Skatergirl is working on her double lutz. She strokes around the end
of the rink and cuts across center ice. Then, she executes a right
inside mohawk, switches to a left back outside edge, and transitions
into backwards crossovers on the opposite circle.
As she approaches the lutz corner, Skatergirl places her right
toepick into the ice and vaults upwards. Two rotations later, she sticks
the landing, making sure to extend her free leg and point her toe.
A nice clean double lutz. It’s perfect, and that makes Skatergirl
happy.
Skatergirl lands three more double lutzes, each one better than the
last. After the third one, Skatercoach praises her execution. “Great
job,” she says. “Those were textbook.”
Skatercoach asks Skatergirl to complete one last rep before they
start working on double axel. Unfortunately, this proves to be a
mistake.
On the way into the jump, Skatergirl is forced to change her entry.
Little SuzySkater is standing in the center of the lutz circle,
examining the toepick holes that Skatergirl made in the ice.
Sighing, Skatergirl shifts her entrance up the ice. Instead of aiming
for the center of the lutz circle, she aims for the top of it.
However, this little change throws off her takeoff. This causes her
to put her foot down on the landing, instead of executing the perfect
double lutz she was expecting. It’s a small mistake, but it’s still a
mistake, and in Skatergirl’s mind any mistake is a disaster.
Frustration rises up inside of Skatergirl, causing tears to form at
the corners of her eyes.
Why is this happening to me? How could I make such a mistake?
This is the worst! Everything is horrible!
Perfectionism
Do you cry on the ice? When you make a mistake, do you find yourself
getting frustrated enough that you can’t hold back your tears?
Are you unable to take in praise? Even when your coach is praising
you, are you stuck with the belief that your skills aren’t good
enough?
If you answered yes to these questions, like Skatergirl, you might be
a perfectionist. But don’t worry, there’s still hope. Perfectionism is
not permanent.
What exactly is a perfectionist? To find out, let’s examine
Skatergirl’s behavior in the earlier example.
Skatergirl did a total of five double lutzes. Four of them were
great, and one of them had a small mistake.
Yes, in a competition it would have received a deduction, but it
wasn’t a big deal. And yet, this one mistake made Skatergirl frustrated
enough to cry.
Is that a normal reaction?
No. That’s the reaction of a perfectionist.
Can you always be perfect?
No. Absolutely not. You are not a machine. There are always things
like SuzySkater that are out of your control.
The amount of sleep you get. The state of mind you’re in. The quality
of the ice. The facility you’re at. All of these things are outside of
your control.
Yes, it’s important to be able to pull out a good performance even
under adverse conditions. But, does that mean you need to be
perfect?
No.
Your job is to execute your skills to the best of your ability can in
the situation you’re given. That’s all you can do.
Improvement
If you want to improve, it’s impossible to be perfect. After all, by
definition, perfection means there’s nothing to improve.
Not convinced? Let’s look at an example from an outsider’s
perspective.
You’re a coach, and you’re teaching a skater how to do an axel. This
is the first time they’ve done a jump with more than a single rotation,
so they’re nervous.
As their coach, do you expect them to do out and land an axel on
their first attempt? No, that would be insane.
Sure, maybe one athlete in a million can do it, but the other 999,999
athletes won’t And, that’s ok.
Humans learn through mistakes. We try to do something, fail, change
our plan, and try again.
Coaches accelerate this process by giving you an plan to follow, but
they can’t fully shortcut the process. In order to learn something new,
you still have to fail.
But, most perfectionists are failure averse. In other words, they try
to avoid failure at all costs.
In fact, many perfectionists avoid anything outside of their comfort
zone, which makes it difficult for them to function as an athlete.
Taken to an extreme, perfectionism leads athletes to give up
competing or to quit the sport entirely. They get frustrated when they
aren’t perfect, and this frustration causes them to give up.
Escape
So, how do you leave your perfectionism behind. What is the best way
to escape?
Well, the first step is to pay attention to what you’re doing right
now. No, I don’t mean how it’s going (the result). I mean, what you are
currently doing (your action).
For example, let’s say you’re Skatergirl who is working on her double
lutz. If I asked you the question, what are you doing right now, what
would you say?
If your answer was, “double lutz,” that’s incorrect. I don’t want to
know the end result, I want to know what you’re doing right now.
Are you:
- Stroking around the end of the rink?
- Doing a right inside mohawk?
- Doing a backwards crossover?
- Vaulting off your toepick?
- Pulling into your ‘I’ position?
And, you can break these actions down further into feelings.
- Your blade on the ice.
- The wind on your face.
- Your breath.
- The beat of your heart.
This is what you need to focus on to escape perfectionism. Because,
when you’re focused on your action, it’s impossible to focus on the
results.