One of the most, if not the most important mental skill on or off the ice, is to be in the moment.
When an athlete or a performer is totally absorbed in what they are doing, this is when creativity flows. This can lead to unforgettable performances.
When you can practice and stay “in the moment,” you avoid many common blocks to progress in practice like frustration, judgements and negative thoughts.
So what is it like to be in the moment, and how can someone learn how to do this?
Tiny Bubbles in the Fun
Writing this article, I happened to look out my window where my 4 year old neighbor was playing in the driveway.
“Brodie” was swinging a yellow plastic baseball bat in the air all over the place.
As I looked closer, I saw that he was swinging at, and popping bubbles from a bubble machine.
As a coach, I naturally thought of all the skills he was learning.
Eye-hand coordination. He was learning to be more accurate at hitting the bubbles with a bat.
He was developing his gross motor skills and developing his muscles by swinging the bat in different ways.
He was working on his speed. Since it was windy, the bubbles flew all over the place. Brodie had to quickly pop the bubbles before they flew out of reach. Being only about 3 feet tall, he had to be fast.
While he was improving all of these things, he was having FUN!
He spent over an hour popping bubbles.
He never got frustrated. When he missed the bubbles, he did not sit on the ground and cry. He did not kick the ground or throw the bat in frustration. He just went back to the bubble machine and eagerly anticipated more.
Fun is Infectious
In the end, I stopped writing and went outside to play. It looked like a lot of fun.
I grabbed a stick and joined him.
What I learned was that swinging at the bubbles made it harder to pop.
It was easier to poke them but much more fun to swing at random.
Also, sometimes if you swing at the bubbles, they break off into more bubbles. The record is about 10ish…
Oh, and don’t forget the sound effects. Phew, phew, bam, bam…
At one point Brodie lent me a lego sword because, apparently you are not really a pro if you haven’t used the sword. I admit, it was good for poking the bubbles, and the dog stopped growling at me for not throwing the stick.
After a while he started using his fist to punch the bubbles. Then he got out his “shield,” because if you let the bubbles touch you, you lose hit points. The shield was a skating wrist guard. But he didn’t use it for protection, it just made his punch more powerful.
Occasionally he would stop and ask no one in particular if a bubble touched him, but it didn’t matter. He never kept score.
Best performance comes from being present and in the moment:
Was I in the moment? You bet. Time flew by. I was absorbed in the activity.
If you are not sure of what being in the moment is, watch a child under the age of 4 in unstructured play.
Watch what happens when they get upset. If they get mad, they yell, cry and maybe eventually fall asleep. They get all the emotions out right away, then they automatically reset for the next adventure.
When they play “pop the bubbles with a bat,” they have nothing on their mind except popping the bubbles. They don’t doubt their abilities just because they haven’t popped 1000 bubbles in 20 minutes.
While having fun, they are absorbed in the moment. Time flies by and they improve their skills.
Anti-Fun
When you are not in the moment you are time traveling to the past or the future:
When a skater can skate clean programs in practice, but can’t do the same in competition, it is likely they are not in the moment during the performance.
They might be doing this:
- When they take their opening position, they are worried about landing the first jump.
- If they miss the second jump on an intended combo, they are thinking about whether to put it on the next jump.
- If they are behind their music, they try to decide if they need to cut their last spin short.
Prepare to be in the Moment with Mental Skills
This is what it would look like to be in the moment:
- They are absorbed in each element they do.
- They skate on automatic pilot because they have practiced this program repeatedly.
- When they miss the combo, they naturally slip into “Plan B” and make the third jump pass a combo (as they practiced).
- When they are behind the music, they continue to skate the program as planned because they have discussed this with their coach, and the spin is worth more than the deduction.
Being absorbed in the moment…doesn’t this sound just like Brodie and the bubbles?
Even though you are not a 4 year old, you can still set up an environment where you can be in the moment. Mental skills help you do this by creating, then practicing a routine.
Being prepared allows you to trust your abilities. Even if you make mistakes, you know that you will maximize each element because your attention is right where it should be at the right time.
Flow comes from being in the moment:
If Brodie wants to keep the bubbles from hitting him, he grabs a shield. No thinking or analyzing the pros and cons.
He seamlessly flows into the solution. He takes action…Runs into the garage and grabs the shield.
Thinking Takes You Out of the Moment
Let’s say your coach wants you to “tweak” a jump (otherwise called a correction).
Most skaters stop the flow with a lot of thinking:
- I have to do this with my arm.
- But it comes so fast, what if I can’t do it right the first time?
- Will my coach be angry or disappointed in me?
- I have to do this right, but I probably won’t, it will take me a long time to change.
This is what it would look like in the flow:
- You slowly walk through the correction a few times.
- Then do your pre jump routine like normal
- Jump again.
Bring Back the Fun to be In the Moment
Remember when you first started skating? You liked it.
Skating backwards was a challenge you met every day until you mastered it.
You would not be defeated by three turns.
Yes, over the years and up the levels, it is sometimes incredibly frustrating, but you still do it because you like doing it.
Right now, you aren’t even allowed on the ice. How frustrating is that.
Why not start to practice mental skills to bring the fun back into skating:
- Approach your off ice training as a challenge.
- Explore the possibilities of doing a combination spin on a spinner.
- Find the fun in anticipating that what you are doing can lead to landing an off ice double axel.
Your Transition Back onto the Ice
No doubt everyone will be super happy to be back on the ice.
Things will probably go really well for the first week, maybe two.
Then the old habits that you never changed will come back one by one:
- Many skaters will stress out with doubts and expectations.
- They will be impatient to get back to where they were before the pandemic.
- They will worry constantly about making up for lost time and falling behind.
Start now to use mental skills training to put routines in place that will help you focus on the fun of the challenge. Rather than the lack of results.
Use mental skills training to identify what helps you to get and stay in the moment, then practice, practice, practice.
Keep in mind that “being in the moment,” like most mental skills is usually not a quick fix.
Reading and understanding is just the first step.
Next you must recognize when you are not in the moment.
Know what you will do to refocus. (In this step you will need to get feedback from someone other than yourself to know what to “tweak” to improve.
Practice, fail, get feedback, tweak, repeat.
Be patient with yourself, and get an expert to help if you need to do this quickly. Do a search on the internet on mental game coaches or sports psychologists to get more quickly put a program in place.
Oh, and one more tip: when the bubble machine stops working, just hit it on the top with the bat. Brodie figured that out all by himself.
You can start training this skill now so that you are mentally prepared to recover your skills as quickly as possible. Hop on a call with me and talk about options: Schedule here.
Or check out the Champion Mindset Online Course.