Ski Learning

"How long?" Sohrab asked.

"I don't know. A while."

Sohrab shrugged and smiled, wider this time. "I don't mind. I can wait. It's like sour apples."

"Sour apples?"

"One time, when I was really little, I climbed a tree and ate these green, sour apples. My stomach swelled and became hard like a drum, it hurt a lot. Mother said that if I'd just waited for the apples to ripen, I wouldn't have become sick. So now, whenever I really want something, I try to remember what she said about the apples."

This is an extract from Khaled Hosseini's novel "The Kite Runner."

It sums up perfectly in my view, something that I have repeatedly seen my skiing clients do to themselves, and which not only holds back their development toward mastery of their sport, but also renders them unhappy.

In one of her songs, Carly Simon wrote "Anticipation, it's making me late, it's keeping me waiting." While ours, since World War II, has been the most fortunate generation in the history of mankind in many ways, there is one way in which perhaps we've been a little less lucky.

We have never had to do without anything; just about everything has been possible. I think it's just possible that we have somehow come to expect everything, and everything now. Which was the rock group that sang "I want it all, and I want it now!" Queen? Can't remember, but it sums up quite a lot I think, and it's a recipe for unhappiness.

I know of no shortcuts to anywhere worthwhile. If you wish find mastery of skiing, you will have to pay your dues, do the work, and be both patient and persistent. That, at any rate, has been my own experience, and so far I haven't come across anyone else who just raced away to success in a short time.

If you are impatient, either to get what you want, or perhaps with yourself, you will find yourself employing the kind of self talk that will make you unhappy and lead you further away from your goal, not toward it. You'll find yourself saying (perhaps only internally, and maybe that's worse) things like - "I ought to be better than this by now." [Why should you?]."I feel such a fool because I can't do ....." [What's has foolishness got to do with anything? You are where you are that's all]

There is nothing else; there is only what we do, and what we don't do, and the consequences thereof.

So, why am I saying this - well, I happen to believe, through many years of observing aspirational skiers, that knowing how to learn is the key piece of knowledge we need, and this issue of patient abstraction, while still working hard at our tasks, is essential.

Bob Valentine Trueman.

On my ski courses, and whenever I am in conversation with ski instructors, I spend a great deal of time, stressing the importance of the mind, over the mere physique.

 It is not enough to just attempt to “do”. Unless you have applied your mind before the “doing” phase, you are unlikely indeed to achieve what you want to achieve – or if you do it will likely be more luck than judgement.

 The most important 150cms on any mountain, are those between your ears. If you do not have the clearest, and most precise of intentions, plus an advance awareness of how you will monitor the results of your intentions, you will get yourself stuck on the “plateau” before you know it.

 This morning on the early morning BBC Radio 4 programme (which is really still called The Home Service but any of us who are really in the know) there was a fascinating piece about very recent neurological research.

 It’s now possible for the neuro-scientists to monitor brain activity in real time, whilst observing the human subject, and some extremely interesting stuff is coming out of it.

 The research referred-to has indicated that a full ten seconds before a subject becomes aware that (s)he has decided to perform an action, the unconscious mind has made that decision.

 I haven’t yet had time to fully absorb and consider this, but to me the discovery (if real) is mind blowing, and has all sorts of potential implications.

 If we are making decisions in ways of which – or at times of which - we are completely unaware, it almost seems to beg the question of “who’s in charge?”

 It also perhaps makes it quite interesting from the point of view of how quickly we may need to consciously countermand an unconsciously made decision (and how much chance we have). This, especially if the decision made is a bad one, like burying an axe in someone’s head!

 I would be really interested in any feedback anyone wishes to let me have on this, because if it does nothing else, it most certainly reinforces the proven fact that if we wish to master skiing (or anything else) then gaining more command over our subconscious minds is pivotal. Fortunately, it is also perfectly possible if you employ the techniques which I for one am so diligent in promoting.

 Let me give you an example – some years ago I unintentionally upset, and lost as a client, a young woman who fell of a T-bar. What I did, was to say to her that I had seen the moment at which she had decided to fall off it. She was unaware that she had “made” this decision and got very upset about it, saying that it wasn’t her fault, somehow the T-bar, or the universe had made her do it.

 Well, now I know, I had spotted the ten-second delay at work, but the neuro scientists hadn’t released the research findings back then.

Bob

Yesterday in my wife’s Telegraph I was lucky enough to be able to read a short piece about Haile Gebrselassie, the world’s greatest ever distance runner and holder of the Marathon world record. I show extracts of it below.

 What he had to say about mind control and self control was fascinating. It echoes exactly the approach that I have been advocating for the past ten years or more to my own skiing pupils. To have it said by someone of such incredible talent and success is extra reinforcement though. (So, I’m sure he will be grateful! J )

 Years ago at a Neuro Linguistic Programming conference I was particularly struck by something one of the keynote speakers said – she said: “I’ve come to believe that ‘state’ is everything.

 The ‘state’ she was referring to was mental state, and the important point she was making and with which I totally concur, is that your mental state is a matter of choice; it is not forced on you from outside of your self. There are forceful techniques which you can learn and with which you can become skilful, which facilitate your creating your best mental state before and in readiness for whatever it is you plan to do.

 Here’ what Gebrselassie said:

 Successful athletes need to display "a strong set of values".

 First win the internal battle: then don't let anything stand in your way.

 First they must win themselves. How do they do that? First, do enough training.Then believe in yourself and say:"I can do it.This is my day.The one over there, he is the same as me; he has two legs same as me, that is all.

 Like some high official you have to tell your brain:Do it. Come on. I have to do it. Always, if you win mentally, you can win physically as well.

 This sense of separation of mind and body, the idea that orders are given almost remotely by a dominant internal spirit to a flagging set of muscles and tendons, lies at the heart of Gebrselassie's preparation.

 The single greatest factor determining his own success, he insists, is discipline - a sharply self-improving attitude.

 If you have a fear of failure, says Gebrselassie, "when you start, don't be nervous. Why be nervous? It's not the end of the world. (the mountain) will be there tomorrow and tomorrow: it will be there year after year, after that.

 Run (ski) in the present, but remember you have a future too.

 Much of what Gebrselassie is saying lies at the core of coaching; as much as anything the ability to master something, such as skiing, depends on how you handle the setbacks and the hold ups.

 It takes mental strength and determination to succeed, at anything. That can be built, but it won’t build itself.

I have a number of “white papers” which many of my pupils already have copies of, and which are available on request – you can find my email on www.bobski.com and you are welcome to copies.

 Let’s face it, if it’s good enough for world record holders, we could all do a piece of it, and to find that it’s not some arcane secret available only to the chosen few, but that it’s there for you and me, is good news isn’t it?

Bob

www.bobski.com

A pupil sent me this self critical comment: "I was on the verge of calling the
airport and running away as I felt such a fool/failure."

This happened toward the end of an off-piste-training course. The whole point of the course was that it was for folk who were not expert off-piste skiers. During these courses, I spend the first half of the week helping pupils try out on piste some of the slightly different techniques that might be needed when we venture off piste.

These courses are not for folk who can already do it - they don't need me, all they need is a guide. So, it follows that everyone on the course is likely to be struggling a lot of the time - including me! No one on the course should expect it to be easy, and should expect all sorts of new experiences: or perhaps old experiencs to be revisited!

Expect to get scared. Expect to get more tired than on piste. Expect to be elated every now and again. Expect to have to keep working at it - just as you did when you first started. Indeed, it's a bit like starting all over again.

So the potential is there for all sorts of self criticism and this is what so much of my coaching is about - how to handle your self, how to handle defeat, how to handle disappointment, and how to keep hanging in there and coming back for more. How not to self critical - it doesn't help you.

Frank Dick, once upon a time Britain's top athletics coach used to say that you can achieve anything you want if you have three things in place.

1. You must want it.
2. You must believe it's at least possible.
3. You must persist

These things are interlinked of course, and you might need to want it really rather a lot. In the case of gold medal winners they often want it so much that everyone around them ends up suffering, so you may need to check out the "ecology" around your desire.

You will find your desire qualified to the point of being lost altogether if you really don't think that in the end you will find it possible - not easy; not achievable without lots of work and setbacks, but certainly possible, if you go about it the right way and pay your dues.

If you have those first two in place, the issue becomes one of working with your self to maintain your determination and stickability in the face of setbacks, disappointments, self-doubt and maybe even injury.

This is where your ability to control how you talk to your self becomes so crucial. The good news is that you can learn this too. You do not have to accept talking to your self negatively, even though for most of us this is our default mode. I believe that this is completely optional, but that because the way most of us were brought up it's hard to change.

When you're really young and you are surrounded by all those giant adults who seem to have a direct link to all knowledge, you are frequently reminded that you shouldn't think too much of yourself; you certainly should never be self congratulatory; you should never think you're any good; and you should always both demand and expect to perform everything perfectly. If you don't you're bad /inadequate / a fool, or worse.

What rubbish! What clap-trap! What a horrible way to get people to feel about themselves. It's just plain wrong.

I don't know where your skiing is, but wherever it is, that's where it is. There is no reason whatsoever why it should be anywhere else. You came to skiing at some point; you were taught by good bad or indifferent teachers, using good, indifferent or usually bad systems. You have spent a much too limited length of time being able to practice.

So there is no reason why you should be any better at skiing than you are. There is no reason why your rate of progress just now should be anything other than it is. Your level of skill, and speed of development is in no way related to that of anybody else, currently in your line of sight or not. Why should it be?

If somebody else is doing a bit better at the moment, so what? It doesn't make you a fool. If you were doing better just now than everyone else on the course, does that make them fools? Of course not.

What we're talking about here, is your internal dialogue; the things that you say to your self about yourself.

Whatever else you may think about this, you would have to agree that what you say to your self is entirely optional. No one makes you say anything at all, nor could they. So if you tell yourself you're a fool, or that you're hopeless, or (more significantly) "I can't do this", then you will soon find that what you are saying will come true.

There's no need for that - you can change what you habitually say to your self. It's very simple. It isn't easy, but it's perfectly learnable. You should learn how to do it, it will help you be happier, and a better skier.

Bob Valentine Trueman