“You want me to do another competition?” Skatergirl asked.
“Yeah,” Skatercoach said. You definitely need more practice.”
“But, I just did a competition last weekend.”
“Exactly, it will be good practice for if you ever have to do back to back competitions.”
Competitions. The bane of Skatergirl’s existence.
Spring competitions. Summer competitions. Regionals. Sectionals. Nationals. No matter what kind of competition it was, Skatergirl always bombed.
Not the, “oh, no, I did one two many crossovers going into my triple lutz,” kind of bomb. Or the, “I forgot to smile at the judges during my step sequence,” kind of bomb.
No, we’re talking about the, “I fell on all of my jumps and spins and step sequence,” kind of bomb.
But, that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was that outside of competition, Skatergirl was awesome.
Not the, “yay, I skated a clean short program and a clean long program today,” kind of awesome. No, this was more like the, “leading up to this competition I skated 35 clean long programs and 36 clean short programs in a row,” kind of awesome.
And, this wasn’t a one time thing. Before every single competition, Skatergirl would execute clean programs for weeks on end.
Short programs. Long programs. Double run-throughs. Triple run-throughs. It didn’t matter. During practice, Skatergirl would knock every single run-through she did out of the park.
“If only you could skate the way you do in practice.”
“Why can’t you skate the way you do in practice?”
“Just treat the competition like one of your practice sessions.”
Coaches. Parents. Friends. They all gave Skatergirl the same advice.
“jUsT SKATe THe wAY YOU Do iN pRaCtiCE.”
Skatergirl wasn’t trying to bomb in competition. No, she always tried her best. But, no matter what she tried, when she got to competition, she fell apart.
No one knew how to help her. Even Skatergirl was out of ideas.
This was what led to Skatercoach’s decision to have Skatergirl compete as much as possible. Which brought them to where they were now.
Out of desperation, Skatergirl brought Mentalgamecoach on to her team.
“Skatercoach wants me to compete again next weekend,” Skatergirl said. She wants me to compete as much as I can before qualifying season starts.”
“That’s a good thing,” Mentalgamecoach said. “The competition mindset is totally different from the practice mindset, which means that each competition is another opportunity to learn, practice and improve your competition mindset. Learning to compete is just like learning a jump. First you attempt the jump, then you get feedback, and finally you course correct. Each time you compete you will gain awareness of pieces that aren’t working and the pieces that are working. You can use that information to help you improve.
“For example, I once had a skater who struggled a lot at competition. Whenever she got on the ice for a six minute warm up she would start worrying about her competitors and freeze up.
“Using that information, we realized that she needed to work on focusing on the present, which is exactly what we did.
“Even though you might not be super excited about it, use this unexpected competition as an opportunity to practice learning how to compete, and use the competition mindset. Instead of worrying about the results, pay attention to these things: When do you start to get nervous? Is it on the way to the rink or is it during your off ice warm up or the 6 minute on ice warm up?
How do you get yourself nervous? What types of things do you say to yourself? What kinds of thoughts do you have?
What are the things that help you to get into the relaxed and ready for competition frame of mind?
What things distract you and take you away from the relaxed and ready competition mindset?
We can use the information you gather from this experience to help improve your performance for the next competition. By the end of the season you will be much closer to skating competitions the way you do in practice.
If this sounds like you, don’t worry, you’re not alone. If you want to learn more check out my Confidence eBook.