Does your riding ever slip?

Hey guys,

This season has been the best yet. I've met lots of new riders. I'm behind 4 different boats on a regular basis. I've learned three big tricks, lenthened my line, and I've moved on to trying more advanced level tricks.

Right when was feeling unstoppable and at the top of my game....I started to slip last week. It literally happened overnight. Now I'm missing tricks I was ultra consistent on and have completely lost one of them. Maybe I just need a rest. Just curious if this happens to anyone else. Do your tricks come and go? Does your riding ever slip?

absolutely and I think this is what sets our sport apart is the tendancy to lose tricks. a good day for me used to be throwing all my tricks and landing them in a row. that is near impossible now as the tricks are soooo much damn harder now and the fact that my arsenal has grown exponentially. I can do toe 5's at will but now that i started concentrating on my mobes and come back I tend to be screwing up and losing the handle. you have to constantly be practicing or you will fall off. imagine how strenuous this has to be for a pro level rider whos career depends upon it. Every spring It feels like I have to start over to work my way back to my old level before I can begin to progress again.

J-Rod,
I have always found (with Surfing, Snowboarding, Skateboarding, Wakeboarding, etc.) that I learn in continues bell curves. I stay consistent for a little while, I start to learn and gain tricks, I then come down a little and then plain out to only start over again. Like noted above, I have found this to be my pattern in all sports a participate in. It took some time for me to recognize this pattern, but now know it is how it works for me and except it.
Just keep rocking when in down times are on and you will come out of it ready to learn more.
RST

That's killer you've been progressing this season.

It happpens. I think a lot of it has to with confidence and sometimes that confidence is almost sub-consious. If you let off on your approach or hesitate for a split second it can be the difference between making it or getting dunked.
Don't be too hard on yourself and try to have fun. I have to do that sometimes. It's in our nature to be competitive even if we're only competing with ourselves. Take a step back and enjoy yourself out there. It's a beautiful thing just being out on the water.

i took a monster fall at the beginning of this season that knocked me out. since then, my ridding has plummeted. i havent progressed AT ALL since. im real tenative at times.

i relate this any type of injury in any sport. it take time heal the physical aspect and takes even longer to heal the mental aspect.

just be patient.

I hear what Ringo and toolfan are saying. You're progressing and therefore you have higher expectations, but also learning new tricks will take away from all of the other things you do well because you have to take some falls and that sub-consiously affects your confidence IMO.

A week and a half ago I was getting warmed up and did a stupid backside lipslide, caught a heelside edge and got wrecked (in my defense, it was a bit choppy and I had a couple beers in me ). I took a week off and didn't ride and now it's a distant memory. Now, if I could just get this kink in my neck to go away...ha ha

Great, Im thinking the samething is going to happen to me, if I go out this weekend. I took a REALLY had fall last Sunday. Im just now starting to feel normal again. I had an extreme head/neck ache for 3 days.I was thinking about taking this weekend off, but that might do more damage to my confidence. Im thinking I should go out and just take it easy. Kinda get back to the basic's and have fun.

Thanks guys. Maybe I just need to take it all in stride and accept that the ups-and-downs are part of progressing. Hopefully a 1 week break will help.

Toolfan: What were you doing? Sorry to hear about your KO. I took a bad concussion in 02 and it pretty much ruined my confidence for the entire season.

You know whats really sad about my fall, I was just trying to go as big as I could. Just a normal straight air. I just edged so hard into the wake that I popped funny, got off balance and just came down catching my heel edge. Totally got one of those whiplash/head snappers, it Sucked! I was awake but I was completely out of it. I really dont think the people in the boat knew what was going on. They didnt ask me a lot of questions or anything, just "are you alright" and I replied with a "I dont think so", lol.

(Message edited by r_dub on July 29, 2004)

Your crew needs to be a little more with it. I always ask for a hand in the air from my riders after a hard fall so I know if they're alright.
Take care of your melon, it's the only one you're gonna get in this life and you don't want to end up like Ali.

Oh this wasnt my crew. It was a bunch of my wife's friends. My wife was concerned, but I'll admit, I kinda played it down to her. You know how they can get, I didnt want her to really freak out. Yeah, I do need to protect my melon, not to much to work with, lol. Im actually debating getting a helmet now.

J-Rod, everyone loses tricks from time to time, your edge changes, start edging to hard to soon or vise a versa or edge to hard to late or back off too soon. Sometimes you think you've got it and stop being as agressive as you were before, it could be where and how your holding the handle. I found that leaving that trick alone for a while or trying it when your your really not thinking about it because alot of times we start trying to analyze why we can't land it and our mind is a very powerful thing and plays tricks on us.

Oh I aggree completely Craig. How many times, have you cut back towards the wake thinking "Im not going to land this" and actually landed it? Me, NEVER! If I have any doubt in my mind, It's over at that point.

I'm ashamed to say that my fall was the funniest/most ignorant thing I have ever done. I wish I had video of it, because I dont even remember doing it.

I was on my new 04 Parks board for the first time in late march. I decided to ride up to a sand bar where my buddies where hanging out. So as the boat drives by the sandbar, I take a very aggressive cut to the sandbar thinking I'm just gonna ride right up to the water's edge and get a drink. I forgot that my Parks had those behemoth fins on it (I just transitioned from an 04 Prodigy), and as I got close to shore at break-neck-speed, the front fins plowed into the sand, I came out of my bindings, smashed my head into the sand on my 1st and 2nd rotations, then I nailed the cooler on the sandbar with my forehead on the 3rd cartwheel.

This is what everyone told me happened. I cant remember a thing. I remember leaving work, then eating dinner that night, but I dont even remember boarding that day. I just know that the next morning I felt like I had been hit my a Mack truck.

when this happens to me I just do something else to change my mind... like wakesurf or wakeskate... take it easy... remember that you do this to have fun... it never really helped my riding anyway but may help others... lol

Well, did you get that drink or what?, LOL

woooohhhh that is a hell of a crash... funny when you think about it afterward... but on the moment... might have been pretty scary... maybe more for your friends cuz they must remember every second of it...

lol good one Ryan...

Actually, I shouldnt kid, because that sounds really ugly. You know I did something similar one time. I didnt get hurt but I felt like a complete and total moron. I was getting pulled by a wave runner. He basically gave me a whip and sent me flying in towards the beach. But I completely mis-judged my spead. And next thing I know Im dogging little kids swimming in the beach area. You should have seen the looks I was getting from parents after I hit the beach and fell. I couldnt say sorry enough. Nothing worse the F-ing up and knowing that you F-ed up. But the good news is, I didnt take any of the little ones heads off.

Toolfan, that's the scariest crash story I've ever heard. But I too wish you had that on video!

Thanks Craig.

Ryan, Froggy did that in Reno and got a standing ovation from the parents! But he had just landed a TS 7, a Whirly 5, and gapped the A frame!

No kidding? Thats what I have to do to get a pass from the parents, Damn!
Luckily the kids were so freaked out they just froze, instead of trying to scurry out of the way. So the dogging wasnt as hectic as it could have been.

Wow. Glad you're alright, Toolfan. That reminds of Chris Stack's crash where he ran into a levy or some rocks.
Ryan, you're killing me. That would have been a good video. I can see the parents ripping into you as you hopped back out to deeper water while flagging your freind to come pick you up. The kids were probably like...that was rad! ha ha

Yes every now and again ill be feeling on top of the world and boom ill start falling on my easy stuff and a few days ago i lost my broll of all places but a local tourny..it took me three sets and some hard crashes before i got it back..lost my three years ago and never got it back,well i dont work on it maybe thats why

To answer the question of the post, YES!!!!

I do find that when I ride more, I have less "off" days. Now a days I don't ride much so one day I feel like a champ, the next, I feel like an embarrassment to the sport!

J-rod....Maybe we should go ride together. I'm going through a major slump right now too. I was feeling the same way mid way throught the summer. I was riding awesome and felt unstoppable. Everytime I rode I was landing everything I had and then kinda standing there thinking of what I could try so I'd fall. I agree that learning goes in a bell curve. The thing that keeps me positive is that when I slumped at the end of last year I came back way stronger this year. It is totally a mental game. I keep finding myself charging into the wake thinking about position right now, but when I'm riding good all I'm thinking about is what I am going to try next.

Whatever...It'll come back. The thing that kills me is what the others are talking about; Once you start learning a lot of new tricks it gets really hard to stay consistent at everything you've got. I think back to when all I had was a three and that was all I did. Maybe 5-6 times per ride, but as I've picked up more stuff, now maybe I'll only do each three 1 or 2 times. I could almost feel myself getting more sketchy each time I rode, until I wasn't consistent at all.

Anyway, point is I think everyone goes through it. Hopefully you have a more positive crew than I do and don't get the "man you rode like sh%$" when you get back into the boat, ride it out and it'll come back. The other thing I like to do when I'm riding badly is to learn a new trick or try a different board. I like changing boards around to change things up a couple times a year, and if you are trying new tricks you wont be hard on yourself for not landing them.

Just my .02

Practice makes perfect...... an old saying that has lots of truth to it. However, when you shift your focus to a new trick you also shift your practice time. Then when you go back to your old tricks you are unsure of yourself because you haven't practiced it.

When you are unsure of something you tend to focus your concious mind on the technical requirements of the trick you are trying to do. Tricks are done easily when your sub-concious mind is in control, meaning you don't have to think about the technical aspects of doing the trick. You just do it.

When you fail at an attempt you cannot focus on what you are doing wrong. If you do your self image will suffer, meaning you will doubt yourself and not believe that it is like you to land the trick.

The funny thing about the self image is it cannot discern between what you have accomplished in your mind and what you have accomplished on the water. If you beleive in yourself that you can do the trick by visualizing it over and over in your mind, you will be able to do the trick provided you have trained and succeded in the mechanics of the trick.

In short, we use our concious mind to focus on the technical aspects of tricks when we are learning them. Through repetition the technical mechanics of the tricks become controlled by the subconcious. When the subconcious takes over the trick becomes second nature, you don't even think about whether or not you can do it because you've done it over and over. This causes your self image to improve. You have no doubt that you can accomplish the trick. Your self image is always equal to your performance.

To perform the tricks you have always been able to do the concious mind, sub-concious mind, and self image must all be equal. Sounds to me like one of these is out of balance for you. Ask yourself which one it is. Are you thinking about the technical requirements of the trick too much? Have you not practiced the trick enough to make it second nature? Do you believe that it's like you to land this trick or are you doubting yourself?

My father-in-law is a former Olympic Gold Medalist. He wrote a book on mastering mental control while under pressure. I have had his book for over two years and have never read it. I've been wakeboarding for two years and have had little improvement while trying to progress to the next level. This year I finally read his book and started using his techniques. Within the first week I started showing immediate improvement. I am by no means trying to hawk his book, but I can tell you that his techniques have done wonders for me. If you feel that what I've mentioned above may relate to some of your problems shoot me an e-mail and I can tell you where to find his book.

(Message edited by nauty on July 30, 2004)

I don't man. The spin that I lost, I was landing consistently over and over again. It was so natural I never thought about it. Then I missed it in some chop and started thinking about what I did wrong. Then I missed it again and again and again until I finally had to start working on retraining myself. Now I'm pulling myself off axis. The weird thing is, just the night before I was taking it bigger, grabbing it, then I came really close on my 5 attemps. The next day, even with all that confidence, it was gone.

Evan, when do you ride? I'm currently riding every Wednesday and every weekend. Let's hook up next week. jehlers@turnitin.com

J-Rod...my schedule is pretty flexible. My boat sits at Orwood, so we could take your boat or mine. Shoot me an email at evan@ciewakeboarding.com

We'll be at McClure next weekend shooting some team video. Should be a good time. If you don't have anything else going on you guys should come up and kick it.

I think the hardest thing is when you learn a trick with good technique at first, then you start to think that you have the trick dialed. Then you start to slacken and get lazy and your technique gets weaker to the point where you have trouble landing tricks. This happend on my 360s. I no longer have them dialed, it sucks.

I too have suffered this problem. As for myself, I think I get too uptight.
If I bail on a spin, I tell myself to go bigger next time. then I proceed to cut to hard, flatten out, and get no pop, causing me to execute the trick even worse.
I have to cool off, do a little playing around, and come back to the trick if I find myself doing that.

Thanks again guys for the support.

Hey Evan, I sent you an email but it bounced back.

jehlers@turnitin.com