Our skiing perceptions make up our skiing experiences, causing us to feel agreeable or annoying at our performances. Thus, we experience negative situations in which little or nothing happens as we wish and situations where everything is under control.
The concept of the State of Flow and the theory of Optimal Experience were proposed by Csikszentmihalyi (1990), and are defined as unbeatable situations in implementing something that creates a sensation of lack of effort. To reach this state, we engage in such a manner in our skiing experiencing, among other things, the loss of the sense of time.
Optimal experience situations, although are benefited under favorable external conditions, depend essentially on our inner condition. These moments of flow, contrary to what is usually believed, are not relaxed or passive; it is us making them happen. Reaching the state of flow is considered as achieving the highest level in our performance where everything turns out uncomplicated.
Attaining flow is to have clear and achievable goals (knowing what to do), completely concentrating on skiing, eliminating all kinds of worries, and getting immediate feedback (knowing how it was done).
The aspects experienced are:
- The feeling of not having to worry about losing control.
- Attention and action flow.
- The perception of minimal effort.
- The fear of failure disappears.
- Time goes unnoticed.
Characteristics of the State of Flow
To experience this state, we should have goals clearness, be aware of our intentions knowing exactly what we are going to do, anticipating our actions through visualizing them.
Goal pursuit allows us orienting consciousness towards what we decide to do, paying attention to that task in particular by inhibiting distractions. Our concentration is such that we manage to cancel distractions by focusing attention on our performance.
When we engage in a state of flow while skiing, the following aspects emerge:
- There is a sense of a comfortable, effortless and under control skiing where we feel being carried by our skis.
- This state of skiing fullness consents us to spontaneously act in space and time.
- It requires very little to proceed, with total harmony and symmetry of movements and actions achieving perfect motion where muscle tension is reduced to a minimum.
- We do not experience effort or anxiety, have no interfering thoughts, and everything is spontaneous.
- In this condition, if we maintain mental activity then we halt movements’ flow and doubts appear, but if we just apply sensorial consciousness then we will succeed in flowing.
- Our sense of control is absolute through confidence strengthening.
- We experience the loss of self-consciousness as we do not worry about us or others.
- Time passes inadvertently and intrinsic motivation is enhanced.
- Feedback regarding our performance is immediate through body sensations.
Continuity and fluidity in turns’ linking
The concept of the State of Flow also refers to the intention of continuity and linkage in movements and actions. To achieve fluidity, the end of one turn should be the beginning of the next and so on, without breaks or interruptions. It is a perpetual movement conception where different body parts participate in union. It occurs when managing an appropriate effective modulation of motor awareness, managing emotions and impulses through proper muscle tone.
This fluidity is a movement’s general characteristic that minimizes energy expenditure, so while skiing with fluency we approach the condition of minimal effort. Flash & Hogan (1985) proposed the theory that the fundamental principle of motor programming is fluidity and that maximum flow is achieved by minimizing changes in movement acceleration and deceleration (minimum jerk). Minimum jerk, adapted to skiing, is a trajectory planning method resulting in exceptionally smooth motion by reducing abrupt acceleration changes. It has the following benefits:
- Smoothness: it reduces abrupt changes in movements.
- Vibration suppression: it helps in minimizing skis’ vibrations.
- Efficiency: it requires lower effort.
- Accuracy: it enhances precision in path tracking.
To generate fluid skiing, we must also have an adequate spatiotemporal perception referred to the distance and the time we will need to perform specific movements and actions.
Let us remember that, during our initial learning stages, we suffered fragmented motor behaviors. We concentrated on moving one part of our body but left others uncontrolled, executing movements in a discontinue sequence due to our disconnected motor experiences. Then, we have gradually incorporated motor fluidity performing continuous movements in all directions.
