• Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.

Success, Skiing, and How to Train Your Brain

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Great article here about the role your mental fortitude plays in skiing and what top athletes do to gain mental strength.

I don't compete, but I've found that attitude plays a huge role in how I do on the mountain. The more confident and focused I am, the better I do.

What do you think?
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
While I was on sports teams in middle and high school, and play recreational sports as a young adult, I find it a little hard to relate to articles that use elite athletes as role models. The level of dedication they have is a trait I admire, but do not particularly aspire to for a sport I do for fun.

Here's how the article ends:

"How to Improve Your Own Mental Strength

While mental strength in high level sports is clearly evident, we aren’t all elite athletes with a mental skills coach. However, we can still apply many of the same ideals to our own level of athletic ability and our daily lives in general.

  • Focus on becoming more goal-oriented, positive, and resilient.
  • Embrace change, fear, and the unknown.
  • Delay gratification and work towards long term goals.
Mental strength will help you win at life regardless of what you are doing. It can be developed by anyone who is willing to put the effort into it. You might think certain people are born with it, but that is not necessarily true. Anyone can make their life more successful through mental awareness.

So where do you start? Check out the 8 Ways to Develop Mental Toughness with Tim Ferriss. Take note of what these incredibly successful people have to say and try to apply it to your own life. You might be surprised at how much willpower your mind is capable of…"

My tips for skiers who are interested in improving their skiing are less intense. Thinking more about skiers who are taking lessons at least every so often, regardless of their ability level.
  • Focus on becoming more positive and resilient
  • Embrace change
  • Work towards long term goals, but don't forget to have fun
For those who don't know me, I didn't start taking lessons as an adult until after age 50 when it became clear that I would be skiing > 15 days a season regularly, including trips to big mountains. I learned the basics of skiing as a teen and have never had fear issues. Have gone from an intermediate to a solid advanced skier in the last 10-12 years, averaged about 50 days a season for the last 5-6 years.
 

Babette

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
"Pursuit of a long term goal even after failing is a prime example of grit."

Great article and videos! Love the focus on persistence and, one of my challenges, blocking out other "noise" from personal life, etc.

Thanks for sharing!
 

QCskier

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I have often found that a significant part of skiing depends on how you feel mentally. A few years ago I was going through some personal troubles which affected my self confidence and consequently my skiing. When those times past and my self-confidence returned to normal my skiing improved. One technique which has helped me build resilience is to spend a little bit of time before I go to bed writing down 3 things that I did well that day. It takes a while before you start to see results but I have noticed a change in myself.
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
I've been meditating for 15 minutes a day every day since January 1, 2016 (haven't missed a day yet!), and I find that it really helps improve focus and reduce anxiety. The article doesn't mention using this as a tool, but I'd recommend giving it a try.
 
Last edited:

kiki

Angel Diva
Just watched an inspiring ted talk from an olympian taking about how we learn from failures and how to fail successfully. Recommend it!
 

SallyCat

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I'm always wary of the distinction between "practicing to failure" and "practicing to fail." That is, if you try and fail too often, you may be training your body and mind to "know" that you can't succeed at that task (i.e., you're "practicing to fail").

For example, I spent yesterday "sessioning" some tricky features on my local MTB trails. Some I cleaned after a try or two and I felt ten feet tall. A couple I just knew I wasn't going to get that day (steep, techy uphill rock climbs), so I moved on after three all-out attempts. I think it's important to make sure that your attempts are intentional and that you're getting good feedback on what you're doing right/wrong. Gritting your teeth and taking another run at a challenge can be awesome, but it can also backfire if it's all you do. You can build muscle memory for bad form if you're not careful.

I hate the word "grit," but it's because it's so misused and problematic in education. (Perseverance was a perfectly good word; why do we have to use of-the-moment jargon?) A LOT of people in education are starting to point out that talking about "grit" can be harmful and grossly unfair to kids who have to attend underperforming, unsafe, bad schools, because it makes it seem as though the kids are responsible for their fates on the same level as their more affluent peers. Ok, sorry, I went on a "Rangent" there, which is what I call a ranty tangent. Sorry. I know the article here uses grit in a very particular and perhaps relevant and meaningful way.
 
Last edited:

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
26,235
Messages
497,609
Members
8,503
Latest member
MermaidKelly
Top