Method for building resilience? | Golden Skate

Method for building resilience?

thesoundofice

Rinkside
Joined
May 15, 2018
I was wondering if there is a type of training or coaching method that could actually help a young skater to develop resilience. On my opinion, resilience is key. It helps to balance self esteem and criticism and helps people to bounce back from difficult situation that everyone inevitably meet. Resilience is also very important in everyday life, but I don't think it's always taken seriously as it should. In order to test resilience someone has to deal with negative/ unpleasant aspects of life. Obviously a kid doesn't have the emotional maturity to evaluate events in an on objective manner. But what if he/she is taught to deal with negativity in a healthy way? Family should provide this at first, but coaches or teachers might contribute. Since they are part of a child education.
 

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Country
Olympics
I was wondering if there is a type of training or coaching method that could actually help a young skater to develop resilience. On my opinion, resilience is key. It helps to balance self esteem and criticism and helps people to bounce back from difficult situation that everyone inevitably meet. Resilience is also very important in everyday life, but I don't think it's always taken seriously as it should. In order to test resilience someone has to deal with negative/ unpleasant aspects of life. Obviously a kid doesn't have the emotional maturity to evaluate events in an on objective manner. But what if he/she is taught to deal with negativity in a healthy way? Family should provide this at first, but coaches or teachers might contribute. Since they are part of a child education.

This is done in much of coaching after a certain point and level. There is also always the option to get a sports psychologist on board and that helps alot, esp with elite skaters.
 

kolyadafan2002

Fan of Kolyada
Final Flight
Joined
Jun 6, 2019
I was wondering if there is a type of training or coaching method that could actually help a young skater to develop resilience. On my opinion, resilience is key. It helps to balance self esteem and criticism and helps people to bounce back from difficult situation that everyone inevitably meet. Resilience is also very important in everyday life, but I don't think it's always taken seriously as it should. In order to test resilience someone has to deal with negative/ unpleasant aspects of life. Obviously a kid doesn't have the emotional maturity to evaluate events in an on objective manner. But what if he/she is taught to deal with negativity in a healthy way? Family should provide this at first, but coaches or teachers might contribute. Since they are part of a child education.

One thing that I've noticed is this:

With some skaters during runthroughs as soon as they mess up an element, their music is stopped, and then they redo the program. With some they have to continue with the mistakes. The one's continuing with the mistakes end up with better resilience in competition, Also important is to teach skaters to fall and never to pop. If they never learn to pop, they will end up better mentally.
 

Ducky

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 14, 2018
I was wondering if there is a type of training or coaching method that could actually help a young skater to develop resilience. On my opinion, resilience is key. It helps to balance self esteem and criticism and helps people to bounce back from difficult situation that everyone inevitably meet. Resilience is also very important in everyday life, but I don't think it's always taken seriously as it should. In order to test resilience someone has to deal with negative/ unpleasant aspects of life. Obviously a kid doesn't have the emotional maturity to evaluate events in an on objective manner. But what if he/she is taught to deal with negativity in a healthy way? Family should provide this at first, but coaches or teachers might contribute. Since they are part of a child education.

One thing more resilient people tend to do is put more emphasis on outside factors than internal ones. Framing difficult situations in that way -- you had a bad day of skating because you have x,y, and z going on vs you had a bad day of skating because you can't get x element right -- means that it's not them. There's always tomorrow when their head is clearer and there's always another attempt to be made.

Also, try to avoid letting them stop a run-through because they messed up. You wouldn't do that in a competition or a performance so it's better to get in the habit of plowing through. (I used to practice music in this way: one run through of a song noting where I was having trouble along the way but not stopping, a run through where I stopped and worked on those sections i was messing up on until I had them down, and a final straight run through without any stops.) If you fall you fall, you miss a note or forget a step, you carry on because the rest of the performance CAN be saved.
 

Ducky

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 14, 2018
Sorry for the double post, but I wanted to share this VERY relevant paragraph from a newsletter I get, it's by a former Clinton campaign staffer who is now a doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford on the experience of having her goals and career path completely upended 4 years ago:

I've also picked up important life lessons in the course of this experience. Resilient people, like societies, have ambitious goals, but are also open to change when surprises or disruptions come along. Our generation will no doubt be working in a turbulent world for the rest of our careers, and we can't let any single shock, upset of moment of unemployment knock us down. Instead, we can find the opportunity in those personal crises to reexamine the issues we are most dedicated to ... and take chances on new ways to achieve our goals. And while we likely won't ever have happy memories of the shocks that left us reeling, we'll perhaps be grateful for the opportunities that we found them.
 

hanyuufan5

✨**:。*
Medalist
Joined
May 19, 2018
I think the best way to promote resilience is to treat them like they already have it, which I think all coaches do right from the start just by having skaters get up and try again if they fail.

Somehow, in the millennia before we started teaching resilience and self-esteem... people had more of it. IMO, teaching it expressly gives the message that it's not something once can have naturally (or at least not something that the person being taught has enough of) and that normal ups and downs and normal feelings are lack of resilience or lack of self-esteem. People are stronger than they get credit for, including kids.
 
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