Sports Psychology And Skiing

So, how do the worlds top skiers maintain their extraordinary skiingabilities

? How did they reach such dizzying heights in their sport inthe first place? These things can seem baffling to the uninitiated, oreven to those who ski religiously, but never seem to be able to quitemanage the same feats as their idols. The answer may be simpler than youbelieve, and within easy reach of any skier. Theres probably no secretmagic at workmerely good sports psychology, and thats accessible toany skier who wants to achieve great results, and ski at the top oftheir own game every time they step out of their Verbier ski chalet.

Imagery

Its become so popular as to almost be a clich, but ask a sportspsychologist, and youll discover its nothing to be dismissed solightly. The practice of imagery refers to imagined sensations, andyou may be more familiar with the term visualisation which refers tothe visual aspect. It has long been theorised and accepted thatsuccessfully imagining a series of physical movements before performingthem can boost the bodys effectiveness at performing the tasks, andmany top athletes in a range of sports such as basketball, golf, boxing,and even football swear by its results.When next in your Verbier skichalet, try setting a little time aside for some visualisationtheresults may be surprising.

Attention Focus

While this is more easily applied to crowded sporting events, it cannevertheless have an impact on your skiing. The term attention focusis used to describe the practice ofyou guessed itfocusing yourattention on a certain task, movement, or external stimulus to avoidbeing overwhelmed by distractions, such as the roar of a crowd that canthrow an athlete off their peak performance. While this may not seem tobe a problem in your Verbier ski chalet or actually during skiing, whichcan be quite an isolated sport at times, there are definite benefits tobeing able to focus on just one aspect of your skiing performance youwant to improvesuch as your body posture, your balance, or even acertain technique when it comes to slowing, turning, or performing atrick. The ability to set aside distractions and not be overwhelmed bythe speed and the scenery of skiing, as well as other factors like thetemperature or other considerations is definitely worth cultivating.

Internal Monologue

This is perhaps one of the hardest aspects of sports psychology to putinto practice, but once it is, the results can often be incredible.Internal monologue relies on maintaining positive thoughts and a winningattitude in an athletes mind during a competition by holding aconversation with oneself. Though it might get you a few funny looksmuttering to yourself in your Verbier ski chalet, it works best when notspoken aloud at all, and often while actually practicing the skills ofskiing. For example, two methods often incorporated into an internalmonologue are constantly affirming your own skills and talents, orcountering every negative thought that comes into your head with apositive one.

What the mind can conceive, the body can achieveso get out of yourVerbier ski chalet, onto the slopes, and become as good a skier as youcan imagine!

by:Earl Knudsen

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