Tips To Recover From A Disappointing Competition

Welcome back. I'm so glad you're here. I am Coach Julia and today we are going to talk about something that probably will feel a little bit like mental health for a lot of you. So we have just been through a competition season here at our rink. The ISI World Championships just finished a week and a half ago or so and so I've been thinking about some of my skaters did Amazing and they got placements they were really really excited about but at every competition there are also people who do not win and maybe even come in last. I mean there's always going to be someone who comes in at the bottom and I had a few of those skaters at ISI World Championships as well. You don't know what's going to happen. You know you can prepare and plan But competition day is a whole different animal. So today I wanted to talk to you about some ways to handle not getting the placement that you were hoping for at a competition. Anytime you lose, there's going to be an emotional process that happens, all right? It's that process of sort of grieving over something you were trying for and it didn't work. I mean, there's lots of times in life that that happens in lots of ways that are not related to skating. So you can learn how to handle grief in skating, and maybe it'll help you handle grief in other ways in your life a little bit better. But here are some ideas. First off, remember, every competition is always you against yourself. Doesn't matter if you're really you against yourself and it's only one person in your category or if there's 20 other people in your category, it's still you against yourself. So it doesn't really matter who else is competing. All right. You might be competing against someone who is way, way better than you and you're standing on the side and you're like, oh, my goodness. Wow. This is going to be a tough one, but it's still you against yourself because at the end of the day, you can only control your own skating. You can't control how the judges place that skating. You can't control what other skaters are in your category and how much they're training, how many years of training, how many hours they put into the ice, how many lessons they have every week. You can't control any of that. What you can control is your attitude, your training program, The hours you put in on the ice, the hours you put in stretching and doing off ice, how many lessons you take, whether or not you're really absorbing all of your coach's information, whether or not you're taking notes and applying your coach's feedback. So it's always you against yourself. So if you want to do well in competition, look at how you are training And look at how you are using your ice time. Look at how you are warming up, how you're stretching out. All right, so you get to control your experience, basically, which hopefully should be empowering that you can go, all right, I had a bad experience. My last competition did not go well, but it's me against myself. So for the next competition, what can I do to get myself into a better place for the next event? Right? Okay, so if it's you against yourself, that means you get to be empowered to skate the best you can. Another tip for feeling good about your competition event, regardless of your placement, is to discuss with your coach a few goals for your skate. So if you're one of those skaters who's standing on the side and you're like oh my goodness that skater over there is just incredible and I know I'm not coming in first. What can I do to feel like I have achieved what I wanted to achieve out on the ice? This is a something where you and your coach can set goals. So say you're doing a camel spin and you've been struggling to get enough rotations If you can get your six rotations in your camel spin, Maybe that is a checkbox. You can say, I had a successful skate. Regardless of my placement, we decided I was going to focus on getting enough rotations on the camel spin, and I did it. Or maybe it is getting a jump combo that you've been struggling with. Or maybe it's having better flow across the ice. Or whatever it is, you and your coach can identify one thing or a handful of things that you are trying to do just a little bit better in this event, in this program. And so if you come in fifth, but you have checked off some of those boxes that, okay, I did this better, I did this better, I did this better, I still need to work on this over here, at least you have something that you can say I accomplished in that event, even if you didn't place where you wanted to place. Another thing that you always want to do at competition is use the entire experience to learn. So it is difficult to watch your competitors, it can make you more nervous, but if at all possible after you skate, watch some of the other people in your category. So once you're done with your program, you can turn around and instead of being like, oh my gosh, hey friends, what did you think? You can stay in that competition mindset and watch your competitors. This is going to do a few things. It either will give you some frame of reference for your placement you can think really analytically like what are the judges going to think of these and try not to let your emotions get involved you want to look at their flow across the ice you want to look at the speed you want to look at the cleanliness of their jumps how many rotations are they getting on their spins how many different positions are they hitting in their spins what is their footwork like what is their choreographic sequence looks like right so you can learn from other people in your category and then When you see the placements, you can go, huh, well, that person came in ahead of me, and I watched their program, and I can see that they're doing this, this, this, and this really well. So maybe those are things I need to work on so that I can get that better placement next time I go out, right? So watch other people. If it's not in your exact category, try to find other Other people in your level. So other events that are not your event. But that are the same level as you or maybe the level above so that you can see what your competitors are doing or what the level above you is doing to try to build your skating to look like those skaters so that if you come away not placing well. A, you've watched your competitors, you know why maybe, like, okay, well, this person had a much cleaner lutz, or this person's spins were a lot faster, or they had much better flow in their choreographic sequence or their footwork. Okay, and that gives you something to work on when you get home. So use your experience, your time there. To learn and give yourself some idea about where other skaters at your level are and this will help you process where you've landed in the placement. I have two more little tidbits about not coming in well in competition. One of those is simply you have to learn how to have a tough skin, all right? You have to learn to suck it up a little bit and go back. Alright, so that's one but it's kind of hinging on the other and that is a question and there's really only one answer if you want to compete. That question is do you love the sport of figure skating regardless of whether or not you win? You have to ask yourself that question before you compete. Do you love the sport of figure skating whether or not you win? If you don't love it, enough. All right. If you just want to win first place and that's what's going to make you happy, this is maybe not the right sport. Okay. I mean, just that's facts. But if you love this sport anyway, if you love getting to fly across the ice or getting to jump or getting to spin or getting to express yourself through the movement and the music and the costumes or whatever it is, if you love the sport of figure skating, Then you'll be able to develop that tough skin, all right, and then you can keep going back out there over and over and doing your best, right, and maybe winning, maybe losing, maybe using it as a learning experience, but you can know that the experience of skating is something you love anyway. So before you get out onto the ice for your event, before you step out, When you're getting yourself ready and you're taking a couple of breaths and the last skater's finishing their program and your coach is getting you, you know, the last moment pep talk or whatever, take a moment and say, I love this sport anyway. I love this sport whatever happens. I love this sport. because of this or because of this. I love this sport regardless of whether I come in first or I come in 20th. And if you can remind yourself of that for just a moment before you step out on the ice, it's going to bring you joy. It's going to bring you some peace. And then you can go out and perform with your own personal feeling of happiness that you're doing something you love. And that might affect your skate. But it will at least affect your feelings about the outcome of your skate. Alright, those are just a few little tidbits. Some of my thoughts about how to handle not coming in where you wanted after a competition. If you enjoyed this video, please do give us that thumbs up. And as always, I'm looking forward to reading all your comments in that section down below. If you haven't subscribed yet, then hit that subscribe button so you can see all my videos when they come out. Happy skating, and I'll see you next time.