At a camp for aspiring skaters, World and Olympic coach Audrey Weisiger shares more helpful insights on the mental aspects of training and competition. She begins by talking about her “Quads of Accomplishment” which is a way of thinking of the far reaching effects of accomplishing something important.
She uses the example of a skater accomplishing a quad lutz (difficult element). The first aspect of this accomplishment is the skater proves it to himself (feels good personally). The second aspect is the skater proves it to those watching him and helping him as part of his team (coaches/team feels good). The third aspect is the skater proves it to the skating community which creates another level of belief for others (if he can do it, I can too). And finally, the fourth aspect is the skater provides awareness and visibility to the entire sport of figure skating which can have far reaching effects in terms of funding or participation levels (more people say they like skating or want to skate). Audrey notes that skating has declined in popularity/awareness since the 1990s such that even national champions and medalists are not well known in their own countries anymore.
Audrey then offers a fun “Eating the Elephant” exercise where skaters color in an elephant on one side of a piece of paper and write their goals and dreams on the other side. The paper is then cut up so one goal/dream is on each small piece and the as the skater achieves those goals/dreams, they slowly tape the elephant back together. This is a clever way of envisioning the riddle, “How do you eat an elephant?” to which the answer is, “One bite at a time.”
Audrey briefly talks about how goals should be S.M.A.R.T. where the letters stand for Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, and Time-Based. She then shares a story about her own journey as a coach, with big goals and big accomplishments.
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