Skiing psychology studies our interaction with the mountain environment, trying to explain the similarities and variations of that interaction. It attempts to understand, describe, predict, and influence our behavior when skiing. Understanding one’s own skiing behavior, or that of others, is not as simple as it may seem. It is not only the study of mental manifestations; it also encompasses those of the human being as a whole. Without skiing psychology there is no total understanding of we, as skiers, since we are a conglomerate of personality, affectivity, cognitive abilities, and psychic conflicts. In addition to understanding ‘what‘ we do when skiing, there is also ‘why‘ we do it in a certain way at a certain time.
The function of skiing psychology is to examine the relationship between our mind, body, and spirit, all components of the human being. It is normal to exchange brain for mind. The brain is the physical part composed of neurons, neural connections, and different areas. Our mind is the cognitive and emotional activity that the brain uses to function.
According to St. Augustine, the source of psychology is in oneself. We are all, in one way or another, concerned by it. For some skiers, psychology is a mean to know oneself and to explain the reasons for one’s behaviors. It is not easy to focus on ourselves as isolated individuals, since we must also include an understanding of the other people who interact in a ski resort environment.
In the following documents, an attempt is made to study us as skiers-in-situation under three variants: cognitive (how we think), physiological (how we feel), and behavioral (how we act). For example, facing the threatening situation of having to descend a demanding slope, we begin to think about the possibility of losing control of our balance or speed (cognitive variant) and, from this, our level of anxiety rises as we feel the increase in breathing and heart rate (physiological variant), which prevents us from acting normally (behavioral variant).
Although it can be understood that skiing is based on technique and adaptation to environmental conditions, as most skiers understand it, it is also based on our moods, emotions, personality, and the possibilities of action that arise from these characteristics.
Our behavior when skiing is externalized by sliding movements, always within the framework of our own personality. The motivation to act is the source of any movement. Without this affective participation, skiing becomes a mere motor repetition.
Motivations for skiing are essentially based on positive emotions such as joy, fun, and especially hedonism as a desire for pleasure. Another stimulation is escapism: for many, skiing means to escape from daily reality, to go in search of self-discovery, to reach a good state of mind and forget about worries.
Skiing is a recreational and sporting activity that requires an optimal capacity for adaptation due to the many variables (technical, physical, tactical, psycho-affective) that determine the quality of performance. If there is no psycho-affective balance, there is no good performance. This activity has the benefit of decompressing the psycho-physical tensions accumulated by work or family routines.
Skiing promotes psychophysical well-being, being appreciated for its therapeutic value, therefore, it is difficult to find a skier with considerable psychological alterations. Although skiing produces pleasant benefits, in some skiers and in certain situations, unpleasant reactions may appear that affect the psycho-affective homeostasis.
We are not just an anatomical structure. There is something above us that defines our behavior towards self-improvement, competition, or towards apathy and indifference. In addition to the skiing technical-tactical and physical training, psychological aspects are part of the integral formation of recreational skiers and athletes.
We, as skiers, are not just motor skills; we are also sensibility and affectivity and the healthier these are, the better our sensory skiing will be.
In every skier there are two skiing styles: the inner and the outer. The outer one is developed in the environment, in the external obstacles, in mastering the technique; the inner one occurs in our mind.
The most important thing to know is that external actions and situations are the physical manifestations of internal actions and situations. The mental images that we consistently hold in our subconscious will seek to manifest in the outer world. If at any given moment we are not doing the kind of skiing we always wanted to do, we can create a new reality by changing the source of information we feed our mind with.
Our problem is not the other people on the slopes or a particular circumstance, but our own mind. What we do with our body affects our mind, and what we do with our mind affects our body, so skiing requires controlling both.
Each of us possess a set of basic personality traits that determine our behavior in various situations. Our attitudes and values define our decisions. If we are well-adapted skiers, we possess a sense of personal affirmation that sustains us in times of tension or stress. A mentally healthy skier is one who has been able to resolve more inner situations than outer circumstances.
Everyday life is increasingly fast-paced and this carries over to the slopes. We arrive at the ski resort with an emotional overload, aiming to achieve goals quickly because ‘time runs out‘. We attend lessons already with a high level of anxiety because we are not able to achieve in our skiing what we are used to achieve in our daily life. Although we present ourselves with the excuse that we want to improve our skiing, the underlying conflict lies in our way of thinking, in our psycho-affective reactions.
We live in a fast-paced technological era, but what about us as skiers? The classical teaching method is no longer sufficient. The therapeutic method used in a ski lesson helps to reduce these levels of nervousness and stress. Life itself can be a metaphor for skiing. Attending a therapeutic ski lesson is more than practicing technical or tactical skills; it is reflecting on our own inner skiing, just as in life are successes and failures.
The terms that will be used frequently in these dossiers are situation and conflict. The former refers to contexts, scenarios, circumstances, or external realities such as facing an unfamiliar slope, an excessive inclined terrain, an off-piste with avalanche danger, disproportionate speed, a congested area, an overwhelming weather condition, a traumatic fall, an accident, crash, or collision with someone or something. As being-in-situation, we externalize our behavior at facing the environment, a way of situating ourselves in the context of the mountain. The second expression describes our personal dispositions that are experienced and that affects positively or negatively our relationship with the environment. These states, which generate psycho-affective conflicts, can be the frightening perception of a situation, the uncertainty as to whether or not we have a certain level of self-control, the frustration generated by the failure of an apprenticeship, and anxiety in the face of decisions or uncertainties.
Another term widely used in this developments is that of tendency, referring to the set of present dispositions activated by the stimuli of the environment, which generate responses, then, it can be said that our behavior when skiing is about stimuli-tendencies-responses. As we possess internal tendencies (personality traits, attitudes and values, moral principles, self-esteem) that determine our skiing behavior, it is considered that there exists in us a ‘tendency system‘ to act on the basis of certain motives, which can be internal, due to incentives that compose our own system; or external, corresponding to stimuli from the environment that activate it. The term “stimulus” or “stimulus-situation” is used in reference to the environmental conditions through which we are passing: something physical and specific that attracts our attention by producing a change in some of our sensory organs (vision, touch or hearing).
Both, the ski instructor and the ski coach, need to know the basic fundamentals of behavioral psychology in order to better understand learners and athletes in terms of feelings, emotions, moods, and motivations, since most of the difficulties they face are the effect of psycho-affective conditions rather than strictly aptitudinal ones. In this regard, the need to make proper decisions and carry them out quickly and efficiently also leads these professionals to know their own abilities and deficiencies, their tendencies and their prejudices.
