Your Problem Could Be Mental
Strate-age-y
S kating and surfing in your forties
Skate
Mental
Cross Academy
Cruise Power
Waves
Drop Knee
Gear
Surf
History
Non Google Sponsors
So you've made it to your forties and you still skate. Or maybe you're just beginning, at forty. Congratulations. Either one shows some guts. Now, what about the smarts. Is there anything that can be done to make up for that ball and chain of all those years between you and those damn kids skating all around you? The answer is a resounding, ye-- . . . maybe.
There are clues from the first three chapters for younger skaters, so you could go back and review. If you're in your forties, you may be wise enough to adapt those chapters for your own purposes. But I'll give you the clues anyway, one per chapter: manage your energy effectively; train to prevent injury and not just for strength; and use your head more to make up for declining skills.
Manage your energy effectively
The hardest part of forming good mental habits in sports is holding yourself back. In a way, it's harder for young skaters to develop discipline, because, why bother? Natural ability will carry them, and they probably won't get hurt. The theory I wrote about for conserving energy when geared to young people had to do with excelling. If you want to really excell, you take your natural energy and hold it in check, ready to let out in explosive streaks when the time is right. Meanwhile, you develop skills so that most of your skating will be consistent while you're waiting for that opportunity to let loose.
With young people, conserving energy is a way to get to the next level, for forty somethings it's a necessity. If you want to keep progressing, you need to develop some energy discipline, and soon, if you haven't. I believe I haven't come close to peaking in my skateboarding and surfing, and I think I will be in a few years, and I'm in my forties. But I am continually refining my practice habits to make use of what energy I have left.
Know your workout time
It becomes more important as you get older to be very conscious of where you are in your workout. You don't want to wing it and lose track of time. You want to know if it's the middle of your workout or the end. In my pyramid structure of practice, I go for my most aggressive and dangerous moves right in the middle of the workout, and at no other time. I know if I get injured, it's likely to be when I haven't warmed up yet, near the beginning of practice, or when I'm tired or cold, at the end. I restrict my maneuvers to easy ones at those times. In the middle of the workout, I will go all out for a short time. If I cool off in the middle or go and talk to somebody and get distracted, I know better than to rush out and go back up to top level right away. I either warm up again or just start my warm down early, and cut the hi-jinks for that day.
Train to prevent injury
One problem I have with all these men's health magazines is their message is always about looking great, and getting buff, and trying to convince you that you're still in your twenties. Fine, be vain, but if you're training for skateboarding, it's not so important that you have a six pack or big pecs. Well for surfing, pecs might help. But I'd say to emphasize building up areas of your body that are vulnerable in skateboarding. Your knees and lower back muscles really take a beating. When you do situps, forget the six pack. Talk to a trainer and find out how to do sit ups for your lower back. I like the ones where you sit on a bench and do tucks, because it builds coordination as well. For leg weights, try to build up all the muscles around your knees, to support the ligaments, and don't worry so much about how much you can actually press. I like to do exercises for jumping, like jumping off a low bench or bleacher and back up, preferably onto a mat floor. I also like jumping rope.
If you get injured, try to work on some aspect of your sport that you weren't doing before, until you are healed. Such as do a lot of switch stance. I read that tip on some skateboard web site, and if I could remember where, I'd credit it.
If you're injured on a joint, use tape. I love tape. Or wear a brace. But try not to get in the habit of wearing it, because you'll never heal. Tape up before the workout and cut the tape off after your mid workout peak. Then warm down without it.
Range of motion
Training to increase strength can be counterproductive. I try to always increase my range of motion. This is easier to do than increasing your strength. It requires no weight lifting. It takes stretching, and simply experimenting to see if a maneuver can be made easier by winding up more at the beginning or by following through more at the end. This simple technique is at the core of my methods.
Use your head to make up for diminishing natural skill
I mentioned in the thirties chapter that using brains finally makes its appearance with most guys at thirty, and takes over at forty. It's about time, you ding dong, where were brains at sixteen? Don't answer that.
You may even have an advantage in being a geezer. If you have sports experience, even if you're not so experienced at skateboarding, try to use your knowledge to gain an advantage. I always search for an edge when I'm skating. I view the younger skaters as competition. I know I can't do a lot of what they do in terms of ability, but I may be able to out think, out stretch, out condition, or out practice them. If I see someone doing a trick I want to learn, I take the trick and apply my methods and see if I can do it more consistently than that skater. I may break it down and work it out from Z to A. I may try to add more range of motion in the moves it takes to do it. I may try to use my knowledge of sports physics to figure out a way to do the trick that takes less muscle. Anything I can do to get that edge, I'll try.
How about going back to the basics?
If you don't know them by now, maybe now's the time to develop perfect basic skills. I mean, what else are you going to go on, your lightning-like reflexes and raw gymnastic ability? If you've got the basic turns, jumps, or whatever you feel is most basic to your style, you can take those basics and use your wily, cagy brain to give you an edge on the young and the out of control. But if you're sloppy, you will get ground down by your slowing reflexes and increasing fatigue and stiffness. Figure it out, and spend more time practicing and less time charging.
Use finesse to work less
Try to develop as a stylist, and not just an athlete. It takes a lot of practice time to become smooth and have all the details like hand postion, head angle, and stuff like that, and it doesn't take much energy. You can get a lot of respect for just skating well and looking good, and not necessarily skating dangerously. I practice my hard dangerous tricks for 10% of the time, because I need the thrills, but I have the discipline to spend 50% doing style moves, that use finesse or stretch mostly. The other 40% of the time is for warm up or basics.
There are no limits to what you can accomplish. Not!
Pick your tricks cautiously and reasonably. That doesn't mean you can't go for it, but build in some limits. One limit I like to put on myself, is if I get more than a few feet of air, the landing spot has to be slanted down. Even on skis I've gone up high and landed on flat snow, and man, that hurts. And guys at my spot jump six to eight feet down ten steps and land on flat pavement! I just can't do it. Now six feet down onto a slanted landing. . . hmm, that's a goal I can still consider. I know my limitations, but I still look for challenges.
If you're challenging yourself, like I like to, I would suggest that you always work up to challenges. The days when you could walk up to a stunt and see if you could just wing it, they are over. Try to gradually increase speed, height, whatever is the danger factor. Always figure out a way to work out the landing when working on jumps. And remember, no one is going to care if you're wearing a bunch of pads or a helmet, at your age. Try those hip padded shorts, they're great butt-savers.
