Physical vs. Mental

beansurrows

beansurrows

Member
Getting deep af here:

I was thinking, if you put tom wallisch's brain, or any other good skier for that matter, in a body identical in size and buildup to his, but not his, would he instantly be able to do all of the stuff he could do normally?

I beleive are only two possible outcomes, either he would or he wouldn't.

If he could, then that would mean that really when you are dying to try something hard, its not your body that isnt allowing you to its just your mind trying to get past a mental barrier of sorts and your mind independently learning this manuever, implying that skiing is 100% mental.

If he couldn't, then that would mean that our sport is simply the muscle memory of these tricks being utilized and the mental aspect of the sport would be minimized, showing that it is indeed very hard to be very good at it.

I lean more towards the side of him theoretically being able to do it because it seems like much of the sport is overcoming the fear to do shit and then landing it and doing it over and over until its burned into your head.

TL;DR Is skiing 100% mental or 100% physical?

Opinions?
 
Neither

You can't be good at skiing with a women's body or brain

Also, it's probably a combination of both muscle memory and skill
 
Most of it is overcoming fear, but a huge portion is also muscle memory and air awareness and things of that nature which are still mental, so in the end if you put Toms brain into a body, he would still have muscle memory and the air awareness and all that and would be able to land tricks. I think the question you meant to ask was if you took Tom wallisch's ball and put them in another guys sack, would the other guy be as good
 
This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill, fifteen percent concentrated power of will, five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain, and a hundred percent reason to remember the name.

 
I dont think it is 100% anything it is most likely a combonation of both. for example a backflip is mainly mental. While the more complicated tricks like corks are both mental and physical
 
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What about CR (Rest In Pow)?

He had a terrible brain injury and forgot how to ski, walk, everything... But despite that he came back and was charging super hard a few years later. Sure, he wasn't nearly as good, but he was definitely getting there. I remember seeing shots of him hitting the whistler MSP jump and throwing down.

So I'd say that when you have a trick on lock there's definitely an aspect of muscle memory, but your brain is what allows you to both learn new tricks and re-learn old ones (if you have to).
 
CR's muscle memory was wiped clean man. He had to relearn to walk. His example is more proof that skiing is mostly mental than anything else. As far as I understand he didn't remember a lot of things. He watched film of himself and got confidence to make that shit happen again.
 
Id say that skiing is more mental than physical. Training in the gym like some of the pros do is obviously a benefit but not a necessity. Tom Wallisch rarely lift weights in a gym.
 
Definitely a combination of skill/talent and overcoming fear/belief in yourself. Just look at stept. they hit that crazy shit because theyre not scared shitless of it like most of us.
 
I believe once you get the physical part down, once you're strong enough to do the tricks and have done the tricks enough times that they're locked into muscle memory, it becomes close to 100% mental. I can only talk from what I've figured out by myself, which is that I can do a cork 7 with ease on the trampoline, but trying it on skis is scary which makes me mess it up/not want to try it.

Without the physical, the mental is useless, and without the mental, the physical is useless. They go hand in hand.
 
I think after you get the basics of skiing down and have okay balance and are somewhat athletic then it's just mental after that
 
twalls brain in another person wouldnt make him/her as good as twall but way better than youre average skier. Alot of it is mental, and once you have the basics down like said above anything is possible
 
you can't put on a pair of skis and instantly be able to double cork. you could try one, but you probably wouldnt make it to the lip of the jump
 
not all mental, but definitely has a ton to do with it. the difference between sliding a gnarly rail in the streets vs. a park rail youve hit a 1000 times has a lot to do with your mind. example, a close out rail is just a flat bar but you have that close out at the end of it that messes with your head. but all in all its still just a flat rail, just like the one youve slid 1000 times in the park.
 
its definitely a combination of both because mentally committing to the trick is half the battle, but at the same time you need the skill of air awareness on top of the physical strength needed to throw spins/flips.
 
how deep are we talking here, because technically skiing is 100% mental. you realize "muscle memory" is still all in the brain, right? Your muscles don't remember anything... your brain just gets used to moving them in particular ways and repeats that movement.
 
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