Mental Factors that Affect Ski Racing Success

Currently based in New York, Keefe Gorman works at Merrill Lynch as a manager and advisor. When he is not in the office at Merrill Lynch, Keefe Gorman is a longtime competitive skier who is involved with a number of ski racing organizations.

Ski racing is a challenging sport, and having strong technical skiing skills is not necessarily enough to achieve success in races. That’s because ski racing is a mental activity as well as a physical one. When training for a race, there are a number of influencers skiers should focus on so that they feel mentally prepared when the race starts and satisfied with their performance when the race is over.

One important aspect that affects both physical ability and mental state is preparation. Not only does a person need to train become physically capable of skiing well consistently, but he or she also needs to practice in order to build the confidence needed to ski well.

Ski racers should also consider their personal perceptions of the activity. This includes understanding one’s reasons for competing, what one hopes to achieve, and how one measures success or failure. Since perspective affects a number of factors when competing, including the emotions a person feels during the competition, it is an important element to consider.

Finally, the person needs to develop the mental fortitude needed to ski well when it matters, namely at race time. A person can have great skiing abilities, but he or she needs to be able to perform under the pressure of the race to make full use of those skills in a competitive setting.