{"id":14,"date":"2008-04-01T08:19:46","date_gmt":"2008-04-01T08:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidtapley.co.uk\/?p=14"},"modified":"2013-10-13T18:40:09","modified_gmt":"2013-10-13T18:40:09","slug":"almost-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidtapley.co.uk\/wp_blog\/almost-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost there ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Focus and Concentration in skiing<\/h3>\n

Snow, Sky, Snow, Crash.<\/strong> It had been going so well, I was just 2 gates from the end of a GS race course.<\/p>\n

The race in question being part of the qualification process for a ski instructor licence. The idea is to ski the GS course within a percentage time set by a pro ski racer. You get 2 go’s and the best time counts. The first run was going fantastically and a few gates from the end I found myself thinking "bloody hell, I’ve nearly done this, just let it be over!"<\/p>\n

The next thing I knew, it was. I’d crashed head over heals trying to make the the penultimate gate, so it was back to the top for a final go. I knew<\/em> I could do it as I’d still got several seconds in hand while recovering after the crash. The second run started ‘so so’ and I found myself on wrong the line through the ‘easy’ top gates. This wasn’t going well . . . . . . .<\/p>\n

The thing is, ‘technically’ I was easily capable of skiing the course within the time required. My equipment was good and I had the right tactics worked out for the course but my ‘head’ was not so good. It was not a confidence issue or a problem dealing with the ‘pressure’, but the lack of concentration & focus. Prior to the crash I had switched my focus from skiing the correct line through the gates to "just finishing"<\/strong> and at the start of the second run I wasn’t focused at all, "just skiing". <\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a problem for many recreational skiers (and participents of other sports) when they encounter tricker slopes or challenging conditions: <\/p>\n