Confidence

I can snowboard but prefer skiing!

Yeah!

I don't know, really, but trying to get through it seems best.

Being no experienced skiier, and risk-averse, I lost confidence at the beginning of the season (my third) and had a horrible day, started at the top of a red and fell twice within the first 60 seconds skiing of the year, and wondered why the hell anyone would want to slide down a mountain on a couple of boards. Remembering what I learned last year in terms of technique, during first two ski days, helped. So technique does give confidence, which means lessons may help. Now a few ski days later fear has gone, as I know I am unlikely to have a bad fall if I take it easy, except when I am tired. I found I have been coping with black runs and ice safely, when I have had to, though I don't enjoy either, or do it in any style. Seeing it working counteracts fear. I still fear collisions from snowboards travelling at racing speeds, and skiers who are visibly wobbling and flailing around.

Innsbrucker wrote:I don't know, really, but trying to get through it seems best.

Being no experienced skiier, and risk-averse, I lost confidence at the beginning of the season (my third) and had a horrible day, started at the top of a red and fell twice within the first 60 seconds skiing of the year, and wondered why the hell anyone would want to slide down a mountain on a couple of boards. Remembering what I learned last year in terms of technique, during first two ski days, helped. So technique does give confidence, which means lessons may help. Now a few ski days later fear has gone, as I know I am unlikely to have a bad fall if I take it easy, except when I am tired. I found I have been coping with black runs and ice safely, when I have had to, though I don't enjoy either, or do it in any style. Seeing it working counteracts fear. I still fear collisions from snowboards travelling at racing speeds, and skiers who are visibly wobbling and flailing around.

Innsbrucker, you encapsulate the confidence issue.
~ You are a third season skier, and you acknowledge that you are still learning your craft.
~ Lessons are important, three or four years, (not with unqualified girlfriend!)
~ When you are tired, stop skiing, end of day is the busiest time for the Bergrittung.

Oh, I went 3 years without falling, (on-piste, off piste, I expect to fall), then I fell 3 times in my first day of the season! It happens.

Bonfire wrote: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.

The OP hardly sounds like a novice to be fair. I dont disagree that lessons may help, but I do disagree that its an issue in your own head that only you can REALLY deal with. Lessons will help technique and make you think "oh yeah, I can do this" - great for early skiiers, but for someone with that amount of experience, I would wager this is purely a psychological issue.

Whenever I go on a skiing I set myself the challenge of not falling on one day.
The first week was a tad optimistic.
The second week - so near but managed to fall on the last run every time a clear round looked on.
The third week I had no chance - skiing with an instructor friend of mine who was determined to push me!
It took until the fourth week & got a clear round all week.

Fallen pleanty of time since then!

If you don't fall you are probably not challenging yourself.
Accept it as part of skiing in the same way you would playing any sport.
We all trip up walking from time to time.

Falling the first few times after recovering from injury is part of moving on. It's all about overcoming irrational fears and dealing sensibly with the rational ones.

Totally agree with that Andy.
I used to fall over all the time, because I was impatient and pushed myself too hard too fast. Luckily I never did myself any damage, but I managed to progress all the time. I am by no means an advanced skier, or particularly experienced compared to many, but I am a competent and confident skier who will tackle anything, and invariably get down it without any trouble.

Falling when skiing is a sign of being out of control to a degree, and when you push yourself you are stepping outside of levels you are comfortable with, but there is no development without pushing yourself. Otherwise you plateau out at a level and never get anywhere.
My mates GF is a perfect example of this, and her issue is - guess what - confidence! She has the right technique (apart from a tendancy to sit back a little) and can get down any slope you put her on, as long as you dont tell what colour piste it is or allow her to look down the hill!
As such, she always skis across the slope like you are taught to in lessons, at a particularly sedate pace, and almost never falls over. However, I cannot ski with her as it stops me from getting about, as she is so slow top to bottom of a piste. BUT she gets there.
All she needs to do is point the skis more downhill and allow some speed to build up, before putting in a turn which she KNOWS will slow her down or bring her to a stop if needs be. But she refuses to do this. Therefore, her level has plateau'd out and she is never going to get any better. It is such a shame for all of us, as her BF and my mate is a particularly good skier, and we would all love to be able to bomb around the mountain together. But unless something drastic changes, it aint gonna happen!

Anyway, I digress slightly. The point here is exactly what you say, that without pushing yourself and maybe taking a few tumbles, you are not going to progress. I do think in the case of the OP on this thread, that the issue is not one of her ability or technique, but one of having had a particularly bad crash previously which is clearly in the back of her mind, which again, I can only really say is a psychological issue for her to come to terms with.

All I can suggest is that she skies as normal, and tries to say to herself that she will be ok. We cannot any of us do anything about someone who is destined to crash into us - if we worried about that all the time, we would never ski at all, but we can be responsible for what we do ourselves. I would imagine her first day back on skis will be a little shaky, a little nervy, but after an hour or so, the confidence should come flooding back. With any luck, that will be the end of it and the ghost will be laid to rest. But only she can do that. Having a lesson beforehand may well inspire her somewhat to be told she is a competent skier, or address any issues of skiing tensely or up tight, but she still has that first hour to get through out on her own.

I have every confidence she can overcome this, providing she has the right mental attitude, and WANTS to overcome it, which I am sure she does, otherwise we would not be having this thread in the first place.

SHE needs lessons. Good ones. They will help her improve if the instructor knows what they are doing.

In my opinion setting goals of not falling is counter productive when talking about confidence. By setting the goal of not falling you are actually thinking of falling, and probably quite a bit stiffer on the skis and more likely to fall.

If you go skiing you are going to fall. Its a fact, there is no way around it. If you are scared of falling then learning or improving is going to be very hard. The trick is to try to ensure that the environment where you try to push yourself a bit is safe enough that when you fall you don't do yourself or anyone else an injury.

In terms of getting confidence back, this is something I struggle with a lot when mountain biking. After a crash its difficult to get back on the horse that threw you, so I tend to go back to more flowing non technical stuff to build up my relationship with the bike again. I found myself having to do the same thing on skis at the start of this season, but once the confidence came back the learning curve started to go back upwards too. The key is don't put yourself under pressure, it becomes a vicious self destructive circle if you do. Go back to some easier slopes that you know you really enjoy, then just ride them for fun, no pressure, no thoughts about falling and no saying you need to learn something or improve, just build up your relationship with the skis again. Then take it slowly from there.