“The starting order is up,” Skatermom says, handing her phone to Skatergirl.
Skatergirl glances at the starting order and groans. “Ugh,” she says. “Why is did she have to come to this competition?”
The she Skatergirl is referring to is Suzyskater. An athlete who’s been on everyone’s watch list since last season when she defied everyone’s expectations and nabbed a spot on the podium at Nationals.
“This competition is over,” Skatergirl says. “There’s no way I can beat her. I’m so doomed.”
Totally Distracted
Two days later.
Skatergirl stands next to the boards waiting to take the ice for her six minute warmup. The Zamboni doors are closed and the officials are seated, now everyone is waiting for the announcer to start the event.
Out of the corner of her eye, Skatergirl sees a familiar face. It’s Suzyskater, standing with her guards in hand and her club jacket draped over her shoulders.
Suzyskater whispers something to her coach and the two of them burst into laughter.
Her hair is up and she’s wearing her costume, but Suzyskater is confident and relaxed. She looks like she’s waiting for her training session to start, not getting ready to compete.
It’s over, Skatergirl thinks. There’s nothing she can do. Suzyskater is in a league of her own. The two of them are on totally different levels.
The ice monitor opens the gate and the announcer’s voice echos through the arena. “Competitors, please take the ice for your six minute warmup.”
Stuck in Your Head
There’s always that one skater.
Their jumps are better. Their spins are higher level. Their artistry is top notch. They are more consistent than you.
During qualifying season, you pray that you go to different competitions. When you go head to head, you resign yourself to losing.
When you check your starting order, the first thing you look for is their name. If you find it, you’re filled with dread. If you don’t, you breath a sigh of relief.
You can’t let them go. You can’t get them out of your head. Their existence is a curse on your soul, a ghost that haunts you day and night.
It’s bad. It makes you skate worse. But, you don’t know what to do. You can’t get them out of your head.
How do I Fix This?
The only things to pay attention to are the things that help you do your program. Everything else is irrelevant.
How great you think Suzyskater’s skills are have nothing to do with you doing a great jump or spin. Thoughts about Suzyskater are irrelevant.
So here’s your solution. Skate Your Own Program (like how a swimmer must stay in their own lane during a race, or risk disqualification).
The minute your focus wanders to another skater, say to yourself “irrelevant”. Then bring your attention back to yourself, and the action you are doing.
Maybe it’s the feeling of your knee bending. Maybe it’s the extension of your free leg. Maybe it’s the texture of the ice under your blade. Maybe it’s the tension in your core as you spin. The feeling or the action doesn’t matter, just as long as it belongs to you.
When you are focused on the feeling of your current action, your brain doesn’t have time to think about irrelevant things, like how intimidating your competitors are.
When you Skate Your Own Program, you don’t have time to focus on other “irrelevant” things like other skaters.
For a more in depth explanation about why this works, check out this article.
Under pressure, mental skills help you access the technical skills that you have trained into your muscle memory during practice. Competition is 90-100% mental. Even the best technical skills are of no use without strong mental skills.
Start here. Download “Confidence Myth Busters,” a complimentary eBook and make a change.