The other day I was sitting with a friend and getting a few guitar lessons, saying I’m musically challenged is an understatement, I asked “how do you remember all this?” and his response was “you just have to find that spot and then it all comes easy.”
After thinking, for sometime, about what the “spot” is, I reflected on what that “place” is for me when skiing. Growing up skiing was always there and trying to keep up with the older kids when your less athletic was always a challenge. I always had to try to be the best, wondered what people thought all the time, and took it way to damn serious. Skiing was never just about relaxing, making turns, and hitting jumps. It always seemed to be a competition, a proving ground, and then the fun started leeching out of it.
It could have just been me not liking the sport anymore or maybe it was just part of being a teenager. It goes for every sport and athlete I think. A person reaches a point in their sport where it is difficult to progress and seems like a never ending plateau of the same old routine. Plateaus are really common in weight and conditioning training. First, you start with a workout and a goal. Second, the goal comes and goes. Third, you find yourself asking the question “what next?”.
When skiing, I had this very question and the answer was far different than expected.
The day was up at Stevens Pass, roughly late teens, and I no longer cared about others thought or said and just concentrated on fun and the enjoyment of the sport. As a result, my skiing become smooth, more agile, less aggressive, more powerful and solid, and a lot more crazy (hopefully the knees hold up to the crazy).
The pressure was gone; lost in last in the previous season. It seemed everything about skiing made sense. Understanding body motion and center of gravity, how to hold edges no matter the terrain, learning to fly and use the body like a gyroscope, and staying relaxed through the whole thing.
Now I ski with a variety of people, skill levels, and primarily snowboarders. It changes everything about riding and you can get a fresh perspective on the sport. Snowboarding brings a unique dynamic to skiing because their is some carry over and park riding is a blast. Why should snowboarders have all the fun?
So have fun even if you fall down in the light line 
(I still haven’t master that hurdle yet).
