Skiing is as much a psychological endeavor as it is a physical sport. While physical conditioning and technical skill are vital, the thoughts running through a skier’s mind ultimately dictate their performance on the snow.
The Effect of Thoughts on Self-Efficacy Beliefs
Most behavior is shaped by thought, and thought is a determinant of both motivation and performance. Obviously, thoughts when skiing are influenced by experience and self-efficacy beliefs. Often the skier does not achieve optimal performance even if he knows very well what he has to do and possesses the necessary skills to do it.
For instance, an intermediate skier might perfectly understand the mechanics of a carved turn on a groomed run, yet freeze entirely when facing a steep, icy pitch. Thoughts about oneself activate cognitive, motivational, and affective processes that govern the skills involved in competent action.
The exercise of controlling self-efficacy beliefs is based on the control of thoughts. On the one hand, they act on convictions by generating distortions of attention, directing it towards possible positive or negative effects of the action to be performed. A skier standing at the top of a mogul field might suffer from tunnel vision, staring obsessively at a jagged rock instead of scanning the smooth line around it.
On the other hand, they are directed towards self-control when the skier becomes aware of the cataract of thoughts flowing in his consciousness, which can activate beneficial or harmful physiological states. A racer might notice their heart pounding and shoulders tensing just by dwelling on the icy conditions of the course. If he sets his mind to it, he can regulate his thought process by exercising mindfulness control.
The belief in self-efficacy assists in the avoidance of dysfunctional thoughts by diverting attention. One who does not feel capable experiences a higher degree of intrusive thoughts that lead to anxiety, stress and probably some obsessive-compulsive signs. This manifests when a skier, gripped by fear on a steep slope, continuously and compulsively adjusts their goggles or clicks their poles together, unable to focus on the actual descent.
Each skier should be responsible for his own behavior by improving his actions through the control of his thoughts. Self-referential thinking is thinking about oneself, which mediates between theoretical understanding and motor action. This is the internal bridge crossed when a skier transitions from reading a textbook instruction about “driving the feet” to actually feeling that pressure during a high-speed turn. Self-referential thinking plays a fundamental role in one’s own psychic dimension, which is being constructed at every moment.
Voluntary actions are preceded by the thoughts that shape them. The thought is a cognitive structuring that anticipates the action, influencing the way in which the skier imagines the situation presented to him. One with a low sense of self-efficacy tends to generate negative thoughts towards the management of the situation; while one with a strong efficacy belief imagines them as opportunities for self-growth. Faced with a sudden heavy snowfall that reduces visibility, a low-efficacy skier will panic about catching an edge, whereas a high-efficacy skier will view the fresh powder as an exciting challenge to master their balance.
Avoiding negative thoughts through repression is ineffective since denying them includes the thoughts themselves empowering them. Saying to oneself “I must not think of falling and hurting myself” unfailingly activates the thought about the situation to be avoided. In psychology, this is known as the “ironic process theory“; the moment you desperately tell yourself “Don’t look at the tree,” your brain involuntarily forces your eyes—and your skis—to steer directly toward it.
Deficient control of thought produces decay. When skiing, everyone can experience episodes of demoralization after failures or regressions, and the speed with which these crises are overcome varies from skier to skier. For example, after washing out and losing a ski under the chairlift, one skier might laugh it off, while another might let it ruin their entire day.
Most recover quickly, while some sink into a pronounced and lasting depression. One’s own ineffectiveness in curbing mental ruminations after a negative experience produces despondency. Those with a strong propensity for despondency manifest a remarkable inability to free themselves from negative thoughts.
Even knowing that positive distractors are more effective than negative ones, they generally seek to combat negative thoughts about what happened with other negative thoughts. Instead of focusing on the great turns they made earlier, a despondent skier riding the lift will obsess over a single caught edge, beating themselves up with thoughts like, “I always mess up, my technique is completely broken.”
If you wish to improve your sense of efficacy, you must initiate a restructuring of your thinking, changing negative thoughts as well as your own attributions of failure. The thought process is affected by self-efficacy beliefs that will subsequently influence the planning and execution of actions. Rather than blaming a fall on “being a terrible skier” (an internal, unchangeable attribution), practice cognitive restructuring to attribute it to “insufficient edge pressure on the ice” (a specific, correctable technical factor).
Ski pros can help their learners and athletes to identify the difference between the perception and the reality of the execution to be performed. The tool to achieve this is to identify the limiting thoughts about one’s own capacity, replacing them with more constructive and functional ones. When a skier panics and says, “I can’t turn on this steep terrain,” the ski pro can break the illusion by reminding them, “You successfully made this exact same turn just five minutes ago on the previous trail; the physics of your edges haven’t changed.”
The inner dialogue (talking to oneself) is a way in which thoughts are expressed. It consists of a verbalized mental simulation that is generally accompanied by mental images and emotions. It is the visualization of oneself facing a given situation through the simulation of one’s own behavior. They occur either in the past (“I could never get it right”) or in the future (“I will never get it right”).
It is important that both the instructor and the coach insist that learners and athletes pay attention to the inner dialogue in the moments before, during and after the demanding situations they have to face. A racer at the starting gate can actively shift their inner dialogue from a defeated future projection (“I’m going to slip on the first gate”) to a constructive, present-moment cue word like “Drive the hands forward.”
Thoughts and Emotions
It is known that thoughts are generators of emotions. Emotions are the body’s way of manifesting thoughts. A thought generates an emotion that generates a behavior that, in turn, generates new emotions and new thoughts. The conflict lies in the vicious circle that occurs when negative thoughts trigger negative emotions. These affective states transform new thoughts also into negative ones, taking control of behavior and shaping the emotional energy that then flows into the body and is transformed into action.
This somatic loop is obvious on the slope: the fearful thought (“This slope is too steep”) triggers the emotion of panic, which causes the physical behavior of leaning back away from the mountain; this poor posture causes the skis to slide out of control, which instantly triggers a new wave of terror and rigid muscular tension.
By resisting thoughts of a negative situation, you are actually attracting it because your attention is focused on that situation. Thinking about something you resist generates negative emotions, while thinking about what you desire produces positive emotions. If you focus entirely on not hitting the patch of ice ahead, your body will rigidly brace for impact, likely causing a fall; conversely, if you focus entirely on your desired line of escape—the soft snow on the shoulder—your body will fluidly guide the skis to safety.
