Figure skating is a full of complexity. Jumps are often seen as the most difficult and challenging skills for singles skaters. It’s not surprising that many figure skaters feel frustrated with their jumps.
Expectations are high and your tension level rises, as you get ready to jump. Instead of a beautiful landing, you make mistakes. You get frustrated.
You know you can improve; you are dedicated and work hard. But you often feel like you aren’t doing enough, and you beat yourself up. You feel like you are stuck in a vicious circle of no improvement.
The dream of consistently landing your jumps seems far away and hard to reach.
The good news is, you are not alone in feeling this way. You can improve your jumps by dealing with that feeling of frustration.
Performing a jump builds up adrenaline and excitement. The brain goes into overdrive and thinks “the next one will be better.”
But then, you try the next jump and fall. This irritation is experienced by every figure skater once in a while, and for some, many times a day.
Falling on jumps leads to frustration and anxiety. It’s common to refuse to let yourself off the hook until you land a perfect jump.
The common causes of not jumping well are often a mix of high expectations, anxiety, and overthinking. Every successful jump raises your expectations and you try to perform the next jump even better.
Trying hard to meet these expectations can cause your muscles to tense up. But, to perform successful jumps, your body needs to be relaxed and ready.
We have muscle memory that allows us to execute complex movements and skills. When you think too much about a previously successful jump, you are focusing on the outcome instead of what you need to do for the current jump.
Worrying or thinking about a successful outcome blocks the hindbrain from doing its job. The hindbrain needs to function properly in order for you to flawlessly execute those jumps.
To stop worrying about doing a jump as well as the one before, try doing a brain dump. Let go of everything that happened before the current jump and imagine that this jump is your first one.
Since it is the first one, you have no expectations to live up to, nothing other than doing this current jump on your mind. This allows your hind brain to do it’s job.
Rigorous training and skating have allowed you to develop good motor (muscle) memory. Rather than thinking hard and forcing the actions, keep your mind clear and let your body move naturally.
It is important to recognize when you are overthinking or stressing out.
Some signs to look out for are:
- Feelings of frustration
- Being overwhelmed
- Continuously missing jumps
- Feeling like you need to micromanaging each movement
When you recognize any of these signs:
1) Stop what you are doing for a moment. (If you are deep in a hole, you might need to take a bigger break in order to reset. Take a drink of water or get off the ice for a minute.)
2) Take a few deep-cleansing breaths.
3) Do a brain dump. Forget everything that happened before this moment.
4) Refocus on what you are doing right now and treat this jump, and every jump after it as if it is your first jump of the day.
Going through these simple steps each time you recognize you are frustrated or overthinking will allow you to clear your head and improve at a steadier pace.
Did you try this? What challenges did you have doing a full brain dump on the ice?
Mental skills training can help to keep your emotions on an even keel so that you can practice and compete your best.
Start here; download “Confidence Myth Busters,” a complimentary eBook and make a change.