Here are a few of items we covered in our mental prep meeting this morning. Feel free to read and ask questions if you have any:
1. We want all of our races to be a learning experience. Ski races are complex and we have tons of variables to account for. Be sure to reflect and learn from each race. There will be decisions that you made in the moment that were wise and others that weren’t but we can always learn from them moving forward. Our only expectation of you all is that you do your best and try to learn each time out there.
2. Be careful to set your expectations thoughtfully as well. We must control what we can control and our expectations need to be based on those things. Weather, snow, what other teams do are not in our control. You can take them into account as you set your expectations, but our goals should be related to technique, effort, managing your speed, and other controllable variables.
- we also discussed challenging external forces like weather and snow conditions. If those things are not ideal, remember that they are not ideal for everyone. What you have going for you is that if you focus on what you can control and maintain your same level of commitment, effort, and focus, you will overcome those external forces, while others are beat by those things. You will potentially succeed at a higher level because of them
3. Prerace routine – this can look different for everyone, but the goal is that you are doing things that get you excited and ready to race well. Negative self talk needs to be stopped and reframed as a challenge that you WILL overcome.
– that might mean you should spend some time alone, it might mean you need to be around people. either way, you need to find your way of getting in a positive mindset ready to take on challenges.
– we also believe that the physical act of getting on snow is very helpful. It will calm your nerves and help you feel fast. Do some easy skiing, do some speed work, you can be on skis for a while. I would say get on skis as early as you can, then you can warm up later, but it is good for your mind to get moving and get skiing early.
4. Lastly, one thing that helps a lot of people to be successful in performance is remembering that hard challenges are the most fulfilling to overcome. No one remembers overcoming easy obstacles in life, but we all remember when we overcame hard and difficult challenges. Remembering that can help you get excited (nervously excited, but excited either way), because you are going to do something difficult and you can be proud of doing hard things. Set specific goals that you WILL overcome and get excited about improving, learning, and getting to overcome hard challenges.

I hope this was helpful. We have one more meeting about race/mental preparation next week.

Giff