Happy New Year! Amazing that it’s now 2020 and we have another year of excitement, challenges, and progress ahead of us. After two weeks of no work during which I spent time with my family at our cabin near Sugar Bowl where my daughters attend winter term at Sugar Bowl Academy, I’m ready to get back to work.
Given the new year and with race season still in its early stages, I thought I would begin 2020 with the often-maligned practice of setting new year’s resolutions, but for all of the ski racers out there, not for me. I will share with you my Six New Year’s Resolutions for Ski Racing Success. These resolutions are aimed at helping racers at every level of our sport to focus on what will help them to have the best season of their lives.
Resolution #1: I will accept the inevitable ups and downs of ski racing.
The fact is that ski racing is a brutal and unforgiving sport. You are alone in the starting gate; no one can help you. As you look down the hill, you are confronted by four formidable opponents (course, snow conditions, terrain, and weather) who are conspiring to do everything they can to ruin your run. As the saying goes, “Sometimes you bite the dog and sometimes the dog bites you,” meaning some runs you’re going to overcome those four foes and other times they are going to beat you.
But to continue to your journey as a ski racer, in which you experience its many experiences (e.g., the struggles, setbacks, travel, and teamwork) and the lessons you learn (e.g., trust, determination, adversity, focus) that will serve you so well in every aspect of your future life, you must accept that ski racing will have its ups and downs. And the short-term successes or failure don’t matter much. Instead, it’s your ability to persist and persevere in the face of those ups and downs that will determine your ultimate experience as a ski racer and how it shapes your life.
This acceptance is grounded in having a healthy perspective about your ski racing. This positive approach includes realizing that each race isn’t a make-or-break experience, but rather just one small step in your ski-racing journey. It also means that the uncontrollable nature of ski racing means that you will have as many difficulties and failures as you will have improvements and successes. If you can embrace this perspective about ski racing, you will have an amazing journey.
Resolution #2: I will be patient.
There is no timetable for ski racing success. For some, it is immediate and lasting. For others, it is immediate, but short lived. For still others, it is slow, but lasting. And, unfortunately, for most of us, success, at least as defined by our achievement culture, will never be experienced.
Ultimately, though, your willingness to be patient and to give yourself time to develop is the only way you find out which of the above category you fall into. If the first or third, bravo to you because you won the lottery (that’s how incredibly unlikely real success is in ski racing, or anything for that matter). If the second or fourth, don’t despair because “failure” in ski racing often results in success in another avenue of life because of the experiences and life lessons I just mentioned.
There’s an old saying that ”90% of success is just showing up.” And the reality is that, after a few setbacks, most people quit because they become frustrated that success didn’t come quickly or easily. But if you can be patient, that is, knowing that “overnight success” is like a unicorn (they are magical and wished for, but don’t actually exist) and that success comes for those who continue to show up.
Resolution #3: I will be as prepared as I can be for every race.
I said above that “90% of success is just showing up,” but the other 10% of success means showing up prepared. Think of it this way. If you are unprepared physically, mentally, or with your equipment, you have virtually no chance of achieving the goals you set for yourself. The only chance you have is to be sure that when you slide into the starting gate you have done everything you possibly can to set yourself up for success. Of course, those four foes I mentioned in Resolution #1 don’t always allow that preparation to produce the skiing and result you want. But preparation is the only chance you have to overcome those four opponents.
Preparation can be long term, for example, your off-season conditioning and mental training. It can be short term including your training and recovery in the week leading up to races. Preparation can be for race day such as tuning your skis, having a healthy breakfast, having a good physical and skiing warm-up, inspecting the course well, and sticking to your pre-race routine. Preparation also extends beyond your ski racing including staying up on your schoolwork, getting sufficient sleep, using your technology responsibly, eating well, and minimizing the social drama in your life.
Resolution #4: I will focus on the process to get the results I want.
We live in an achievement culture where results matter. I don’t argue against that, but I do push back against the notion that focusing on results will lead to the results you want. In fact, to the contrary. If you focus on results, two problems arise. First, results occur after a race, so if you’re thinking about results, you’re not focusing on what you need to do to get from the start to the finish as fast as you can and get those results. Second, many racers get nervous before races. What are they nervous about? Well, the results, of course, specifically, failure.
The irony of pursuing the results you want is that by ignoring results and focusing on the process of how you can ski your fastest, you are more likely to get those desired results. Whether technique, tactics, conditions, or mental stuff, if you focus on skiing your fastest, you have a better chance of achieving your goals and getting the results you want.
Resolution #5: I will “bring it” every run.
So many racers I work with are more concerned about not failing than finding success. This “fear of failure” (which is epidemic in our culture and the number-one reason parents send their kids to me) shows itself on race day in tentative and cautious skiing. The problem is, as we all know, skiing not to fail does not work in ski racing.
The fact is that for you to ski your fastest and achieve your ski racing goals, you must “bring it” every run. That’s my phrase for going all out (while taking into account the course, snow conditions, terrain, weather, and start number), but other phrases include “send it,” “attack,” “charge,” “full send,” and “full gas.” Whichever words you use, the meaning is the same; you must take reasonable risks (e.g., ski a straighter line, stay in your tuck longer) and simply put it all out there. The downside is that bringing it can sometimes result in mistakes or DNFs because you’re skiing on the edge. The upside is that when you finish, you will be as fast as you can be.
Even if a race run doesn’t work out when you’re going for it, you will certainly feel some disappointment, but, as the saying goes, “It’s better to go out with a bang than a whimper,” and that feels far better.
Resolution #6: I will have no regrets at the end of the race season.
If there is only one New Year’s resolution you take away from this article it’s this one: have no regrets. This resolution is perhaps the one that I hold most dear both professionally and personally. Here’s one of my life goals: When I’m on my deathbed when I’m 156 years old (yeah, I dream big, don’t I?), I want to look back and acknowledge that things didn’t always work out the way I wanted—that’s just life—but that I left it all out there, I embraced every opportunity, I took every shot that presented itself.
That is my wish for you in 2020 as well. Whether a day of training, a race, or the season, I want you to reflect back and, whether it was good or disappointing, to be able to say “I left it all out there.” Not only will you feel both pride and inspiration in having done so, but it also increases your chances that you find the success you strive for. And, in doing so, your ski racing becomes not only a wonderful and life-affirming experience, but it also sets you up for success in all of your life’s future endeavors.
So, here’s to a successful 2020 race season!
It’s never too late to include mental training into your overall ski racing program? Take a look at my online mental training courses.
