Sports Involvement: Keeping Us Relevant
"High Performance" is the focus of everyone at PCI . Our trainers excel because they continue to develop the coaching skills, self-awareness, emotional discipline and mental fitness they need to perform at high levels under all circumstances. Through courses, outside consulting work, seminar attendance, extensive reading and peer coaching, our trainers work together and individually to build their expertise, stay current with the latest research and expose themselves to real-life experiences that make them truly "high performers."
Performance Coaching's roots lie in the sports world. Peter and Sandra have done extensive work in sport psychology with all level of sport but particularly with Olympic-level athletes, coaches and often the parents of athletes. The individuals they have worked with come from a wide range of sports (and performing arts): figure skating, synchronized swimming, skiing, tennis, golf, hockey, dance, and piano -- to name a few.
Peter has also been involved in the training of elite coaches in Canada since 1984 through the coaching certification program and various other avenues.
In addition to Sandra's and Peter's background in sport, all of PCI's trainers have connections to sport in their past or present roles as athletes, coaches, or sport psychology educators.
Our work in sport involves one-on-one counseling, workshops, classes, referrals, monitoring, designing and overseeing national training camps, attending World and Olympic championships and other major competitions. Basically we are working on anything in the psychological realm that effects performance. Some of the work involves removing barriers and dealing with obstacles to high performance; at other times we are working on specific inner skills, like imagery and energy management, to enhance performance.
For the Women's Hockey team, for example, we ran a highly customized version of our S.W.O.T. Team workshop. Peggy Baumgartner, Sandra Stark, and John Barnett met with the women for a day and helped them understand the implications uncovered in their TAIS profiles for training and competition. They also received a 25-page report on the specifics of their individual profiles. This was followed up by one-on-one interviews designed to answer specific questions or concerns, and a strategy session on how to improve.
Working in sport ensures that the principles and concepts we teach in our corporate programs are firmly rooted in reality. Sport is an amazing lab. It gives us the opportunity to test skills and ideas. The sports arena is a very tough and unforgiving world. It is also very rewarding. Learning to perform well in this environment takes very high levels of commitment -- a key ingredient to being successful. Working with highly committed people is a great pleasure.
Beyond Sport
As lifelong learners, PCI trainers work individually and as a group to enhance their expertise and skills. As a group, they attend skills development workshops, do athlete training session visits and share their challenges and experiences in regular information-sharing get-togethers. As individuals, each trainer is committed to continuous expansion of their capabilities to better meet the needs of PCI clients. Each brings a unique set of interests that informs their skills and approach -- and all in keeping with PCI's values of passion, commitment and integrity.
For more specific details of the recent activities of our trainers, please visit the Current Activity page.
The most critical aspect of my Olympic success was my work with Peter
- Tracy Wilson, Olympic medalist