Kozy Ice

09/14/2026

“Mind Gym” Series 3 of 4

09/14/2026

"Mind Gym" Series, Part 3 of 4 🧠👇

Parts 1 and 2 covered training the mind and giving it a clear goal to chase. Part 3 is about something that shapes everything else: attitude.

Gary Mack points to a Mayo Clinic study showing optimists actually live longer than pessimists — and cites psychologist Martin Seligman's research showing that a team's explanatory style (how they talk about setbacks) can predict performance before the season even starts. The way an athlete narrates a bad moment to themselves isn't just venting — it shapes what happens next.

A few more key ideas from this part:

😨 Fear of failure is the single biggest barrier to potential. Mack traces it back to childhood — most of us grew up in classrooms that circled our mistakes in red pen instead of highlighting what we got right. That habit of fixating on errors follows athletes onto the ice.

🔄 Reframe failure as feedback, not identity. Billie Jean King built her career on treating every loss as information, not a verdict. Michael Jordan went a step further and called fear itself an "illusion" — something the mind manufactures, not something real happening to you.

🌬️ Breathe and focus. When pressure builds — before a big jump, a program, a competition — Mack's advice gets refreshingly simple: control your breath, narrow your focus to the next single task. That's the antidote to choking under pressure.

Bottom line: a skater's attitude toward mistakes is trainable, just like a spin or a jump. How they talk to themselves after a fall matters as much as the fall itself.

Swipe through for the visual breakdown 👉

09/06/2026

09/06/2026

“Mind Gym” Series, Part 2 of 4 🧠👇

Part 1 was about training the mind. Part 2 is about giving it something worth training for — a clear picture of where you’re going.

Gary Mack opens this section with a story from his early days interviewing young pro prospects. He’d ask them: where do you see yourself in a few years? Most players shrugged. But one answered instantly — he could picture the exact moment, in vivid detail. That specificity is what made the goal pullable, not just wishful thinking.

For a skater, that’s the difference between “I want to land my double axel” and actually picturing the takeoff, the rotation, the clean landing, the sound of the rink. Vague goals don’t give the mind anything to rehearse. Vivid ones do.

A few more key ideas from this part:

🎯 Turn the dream into a plan. A goal without structure stays a daydream. Mack leans on a SMART framework — specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, time-bound — to turn “I want to be a great skater” into something trackable.

💪 Own your responses. Skaters can’t control the judges, the ice, or a bad-luck fall. What they can control is effort, attitude, and how they respond when things go wrong.

⚠️ Watch for the “gremlins.” Fear, anger, anxiety, perfectionism, and distraction are the usual suspects that quietly derail a season. Naming them early is half the battle.

Bottom line: a big goal only becomes real once it’s specific enough to picture — and broken down into steps small enough to work on this week.

Swipe through for the visual breakdown 👉

08/31/2026

“Mind Gym” Series Part 1 of 4. Find your inner excellence.

08/31/2026

“Mind Gym” Series, Part 1 of 4 🧠 👇

You can follow along here or pick up a copy of “Mind Gym: An Athlete’s Guide to Inner Excellence” by Gary Mack. This series is geared toward figure skating, but the key points apply to any sport — or any part of life.

Ninety percent of skating is half mental. (Yogi Berra said it about baseball — skaters know it’s just as true on the ice.)

Most skaters (and skate parents) pour hours into edges, jumps, and off-ice conditioning… but skip training the mind completely. Here’s what Gary Mack’s Mind Gym says about closing that gap:

🎯 Focus on what you WANT, not what you fear. Your brain can only hold one thought at a time. “Don’t fall on the axel” keeps the fall front and center. Swap it for a specific positive cue — “tight arms, quick rotation.”

🎥 Visualize before you skate it. Athletes who mentally rehearse AND physically practice consistently outperform those who only do one. A few minutes picturing a clean run-through before you step on the ice actually primes your body to execute it.

💪 Mental toughness has 7 traits: competitive, confident, in control, committed, composed, courageous, consistent. The best competitors don’t feel less nervous — they’ve just trained themselves to see competition as a challenge, not a threat.

Try this today: Before your next session, spend 2 minutes visualizing one element going exactly right. Notice how it feels.

Next up in the series: Part 2 — building the mental skills that actually stick.

08/30/2026

💫The More You Know!💫
I believe all skaters should be just as comfortable knowing their gear in addition to their movements on and off the ice. V1 of an affordable blade checker to hang on or inside your bag. Know your hollow and whether your edges are even and square. Check those mystery sharpens instantly. Integrated with NFC for my customers for Tap-and-Send ease to schedule an appointment. Another few tweaks and this will calm your second-guessing. 💜 ⛸️ 💫

08/30/2026

Calling All Adult Skaters!

08/29/2026

Learn about CJS for the 2026/2027 season!

08/29/2026

⭐️ New for 2026-27 — CJS⭐️
Understand which levels need both a Short Program AND Free Skate — and which just skate one. You won’t find base values or GOE here: CJS scores on three components instead. But that’s still a world better than old 6.0 judging, where all you got was a placement and zero insight into why. Here’s a breakdown on every level’s program structure for the new season. 👇