Skeleton is such a polarizing sport. At the end of the day, it’s tempting to categorize our performance as either great or shit, but rarely anything in between. Even a decent result can turn ugly when our inner voice convinces us how bad we suck. Igls was certainly a bad race for me, the worst [...]
As a skeleton athlete, the hardest thing I’ve had to learn is patience. Patience with sliding, training, and mostly with the development process. There are no shortcuts. Too often I see athletes enter our program expecting to make the Olympic team in 4 years. This idea has even been encouraged within our development program, which [...]
As an athlete and a writer, I’m constantly looking for ways to improve my motivation level. It’s hard getting through a workout when you’re mentally and physically exhausted, just like it’s hard getting 1000 words down on paper when they just don’t want to come out. There are tricks to improving our creativity and our [...]
For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to write children’s books, or more specifically young adult (12-18) fantasy. I’m sure I have my mother to thank for this, being a reading teacher, superintendent, and 40-year veteran of the public school system. I remember being so excited for her to return from reading conferences [...]
I recently finished The Social Animal by David Brooks. Among many great passages, one in particular has stuck with me. Brooks explains that as we age we are less open to new experiences. As a result our days tend to blend together, making the passage of time seem quick and cruel. Children experience this process [...]
In a recent article on CNN, former Navy SEAL Chris Heben discusses how SEALs live by an unspoken code – “Be a quiet professional”. Like most young men, there was a time in my early twenties when I wondered if I had the will and determination to join the SEALs. I never actually considered enlisting, [...]
Today I’m breathing new life into SliderGuide, the web magazine I built for poking fun at the sliding sports. Since 2007 the site has gone through several iterations. Unfortunately each one pushed it further away from what it was best at —, making people laugh and occasionally pissing people off. From my welcome message in [...]
In case you missed his Christmas message, Ricky Gervais is back with another hilarious and intelligent essay for the Wall Street Journal. Jesus was a man. (And if you forget all that rubbish about being half God, and believe the non-supernatural acts accredited to him, he was a man whose wise words many other men [...]
I set up my own URL shortener for links and posts at one of my domains, jkt.co. I don’t trust a service like bit.ly to stay in business longer than this content, and I don’t want my twitter links breaking 20 years down the road. It was an easy install using the free and open-source [...]