Mental Block

I am ready to move on to 180's and maybe 3's. But I have taken some harsh landings before and I think they have scared me. I do not try too many tricks because I am afraid of the harsh falls. Any suggestions or help?

Start with what you know you can do. I don't know whether you are going w2w yet but you should learn at least your 180s and even you 3s one wake! This will let you get the feel of the tricks without the harsh falls. Just remember if you fall n aren't real hurt get up and ride a bit more with a few simple jumps so you aren't freaked out next time you go riding. The more you ride at a comfortable level the more confidence you'll build and the quicker you'll be able to try new things. Hope this helps!

Just cowboy up and hit it!

Pain is weakness leaving the body. Wakeboarding isn't badminton, it hurts sometimes.

Just think of it as diving into soft water when you fall.....its like swimming...except for you have to bleep out the part of you going 20mph or sumthing like that. lol.

I have taken some really hard falls and for a while was scared ****less of throwing inverts. I know there is always a chance of getting knocked out again, but if I don't ride to my best ability, I am not happy at the end of the day. The water is hard, if you hit it wrong it can play mind games with you. Just because you fell hard once throwing a trick doesn't mean it will happen again. Falling = learning

(Message edited by ridn9high on March 14, 2005)

You're only 14.... you'll have plenty of years to recover!

HOw are you crashing when you try these tricks? Are you under or over rotating?

There is a great article in the waterski magazine that came out yesterday on gettin past the mental block with wakeboarding

get yourself a helmet and slow the boat down. i learned just about all my spins starting out at 16 mph then i speed the boat up. its pretty painless actually. but i see your just 14 and im pushing 30 so you shouldnt be worried about pain and things like not being able to go to work.

Seriously man, you gotta just go for it. If you ain't crashin' then you ain't learnin'. If it really hurts that bad then get a springsuit for a little padding. The best way to learn something is to try it over and over again, so you can build each time you fail. Keep trying until you stick it or you can't hold on any longer. Then next set get right up and try it again. Use video and off the water really visualize what you are doing, practice the motion & it will be easily trasferred to the water. I mean if you wanna progress you gotta try & try again & again &....you get the idea. A coach/school is always a great idea as well, you learn how to progress, not just new tricks.

Shane;
I feel your pain, I had a hard fall trying a backroll and hurt a few ribs coming up short. Until recently (last Saturday) I wanted to try but in the back of my mind I just kept thinking it was going to hurt again. I finally said F***it and went for it. I still came up short but was closer and the fall didn't hurt. I am sure falls in the future are going to hurt but it only hurts for a little bit. The mind is the big problem. Now I am motivated to nail the roll and move on so next trip will be my goal. Just go for it...

I know when I was learning 180s, I would be practicing it in my head for months, just standing around, and doing little bunnyhop 180s. Get a helmet, you'd be surprised how much it helps. Practice riding switch if you have not already, so you will comfortable when you land. I found that toes side frontside 180s are the easiest, since you land heelside, and its easier to ride away on your heelside, because you just have to lean back and dig your edge in. If you have accsess to a trampoline, you might want to dink around on there. good luck!

I had a huge mental block when I first started to try and learn a healside backroll, seriously I know how you feel. A couple of seasons ago I just got so frusturated with myself that I just decided that I may never learn how to do a backroll. After that season I had the entire off season to think about how much of a wimp I was, needless to say it was one long off season.

At the begining of last season my wife, myself, and my best buddy took some lessons from Brian Francis, it was just Brian, his driver special Greg, and the three of us. We had the whole afternoon to learn new tricks. I think that for all 3 of us we realized that, "hey we better not be a bunch of wimps with a pro giving us lessons", so by the end of the day I was almost landing backrolls. It was kind of funny because when I got into the water for my last set Brian asked what I wanted to learn and I said a hs backroll, when we first started off I just sat behing the boat for a couple of minuets just looking at the wake, all of the sudden I feel a tug on the rope and Brian is standing up in the boat pulling on the rope and yells, "Just f&^%ing do it".

Its not always just your friends(peer pressure) being in the boat that will get you over the mental block, sometimes it helps to have someone in the boat who knows what the hell they are talking about, they give you the feeling of "I know exactly how to do this". I also agree with the others when they said shorten the rope, slow the boat down, and if necessary get a helmet.

Make sure you throw a thread up when you land your first 180's and 3's. The thrill of landing a new trick is that much better when your scared s#@$less to try it.

I get nervous trying a new trick to. One thing that helps is when my wife brings her hot friends on the boat. It makes me want to do as well as possible so they think Im a stud even know I know Im not lol.

I think everyone has taken hard falls, you just have to commit to what ur working and and do it right..
Get a little closer each time!

Jason, what month of Water Ski mag. is this article in?

April 2005 issue

April 2005 issue