To change our skiing requires accepting a new skier’s Self and letting go, little by little, the old one but herein lies the conflict: most skiers who choose to change resist letting go of previous patterns of behavior. Although this resistance is normal, changing our ski technique does not happen in a short time, therefore, we must be consistent in continuing to practice the new, or better, technical or tactical elements that we wish to incorporate.
For a certain period of time both ‘new’ and ‘old’ identities will have to coexist in our skiing and, in certain situations, one or the other will prevail. Here, a new conflict arises: we tend to resist leaving aside years invested in our ‘old’ skier’s Self because we do not fully trust the ‘new’ one. The time in which the transition between our ‘new’ and our ‘old’ skier’s Self is fragile and prone to decay the will to maintain the change we have initiated.
Skiing in survival mode
The problem with implementing and sustaining change is thinking in the very short term, i.e., skiing in ‘survival mode‘, which will be very difficult to implement changes because we are skiing based on motor and attitudinal reactions that are reproduced over and over again in the same way.
Sustaining change over time depends on the degree of our commitment we are willing to make. We may become convinced that we cannot change the way we ski or deal with mountain’s situations. We seem to ski in this survival mode, reacting negatively to different contexts. While this is an option, it definitely does not produce our desired well-being. When we question our own way of skiing, we realize that these reactions do not serve to make us better skiers. We find ourselves trapped in the same reactive patterns we have developed.
It is only when the opportunity arises to reflect and observe our own particular way of skiing that we realize the possibility of modifying it. It is in this ‘pause‘ that thoughts of changing our skiing are generated. This parenthesis, which serves to interrupt the skiing in survival mode, is only for the short term if we want the modifications to remain in time. This moment of suspension allows the re-evaluation of our skiing behavior. We take distance from the context by making a halt that contains the immediate reaction.
Affectivity and change
Discomfort with our own skiing is detrimental if it becomes an obstacle to change. Discomfort turns against us if it leads to guilt for not achieving improvement and to giving up when feeling that we are out of reach of the desired realization. It is not a matter of rejecting the way we ski but of taking an intelligent disposition towards ourselves by enhancing the usefulness of our resources and minimizing inadequacies.
Skiing is dynamic and so we must be in terms of the changes we should face. It is essential to understand change but when external conditions change, there is a tendency to resist because change is frightening. Not changing because of fear, we become a prisoner of our own fear. Generally, this emotion prevents the initiation of actions that make behavioral change possible.
To minimize this negative emotion, we must first be acknowledged by paying attention to it. Doing so we separate the fear itself from thinking about the fear. Hidden in the fear of changing is our Self that makes us feel unhappy and pity for the inaction in the face of change. Often, we are not aware of being afraid but when we put fear aside we feel free.
The familiar is comfortable and the two most prominent reasons for not changing are fear of failure and fear of the unknown. We do not change our skiing because of the apprehension of leaving our ‘safe‘ skiing but the only safe thing we experience is our own accumulated frustration. Of course, all changes generate suspicion due to the uncertainty produced by the unfamiliar.
Undoubtedly, the known gives us security -the security of the known- but staying that way mortgages our evolution. To protect ourselves from the unpleasant emotional effects, we take refuge in what we have mastered. We ski only what is familiar to us and react by resisting change. When changing is imposed, we oppose it and the more radical change is the more resistance it will produce.
Deciding to change the way of skiing is equivalent to reorienting our current state towards a desired one. This desire must become the driving force for change. Along with desire, our motivation is the fuel for change: being emotionally motivated generates our focus on what we want to change. Convincing ourselves of the improvement to be achieved as a self-imposed goal is fundamental, which is why a behavioral change must be decided by ourselves and sustained by an attitude of gratification by praising us for the small progress we have achieved.
Sometimes, we are blocked by an emotional conflict that prevents us from taking any action to change the situation in which we find ourselves. Interrupting the current behavior, i.e., changing, generates conflict and this is a trigger for anxiety. Recognizing our emotions experienced during the period of change is useful for orientation.
Feeling anger or frustration indicates that there is something that we need to reconfigure in order to continue in the right direction towards the proposed goal. By interpreting emotions positively, we can take advantage of them, as our fear is a signal to adapt to the difficulty and to know that we are out of our comfort zone.
Intransigence in the face of behavior modification
Intransigence to modify our skiing behavior originates from the gap between our idea of changing and our actions of changing. The choice to change is justified when our motor behaviors put us, or others, at risk but we preserve our personal way of skiing because it is what define us.
Generally, if we suffer from the way we ski, we are the ones who believe that descending on snow must be in a certain way. There is a tendency to assume that there is ‘one’ right way to ski. This perception of proper and improper skiing becomes an obstacle to our acceptance. Each one of us have our own idea of what skiing is and do it in a certain way because we believe it should be done that way. If we manage to get down the slope in ‘our’ way, we become fond of our technique but if our performance deteriorates, then the experience can become unpleasant.
The ski lesson as a generating space for behavioral change
Most skiers want to ski better but do not attend lessons or practice what they learn, in short, they do not invest time or effort, but they should keep in mind that those who reached a remarkable skiing level is because they put in more effort. Many hire instructors with the intention of changing because they want to feel better but they are not willing to give up their own motor behavior or their way of thinking about skiing. They expect the instructor to bring about the very change they are looking for and, of course, nothing can be changed in that way.
The skier who takes lessons, in general, is not consistent in the changes he experiences because he is prone not to repeat what he has learned, therefore, he remains with the same unsuccessful habits. It is difficult for the instructor to promote inspiration when he realizes that the learner himself, who is the one who wants to improve, is not committed to doing so. After the lesson he tends to continue with the inertia of the motivation for change, practices until a certain time and then, generally, returns to the inefficient habit.
Accessing a ski lesson to understand how the technique works does not change our technique itself. It is often believed that having a sufficient explanation is enough to bring about change. What is important is not the information we receive but what we do with it. We do not change just by knowing.
Conclusions
- To change a behavior is to build a new habit.
- To change our skiing, it is necessary to feel like a beginner again and face comfort.
- Challenges generate reactions but to change is to continue learning by taking intentions to actions.
- In addition to knowing what we want to change, we must know how to ask for help and control expectations, accepting that changing has a cost (making mistakes, being afraid, confusion in the face of the unfamiliar).
- To change is to experience, to repeat, to feel emotions (positive and negative). When thinking only about the obstacles, change becomes difficult, and if we give up, we waste our own time.
- To get out of the automatism of inefficient skiing requires patience, effort, and perseverance but above all to believe in our own capabilities.
