And Now For Something Completely Different!

Commitment

I’m slowly reading a fantastic sports psychology book The Pressure Principle by Dave Alred.

He’s coached the British Lions, the two Johnnys (Wilkinson and Sexton), the golfers Luke Donald and Padraigh Harrington, the England cricket team and more. The book is about handling pressure – particularly big pressure moments – that Wilkinson drop goal at the Rugby World cup final in 2003, the final round of the Open or, in my case, the night before an important assessment or looking down a steep couloir trying to relax enough to commit and make that important first turn.

It’s about commitment to the moment, not letting the body’s natural fight or flight reaction tighten your muscles and your mind so you can let yourself do what you know you can do, what you have trained for, worked hard for.

So many of the sports I do are dynamic, they require that sort of relaxed, focussed physical and mental commitment:

Skiing is obvious. You have to commit and let your body fall out, down the fall line to initiate the turns. Easy to say but sometimes hard when you are out of your comfort zone at the top of the drop-in of a narrow steep tree run in variable snow conditions.

Same with kayaking – edging the boat toward the danger to make it turn away while all the time your body’s natural response is to lean away from the hard rock. Or committing to and trusting the blade when you are making an inside edge, carved turn on that big tide race wave.

Relaxing your grip on the bars of your DH bike and letting the bike run, using that speed to rail the berm or tackle the feature when all the time you just want to slow down.

I’m sure you get the picture.

One of the tools Alred suggests is to think about and write down some positive affirmations that you can read at an appropriate moment before or during the event (His golfers keep the paper in their score cards but you could easily write a few words or lines down on the deck of your boat).

Ten days ago, I spent the evening with one of the ski improver groups about to go Cat Skiing the next day. One of them was very nervous and anxious about the following day even though we both knew it was within their technique and ski ability / skill set.  Over dinner we started talking about Alred’s book, how I had found it helpful, about the power of positive affirmations. We started getting some thoughts down and but didn’t finish before we parted ways for the evening.

I lay in bed that night thinking about those words, about commitment, and giving everything and in the early hours I ended up writing stuff down. Something weird happened in my head (maybe that’s just normal for me?!) and those words formed into a poem!

Poetry? 

I have never, ever written a poem before – certainly not in adulthood (but maybe I never got there?).

I thought long and hard about publishing and sharing this – I don’t know if it is just adolescent, slushy rubbish or has some merit. But, I’m actually very proud of it so, here it is – publish and be damned!

There may also be a metaphor for life here too?

Commitment

Welcome, wanderer of the South. 

Welcome to my Northern land of cold, high places.
Welcome to my buttresses of rock, my smooth white flanks of snow, my trees, my, life, my world.

Tread lightly and with respect but bring me everything.

Bring me your apprehension, bring me your fear.
Bring me your excitement, bring me your hidden childish joy, bring me your smile.
Bring me your commitment, bring me your dedication to be the best you can be.
Bring me your past both recent and old, for that has formed and built you to who you are today, your physical and emotional self. You.
Bring me your soul.

Tread lightly and with respect but bring me everything.

Do that and you will be rewarded tenfold.

You will be rewarded with the strength and stamina of the bear who slumbers within me, protecting this high place.
You will be rewarded with the courage and grace of the cougar who patrols and hunts my steep sides.
You will be rewarded with the sharp sight, sharp mind and smooth flight of the mountain eagle who watches over this place.

Tread lightly and with respect but bring me everything.

Do that and you will soar today, you will float today, you will be the Goddess of the Southern Cross.

Tread lightly and with respect but bring me everything.

And when it is over and the sparkling float of hoar frost has settled into your contented smile, thank me. Share with me a splash of your celebration before you leave.

For if you do you will always have a place and be welcome in my Northern land of cold, high places.

Mark Spruce (January 2019)