competition

Let Gratitude Carry You through the Competition Season

July 2, 2010 By Deb Chitwood 3 Comments

Will and Christina in Montreal during a Family Trip after the 2003 Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships

Will (18) and Christina (13) in Montreal during a family trip after the 2003 Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships.

It’s often said that competitions are harder on parents than on the athletes competing. That’s true in too many ways. But competitions can be made easier for everyone, thanks to gratitude.

“Gratitude is the memory of the heart.”

-Jean Baptiste Massieu

I’ve talked about gratitude and the Gratitude Community before. I truly believe that gratitude is a key to happily surviving your child’s competitions, regardless of the outcomes.

Rather than worrying about the competition outcome, adding to my list of 1000 gifts throughout a skating competition is one of the best things I’ve done to enjoy the experience. It always helped to make an extra effort to find—and create—things to be grateful for. This works well both during and right after a competition.

Attaching a mini trip to the end of a competition especially added numerous “gifts” to my gratitude list. Some of our most disappointing competitions actually had some of our most memorable trips at the end. By focusing on gratitude, my family could thoroughly enjoy the trip and forget about the competition outcome.

Have you found ways to use gratitude to make competitions better for you and your family?

Filed Under: Competition Help, Gratitude Tagged With: 1000 gifts, athletes, competition, gratitude, gratitude community, Jean Baptiste Massieu

Don’t Forget the Three Most Important Words before a Competition Performance

June 25, 2010 By Deb Chitwood 4 Comments

Will (15) and Chrissy (10) in 2000. Will and Chrissy heard “I love you” a lot throughout their competitive skating careers.

Last week, I talked about two words, “have fun,” that can help your skater (or any athlete) before a competition performance. I also like to use the words “have fun” before other skaters go onto the ice for their competition performances.

There are three words, though, that are even more important for your own skater. Those three words are “I love you.” I can’t think of anything more important before a competition than for your skater to know he or she is loved unconditionally, regardless of what happens in the performance or judging.

It would seem that our skaters should automatically know they’re loved. Still, competitions can create intense emotions. Why not be sure? It’s always good if the last thing your skater hears from you before going onto the ice is, “I love you.”

When Chrissy and Will were competing internationally, my husband and I often had to say those words over the phone. But over the phone or in person, “I love you” were still the last words Chrissy and Will heard from us before going onto the ice.

So, those were my words: “Have fun. I love you.” Or sometimes, “Have fun and enjoy performing. I love you.” Some athletes might respond best to just the three words “I love you.” What works best for you and your athlete?

Filed Under: Competition Help Tagged With: competition, I love you, performance, skaters

Don’t Forget These Two Words before a Competition Performance

June 18, 2010 By Deb Chitwood 10 Comments

Over the years, my husband and I came to realize the importance of two words before any competition performance (or any performance, for that matter). The words work for your own athletes and are a good thing to say to anyone right before their performance.

Those two words are

Have fun!

Chrissy and Mark having fun performing at the 2009 European Championships. (Photo by Liz Chastney)

I remember reading in a book a number of years ago that athletes perform best if they don’t think too much and just stay out of their heads. After all their training, muscular memory will take over anyway.

Skaters already know the importance of doing well if it’s a high-stakes competition. They don’t need to be reminded.

Focusing on having fun is a great way for skaters to stay out of their heads. And it keeps things in perspective. The hard work is done, and it’s time to enjoy performing. Sometimes, after I say, “Have fun!” I might add, “Enjoy performing!” or, “Enjoy performing for the audience!”

Before your athlete competes, do you say, “Have fun,” or something similar?

Filed Under: Competition Help Tagged With: athletes, competition, fun, performance, skaters

Mind Gym (Book Review)

May 21, 2010 By Deb Chitwood Leave a Comment

Mind Gym: An Athlete’s Guide to Inner Excellence

by Gary Mack with David Casstevens

240 pp McGraw-Hill

A book that probably every competitive athlete would benefit by reading is Mind Gym: An Athlete’s Guide to Inner Excellence by Gary Mack with David Casstevens.

As a sports psychology consultant who has worked with professional athletes in every major sport, Gary Mack understands the mental side of competition. He provides many quotes, anecdotes, and lessons to help athletes in any sport get a better understanding of how to use the mind to their advantage.

It’s interesting that Gary Mack started a career of studying “the psychology of stress and the psychology of success” because of a figure skater–Scott Hamilton. After watching Scott Hamilton win the 1984 Olympics, Mack was intrigued by Hamilton’s coment during an interview in which he attributed his success to being mentally prepared. Scott Hamilton’s comment was:

Under pressure you can perform fifteen percent better or worse.

Scott Hamilton said he benefitted by using the attitude that the hard work was over and the Olympics performance was a time to enjoy. Mack refers to another figure skater, Sarah Hughes, as an example of an athlete who performed–and won–out of pure enjoyment at the Olympics.

A quote in the book by major league baseball players Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. gives the same message:

When you have fun, it changes all the pressure into pleasure.

While it’s debatable whether having fun changes all the pressure into pleasure, there’s no doubt it can change a lot of it, giving a completely different experience and outcome. My daughter, Christina, found that to be true with ice dance. Her love of performing has often helped her perform very well in competition and enjoy the competitive experience in the process.

Although “The Pressure Principle” is just one chapter in the book, it is one of the foundational concepts. This is a book athletes–and anyone else in competitive situations–can read over and over, gaining something new each time.

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Competition Help Tagged With: competition, Gary Mack, Mind Gym, pressure, Sarah Hughes, Scott Hamilton, sports psychology

All They Really Need to Know about Competition They Learned in Kindergarten

April 2, 2010 By Deb Chitwood Leave a Comment

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten

By Robert Fulghum

Most of what I really need
To know about how to live
And what to do and how to be
I learned in kindergarten.
Wisdom was not at the top
Of the graduate school mountain,
But there in the sandpile at Sunday school.

These are the things I learned:

Share everything.
Play fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life -
Learn some and think some
And draw and paint and sing and dance
And play and work everyday some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world,
Watch out for traffic,
Hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.

I couldn’t help but think of the poem “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” when I read the guest post “From Buffalo, New York, with Love. . “ by Molly Sanders Clauss on Allison and Allen Scott’s Life on the Edge blog. Although the concepts in the guest post are related to competition, they are concepts of lifelong importance – “grace in losing, modesty in winning, perseverance, integrity, honesty, and motivation.” “From Buffalo, New York, with Love. .” shows that, with the help of some wise adults, even young children can grasp what may be one of the most difficult yet important concepts to apply – trying hard and then making the best of what happens.

Filed Under: Competition Help Tagged With: Allison and Allen Scott, competition, Learned in Kindergarten, Molly Sanders Clauss, Robert Fulghum

How to Get the Most out of a Skating Competition

March 26, 2010 By Deb Chitwood 1 Comment

Guest Post by Will Chitwood. San Diego skating coach Will Chitwood writes about an important topic for both skaters and parents in this guest post called “How to Get the Most out of a Skating Competition.”

Competitions are great opportunities to develop skating abilities and gain experience. Having a goal such as a competition to work toward helps strengthen your focus and motivates you to master the elements at your level. Following are my 3 top tips for getting the most out of a skating competition.

Will Chitwood and Aaryn Smith with Coaches Dalilah Sappenfield and Tom Zakrajsek at the 2005 Baltic Cup JGP in Gdansk, Poland.

1. Learn from the placement.

I never look at the purpose of a competition as placement but as an opportunity to learn from the positives or negatives of the experience. Good placement can reinforce the hard work you put in to get to the competition. While good placement is a nice reward and motivator, you learn more from the poor placements than the high placements. A disappointing result makes you look at what caused the outcome, therefore motivating you to improve the areas of weakness that hindered your result. When Aaryn Smith and I competed internationally in pairs, our coaches Dalilah Sappenfield and Tom Zakrajsek always went over the points lost or earned in each program and evaluated how we could earn more points at the next competition.

2. Look at what you did well.

Many times, skaters will exit the ice upset with themselves because they made a mistake or two. This has a negative effect on the whole competition experience because it focuses your mind on only the mistakes. This focus creates self-doubt for your next event and causes you to feel frustrated and negative. A better way to look at the program is to acknowledge if you made a mistake, but then focus on the good elements. This positive reinforcement on what you did right gives you more confidence and puts your mind in a positive place. With a productive attitude, you then can look at how to avoid making the same mistakes at the next competition.

Will and Christina Chitwood at Dave and Buster's in Denver, Colorado, after the 2001 Southwestern Regionals.

3. Find something to celebrate.

Every competition is a challenge, and I believe that if you show a good attitude, no matter what the outcome, you should find a way to celebrate. This may be a small treat or reward at the end of the event or eating out afterward. Sometimes for bigger events it’s nice to celebrate with a larger reward like spending another day seeing the sights of the area. Whatever you do, try to find some way to celebrate because this will help you positively remember the competition and will keep you from just focusing on the placement.

Will Chitwood in Oslo, Norway, during a tour of Scandinavia with Deb Chitwood after the 2004 Junior Grand Prix Final.

Remember, no matter how poorly or well a competition goes, there always is something you can learn from the experience. Keep in mind that having a challenging goal like a competition to work toward helps you grow as a person and athlete.

Will and Chea Chitwood write a blog at chitwoodskating.com with figure-skating information and inspiration. You can follow Will and Chea on Twitter @ChitwoodSkating.