Over the last few decades, I have worked with many ski racers, from juniors to World Cuppers. One thing I have noticed is that the most powerful work I do with racers isn\u2019t your typical mental training where I teach them about positive thinking, mental imagery, routines, and how to stay intense and focused (though I certainly do that).<\/p>\n
Instead, the most valuable work I do seems to involve the attitude that racers have toward their ski racing. No matter how good your mental skills are, if you don\u2019t have the right attitude, you aren\u2019t going to ski your best.<\/p>\n
My next few articles are going to focus on several key ways you should think about your ski racing to not only ski your best, but, perhaps more importantly, to enjoy your racing and gain the most benefits from your competitive experiences.<\/p>\n
I see racers express many different emotions after races. After a good result, I see joy, excitement, pride, and inspiration. But, after less successful races, I see frustration, anger, and sadness. Yet, the one emotion that I consider to be perhaps the worst of all emotions for ski racers to experience is regret.<\/p>\n
What is regret? That you wish you had done something differently. The sad reality is that there are no dress rehearsals in life, there is no \u201cWay Back\u201d machine (can anyone give me that cultural reference?) for do-overs. You get one shot in a race, so you might as well take it, otherwise there will be a whole lot of \u201cwoulda, coulda, shoulda\u201d when you look in the rearview mirror of your race day.<\/p>\n
When have you felt regret in your ski racing? If you\u2019re like most racers, it\u2019s when you didn\u2019t go for it in a race, when you held back and skied tentatively so you could just finish and get a result. When you cross the finish line and see your time, you want to kick yourself because you wished you had gone for it. When I speak to racers, I always ask whether they would rather ski safely and finish or go all out and DNF. With almost complete unanimity, the answer is \u201cI would rather attack the course and see what happens.\u201d But when I ask them what they typically do, many racers say rather sheepishly, \u201cI usually ski cautiously.\u201d<\/p>\n
The irony is that when you ski to finish, you have little to no chance of having a good race because ski racing is a sport that requires that you ski on the edge of disaster to ski fast. And therein lies the regret. Before you leave the starting gate, you just want to finish. But when you finish slow, you wish you had laid one down, even if you didn\u2019t finish. For you to ski your fastest, you must make the commitment to go for it before you leave the starting gate.<\/p>\n