Setting realistic goals when skiing
Repetitive daily practice, when practiced with purpose makes for some seriously tidy looking skiing. Most days when I’m on the mountain I’ll be working on something within my ski technique that needs attention. Some days it might be the rotational ability of my left thigh for example, other days it might be keeping my hips level.
Whatever it might be, if you have the luxury to ski every day, it’s reasonable to expect that you might arrive at a high level of performance at some point. Developing these thoughts, consider if you only ski once a week on the weekend. Your skiing experience might be complicated by arrangements to do with skiing with family, making sure the right people are in the right place at the right time or arranging to meet or pick up people en route.
How realistic is it that your skiing performance is going to be refined and skillful? Much as a professional golfer spend hours every day hitting balls down the range to refine their contact with the ball, the amateur golfer suffers from lack of time doing the thing they love doing.
The amateur skier is the same, you won’t develop the fine motor skills to be truly skilful on ski skiing one day a week but that is OK as long as your expectations are set correctly.
Mindset is super important in skiing. We see all the time skiers who are trying to do too much too soon, trying to go fast beyond their ability, trying to pack as much into their day as possible and make every turn perfect. It doesn’t need to be this way. By reframing our day and setting realistic goals, we can win on our Saturday and come home feeling great. Examples of this might be:
● Today I’m going to ski at 75% of my maximum speed. I’m not going crazy fast because I want to enjoy the slopes rather than getting them over with as soon as possible in some mad rush to get to the next lift.
● Today I want 50% off all the turns I make to feel good. Feeling good is defined by you no-one is judging you.
● Today I’m not going to get annoyed if I fall or make a bad turn. Instead I’m going to take a deep breath, look around me and just be happy to be here.
● Today I’m going to take enjoyment in skiing with my children and appreciate what and who they are. They’ll grow up into good skiers because of the opportunities I’m giving them. It’s not a race to parallel turns.
We’ve all had days where we feel a bit frantic and our movements feel a bit mechanical and our head is full of bits and pieces of work stuff and long forgotton ski tips. I find often that concentrating on one thing only, much like good golfers only concentrate on one swing thought, allows the body to start balancing naturally and skiing as if on auto pilot.
It’s OK to not be the best skier on the mountain, it won’t be long until I’m not even the best skier in my family. I’m at peace with that and I’m becoming more zen about it every day.
Dave
SnowPros Ski School Director
To book a ski lesson and help you set realistic goals go to our lessons page.
