{"id":18107,"date":"2012-01-09T10:50:08","date_gmt":"2012-01-09T18:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/drjimtaylor.com\/2.0\/?p=3530"},"modified":"2012-01-09T10:50:08","modified_gmt":"2012-01-09T18:50:08","slug":"ski-racing-get-fired-up-in-the-starting-gate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/ski-racing-get-fired-up-in-the-starting-gate\/","title":{"rendered":"Ski Racing: Get Fired Up in the Starting Gate"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my last article<\/a> directed to racers, I offered you practical techniques for lowering your intensity when you get too worked before races. Though less common, low intensity and letdowns in intensity can also prevent you from skiing your best. A decrease in intensity causes all the things that enable you to ski with fast to disappear. Physically, you no longer have the blood flow, oxygen, and adrenaline necessary for the strength, agility, and stamina you need for ski racing. Mentally, you lose the motivation and focus that enables you to ski with determination and purpose. Just like psych-down techniques when your intensity is too high, you can use psych-up techniques to raise your intensity when it\u2019s too low.<\/p>\n

Intense Breathing
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

What do you notice that just about all World Cuppers do before their race runs? They take several conscious deep breaths as they get in the starting gate. Some racers, like Bode Miller or Lindsey Vonn, take slow deep breaths to calm themselves down. Others, such as Manfred Pranger and Julia Mancuso, take intense breaths with an aggressive exhale.<\/p>\n

Just as deep breathing can reduce intensity, intense breathing can increase it. If you find your intensity dropping, several hard exhales can take your body and your mind to a more intense level. It\u2019s a useful practice not only before race runs, but also before training runs to take one or two intense breaths. In fact, I encourage you to make intense breathing a part of your training and race routines when you\u2019re intensity goes down.<\/p>\n

Move Your Body<\/strong><\/p>\n

Remember that intensity is, most basically, physiological activity. The most direct way to increase intensity is with physical action. In other words, move your body! Walk or run around, jump up and down, do plyometrics. Anything to get your heart pumping and your body going will raise your intensity. One top junior racer I know likes to work up a sweat before race runs to ensure that his body is ready to go all out from the moment he hits the starting wand.<\/p>\n

High-energy Self-talk<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

One cause of drops in intensity is letdown thoughts. Interestingly, letdown thoughts can be either positive or negative. Positive thinking that causes your intensity to decline includes, \u201cI\u2019ve got this race won,\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m by far the best racer out here today.\u201d With this sort of positive thinking, you\u2019re sending the message to your body that it doesn\u2019t need to get amped up for the race.<\/p>\n

Negative letdown thoughts include \u201cI don\u2019t have a chance today\u201d or \u201cThere\u2019s no way I can ski well with these conditions.\u201d This negativity sends the message to your body that you\u2019ve given up, so it doesn\u2019t need to even try. When either of these types of thinking occurs, you can be sure you won\u2019t ski your best.<\/p>\n

When you start to have these thoughts, you need to replace them with high-energy self-talk. Self-talk such as \u201cKeep attacking,\u201d \u201cStay pumped,\u201d or \u201cBring it on!\u201d will fire you up, get you motivated and focused, and your body will respond with the intensity it needs for you to ski fast and aggressively.<\/p>\n

Intensity Keywords<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just as you can use keywords to lower you intensity, you can use keywords to counter letdowns and to psych yourself up before races. Saying intensity keywords such as \u201cCharge!,\u201d \u201cHustle!,\u201d or \u201cAttack!\u201d with conviction and energy will raise your intensity and generate positive thoughts and emotions that will help you to ski your best.<\/p>\n

High-energy Body Language<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because intensity is physical, it\u2019s ideal to raise intensity directly with physical movement. In addition to having you move your body, you can also increase your intensity with high-energy body language.<\/p>\n

One thing you\u2019ll notice when you use high-energy self-talk and intensity keywords is that it\u2019s just about impossible to use them without also using high-energy body language. When you use high-energy self-talk and intensity keywords, your body just seems to follow along. Often without realizing it, you pump your fist or slap your thigh and that high-energy body language gets you even more fired up and ready to ski your best.<\/p>\n

Music<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I noted in that last article for racers, music has a profound physiological and emotional impact on us. Yes, it can calm you down, but it can also get you really fired up, depending on the type of music you listen to. When you listen to high-energy music, such as hip hop or rock \u2018n roll, you feel inspired, energized, and ready to take on the world. That\u2019s why you see so many World Cuppers with earbuds jamming to their favorite music before their starts.<\/p>\n

Key Race Situations<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are common race situations in which you can expect that your intensity will shift away from prime intensity. If you can identify these situations when they occur, you can more quickly take steps to prevent a change in intensity that may hurt your skiing.<\/p>\n

Overintensity is most common in pressure situations such as when you feel that you must have a good result to qualify for the next race series or you just surprised yourself with a great first run. Anytime you believe that you must do well, your intensity will probably rise beyond your prime intensity. Focusing on the outcome, particularly on the possibility of failure, will also cause you to feel anxiety that will likely hurt your skiing.<\/p>\n

Underintensity is seen most often in race situations where you believe that you\u2019re the best skier on the hill, you think you have the race won after the first run, or you think you have no chance of having a good result (perhaps you made a huge mistake on the first run and are really far out). In the former case, you believe that you don\u2019t need to try any longer because you think you have the result in hand. In the latter case, you\u2019re giving up, so you\u2019re telling your body that it can relax now.<\/p>\n

There is not, however, a consistent pattern in how intensity will change for all racers. Racers in the same race situation can experience different changes in intensity. For example, when leading after the first run, one racer may have an increase in intensity and feel very nervous because she\u2019s never lead a race before and doesn\u2019t totally believe that she can win the race. While another racer in the same situation might have a decrease in intensity and feel a letdown because she\u2019s already mentally at the awards ceremony picking up trophy even though she hasn\u2019t skied her second run yet. You have to figure out how you typically react and then use the psych-up and psych-down techniques I described in this and my previous<\/a> article to achieve and maintain prime intensity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my last article directed to racers, I offered you practical techniques for lowering your intensity when you get too worked before races. Though less common, low intensity and letdowns in intensity can also prevent you from skiing your best. A decrease in intensity causes all the things that enable you to ski with fast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1516],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ski-racing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}