Jon holds the top qualifications from France, Switzerland and Britain, and we can say firsthand that he is an inspirational coach and has a lot of knowledge of skiing psychology. His ski school Altitude is known worldwide for employing a team of fantastic ski and snowboard instructors who are very passionate about helping people improve. Each month, Jon or one of his team will provide us with a few tips and words of wisdom to help improve your understanding of how to ski.
This month, Jon, who studied psychology at Warwick University, discusses how an understanding of the inner mind is crucial in successfully overcoming the self-doubt that can so often plague skiers and prevent progression to the next level.
In life at some point we will all probably experience this self-doubt, nerves and lack of focus or concentration. During sport, as in business, overcoming these mind challenges can be essential in allowing you to perform at your very best.
> Distractions
We learn better if we don’t have the distraction of those niggling questions, doubts or fears being in the forefront of our minds. To perform we need to relax our mind and allow the body and mind to work as one.
Tip – If you are at the top of a slope and find yourself nervous of the prospect of the run ahead, close your eyes and imagine the route you would take and how and where you would make your turns. Visualising a successful outcome will often calm the nerves and lead to a successful outcome.
> Confidence & Relaxed Concentration
To help you control your distracting thoughts it’s worth remembering that even the best performers in the world will have something that they need to work on. However, when performing well, their inner mind will be quiet. They will be in a state of relaxed concentration, full of self-confidence. They will not be analysing each turn, and they will not allow themselves to be angry or critical of one bad turn.
Tip – It is important to believe in yourself. Give yourself credit for having done something well. If you have had a bad day, do not dwell on it. Consign it to the past and move on.
> Don’t try too hard!
Over-practising one exercise is likely to become ingrained in your inner mind, encouraging you to constantly judge your performance in an over-critical way. Such internal judgments create negative ‘distractions’ from the actual performance. This in turn can slow down the learning process and encourage you to focus on your doubts or fears, rather than focusing on the task in hand.
Tip – Make small achievable targets. Before long, something that felt hard or daunting will seem comfortable or even easy. Then move on to the next step, which before seemed unthinkable but now seems achievable.
To succeed in skiing it helps to be focused, but it’s also important to be prepared physically, learn good techniques and also have lots of fun!
To follow the Altitude Verbier team:
https://www.facebook.com/altitudeverbier/
https://www.instagram.com/altitudeverbier/
https://twitter.com/AltitudeVerbier