Myth #3 Debunked: Part 1

With the start of the 2006 Winter Olympics upon us I thought I would take a look at another long heard myth in the sport of ski jumping.  This myth isn't about the health and welfare of ski jumping in America but about why the United States just can't seem to win on the World Cup or at the Olympics.

 

I've talked with many of the top kids around the east.  These kids talk all the time about hills that I have never even heard of.  They have competed in World Juniors, US Nationals, etc.  They all tend to agree with the argument "The US doesn't have the talent".  I tend to disagree with this theory.  Over the next two weeks or so I will show why I disagree with the theory and will show ways of helping to eliminate the problems that revolve around the lack of talent here in the states.

 

I recently was listening in on a conversation with the father of a US Ski Team Nordic Combiner.  He was talking about how his son was retiring after not being able to make the Olympic team this winter.  His son is frustrated because he can do real well in practice but he never does any good in the competitions.  When I heard the father telling this story I had to look at myself.  I've been in the same situation for close to twenty years now.  Ever since I swam competitively as a kid and was treated like crap(see Mind Of A Ski Jumper Part 1, link at the top of the page), I have never been able to succeed at any competitive sporting endeavor.  I can get into sports for the fun of it and pick the sport up overnight but if I get into something like ski jumping that is totally about competition, I can't pick the sport up to save my soul.  My mind fights me all the way.  I can jump fine and dandiful during practice but I might as well not show up for the meet.  It's a waste of my time and energy.  Hence why I try my best to avoid jump meets.  I just come out and jump for the fun of it.  My mind knows the environment of the sport and it holds me back as a result.

 

The worst part about this whole saga with this nordic combiner is that he doesn't realize the truth, "You can run, but you can't hide".  Until you face down what is holding you back you will always have it riding on your back.  It could show up in business or relationships, it doesn't have to show in sports.  Any time he faces a competitive environment, of any kind, he will have to deal with this obstacle.  It could come up as any kind of problem from find it hard to pick up another sport, especially if he takes it up from a competitive aspect, to trying to win business contracts, to anything in between.  It may take him quite a while to figure out that is suffering from this problem but he will come around and figure out sooner or later that he is having trouble again.  It will go on like this until he neutralizes the memory/memories that are causing the problem in the first place.

 

There are ways to correct this, and so many other problems just like it.  The technique is quite simple to learn and doesn't take any time to perform, at least not on simple issues.  The more complex the issue the longer it can take to work through the whole issue and finally get your life back under your control.  The remaining posts in this series are going to focus on the technique I have started using to change the way my mind thinks/behaves.  The technique can be used to break bad habits, improve health, increase wealth, and even improve your ski jumping, during practice or during the meets.

 

I originally stumbled into this technique in late January of 2005.  I used it a little during the remaining part of that winter.  I had problems with it due to mind conflicts.  My mind has been fighting to keep me off the 70 and 90 meter jumps for quite a while now.  Anytime I do, or think of doing anything that even remotely threatens the notion of jumping the 90 my mind rebels and makes me start crashing.  My mind thinks that by making me crash that it is protecting me.  How irrational do you want to see the mind get?  Typically, I'll end up crashing down around the transition or just right into the outrun.  As I was originally trying out the technique last winter, Cannonball finally suckered me into putting on a jump suit that another jumper had left behind earlier in the year.  Yes, I would jump the 90 in my ski bibs and jacket, but I highly doubt that anyone would let me do it.  The mind knows this and anytime I go jump the 50 with a jump suit on I'm about guaranteed to crash at least once during the evening and it will always be from the transition on out.  I'm not sure if any of my crashes this winter on the 50 has happened before the transition.

 

Its "simple" mental barriers like these that can stop a ski jumper dead in his tracks from ever being able to improve.  Why do most ski jumpers take a while to learn to move out over the skis, simple, their mind won't let them.  By breaking down these barriers and reprogramming your mind you'll be able to see your improvement pick up and yourself landing at the bottom of the hill in a big fat tele in no time.  It's a matter of learning the techniques that you need to learn to get you up and over the hump that you are currently sitting in.

 

As I mentioned in previous postings to the blog, ski jumping is 100% mental, 0% physical.  If all you training for is strength and technique then you are leaving the most important aspect of ski jumping behind.  Hence, you will never be able to jump at your best unless you spend time training the mind.  You will have to be the one to train the mind, the USSA isn't about to do it for you.  At least that is how I have come to understand it.

 

Come along on this trip through the mind as I explore the true reality, The US DOES have the talent, it just doesn't provide the psychological coaching that is needed to make the current crop of ski jumpers able to compete on the World Cup and Olympic level.

 

I encourage everyone that reads this blog to notify the other jumpers in your area to tune in for the rest of this series.  This can have the biggest positive impact on any jumpers life.

 

Tomorrow I will take a look at the CANI Principle.  This principle is by far the most important thing you need to remember as you jump.

 

The only thing that I ask if you do decide to give this technique a try, let me know how it works for you.  Heck, I may even let some of you write a guest article for the blog about using the technique.  I'm not the person that came up with the technique but I am the one that wants to help out the next generation of ski jumpers.  I may not know jumping technique very well myself as of yet.   I may not be able to coach technique worth a crap either.  I can help out this way, a way that no one else is addressing.  I have used this technique to both break bad habits and stop pain.  I've even seen some decent results so far, with the barriers still in place, while using it with ski jumping.

 

Until next time

Keep the ski tips up,

Crash

Jumping Journal: February 10, 2006

Day 34.  AVALANCHE!!!!!  That's doesn't sound right but it will once I explain the freaky thing that happened late this afternoon while jumping the 50.  It was a day to see two things happen that I could never envision being able to happen while ski jumping.  Now I have seen it all.  Forget about hearing it all, anyone can talk, it takes a real crazy person to show action.  LOL!!!

 

I decided against jumping last night as I just had too many things that I needed to get done before I went to bed last night.  I did stick around to help get the track cut on the inrun while it was snowing to beat heck.  I don't think I have ever seen it snow that hard while around Storrs Hill.  I couldn't see the bridge from the top of the inrun, it was snowing that hard.

 

I got to the hill this afternoon and I heard I didn't make a mistake by skipping out last night.  I guess from what they said the track wasn't the greatest.  That's an understatement.  I got dressed and decided to join Cannonball and Dan in taking an outrun.  Everything seemed fine.  I flagged both Cannonball and Dan before heading up the tressel myself.  Again, everything seemed fine.  Now to digress.

 

Part of the hill preparation for Junior Olympics, now just three weeks away, was to replace the snowfence on the inrun.  Originally it was orange plastic snowfence that had, roughly, 3 inch by 3 inch openings.  The new, red plastic snowfence, has instead, roughly, 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch openings.  This makes for real good snowfence.  The snow we made Tuesday evening stuck to it quite nicely.  It didn't pass through like it normally would with the old fence.

 

This stuck snow was about to create for a very interesting, ATTEMPTED, jump.  Up in the house the snow was sticking to the fence.  Where the track sends you down the inrun the snow was sticking out in a bulge away from the supporting wooden fence. It made it a little tricky for getting the skis on and lining up with the track.

 

I got the wave to go ahead and jump.  I push off the fence but it was a whimpish push.  I back up again and pushed off once again.  I started moving and all of sudden the snow/ice on the fence let loose.  It hit my skis as it fell to the ground.  This causes me to completely miss the line up with the track.  I find myself drifting toward the left very quickly.  I'm not even beneath the bar starts and both of my skis are out of the tracks.  I try to pull myself back into the track but end up going down on my side.  Fortuanately, I ended up sliding down feet first at first.  This ended up causing me to loose my speed and I ended up stopping right down at the transition on the inrun.  Strange, I've never heard of anyone falling on the inrun and not actually going off the end of the inrun.  I did tonight.

 

This brought up the discussion about deflection boards on the inrun.  That part of the JO hill prep work hasn't happened yet, THANKFULLY.  After what happened tonight and the discussion that has occured since the Lunatic Fringe came back from US Masters, I am totally against deflection boards on the inrun.  Instead make the track on the inrun deeper so you can't come out of the inrun in the first place.  Why not prevent the accident from occuring in the first place.  If their would have been a track clear up in the house and there also would have been a very deep inrun track, 3-4 inches deep, I would not have had any problem and would have managed the jump flawlessly.

 

If there would have been deflection boards on the inrun the hang up that would have occured with the skis could have easily made for a very ugly situation.  The FIS/USSA needs to reconsider there stupid idea of deflection boards on the inrun.  I'm extremely glad that they weren't their today.

 

I walk back up for another jump, knowing that that couldn't happen again.  We move the snow aside that had fallen off the snowfence.  I take my "second" jump.  Everything goes fine until I get to the takeoff.  Right before the takeoff I find myself, somehow, completely out of the track.  The right ski has somehow come up out of the track.  I make the jump and everything else goes fine.  Like I said the talk I heard at the beginning of the afternoon was about how the conditions last night were questionable, to say the least.

 

I go up for a "third" jump.  I notice right before I get to the takeoff that the track is crooked in the last 10-15 feet before the takeoff.  The jump goes fine and I decide to stop while I'm still ahead.  Dan takes one more jump and he said that he came partially out of the track at the takeoff on his last jump.  Cannonball, Dan and I all agree that this was the last time that that track would be skied.

 

Fortunately, the weather forecast is for a snowstorm to strike Saturday night into Sunday.  I guess a new track will be pretty much guaranteed come Monday evening.

 

Right now I just hope that the storm doesn't drop too much snow.  I'm heading out shortly to Newport to spend the night making snow in preparation for the Newport Winter Carnival jump meet on Sunday.  All winter everybody has been begging and pleading for snow and they haven't seen any at all.  Now come this weekend when no one wants it it appears that we are going to get nailed with it.  I guess Mother Nature is trying to be as uncooperative as possible this year.  Time shall tell.

 

Crash