Stuck in the Mind-mud
Another season was over. It ended just like the two seasons before.
Each of the seasons started off well. Skatergirl was fresh after a break and felt motivated. She knew her goals for the season and was dead set on reaching them.
Her goals were simple:
- Land the triple salchow and triple toe loop consistently.
- Qualify for sectionals.
However, by the time the end of the season rolled around, she still wasn’t consistent landing her triples and was no closer to qualifying.
She didn’t understand it – what could be missing?
After the first time this happened, she decided that she hadn’t practiced hard enough. This was an easy fix. She increased the amount of off-ice training she was doing as well as the amount of time she was on the ice.
But to no avail. She was still in the same place at the end of that season.
Okay, onto plan B.
Skatergirl decided to change coaches. Maybe a different approach would help. At first, it did. She started landing her triple salchow, and was making progress on her toe loop.
However, as the competitions continued, the progress didn’t. Yes, she could land the sal but it didn’t happen consistently.
As the season went on, the program became sal-less, confident-less and enthusiasm-less. Skatergirl’s high hopes for moving upward took a dive. She didn’t know how to stop sinking and start swimming towards her goals.
No matter how much effort Skatergirl put in to move forward, she still felt stuck in the deep end of the pool treading water (which is not a good place for a skater to be).
After another frustrating finish at Regionals. she was extremely fed up.
She had maxed out her ice time which left her exhausted most of the time. It seemed like she was already doing everything humanly possible.
She made so many changes for the better. But the results…were…so…disappointing.
She has no doubt she is with good coaches; their other skaters are landing triples.
In her mind, she concludes that there has to be something wrong with her. She starts to question whether skating is the right sport for her.
What can she do to move forward?
The Missing Piece
No puzzle can be completed if you are missing an essential puzzle piece.
When training, athletes usually put all their efforts into the physical aspect of skating – skill technique, off ice training, and maximizing ice time. This is all well and good, but what good is it if you are physically fit but your mental game muscles are flabby?
You need to give as much attention and practice to mental skills training as you do for physical and technical skills training.
If you think about the top athletes in any sport, it is obvious that they all have the physical talent. Yes, they are in excellent physical condition, and yes, their technique is sound.
What separates the best from the rest? What helps them continue to persevere until they make it to the top?
Their mindset.
It’s all about their ability to:
- Accept and learn from inevitable setbacks.
- Put mistakes behind them quickly in practice and competition.
- Stop worrying about results and be immersed in the process of the “doing.”
- Stop comparing themselves to other athletes if it causes frustration.
- Manage emotions.
- Turn off that critic in their heads that judges everything they do.
- Communicate clearly to their support system, coaches and parents.
- Take their skills from practice into competition.
- Be adaptable and resilient in the face of obstacles.
- Know where they are in the developmental process, and know that they are on track.
They must have this crucial piece of the puzzle: their mental game.
Skatergirl has already optimized her physical and technical preparation, so working towards optimizing her mental skills is the next step.
Fortunately, mental skills can be learned, no matter where in the developmental process you are in your skating.
Take a Mental Note
There are 3 aspects of training that make a great skater:
Physical preparation
Do what you need to increase your physical strength. This includes:
- Rest and recovery after competitions and high intensity practices.
- Get the right amount of sleep and eat the right foods at the right times so that you have energy to sustain your training.
Technical preparation
- A good coach will teach you the correct technique.
- You must practice your technique to improve.
Mental preparation
Helps you to:
- Develop efficient practice habits.
- Know how to prepare and practice for trust and confidence in your skills.
- Know how to handle adversity in practice and how to keep going through the low points.
- Understand how to work with your body, mind and emotions.
To skate great, you must maximize all three sides of this triangle.
Most skaters and their parents stop their efforts at the physical and technical skills due to lack of knowledge or lack of resources.
But there is a new generation of skaters at the cutting edge who are willing to go the extra mile to maximize their mental skills training. They understand that investing time and money in technical skills without supporting mental skills can be more costly (in frustration and wasted time) than investing in mental skills training in the first place.
All Three Sides = Success
A successful athlete is the sum of all three sides of the triangle.
Skating is a marathon, not a sprint.
Yes, I am using a metaphor from another sport. Just go with it.
In order to be successful, every athlete needs to train mental skills as a routine part of training.
When you build mental skills, you will know how to turn off the judgemental voice in your head and be able to practice without constantly feeling impatient about “not making visible progress.”
If you don’t have to expend energy on the battle in your mind, you will be able to channel that energy into an uninterrupted, quality practice session that leads to more improvement.
By developing your mental skills daily, you will be able to acknowledge the small improvements you make in your skating.
In this way you can build momentum and skate lighter. A happy skater skates better.
Before you know it, things will turn around. When you have the necessary skills, the three sides of the triangle–mental, physical, and technical skills, you will skate better!
Your Magic Number is 3
Maximizing each of these three steps will take you consistently closer to your goal at the end of the season and beyond.
As Bob Moore put it, “My strength did not come from lifting weights. My strength came from lifting myself up when I was knocked down.”
Your physical and technical skills alone will only take you so far. Your mental strength will take you the rest of the way.
Your physical and technical sides might make a right angle, but what you need is your mental skills side to complete the triangle.
So what do you think? Do you spend enough time on building your mental skills? If not, how does it affect your performance? I would love to hear your experiences, so share in the comments!
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.