Can't pull the trigger

[kander]

I'm starting to go nuts. Have you ever had a day where you pop everything? I've had a whole month like that. For some reason I just can't pull the trigger on my jumps. After awhile I feel like banging my head against the boards :cry: The thing is, I know I can do it if I'd just do it. Skating is 90 percent mental.

Kevin

[Award]

True...... it is, but for most people, the body or mind has a self-preservation mechanism. Maybe you had some experiences in the past that holds you back? If so, then just get back to basics for a while and build up from there.

[Rusty Blades]

Maybe you had some experiences in the past that holds you back?

LOL! I can identify with that! I KNEW I was ready to start jumps this summer. I had been skating 1.5 years and had enough of the basics that I SHOULD have been able to jump, felt like I COULD jump, but just at the point of the spring, I'd get "a flinch", just a momentary glitch just long enough to spoil the timing.

36 years ago, as a teenager, I had a really bad crash on a jump and drove both knees into the boards HARD. It took me off the ice and left me with knee problems for 15 years. I figured that, deep down, there was something subconscious that was "going off" to stop me from jumping.

I saw a sports psychologist and he suggested developing a "key word" to use in my off-ice jump practice (where I had no flinch) which I did.

My coach did such a good job on working me up to jumps a little at a time that I was actually jumping without really thinking about it. I was so focused on lead-in, timing, and technique that I actually forgot to use the key word!

[ibreakhearts66]

I'm starting to go nuts. Have you ever had a day where you pop everything? I've had a whole month like that. For some reason I just can't pull the trigger on my jumps. After awhile I feel like banging my head against the boards :cry: The thing is, I know I can do it if I'd just do it. Skating is 90 percent mental.

Kevin

oh i know what you mean all too well. i ALWAYS play mental games on my axel, even though its a jump i can do perfectly and have been doing it perfectly for years! i always have to pop an axel or two (or ten) before i do a real one. the weird thing is, i only pop axels, double sals and double toes. i'll try to tell you what helps me, but give no guarantees that it will help.

basically, i try going into the jump a little more slowly than usual. this doesn't work for everyone, especially if you ever have trouble completing the rotation, but it can really help. then i build speed gradually.

also, sometimes it helps me to see someone else do that same jump. it bring out the competitor in me and i'm like "well if they can do it i can."

if all else fails, i either a) get off the ice for a few minutes and start over when i get back on, or b) work on spins/moves and start over in like 20 mins

[jazzpants]

About a month, eh??? Any chance that nasty fall you took at San Jose on your double loop have anything to do with it?

Cheers,
jazzpants, who had hoped to go to Skate St. Moritz to watch the skaters, but given that she's currently working from home ALL WEEKEND on a very NASTY software release... :cry:

[SynchroSk8r114]

I'm starting to go nuts. Have you ever had a day where you pop everything? I've had a whole month like that. For some reason I just can't pull the trigger on my jumps. After awhile I feel like banging my head against the boards :cry: The thing is, I know I can do it if I'd just do it. Skating is 90 percent mental.

Kevin

Ha, my life story...:giveup:

When I'm having days like these, I think of a couple of my favorite quotes, which will either help make me feel better or motivate me. They include:

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." - Thomas Edison

"The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price." - Vince Lombardi

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Obstalces are put in your way to see if what you want is really worth fighting for..." - Unknown

"No one said it would be easy, but they all said it'd be worth it..." - Unknown
oh i know what you mean all too well. i ALWAYS play mental games on my axel, even though its a jump i can do perfectly and have been doing it perfectly for years! i always have to pop an axel or two (or ten) before i do a real one. the weird thing is, i only pop axels, double sals and double toes. i'll try to tell you what helps me, but give no guarantees that it will help.

I'm exactly the same way. I've gotten a lot better about popping axels - maybe only one in a session now, but it's the whole working myself up to actually attack them that gets me mental. Anyway, one thing that helps me prepare for axels is to do a waltz jump where I click my boots together mid-jump. (I believe there was talk of this in another thread where the actual name of this is stated, but I don't have the time to search for it right now...) That feeling helps me get my jump to snap tight in the air and help me rotate. I'll usually do two or three of these then go for the axel. Works every time! ;)

Now double sals, on the other hand...it seems like one day their perfect and the next I'm popping or two-footing every one. I can't win! I know that a lot of it is mental, which frustrates me more than physically not being able to do a jump. :roll:

[kander]

I don't think fear of falling is holding me back. It sometimes does during a session if I've taken 2 or 3 hard falls, but it doesn't carry over.

This reminds me of when I learned my axel a hundred years ago. I used to wake up in the middle of the night with cold sweats reliving the days attempts. I imagine it was very much like post traumatic stress syndrome. Unfortunately I'm not willing to to take the beatings I did just a few years ago :cry: That pretty much guarantees that my skating (jumping at least) has gone as far as it's ever going to go.

[doubletoe]

Ugh! I know what you mean. I've been starting to get over the mental block on the axel (but it's still a LOT of mental work!) but the double salchow has just been inexplicably gone for months now. I have been getting pretty discouraged so I just took almost a week off from skating. I'm hoping it will re-set my body. Sometimes that happens. . .