Perceiving is not limited to sensory information; it includes the development of our interpretation capacity, organization, and the implementation of such information in our daily skiing.
The beginner skier has a general perceptual capacity, which will become specific as he evolves through meaningful experiences in learning how to discriminate sensations and perceptions. The development of this perceptive skill is based on sensations’ comparisons and anticipation. Due to lack of experience, he perceives sensations in an unclear and indefinite way, and this stage generates doubts that limit action accuracy and adjustment. Once he gets perceptual discrimination, he can relate the mental representation of the technical performance, i.e., he skis with the mental imagery from what his skiing should be like. This development starts with the perception of skis as tools to slide. He perceives that not only ski tips exist, which he is used to seeing them right from the start, but also the ski tails, beginning sensing and understanding how they work. Then he perceives that ski boots help him maintain balance supporting him, initially, towards the back. Simultaneously, he perceives how the edges help to stop, and then to change direction.
Bottom-up and Top-down processes
Sensing is experienced by a bottom-up process in which the sensory receptors transmit to our brain, as when passing over a bump that produces a sensation of compression (stimulus).
Perceiving is a top-down process from which the interpretation of a sensation by our brain sends the motor response to the corresponding parts of our body which is, continuing the example above, using leg retraction to absorb the excessive pressure created by skis contact against the bump (response).
Direct and Indirect perception
Our evolution as skiers comes from the ability to perceive the environment in which we maneuver since to perceive is to know that environment. We depend on perception to guide our skiing actions, like sliding while maintaining balance, paying attention to signs, differentiate snow and terrain or anticipate our own trajectories and actions as well as those of other people. The two most widespread theories in terms of perception are direct and indirect theories.
The direct perception theory, also called ecological, declares that the environment is perceived mainly by our vision. The perception of objects would not be guided by our interpretation, but by direct detection of action possibilities (affordances) that the environment allows in relation to our body and technical level. This theory suggests that perceiving is not performed by a cognitivist process since it is direct detection of the senses. When skiing, according to this proposal, we would not use mental processes as memory, representations or thoughts to interpret our sensations because we would pick them up spontaneously as we move over the snow. As stimuli provide sufficient environmental information, we would not need to elaborate on it. We also would not need to determine what the stimulus is since the information is given by our senses and that the environment contains all the information required specifying its properties.
The indirect perception theory, also called constructivist, says that to perceive; memory and mental representations are required. Sustains that, as our senses do not provide an accurate or complete description of the environment, we should enrich the sensory information with our own mental function to complete perception. A sensation is registered with a certain intensity and frequency, but we need to give a meaning to it through a mental process. Thus, we would be an active receptor of information with a purpose, contributing actively with our past experiences memory because the stimulus itself would not be enough to describe the environment. This theory is the most accepted in the scientific field.
Perception of the environment
In skiing perception, the environment has great influence. The function of perception is not only interpreting sensations but also to collaborate in facilitating how to move in the environment. The disposition of the surface properties allows particular actions that are taken as references. This perception is not only determined by the elements of the environment but also by our psychophysical conditions and, above all, our capacity to manage the physical space.
We perceive the skiing environment according to our ability to act in it. This skill influences and is reflected in our perception. Perceiving surface and the actions that this surface allows must be objective and precise. Perceiving maintains us connected with the surroundings to define our behavior. We perceive the slope according to our capacities, intentions, and our skills to act on it. Not only we perceive the environment in terms of the physical aspect (objects, terrain, and snow) but we also perceive other people moving in that environment.
Perception of the skiing environment information is divided between perceiving objects and perceiving what we can do with those objects, i.e., affordances. Not only we perceive skis, snow, and lifts but also tools for skiing, element for sliding and devices to go up the mountain.
We perceive the visual scene of the environment according to references determined by identified landmarks such as trees, rocks, lift towers, references determined by the orientation and inclination of the slope, and references related to the slope’s surface configuration in terms of bumps and depressions.
Selective perception
The concept of selective perception is referred towards guiding us to perceive the stimuli we seek and discard the unneeded ones. Our past experiences play an important role in selective perception. The exploration of those stimuli depends on our skills, habits, beliefs, preferences, expectations, and mood states, which all influence what we choose to perceive.
Our skiing selective perception is composed of two basic functions: the perceptual vigilance and the perceptual defense. Perceptual vigilance is the process in which we notice the stimuli that could be significant for us. Perceptual defense happens as our intent to create a barrier between the stimulus and us because it is threatening or unpleasant. This mechanism acts as a ‘perceptive filter’ that prevents perceiving unwanted stimuli. For example, the visual stimulus of a slope can cause this behavior if we seek the avoidance of the unpleasant sensation about a potential danger.
Bruner & Postman (1947) suggest that perception is an adaptive behavior because not only includes interpretation processes of a sensation but also involves our needs and expectations. In other words, we are alert to stimuli that are relevant to our skiing and preserves ourselves from the potentially harmful ones.
Perceptual extension
Perceptual extension, which is also called body schema extension or proprioceptive extension, has the purpose of using instruments such as skis and poles for information pickup.
In everyday activities, we experience that manipulating objects extends our bodily perception. In writing, the perceptive extension goes from our fingers to the tip of the pen. In handling a hammer, our hand extends to the hammer’s end. The object is perceived then as a set consisting of hand and tool. The same happens when using a broom, a tennis racket, a golf club or even when driving a car, we have the conscience that through the wheels we perceive the road surface as if they were part of our own bodies.
Returning to the example of writing, our attention is not on how we hold the pen, how we close our fingers or how much pressure we do. Our attention is focused on the contact between the pencil’s tip and the paper, applying a functional pressure which, if it is too strong, we generate excessive friction, hampering writing flow.
In skiing, our focus should not be on how ski boots fit or the skis’ heaviness, but in perceiving the contact between skis and snow, and the sensations caused by this interaction. We do not only sense an object at the end of our feet or hands but an integrated unit by feet and skis and by hands and poles. Our body does not end at the tip of the fingers or toes; ends at the tip of the poles and at every end of the skis (tips, tails, inside and outside edges), being our own ability to prolong these contact points.
This perceptual extension is activated at the moment in which we put on our boots, skis, and poles but in the beginner, this process has an assimilation time. With practice, skis become secondary in consciousness because we focus on their connection with the snow rather than the skis themselves.
Getting used to boots and skis are including them in our own corporeality, and this process comes from experience. The beginner is pending on his skis, looking them constantly because he did not incorporate them yet in his body schema. In the expert’s case, they already became part of his body, perceiving their dimension and orientation without looking at them. In addition to feet and hands, body extension can be perceived with the eyes, i.e., objects are at the gaze end (Merlau-Ponty, 1945).
Sensing that ski equipment prolongs our body allows us perceiving the ground surface, snow texture, vibrations, deep snow that slows down or ice that accelerates. It could be said that our feet soles are replaced by ski bases since we sense the snow through them. While our gear prolongs actions in space, we should not allow prolonging gear rigidity to our body.
Our brain builds not only perceptive extension related to touch but also to the immediate personal space that surrounds us, including skis and poles. With time, skis, boots, and poles are integrated into our body schema, forming part of our personal space. This dynamic manipulation involves sensations and perceptions: we incorporate them in our actions and in our sensory-perceptual system. When gear becomes familiar and we become skilled in its use, we focus our attention on the efficient use of these tools.
Tactile sensation is affected, in the beginning, by discomfort and lack of coordination in using these extra-bodily attachments. The sooner we accept them as an extension of our body schema, the sooner we will control them.
According to these considerations, you can apply the following recommendations in your own skiing:
- Begin by simply sensing and understanding how your ski tips and tails work.
- When you perceive any slope, detect your actions’ possibilities.
- Apply perceptual extension when using your skis and poles to include them in your own corporeality.
- Focus not just on how your ski boots fit or the skis’ heaviness but in perceiving the contact between skis and snow, and the sensations caused by this interaction.
- Become familiar with your skis, so then you can focus your attention on the efficient use of these tools.
