This is an extract from the book, “Skiing without Fear – for beginners, intermediates, and experts”.

The “Circle of Excellence” is an exercise you can do at home, or on the slopes.  It is great exercise to do at the start of each day immediately before you put your skis on.  You might like to practise this exercise regularly every time you ski.  If so, do not be surprised when you notice how you have feelings of confidence every time you step into your skis, perhaps sooner than you’d expect. 

I suggest you might like to read the exercise through once before trying it out.

I wonder if you can remember a specific time when you felt a really strong, total, inner sense of confidence.  It can be totally unrelated to skiing – just pick a really strong, vivid memory which you will enjoy remembering.

1.  Feel that confidence once again.  There’s really no need to “take a deep breath and close your eyes” – but you can if it helps you get back into the same state of confidence.  Let yourself go back to that moment when you felt fully 100% confident.  Re-live that exact moment in your mind, seeing exactly what you saw, hearing exactly what you heard and feeling exactly how you felt.  Re-create the posture you had at that moment.  Breathe in and out at the same rate.  Feel the confidence of that moment surging now within you again.

Make the pictures in your mind of that moment really vivid.  Picture it in high definition, with the colours really bright.   Turn the volume up on the sound to really intensify the memory.

2.  Circle of Excellence.  Now, as you feel your confidence-level building within you, imagine a coloured circle on the floor around your feet getting wider and wider as your inner confidence grows.  What colour would you like the circle to be?  Does it emit a sound that indicates how powerful it is?  When the circle is at its largest and your feelings of confidence are greatest, step out of that circle on the ground, leaving those feelings of confidence within the circle.  This request is rather unusual, and you can do it.

3.  Imagine yourself just about to put your skis on.  Your ski boots are on, your ski jacket cosy around you and you are just about to put your skis on.  Your skis are lying flat on the snow, parallel to each other with space around them.  It is just before your first ski run of the day.

4.  Centre your circle of excellence on your skis.  Now imagine your circle of excellence surrounds your skis; its centre exactly halfway between each ski situated near the bindings.  See the colour of the circle exactly as before; hear the noise that it is making.  As soon as you can strongly visualise this circle around your skis, step into it, and click into your ski bindings.  Check your bindings are firm. Imagine yourself with your skis on, now surrounded by your circle of excellence, with those same feelings of confidence fully available to you.