This was it. This was the competition she had been waiting for all season.
Her content was good. The score was within reach. During training, her programs were clean. Short program into long program, long program into short program, double run-throughs, triple run-throughs, no matter what her coach threw at her she couldn’t miss.
But, during the competition she fell apart. When it actually counted, she crumbled under the pressure.
“Why?” Skatergirl asks, flopping backwards on to the couch. “Why does this always happen to me?”
Why Does This Always Happen to Me?
You’re frustrated. You’re angry. But mostly, you’re resigned. Because whenever you’re at a big competition, you choke and fall apart.
“Don’t worry,” your coach tells you. “Just skate like you do during training” But it doesn’t matter, because you crumble when the pressure kicks in.
So, what causes skaters to choke? Their focus. More specifically, the loss of focus. Let’s talk about something that commonly causes athletes to lose focus during a competition, Uncontrollables (UCs).
The UCs are a distraction. The UCs steal your limited energy and focus. You can only focus on one thing at a time. So when you focus on an uncontrollable, you can’t focus on executing your skills. This makes it hard if not impossible to skate great.
Take a moment to answer this, ‘What thoughts go through your head when you fall apart?’
Are you focused on a competitor? Are you thinking about your score? Are you worried about what your coaches might think about you?
Thoughts have one thing in common; they are things that are not fully under your direct control. In other words, they are uncontrollable.
You can’t control what a competitor (or anyone) thinks about you.
You don’t have direct control over how the officials score you.
You don’t have control over who shows up to compete against you.
You can’t control what your coaches think about you.
When you are pay attention to the UCs, you stress yourself out. This stress causes your muscles to tighten up, your breathing gets shallow, and your legs and arms don’t function right.
In this state, you can’t skate well, oh, did I mention that you have to skate great under pressure? All your worries seem to come true and your confidence tanks. You choke.
Refocus Your Focus
The solution? Ditch the UCs. Focus on the stuff that is under your direct control.
For example, your event started early. You can’t control that fact, but you can control your response.
In this situation, look for stuff that you can do to get back on track. These are some things you can you control.
- Doing your off ice warmup.
- Doing your pre-competition routine.
- Putting mistakes behind you during your 6 minute warm up or in your program.
- When you get distracted by a camera flash, you can bring your attention back to the triple jump you are about to go into.
Remember, when you focus on the things you can control, your stress level will decrease and your muscles will loosen. This will allow you to skate great, and also help your confidence to soar.
If skaters took Mental skills training as seriously as they do their on ice technical skills, they would find that their technical skills would improve exponentially.
Start here. Download “Confidence Myth Busters,” a complimentary eBook and make a change.