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Transition

Mental Skills for Racing: Visualization

February 22, 2017 By Stano Faban Leave a Comment

Mental training is a commonly overlooked aspect of preparation for athletic competition. At best, most of us use only a few mental skills to cope with the difficulty of training and racing. In this article, we will take you through a few skills that will come in handy during a skimo season.

What is Visualization

Visualization is a method for practicing skills without actually physically performing them. It’s possible to use to practice technique (including transitions), overcome distractions, and prepare for more general race situations. Visualization training requires nothing more than a quiet space and some free time. Many strategies exist for visualization and the following are some that work best for us.

Lenzi leaving for a boot-pack in front of Jornet. ISMF photo.
Perfecting transitions through visualization is very effective. ISMF photo.

Preparation

Start by identifying visualization scenarios in three categories: Techniques, Distractions, and Racing Situations. I like to write things down so I start by dividing things I want to practice into three columns with the above categories as the title.
Technique visualization is used to develop a specific skill. In skimo, transitions are a good example of a technique that many of us need to improve and in which visualization can be employed.
Distractions are any type of adverse event in a race from which you must recover. A crash, a failed skin, or a frozen water bottle are all possible examples of distractions.
Racing Situations are more general, such as a start of a race, passing a competitor, skiing a difficult descent and so on.
In each column, on your piece of paper, write down as many scenarios of possible visualizations that you can think of. They can be specific to a single race or general to the racing environment. Once you’ve identified a handful of each, choose one at a time to visualize. I try to only do one or two scenarios per visualization session so they can remain clear in my mind rather than confused with many. You can do your visualization entirely in your head or write down some prompts (action steps). Notecards can be useful, writing the scenario on one side and then written prompts taking you through the visualization on the other – this way you are building yourself a library of scenarios and actions for future reference.

Visualization

There are several important things to include in the visualization process but most important is that it is as polysensory and positive as possible:
Polysensory refers to including as many senses as possible. While visualizing, you should not only see the scenario but also feel it. In a racing situation, this might include a cold, biting wind, fatigued legs, and the taste of blood from exertion! Include as many physical sensations and environmental conditions as possible.
Positive means that all visualizations should be resulting in a positive outcome. If you visualize yourself failing, you are setting yourself up for failure. Instead, always visualize yourself at your best! In the case of visualizing distractions, while you are initially experiencing something negative, through the course of the visualization, you should be realigning with it in the best possible manner and reversing it into something positive. A good way to think about it is to consider the problem or distraction and then think, if my coach was standing next to me right now, what would they say? You will picture the best version of yourself in that scenario.
Visualization can include a combination of 1st and 3rd person perspective. Some athletes like to see things through their own eyes while others like looking from above and seeing their body move through the action. I believe a bit of both is best – 1st person allows you to best feel the physical and emotional sensations while 3rd person allows you to see your body acting perfectly.
Finally, visualization should include all the emotions associated with that particular scenario. If you are visualizing a distraction, try to internally feel the frustration and panic initially but then regain composure and experience the confidence as you quickly act to correct the problem and finish stronger than before.

Putting it all together

Here is a particular situation (starting a race) and my visualization process:
I’ve got all my gear prepared perfectly – skis are waxed, skins are glued, and everything else is dialled and fits like a glove. I’m just finishing my warmup and even though the weather is a bit cold, I’m quite warm. I ski up to the start corral and feel my heart-rate settling as the race official checks my beacon. After I drop my jacket and pull up to the start line, I feel a bit of a chill but also the excitement of the race about to start. Standing still, my heart rate increases as I tense up. With a few deep breaths, my heart rate stabilizes. I relax my grip on my poles and get positioned for the start. The gun fires and I take off running, keep breathing, smooth stride, poling fast…
Do you use visualization to improve your skiing? What other mental skills do you use to prepare for training or events?

Filed Under: General News & Articles, Training, Tricks & Tips Tagged With: Mental Training, skimo technique, Training, Transition, Visualization

Skimo World Cup Sprint: Video Transition Technique Analysis

February 10, 2016 By Stano Faban 1 Comment

skimo-racing-transition-world-cup
Sprint races are not really my forte when it comes to skimo racing. However, they are incredibly spectator friendly (good for the sport) and allow mortal athletes to closely watch the top guys.
After a quick spin, but not quick enough, around the sprint track at the recent Alpiniski World Cup in the qualifying round, I made a point to post up at the transition areas to watch the race leaders and their technique. I shot four videos from the men’s semi-final rounds and the final. Because the race also served as European Championships, there was a strong field in attendance.
There are three transitions in the race: 1) skinning to boot-pack where skis get attached to the backpack, 2) boot-pack to skinning, and 3) skinning to skiing or skins off for the descend. In a sprint race, every fraction of a second counts at each transition so regular practice is an absolute must.

Skinning to Boot-pack

In this semi-final round we see two Swiss athletes (black suits) using a “kneeling technique” to transition into the boot-pack. Notice their fluid movements when the bindings are released and stepped out of. The skis are put on the pack and then the poles grabbed before standing up.

The slow-motion section shows the faster Swiss athlete using the kneeling technique.
In the third clip of this video, we see athletes putting their skis on their packs without kneeling. This technique appears to be slightly faster but the margin of error makes it essentially the same.
Transition times (in seconds) are listed with each clip for the athletes followed and times are from the moment the poles hit the ground to the moment they come off the ground:
#8 – 7.4s
#24 – 7.7s
#1 – 6.9s
#7 – 7.0s
#9 – 7.4s
#67 – 8.1s

Boot-pack to Skinning

Here we see the athletes putting their skis on at the end of the boot-pack. It’s not a very technical movement but notice how they stay bent over the entire time. They drop the skis, open the bindings, step in to each, and THEN stand up with the poles.

Times for the first two were as follows:
#5 – 6.5s
#2 – 7.3s

Skins off: Skinning to Skiing


The mythical double-skin rip is pretty standard fare on the World Cup.
The first clip shows Italy’s Robert Antonioli into the transition first, he went on to become the new European Champion. He actually makes the transition look pretty mellow.
The carefully watch the last guy into the transition (Swiss – #4 – Yannick Eccour), he is the fastest of the group and looks very smooth. After that you will realize that Antonioli made few errors – he didn’t get his heels clicked in at once and took few pulls to get the skins off – but Eccour is flawless.
For the double-rip, watch #69 (Austrian). The key is to lock the heels first with a little hop, then bend forward to reach both skin tips and rip simultaneously. Some subtle differences to the Italian style! Also, notice the Austria athlete clipping his clip-in style ski poles simultaneously while already fully parked in the transition. It takes him more time as the others, using traditional ski poles loops, take their poles off while still moving forward. And final interesting points is that five of them are using the same ski poles from Leki.
Their times were as follows:
#2 – 10.7s (Antonioli)
#1 – 12.1s
#5 – 14.6s
#7 – 13.4s
#69 – 13.8s
#4 – 8.5s
Study up the videos and practice your technique! A few tens of a second in a sprint and even an individual race can make a big difference!
For more skimo racing technique tips see our Manual For Ski Mountaineering Racing e-book.

Filed Under: Racing 101, Training, Tricks & Tips Tagged With: Anton Palzer, Robert Antonioli, skimo technique, sprint race, Transition, World Cup, Yannick Eccour

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