“Here are my goals for the upcoming competition,” Skatergirl says, handing a piece of paper to Skatercoach.
“Let’s see,” Skatercoach says. “Land triple flip in short program. Good. Get three level four spins in your long program. Okay. Place in the top three. Alright.
“Yeah. These look pretty good.”
Timeout
Hold on. Wait. Timeout. Stop.
These goals are horrible. Appalling. Terrible.
Why? Because Skatergirl’s means to use these goals for competition. And, you never want to take your goals to competition.
Wait, what?
Don’t get me wrong. Goals are a critical part of training. They remind you why you’re training. Why you’re putting yourself through all this pain and suffering.
Goals motivate you to work hard. They help push you to new heights. But you never, ever, ever want to take your goals to competition. In fact, bringing goals to competition is one way to guarantee that you won’t skate your best.
Here’s why. Think back to your best performance. What were you thinking about while it was happening?
Nothing, right? Your ending pose, along with the stellar results, rushed up to meet you out of nowhere.
Now, think back to your worst performance. What were you thinking about while it was happening?
When asked this question, skaters will commonly say their thoughts were worries about:
- Placing in the top three.
- Landing a certain jump in program.
- Getting a new personal best score.
- Beating a specific competitor.
- Showing the judges/competitors/parents that they made progress since the last time.
Thoughts like these have three things in common. |
First, they are outcome oriented, AKA focused on results.
Second, they don’t have anything to do with helping you execute the skills in your program. Third, reaching these goals are not directly under your control.
Focusing on achieving or failing goals in a competition distracts you from skating the way you trained (muscle memory). It takes you out of your body and puts you right into all those useless, scary thoughts in your head.
As you probably know for yourself, one thought leads to another and another, which in turn makes you nervous. Those nerves cause your muscles to tighten up which is just one of the many things that lead to a poor performance.
Okay, but what do I do instead?
Instead of taking your goals with you to competition, leave them at home.*
This will allow you to put all of your attention on what you are doing when you are doing it. When you are warming up, warm up. When you are talking with your friends, talk with your friends. When you take your opening position, take your opening position and be fully present.
Immerse yourself in the experience of whatever you are doing at the moment. Whether it is waiting at the hotel, shopping, or skating your warm up or your program.
Goals at a competition are a huge distraction. They do not help you execute a jump or spin. A good performance can only happen if you are in your body, and in the experience, doing the stuff that needs to be done in the moment it you are doing it.
*Let me be clear. Goals aren’t bad. In fact, goals are critical to your success during training.
But, goals have no place at competition. So at your next competition, do yourself a favor and make sure you leave your goals at home.
Blocks, lost jumps, inconsistent skills can be fixed with mental skills training. Did you know mental skills are trained exactly like technical skills (jumps, spins, lifts) are. Athletes can learn and practice mental skills every time they step on the ice. It’s super effective and essential for consistent peak performance and skill development!
Start here. Download “Confidence Myth Busters,” a complimentary eBook and make a change.