Huh I forgot how to ski tournaments

[Than_Bogan]

Last year I was practicing well -- maybe the best of my life. And skiing even better in tournaments, including running a -38 when I hadn't yet completed one in practice.

 

This year my practice is clearly the best of my life, but I can't get a tournament score to save my life. Last 11 rounds I've run -35 one time. And most of those were good sites with good conditions. In practice I don't think I've have a streak of even 3 without a make for the entire season. And that includes some crazy backwash and chop sometimes.

 

I can only hope it's because I'm working on some technical improvements, which are working in practice, but maybe in tournaments I partially revert and am doing some mishmosh technique that makes no sense.

 

Anyhow, I'll be sliding quite a bit in the rankings in the near future. But I'll be back someday. All streaks end.

[A_B]

Have you checked your rope? Sounds silly, but I know one of my friends skied on a rope that was too long and it really messed him up.

 

Is driving really straight or are they helping?

 

Are you too hyped up at tournaments? Have a routine everytime you ski, allow ample warmup time (hard to do when you are out on a tower or dock starter on your feet for two ours). Drink a lot of water.

 

Are you running at least one tournament set when you ski? This puts more pressure on than thinking if you miss it's no big deal. Record your top scores and compare to your tournament scores.

 

It will get better.

[6balls]

Ouch @than do you practice on ZO? .

Hang in there, you are better than your tourney scores. Ski some tourney sets in practice right down the line and you will be ready. Second set back it off and run a pile of 32's working on technique.

[Than_Bogan]

Thanks for some ideas guys. The "bad" news is I have all that covered. Measured both ropes recently and one was actually almost out on the short side, so lengthened it. Now both almost exact at -35 and -38. I practice equally on both PP and ZO, and get the same scores. My tournament prep and mindset seem to be the same as last year (and really hasn't changed much for many years). And I ski about 50% of my sets straight down the rope. Oh, and same old Senior driver in practice for 80%+ of my sets.

 

Just one of those things. I'm a bit less focused on tournaments this year after runing -38 last year, and I've been working on really getting fundamentally better. That seems to be working -- in practice. I didn't expect quite such a step back in tourament scores, but I expect they'll catch up eventually!

[6balls]

@than I sometimes ski worse in a tourney when I've been skiing well in practice just do to pressure and expectations. Some of my best scores have been when I had not skied in 3 weeks and really only showed up to watch my brother, but figured I may as well ski since I'm there. Probably hard not to think about getting thru another 38 for you...maybe set the bar lower?

[ForrestGump]

A Big Dawg recently called Charles and asked him what he could do for much the same issue. He would kill it in practice and then forget how to ski tournaments. He was told to start going out and varying his approach to running up the rope in practice. Never do two sets in a row the same. Say start at 28, opt to 35, 38, etc. Next set, Go out at 32, 35, 38, 39. Next set 28, opt to 35, opt to 39. Next set go out at 35, opt to 39. And on and on. Not that you'd ever see any of the conditions that would warrant that. But so that he knew when he got on the dock he had practiced and mastered every combination. Since then, he's gone into 41 off 6 straight tournament rounds out of 6, I believe. Something to think about.

[Double7s]

I try tricking myself that a tourney is just a practice.

I you boat driver helping you to much? I probably rarely miss a 35 in practice, but if 1ball is a foot farther out in a tourney panic kicks in and a bad start.

Have a bloody mary before a tourney! Or 2!!!

[Razorskier1]

I'm like @Double7s. I just think of it as a practice set on a great site with a great driver and go from there.

[Than_Bogan]

Ended that streak. Ran 35 @ regionals and again cold in a runoff.

Great start @ 38 with a light tail but panicked for no reason @ 2. Actually my best reg or nat score.

[Chef23]

@Than great skiing you looked great at 38 in that tail.

[Than_Bogan]

@chef23 Thanks. In retrospect, that poor mental discipline at 2 was quite costly. I very possibly could have gotten to 4 there, maybe even finished as high as 2nd because Matt Pullano didn't ski very well (for him).

 

But of course wouldda and shouldda don't even count in horseshoes...

 

Anyhow, certainly can't complain about my best Regional score. I've almost got the skill to do something at -38 now, but I think it may take a long time to have the confidence, mental discipline, experience, etc., where I can relax enough (but not TOO much) to go deep on that pass in a one-round Record.

 

The cold -35 in the runoff was also cool. I'm fairly sure I've never tried that before in any setting. Given that Pat and I both succeeded at it, I guess it must not be that hard :).

 

Nice comeback after my very-sub-par weekend at The Easiest Site Ever (Johns Pond).

[Horton]

Hell I think I just forgot how to ski. Stupid Sport

[RichardDoane]

@horton - you should dust off your Trick and Jumpers, and get back on the 3 event wagon...

[Horton]

Then i could suck at 3 events