Many sports become "90% mental" at the highest levels. Ski racing is a prime example. On any given day 30 guys could win the World Cup, but the mind is what separates them.
Thanks to my daughter and first FIS racer, Bonnie, I've been forced to study sports psychology. Scott is the benficiary. Around age 12 he started to let his mind interfere with performance. Many books, conversations, mental drills and visualizations later Scott emerged with a strong competitor's mind... but he's still 16 years old. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, he goes on some strange tangent. Last week was one of those times.
Let me preface this story by saying that coaching ones own son is richly rewarding and highly frustrating. Let's face it, he's 16 and I'm 60 -- I know nothing. But I digress. Last week Scott straddled a gate and had to hike in the first run of the J2 Nationals Slalom race. No big deal, that stuff happens. He decided he'd try to win the second run from the back of the pack in a deeply rutted course. Go for it! So he got all pumped up at the start line and ran an incredible race, knees pumping and arms flying, posting the 10th best time. Now an adult would say that was fun and move on. Not so much for a 16 year old.
Two days later Scott made an error in the first run of the Giant Slalom and was sitting in third place, .12 of a second out. The two racers ahead of him hadn't been within a second of Scott all season. All he had to do was settle in for a solid run. Instead he super amped himself. He looked like Ferdinand the bull with steam coming from his nostrils. Scott "overskied" that run and wound up with the Bronze medal. He was reticent to discuss the race and never came to terms with what went wrong. I tried to discuss arrousal levels at the start line, and he shut me out. So be it. A week later we still hadn't come to closure.
Today Scott raced in the NORAM finals Super Combined. Because he has no Super Combined points he was starting near last. The snow was soft and the course was a little worked, but nothing serious. At the Super G start line he again got all amped for the race. He looked as he had for the prior week's Giant Slalom. I watched him cut inside the line on the first four gates, very aggreassive, before he went out of sight. When I reached the bottom and saw his time I could tell he'd had a bad run... 3.5 seconds out when he should have been 1.5-2 seconds out against this field. He wouldn't say anything more than, "I skied like crap. I was too hard on my edges." I explained that if that was the best technical analyisis he could offer, he wasn't ever going to improve. He got upset with me and I reciprocated. I told him he might have been a little too fired up at the start. He replied. "It's not a mental issue."
We'd forgotten his slalom helmet at the condo, so I went to get it. About 25 minutes later Scott called me. "Hey Dad, you're right. I think you're right. I let my mind get in the way." We agreed that he knows exactly how to fix this and can do that in tomorrow's Super G.
So today was a win. By making a major error, Scott was able to go backwards and identify a problem he can easily control. Any day you learn something is a good day!
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