Jumping Journal: February 23, 2006

Day 42.  Ten more days of jumping until I finally break up over this crazy barrier of only getting 50 or 51 days a jumping a year.  I am beginning to think it might finally happen.

 

After a day of snowfall, wet snow too boot, I arrived at the hill and pretty much finished all the inrun work that needed to be completed before next week gets here. I changed into the jump suit and preceded up the tressel after rubbing on some wax.  I pretty much knew to rub on the wax or I was going to regret it with the wet snow.

 

I took the first jump and ended up jumping late.  For some reason in the past couple of weeks I have started jumping late quite often.  Most of the first half of the season I had been jumping on time, now I seem to be jumping late more often than not.  I didn't get the ankles cocked like I should have.  I did correct this on the second jump and kept them pretty much cocked the rest of the evening.

 

The second jump was a little better on the timing.  I ended up dropping the ankles in the air and as usual had my head down.

 

On the last three jumps I did better but did also notice that I was getting out over the skis by bending at the waist versus moving out over the skis/continuing the move.  I was doing great with keeping the ankles cocked but the head was still buried in the snow versus looking to the transition.

 

I didn't crash again tonight.  I guess I will have to try removing the padding that I have been keeping in the jump suit to help protect my behind in case I fall.  I have just taken a pair of sweats and folded them up and put them down inside the suit around the right butt cheek and the tailbone area.  I'll have to pull it out tomorrow night if I get the chance to jump.

 

Crash

Myth #3 Debunked: Part 13

How does the old saying go?  Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me.  YEAH RIGHT!

 

As I finish up debunking this myth, The US doesn't have the talent, I have to say that words can do far worse than hurt, then can flat out destroy a jumpers career early on without even trying.  As I have shown through the Mind Of A Ski Jumper series so far and have also shown in this series, all it takes is once for a negative emotion to get formed.  This negative emotion can lead to a jumper have a hard time picking up the sport, to not being able to compete with the rest of the world even though he can compete fine on home turf.

 

The smartest thing that any coach can do is to learn to watch what he says to his jumpers.  The phrase, "The US doesn't have the talent" and "The US can't compete against the world" both need to be dropped completely from coaches vocabulary in the United States.  These phrases have caused far more harm than they could ever hope to do good.

 

As a coach it is not only important to watch the jumper but to also watch what you say to the jumper.  If your not using psychologically for the benefit of the jumper than you are using psychologically for the hinderance of the jumper.  If you are not coaching psychology than you are wasting both your time and the time of the jumper.

 

As I pointed out in Part 11, EFT can be used to quickly change a jumpers technique.  You need to get the jumper to perform the technique correctly, with or without skis(emos, bugles, bungees, etc), and then using EFT, make the feeling of doing it the right way feel familiar(see Part 11, on installing new behaviors).  You want to program the mind that this way of performing the technique is natural.  It is the mind that controls the body.  Once you make the mind comfortable in the position it will make the body feel comfortable in the position.  It's all about the mind, not the body.  It can happen with as little as one round of tapping, but it may take several rounds to get the mind to accept this new feeling.  Once the mind believes that this is the correct way of jumping than it should allow the jumper to perform the same move at the takeoff.  The jumper should be able to do this move with confidence, without feeling scared or without pulling back.  If a jumper moves out over the skis and reports feeling scared have him tap on the feeling(Even though I feel scared when I move out over the skis...).  If the jumper pulls back than go back and get the jumper to perform the technique correctly on the ground and have him tap again.  The more extreme the "move out over the skis" you can get the jumper to make on the ground and than tap it into familiarity, the greater the move out over the skis will be in the air.  This is why I am questioning the benefits of any of the current dry land training methods(emos, bugles, or bungees).  I'm not an "expert" ski jumper by any means so I do plan to talk to a few different people to clarify a few things before I start building a new training concept that I have come up with in the past couple of days(February 20, 21, 22).  I'll keep you updated as to what I end up doing.

 

I do believe that by using EFT you can reprogram any part of the body, even going as far as changing slow twitch muscles into fast twitch muscles or vice versa.  I haven't seen or heard of anyone trying it as of yet, but I wouldn't be surprise if it could be accomplished.  EFT is just so powerful when used correctly.  It's the mind that controls the body and what the body can or cannot do.  By reprogramming the mind you can also reprogram the body.

 

I hope you have enjoyed this series, and more importantly I hope you take benefit of it and see great results in your jumping performance.  Let me know how it goes.

 

Until next time

Keep your ski tips up,

Crash