Are you stuck? Are your jumps great one day and a disaster the next?
Do you usually find it routine to practice well, but recently just “don’t care”, and don’t feel it’s helping?
Do you usually eat in a balanced, nutritional way, but have a really hard time even knowing it’s helpful?
Were you diligently doing your program run-throughs only to
find that recently, you haven’t been doing them as consistently?
Is your motivation low? Do you have zero energy? Do you feel
discouraged, bored or burnt out?
Don’t worry, there’s a solution for your woes. Mindfulness
Don’t worry, you don’t have to retreat to a mountain top and meditate
for hours and hours. Believe it or not, Mindfulness is essential for all
successful athletes to bring their best performance. There are many
different ways to become more mindful that athletes can do everyday
during practice and competition.
We’ve talked about mindfulness before. You might recognize it as:
Being in the present moment. Your attention on what you are doing right
NOW. For example, paying attention to the feeling of your knees bending
before you take off, or hearing the growl of your blade on the ice.)
Being aware of when you drift away from the present moment so that you
can bring yourself back. Bring curiosity, not expectations or rules for
what you are doing and how you are doing it.
Mindfulness, what’s in it for me?
By building mindfulness, you’ll be able to learn from ALL of your
experiences. You’ll be able to squeeze “learning” out of the great ones,
the terrible ones, and those between.
In addition, when you are mindful (aka present) you’ll improve
quicker. You’ll become aware of what is working so that you can do more
of it. From your mistakes, you will become aware of what you are doing
and what you want to change. You’ll take this constant flow of new
information, and come up with new ideas and action plans to
implement.
Most importantly, when you’re mindful, you’ll be able to face each
day with a clean slate. Continually boost your motivation level during
the day, and keep it building from day to day. Instead of worrying that
you won’t achieve something, you’ll be actively working towards your
goals, and taking actions that bring you progress. Curiosity towards
your mistakes and your accomplishments brings excitement of all kinds of
possibilities.
When you’re stuck in a rut
You’ve been developing your triple toeloop. But now your coach wants
you to work on it on your own, so they can focus on program
run-throughs.
However, you don’t like working on it by yourself. Your motivation is
low.
Why? Because, it’s hard. You fall a lot. And, it’s not your favorite
jump so you aren’t excited to work on it in the first place.
So, you procrastinate. But, in the back of your brain, you know that
you have to work on it if you want it by the end of the season. And,
whenever you do work on it, it’s not that bad. However, building up your
motivation to get to that point is difficult.
Do this assessment to make mindfulness a habit
Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to go back to school. No one is going
to grade it. This assessment is for you, and you alone.
Doing this assessment will help you stay motivated. You’ll learn from
your experiences (good and bad) and take the lessons into the
future.
Plus, you’ll start each day with a clean slate. Instead of being
stuck in the past, you’ll be able to shed that baggage and focus on
what’s in front of you.
What is this mythical assessment I speak of? Don’t worry, it’s super
simple. Everyday, after you finish practice or after every competition,
ask yourself the following questions.
What was one thing I learned today?
What was one thing that worked for me?
What is one thing I want to try differently next time?
Simple, right? Let’s go through an example here.
- What was one thing I learned today?
I learned that if I want to practice my triple toeloop, I have to do
it early in the practice session, as soon as I finish warming up.
- What was one thing that worked for me?
When I’m working on a jump by myself, I have a tendency to want to
hammer it over and over until I land it. This gets progressively worse
the more frustrated I am.
So, today when I noticed that I was starting to get frustrated, I
went over to the boards and got a drink of water. This helped me to cool
down, and allowed me to move on.
- What is one thing I want to try differently next time?
Next practice session, I’m going to do my triple toeloop reps earlier
in the session, right after my warmup.
Action Plan
Try this yourself. Each day, after practice, answer these three
questions.
Write them down so you have a record of them. Get them out of your
head and onto your phone or into a notebook.
Notice that question three helps you make a plan for the next
practice session. Congratulations, you have taken the first step towards
making mindfulness work for you You used curiosity to make an action
plan to help you store a little momentum in the direction of your
goal.
This simple exercise allows you to build mindfulness and squeeze all
the learning out of your experiences, good and bad, so that you can
leave them behind, and start each day with a clean slate.
Yes, this is mindfulness. Cool huh?! Be curious and see what happens
to your motivation level over a month. Remember just be curious without
expectations. Just see what happens when you are mindful.