The obstacles that interfere with learning to ski are, in addition to the limits of our physical fitness, the psychological barrier that we determine for ourselves. The latter is the limit that we set for ourselves when we adopt a negative attitude towards our own progress. We may deform our learning experiences and even reject what does not conform. We may consider themselves unfit because we do not have the aptitude to learn and do not believe in the sincerity of praise because our self-image prevents us from doing so. By perceiving the experience not as something threatening but as it really is, we will then be able to mature and progress.
Our Self is an aspect that deserves special consideration since it is assumed to be the origin of self-destructive behavior. We tend to feel hurt if the situation affects our Self and, as it is an important part of our personality, it influences the perception of our skiing.
Our self-denial reflex interferes with learning by sabotaging it, i.e., it is the Self sabotaging learning appearing in situations of failure, then we feel challenged. Trying to get everything perfect usually results in restricted performances that limit our personal growth. When engaging in new learnings, it is common to encounter inhibitors. To transcend them, we need first to identify them, then manage and master them.
Most common inhibitors encountered when learning to ski
Blindness refers to incompetence in which we do not know that we do not know how to ski correctly and, therefore, believe that we have nothing to learn. In blindness, there is no awareness that, at certain times, we are blind to our own incompetence. In order to initiate meaningful learning, we first need to recognize our imperfection.
Adopting this attitude of not knowing that we are incompetent, new opportunities for learning are closed to us, limiting our possibilities for growth. If we want to become good learners, we should always be open to learning new domains and eager to discover our blind spots, thus allowing blindness to be overcome. While everyone has moments of blindness, not glimpsing and understanding that moment becomes an inhibitor to learning. There is always more to learn, but some skiers think they know it all, that what they know how to do is the right thing to do, and don’t see that they can continue to learn. Accepting our ignorance is the beginning of learning.
Discouragement, which can appear when we become aware of what we have yet to learn, of realizing our bad habits, or that our own actions are the cause of our mistakes. We may give up, quit the lesson and walk away from the challenge but this means not learning. To avoid this situation, it is necessary to persist. We may experience apprehension and self-doubt but we should not give up because the time will soon come when we will feel confident and self-assured.
Fear is the emotion that appears repeatedly in the face of new learnings and is based on unconsciously rejecting what is unknown. The fear of manifesting that we do not know, that is to say, our own incompetence is, in this case, to declare that we do not know how to ski well, then our self-image can be affected, therefore, before accepting our need to learn we choose to dissimulate it.
When we were beginners we did not have a clear idea of what were the goals to be achieved. Both our purpose and intentions were weak and had no idea of the learning difficulties we were about to experience. Our acquisition was relatively slow but then accelerated.
At the same time, our thoughts begun to conflict because learning was not what we imagined, so fear lurks at each new stage. If our fear increased, it may have caused us to give up our intentions. After all this, we have continued skiing but we may think that we are limited and that we may never become great skiers. But if we overcome fear by facing it, we will be able to take the next step in our learning process. We may feel intimidated but will still keep trying.
There are a number of fears that can block our learning process:
- Fear of acknowledging our ignorance.
- Fear of refusing to learn something better.
- Fear of acknowledging that we didn’t know something once we learned it.
- Fear of being wrong and being disappointed.
- Fear of looking clumsy if we don’t do it right.
- Fear of ridicule.
- Fear of failure or even fear of having success.
- Fear of not achieving our goals.
- Fear of having wasted time and effort without getting results.
Recognizing our fears and facing them by developing positive internal dialogues makes our actions possible even under apprehensive circumstances.
The embarrassment that invades when we do not want to show our own incompetence can interfere in our learning process. This is what we feel when we make a fool of ourselves in front of others when they discover our incompetence. Undertaking new motor behaviors presupposes executing actions in a clumsy and fallible manner. Then, if we are not able to tolerate the exposure of incompetence, we may be tempted to give up learning. Avoiding taking the situation too seriously and laughing at ourselves takes the pressure off our learning process and makes it a pleasant experience.
Victimization is the attitude that we may take when faced with challenges. In this condition, we show ourselves defenseless, exposed, helpless, and will not be able to change this attitude until we assume our own responsibility for the learning process. We attribute the blame for our own mistakes to external causes (to others, to slope conditions, to the equipment). By externalizing the reasons for our incompetence, we will free ourselves from our own responsibility for learning but this is not a positive attitude.
