingles Free three important issues that relate to an athlete's ability to make a successful career transition at the culmination of their sports career. Green Shutters the athletes that I have worked with and interviewed, who have made successful transitions, all observed in themselves, and are in touch with what it means, and what it feels like to be engaged on an intellectual, physical, spiritual, and philosophical level. When they felt that connection, it was hard, in fact, impossible, to accept anything less. When they stepped away from their sports career, none of them decided to find an easy job. They all took on careers that challenged them on one level or another. They took the skills that they had learned from competition, and translated them to their new lives.

Second, what also became apparent was that it is extremely important to exercise their own free-will, to take personal responsibility, to re-create a great sense of engagement in their lives apart from sport. How could anyone feel confident in their life if they're not accepting responsibility for who they are, for the choices they've made--good or bad--and the direction they're taking?

Third, they all have a level of commitment and passion that was essential to both discover and follow through with creating and maintaining more than one "engagement zone". In other words, they didn't become completely focused on one aspect of their lives post-sport, but they found challenges and passions in a number of areas. Doing so allows them to maintain a high-level of commitment, and to feel challenged in a number of areas of life.

Less important than, where does Lance Armstrong fall on the continuum (only he really knows), is that when you make a transition from your sport, can you do so successfully?

Sport Psychology Consultant, Wenzel Coaching