Confidence

Hi to everyone here, name is Julie, I am 27 and live in Manchester

Been skiing 10 years now, most years go at least twice a year, so fairly competent. Had my share of falls and scrapes, skied into a ditch while racing a friend once, lost control in pitch dark and hit a bridge, but always got up and carried on, if not that day the next opportunity I got.

Last year had an opportunity to go late season. On my very last run I hit a ice patch and I fell, hurt my knee, got helped down by my father who was with me and a few weeks later I had forgotten about it.

Went on my own to Italy a couple weeks back, and found my confidence had gone. I felt hesitant and unsure

In a few weeks time going to France with some friends, who are all really good skiers

Anyone suffered such confidence loss before

I hear you. For some of us, confidence is a fragile thing. It's a pity that you weren't able to get back on the horse at the time of the fall.

Skiing is a little like cutting glass. If you have a sheet of glass to cut with a straight edge, and cutting tool, there are two ways to go about it. The first way is to be very, very careful. Not press the cutter too hard, and very gingerly snap the pane along the scribe. This will very often result in a broken piece of glass. The second way is to be confident (I like to say, "treat the glass with contempt"). Apply solid pressure to the tool, snap the scribe with aplomb. Chances are, you will get a perfect cut. Hitting an ice patch is very much the same thing. As soon as you are scared into the back seat, don't ride out the slide, you are likely to fall. What this means is that, if mid turn you hit some ice, stay with it, in balance, and KNOW the skis will grip again.

One thing you could do, is take a private lesson with a good instructor. Tell them your problem. Often being with someone you have confidence in, will give you confidence. If they judge that you can do this run, this move, this drill, it will help you feel you can do it.

Otherwise skiing with friends will be very different from being on your own. The big thing is, to be honest with them about your confidence, and let ego go out the window. Let them help you work back up to where you were (assuming they are good people).

Trencher

I am with Trencher on this one. I would think a lesson or two with an instructor in France will help you get your confidence back and if you explain the reason why you lost your confidence they will go through a couple of drills to help you next time you are in this position.

If a lesson is a no no then go out with your friends but make sure they are aware of the problem and hopefully they will be sympatheic and try to help you along your way when you are out there rather than ski off and let you tackle the problem on your own..

Another suggestion if you are really worried is to head down to the Chill Factore and either have a ski there and try to build your confidence on their slope or even take a lesson before you head off.

You may benefit from a private lesson - worked well for my wife who had the misfortune to do her ACL at the end of her first week's skiing & hit a psychological wall when it gets steep after that. Group lessons didn't help but some one to one work with a good instructor helped her get over that.

You may well find that, as a more experinced skier, you may well be fine after a while.

I suspect you've developed an appreciation that falling can hurt which seems to be absent in some.
It's like a car crash - you become much more aware of the dangers posed by the road conditions and other drivers.

Too many ski like they have no appreciation of danger (that's OK until they hurt someone else) and some are over cautious. For a while you'll be in the latter category. The ideal is somewhere in the middle - you'll know when you are there as you've sampled both ends of the spectrum.

A private lesson may help. But experience tells me that confidence is something only you yourself can deal with. No matter what anyone tells you, what goes on inside your head at the top of a hill or half way down it is your issue only.

When you say confidence, are you actually now scared that you will hurt yourself, or do you mean that you feel totally different now at the top of a slope?

A number of lady skiers I know suffer from lack of confidence, inasmuch as they are good technical skiers who really could and should progress, but do not let themselves progress because they refuse to allow their skis to run downhill - this is simply a lack of confidence.

You sound like you have certainly let the skis run many times before, so I dont think thats the issue, or wasnt anyway. Therefore, it must be that you are now afraid, which is something totally different to a lack of confidence.

Understandably, after a couple of accidents, you now are approching it subconsciously with a different state of mind. What you simply need to do, IMO, is ski within your own ability and build up some self confidence before you really start to let go again. It may take a few days, or even a few trips, but all you need to tell yourself if you did it before, you can do it again. You have the ability, you just need to be strong mentally and take it easy to begin with, and it will come back to you I am sure.

Best of luck with it. Be strong.

I feel your pain, I'm in the same situation (but at a much lower ability level).

On my last trip I was with my husband and two sons who are a lot better than me. Unfortunately, it made me feel like I was the worst skier on the mountain. I did better when I went down a run ahead of them rather than being left behind.

The best day I had was when we stuck to a certain area and there happened to be a group lesson who we saw a few times. I was managing a lot better than them and I had my best afternoon's skiing ever as it bumped my confidence.

A lesson/lessons certainly wouldn't do you any harm but, as has been said, I'd also hope my friends would help me along for a little while.

Good luck :thumbup:

Caron, correct me if I am wrong, but I thought you had given up on skiing and had taken up boarding because you were not able to progress because of an injury?

Tony_H wrote:because you were not able to progress because of an injury?

My injury is not stopping me from skiing, it's all pschological.
I didn't really want to bring it up on this thread as Julie was looking for advice to carry on skiing.

However, now Tony's brought it up... if all else fails, try boarding :mrgreen: