"Can you picture it in your head? Olympic ski racers can and do. Again and again and again. Visualization is a huge part of racing, particularly in the speed disciplines of downhill and super-G, and a lot of competitors close their eyes and run the course on a loop in their minds, dipping and swaying with every turn, roller and jump."
"Each racer is given roughly an hour to "inspect" a course, gradually sliding through each turn and making note of the best line, the steepness of the pitch, the quality of the snow. They are like PGA Tour caddies checking out the pin placements the day before a tournament. It's not just about going down, either. It's going down 100 feet or so, popping off your skis, and hiking back up the section to examine it again."
Olympic and World Cup ski racers use mental visualization to rehearse courses turn by turn, priming automatic responses for high-speed events like downhill and super-G. Athletes close their eyes and imagine dips, rollers, jumps and the ideal racing line to prepare for split-second decisions on steep, fast terrain. Course inspections give roughly an hour to slide through turns, note pitch, distance and snow quality, and sometimes to hike back uphill to re-examine specific sections. Some competitors memorize courses like actors memorize scripts; others analyze pitch and distance data to refine the fastest line. Visualization integrates sensory memory and motor patterns so bodies react instinctively during competition.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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