"Inside the Ski Racing Mind: Don't Talk About Results!"

http://skiracing.com/?q=node/11377

This article talks briefly about the psychological and physical effects of focusing on the results of ski racing and the anxiety involved. It encourages focusing on the process necessary to ski your best instead of your finish and end results of a good race.

The article is eerily applicable to my life, because it addresses the very problem I have been dealing with.
     Last year I joined our school's ski racing team. Mr. Vanderkamp, knowing I loved to ski, highly encouraged it. It turned out to be an awesome decision. It has taken two years, hours of hard work, inspecting courses, waxing skis, and broken goggles, ski poles, and ski boots. It's taken crashes and wipes, concussions and constant bruises. And finally, I am a very competitive ski racer. I have the possibility, if I ski my best, to finish in the top 15. And that's when the pressure and anxiety and fear are interjected into the scene. I race and miss gates, and lose skis, and blow out of courses. It's heartbreaking and frustrating.
     This article, though, shows me that I'm thinking about it all wrong. I'm so focused on the results of a good race, that it detracts from me racing well. Instead, I'm going to focus solely on training at practice, and on race day, I'll focus on tightening my boots, inspecting the course, and setting up my turns early. I'll note every gate combination in the course and how I'll ski each of them. I'll line up at the start, and stretch out my legs to get warm, and when the starter says, "go when ready," I'll give it all. I'll pop out of the start and give it all. And when it comes to the finish?
We'll see.