Mental Anguish

[sk8er1964]

OK - have any of you ever had the problem of your mind not letting your body do what you KNOW it can do 8O . (I know, we all have had this experience - we're skaters!)

Here is my problem - I know that I can physically do double jumps. I've landed several double toes and been within a hair of landing several double sals. But I've had two rather nasty falls in the last month and now my mind is often hitting the panic button when I'm practicing. It it so frustrating - it's like my mind is locking up my body instead of allowing it to feel the jump.

Any suggestions for defeating this mind-over-matter problem?

[luv2lutz]

Have you tried visualization? I would visualize 50 of each jump - in sets of 10 (not all at once)

Another idea: have your coach put you on the harness for few days to overcome the fear and regain a good feeling and confidence.

I'd also practice air turns on the ground to feel the rotation without the pressure of falling. And try that with your eyes closed - really hard, but you start to gain confidence in knowing where your body is. Gives you confidence on the ice because you have better awareness of your body.

hope that helps

[Chico]

I can share what happened to me and what finally happened over the long haul. I was working on the axel last summer, and feeling pretty brave, tried to go for it too much and had a horrible fall. I got so scared that for months I just fell apart on any attempt. I finally took a deep breath and started down the road again in very small steps. I minced along for months when the day came I felt ON and I just went for it. It took some mental battles even after this, I don't try on the bad days and I haven't had a problem since. I've even had a nasty falls on the 2 sal after this and not been fazed. I think I've learned that they hurt, and I could get hurt, but the high of overcoming my fear and improving the skill is worth a million. I gain nothing in being afraid...... It's a process and you do have to be willing to take the risk. Holding back causes the worst falls I think. Really think doing the skill, and go for it. Listen to your body, on the days when you seem off and the skills are harder than normal use your head and don't try. I'm learning to listen to my body and "hear" the signs I'm being given. I also find watching folks who have the skill I want and then doing it right after this helps tons. There is a rhythm in skating and this is especially true of doubles.

Chico

[Mrs Redboots]

Originally posted by sk8er1964
OK - have any of you ever had the problem of your mind not letting your body do what you KNOW it can do 8O . (I know, we all have had this experience - we're skaters!) All the time! Not double jumps, mind - I can barely do more than a rather cheated single Salchow, but then, I'm not primarily a free skater - but most other things. Turning at speed, for instance. I can do a beautiful 3-turn into my husband, or other dance partner's arms - can I do one at any sort of speed solo? Can I heck! I can do wonderful forward cross-rolls with the lowest knees and really finishing the edge when I'm in Kilian hold, but solo? I can do them, and do them well, but they aren't nearly as good! Dash it, I can barely skate backwards without a partner, yet with one I can do beautiful back edges! Well, not that beautiful, but a very great deal better than doing them alone - I have awful balance problems!

No, I'm not cut out to be a solo skater! It doesn't stop me trying, but my coach AND my coach's wife AND all the other coaches at the rink all say it is a question, largely, of lack of bottle not of ability. And NONE of them seem to know how I can conquer it!

[JDC1]

I'm not at your level but I battle fear every time I get on the ice, that's part of what pushes me. For the longest time I had a fear of doing my cross overs at full speed on a deep edge and when I finally did it I think you could hear my sigh of relief 2 states away. The only way I get over my fear is by baby steps, the waltz jump scared the beejesus out of me and then I very slowly got comfortable with and now I can do it, always with some fear, but not crippling fear. I think some fear in skating is simply intelligent, we're on the ice hurling ourselves through the air or trying to spin on one tiny spot and every second there's a chance we'll go BOOM on the ice, we'd be stupid to have no fear but I guess each person has to find the way to conquer there's. Maybe if you used the harness like someone else suggested you'd get more comfortable and build up more confidence.

[melanieuk]

I have the same mental blockage that Chico had with the axel.

[sk8er1964]

Thanks for the comments - keep them coming! :D

I told my coach the problems that I've been having lately, and he took me back to the beginning by working on stepping through the doubles. That really helped because I could see/feel better the technical problems that I'm having than when I was actually doing the jumps. He also gave me a solution to the waist-breaking problem that I had on the axel that led to my giving myself the conk on the head. (I have a lot of work to do on that solution, but what he needs me to do makes sense to me.) I also have some off-ice check-out exercises to do.

Plus he told me to shorten my warm up and move into the axels/doubles sooner in my practice. I usually leave them until the last half of practice, getting the spins etc out of the way first, and he thinks I may be getting too tired (basically what you said, Chico & love2lutz!)

So there is hope - and I'm going to try some of your suggestions. I do use visualization, but I think I need to do it more when I'm in a quiet space and less when I'm distracted by other things such as driving!

[hoptoad]

PLEASE--tell us your coach's solution to the waist break problem!

[flo]

I'm with Chico, build back up to the confidence. I have fewer problems falling hard on doubles now because I have fallen on them, and I've gotten back up. Lots of padding and good coaching has helped. After a bad fall on axels I'm a mess. So I watch the kids jump, and also fall.
I also agree that I need to try them when I still have the energy earlier in the session!

[sk8er1964]

Oops - didn't mean to leave you all out of that loop!! :oops:

He said that I need to concentrate on using my abdomen muscles instead of my back muscles to keep upright throughout the whole process - from entry to take-off to air to landing. I need to do this more on all of my jumps, not just the axel. When I tried it, it made a lot of sense because tightening my abdomen kept my back straight. Before I was trying to keep my body upright by straightening my back and that's what led me to tip over backwards on that axel landing.

[KJD]

skater1964, This describes my problem all the time. I land double sals every week, just not every day and I have days where every axel is great and then days when I have to fight through them. I have actually been doing what your coach recommended so it sounds like you are in good hands. On bad axel days, I slow it down, work on kicking straight out as opposed to swinging, all the things I know I do wrong when its not working. I get closer, and keep telling myself that was better, now do that and then this... etc. I usually get it back by the end of the session but as my coach said, 99% of my problems with my skating are head induced (he thinks its because I'm a business person and have too much education. He keeps saying "leave your damn head at the door when you come to the rink") It's pretty funny.

[sk8er1964]

Originally posted by KJD
I usually get it back by the end of the session but as my coach said, 99% of my problems with my skating are head induced (he thinks its because I'm a business person and have too much education. He keeps saying "leave your damn head at the door when you come to the rink") It's pretty funny.

That is interesting - I am a finance person with an advanced degree, used to analyzing budgets etc. I know I think way to much and over-analyze things. My coach says he can see the smoke coming out of my head sometimes!