To navigate a steep, variable descent at high speed requires the human brain to solve an incredibly complex physical equation in milliseconds. While a skier might consciously think about their stance, the actual mechanics of balance are governed by an intricate, sub-conscious network of neural pathways. Improving body consciousness on the mountain is not just an athletic goal; it is a deliberate exercise in neuroplastic rewiring.
The cognitive understanding of a skiing movement is only a requirement to perform it and is complemented by our body consciousness. To achieve and improve it, we should change the “doing” for the “observing”.
Usually, doing is based on an existing behavior that has a tendency to remain the same and, because of this, we have to break this habit allowing self-observation predominate. The goal of this practice is to increase body consciousness within a tension-free motor pattern and with maximum functionality as possible.
To achieve body consciousness when skiing, we suggest to put into practice the following steps:
- Thought control: controlling thoughts while skiing is fundamental to guide them towards what we are doing. Skiing distracted or preoccupied with other things hinders the focus on what our body is doing in the present moment. Diminishing compulsive thoughts leads to increase body perception while sensing and perceiving it at every moment.
- Self-talk: it is the verbalization of the skiing experience we are having. It has a direct relation to our emotions. This inner dialogue, if it is positive, not only help us to conceptualize experiences through verbalization but also serves us to exchange experiences and sensations with other skiers.
- Sensation-seeking: is the never-ending exploration of new sensations, or the repetition of previous sensations, where each one of us determines which ones provide better references while moving on in the bodily perceptive process.
- Body symmetry: focusing each one of the body sides helps us to compare and to level them up. Locating muscle deficiencies creates a balanced body based on symmetrical contractions and de-contractions.
- Results evaluation: while practicing, it is better to avoid judging just the result of a movement or an action: assessing the overall technical performance creates more positive feedback.
There are some additional pointers that can be applied, keeping always in mind to pay attention to our body without judgments on what is right and what is wrong by simply focusing first on what “is” and then on what it “should be”.
These suggestions could also be helpful:
- Recognition through self-observation rather than just ‘doing’.
- Detecting self-talk habits and how it relates while perceiving movements.
- Determining unpleasant perceptions to avoid blocking them out because that restricts our body consciousness.
- Distinguishing body signals.
- Identifying moments of tension and moments of relaxation.
- Using contrasts behaviors like tense-distended, effort-ease, quickness-slowness, or smooth-awkward.
- Using current or past images of sensorial discoveries.
- Isolating movements to detect muscles involvement.
- Focusing on body parts separately.
- Perceiving the space between feet, between legs, between both arms and between arms and trunk.
Other recommendations include expanding contact with the environment; looking for a flexible body structure; increasing sensitivity; adjusting muscle tone, and questioning the way in which each one builds his own skiing.
These suggestions collaborate in the improvement of our body consciousness as well as practicing other activities like yoga or tai-chi, but finally, it all leads to one thing only: knowing one’s own body.
