Skiing demands a highly perceptive skill. Perception is reflective consciousness in which we deliberate in detail our performance and adopt an analytical perspective of our sensory capacity. Additional definitions of perception are:
- Being conscious of our sensations.
- The experience that makes the reality of something.
- The exploration of sensations.
- The ability to recognize and analyze changes.
- Paying attention to what is going on.
- The meaning that we give to sensations.
- To acquire and interpret environmental information.
- Perception is the meeting point between our physical and our mental state.
Sliding on snow involves the interaction between our body and our mind. This works correctly if our brain quickly processes the sensorial information that receives from receptors and sends the appropriate commands to execute physical responses. As we must constantly adapt to the environment changing conditions, the way in which we perceive and react to these changes, is the one shaping our own skiing.
Perceiving is essential for skiing evolution using all possible sources of feedback and feedforward information. Our progress and success as skiers depend on our perception to detect differences from movements, actions, sensations, postures, and efforts. If these differences are minor, they will not be perceived. All perceptive system has absolute thresholds which define the limits between what may or may not be perceived. We tend to perceive new information based on what we already know.
As we grow and develop, we change our interpretations of reality, then perception decreases its importance given that our knowledge depends more on cognition than the senses. In skiing, this is not so since we do not ski just with knowledge but especially with the senses, therefore to properly perceive the environment in which we move on requires practice. Looks, sounds, and tactile sensations supply important signals about snow and terrain condition, speed, acceleration, braking, distances, and external forces. Perception can be described as the extension of oneself in time and becoming aware of the ground surface and oneself on it (Gibson, 1996).
It is common to prioritize the mechanistic learning of skiing movements rather than assimilating the sensations that those movements generate. Except for some, most ski teaching methods do not address the needs of the body and are oriented to teaching technical concepts first (what to do) and physical actions then (how to do it), without much consideration about the perception of bodily sensations (how to sense it).
We cannot always control everything occurring during our skiing, but by perceptual learning, we can control the way we perceive and, especially, what it means to us. The beginner has no perception developed so he will have to acquire it. He has a disordered mind because of the new sensations he is experimenting with and will have to arrange them according to the sliding experiences. The way he perceives the mountain, the slope, and the snow will determine the decisions he will take, this is; developing his perception will help him at taking better decisions quicker. Perception allows the recording of possible actions (Berthoz, 2009).
Some of the functions in which perception intervenes are the construction of our experience based on our senses; the connection with snow surface through our skis; the anticipated reaction to changing situations, and the recognition of technical deviations to adjust the necessary settings.
Perceiving a situation depends on our beliefs, experiences, emotions, and circumstances of observation (Fredston & Fesler, 1994).
According to these considerations, you can apply the following recommendations in your own skiing:
- Remember that your perception is the meeting point between your physical and your mental state, and that the way you perceive the mountain, the slope, and the snow will determine the decisions you will take.
- Adopt an analytical perspective of your sensory skills.
- When exploring sensations, give them a meaning.
- As you tend to perceive new sensory information based on what you already know, be open to new movement signals.
