fear of speed

Mikei,

You are openly expressing what most of us never admit to ~ fear. Good on you. The trick is to rationalise the fear.

In reality, speed itself should not be the issue. Loss of control, falling, and the effects of the fall are the issue.

For example, imagine yourself on your favourite blue slope, skiing as fast as you can safely ski. Does it feel good? You bet it does, you are going fast, and you know you can stop.

So go to the next level run, ski not as fast as you did on the blue, but you don't feel as comfortable. Why? Because you are closer to your limit of control.

Why should this be?

Do you go into ski school every year?

If you don't, then how will you learn the next bit of technique that is going to help you move forward? Learning to ski is gradual, and I am still learning after forty years.

If you do get lessons every year, but don't make the progress that you really want to make, then change something. Or change everything. Change your ski school, or the resort, take privates, ski in Colorado. Do something different.

If you are capable of skiing red runs, just think how much you have improved since you first started skiing.

One turn at a time.

Dave Mac wrote:Mikei,
You are openly expressing what most of us never admit to ~ fear.

What fear Dave Mac :?: The "Fear of Death" that Pavel mentioned :?: :mrgreen:

Mikei... like Dave Mac points out lack of control leads to these fears. It's when you're suddenly launched off an unexpected bump or jump and you suddenly realize the landing may hurt. You think to yourself (or out loud) "Ohhh this isn't going to be good" The fear of the pending pain has made you realize that you're out of control.

I have tried to push the comfort zone over the years only to find that "thrill of speed" really does overcome "the fear of death". And the more you push this comfort zone the more control you will develop.

Above all ... don't let your friends push this zone for you .... you push it for yourself - when you're ready to. :D

Mike :wink:

mikei wrote:hi all im just wondering if any of ye ever suffered from the above subject.
i've been skiing now for 6 years and only this year i managed to get the nerve to go down a black it was the face in valdsere i enjoyed it alot when i got to the bottom,but i must say it bothers me a small bit that some people i was with kept saying to me to go faster.as you can imagine i
thanks

Congratulations on getting down Le Face upright. It's steep. I have been skiing a long time, been to the resort many times and have yet to ski it.

Going fast is not the primary goal of skiing, unless you are wearing a race bib. Recreational skiing is meant to be fun, and if hooning down crowded pistes is not your thing don't worry too much. It would make sense for you to have a private lesson next time you are in resort, just to check if there is anything specific which is causing your loss of bottle. You might do better on longer skis,if you are on short modern carvers, they can be rather twitchy if you are heavy (for example).

Modern recreational skiing has got faster and not everyone wants to go fast on piste. I went through a timing light at 83kph a few years ago in a swiss resort, it was scary. All I could think about was avoiding catching an edge, and I don't like skiing that fast.

Perhaps it's time for you to look at the whole mountain as your playground, and not just the strips bashed flat by the lift company. There is much more to skiing. :D

bandit wrote:
Going fast is not the primary goal of skiing, unless you are wearing a race bib. Recreational skiing is meant to be fun, and if hooning down crowded pistes is not your thing don't worry too much. :D

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Mike :wink:

bandit wrote:

mikei wrote:hi all....

Going fast is not the primary goal of skiing, unless you are wearing a race bib.

I fully agree, it seems in Austria at least the primary goal of skiing is to get as drunk as possible )

Bandit wrote:

Dave Mac wrote:

Bandit wrote:

I went through a timing light at 83kph a few years ago in a swiss resort

Respect!

And I mean it.