Mental Hurdles

I’m back! This ski jumping season has surely been a rough start for the weather, and I wasn’t totally sure how much I would have to write after stories after every tournament last season. But we had an eventful weekend in Eau Claire and I have some words in my head that I thought I wanted to get on the page so here I am with more victories and trials and tribulations from the ski jumps.

Going into the weekend, we had planned to be in Minneapolis on Saturday and Eau Claire on Sunday but with a winter storm followed by some nasty wind, Minneapolis was canceled and Talia (10) and I decided to head to Eau Claire to get some practice since she had not jumped on the hills there yet this season. She got a bunch of jumps on the 15 meter in the morning and was starting to think about the 30 meter. She had, by some miracle, got up on the 30 meter over the summer and gotten a handful of jumps. (She has played huge mental games about larger hills forever). She was jumping well and forward on the 15, she is super stable, and I had confidence that she could do it. She decided she could as well, with a little help from coach Nick of course. (He is the best in all the land at getting kids to go down ski jumps.) After a few 3,2,1  countdowns, she left the bar and I thought she had it in the bag. The hill, however, had other plans for her as she hit the knoll, bounced a bit, lost her balance as she lost control of her skis and toppled over on her side, sliding down the rest of the landing. That 30 meter spit her out at the bottom of the hill, and I went running when she didn’t immediately get up. By the time I got to the bottom, 3-4 other people were already to her, had her skis off, and she was calming down. We are very lucky to have paramedic parents in our sport to step in when needed. I find out it is her foot that hurts most, but she is able to put weight on it. She gets a piggy back ride to the chalet and within 15 minutes, she is asking if she will be able to ski tomorrow so I think she is going to be ok. We pack up and head home to see what tomorrow will bring. 

Following an evening of some ice and ibuprofen, Talia says her foot feels good the next morning. Her neck is a little stiff but she is ready to ski. We leave our house at 7:30 to get the hill just shortly before the hills open. The Cameron girls are the first ones up the lift and down the hill that morning which is always fun to see. The temp is around -4 with a little wind (luckily most of it is blocked by a hill and trees because -4 is cold enough). The fall on the 30 doesn’t seem to have phased her jumping on the 15 and she has a bunch of solid jumps in the morning. We make sure to take breaks to take off the boots to get some air to the toe warmers as cold toes are the biggest issue in the not so warm jumping boots. There are 10 girls jumping in the girls open on the 15 meter and she is able to put down two solid jumps of 12 meters to take 1st place. We have our victory! Though it is going to be a good while before she thinks about that 30 meter again and I know a fall is not going to help her mental game on new hills this year either. Also now Mom has a little mental game going on herself, as that was the worst fall Talia has had on a bigger hill and boy that is not easy to watch. Saturday night, I couldn’t sleep, thinking of what went wrong for her and why. Meanwhile, we had another Cameron jumper go down Sunday morning and I worry for her as well. But, we must remember, when they get back up and overcome their fears, they are developing as people. They will have new victories. They will develop self-confidence. It may not be an actual win, but jumping a new hill, or a new personal record. And in doing so they also get to have fun the in the awesome winter sport of ski jumping.