On Popping

I've struggled with popping jumps since as long as I can remember. The worst bout of it I had was a few years back with my double lutz. I spent probably close to three months where I would not rotate a single one. I would pop and pop and pop continuously until I thought my coach was going to personally kick me up into the air with her skate...toe-pick first. If you haven't had a problem with popping the sensation is something like banging your head into a brick wall repeatedly. It didn't matter that I wanted to try the jump or that I really did think I was going to do it "this time". I could not, would not rotate. Up, pop. Up pop. Up pop. And thats how it went for about 3 months until finally my coach, frustrated and out of ideas threw me a Hail Mary.

She reached into her skate bag at the beginning of my lesson one day and pulled out a journal. The cover had Barbie dolls or something girly on it and it was spiral bound. She flipped open to the first page. On it were drawn three columns headed by a line for the date. One column was labeled land, the second was fall and the last column was for recording pops. There were six rows, one for each jump and I was to make a tally mark in the correct column after every jump I did. If I fell on a double sal I marked it down. If I popped a double loop I marked it down. If I landed a double toe I marked it down. It was tedious and slightly time consuming since I had to keep my pen and paper at the ready during every practice. At the end of the day I was to count up the percent of each jump attempt that I ended up popping.

Her point in having me do this was to make me see just how pressing my problem was. If I had to write it down, it would be much more visible. For instance I found that I popped something like 45% of my double loops and 97% of my Lutzs. For me, this was enough to shock me into changing my ways. Every time I circled around the rink it counted, and at first I was embarrassed to show my coach the notebook after a few days of keeping track.

In a weird way having to write it down made me realize how much time I wasted on bailing out. Instead of just wanting to land the blasted jump I started to want to make a check in the "land" column. This changed my focus from "stop popping" to "start landing". I believe that this technique worked for two reasons. The first is that it addressed my issue and shocked me into seeing how big of a problem it actually was. Secondly, the notebook made me want to "land" jumps instead of "stop popping" jumps. It changed the wording.

Popping, no shock here, is all psychological. It's all in the head. My coach told me to come up with a keyword to repeat to myself before I took off for every jump, such as "Up". There is one little catch to this technique however and it is that the keyword must be positive. It cannot be something like "Don't pop" or "Don't fall" or "Don't Stop Believing" (yes that is a Journey reference). When you say "Don't pop" what your brain actually hears is "pop", so it does what it's told. By making the statement affirmative such as "land" it is much more effective. I still say "land" in my head before I take off and it works almost 100% of the time. I stand by my belief that skating is 70% mental and 30% physical.

In fact, this technique is actually advocated in parenting classes. When you reprimand your child you are supposed to tell them something along the lines of "Next time keep the cat on the floor" rather than "Don't pick up the cat by it's tail". Affirmative is better!

An image from Duhigg's novel showing the habit loop
in regards to Alcoholism and how AA meetings can
help break the addiction. 

The major issue with popping is that it becomes a habit and habits, my fellow nail biters know, are very hard to break. I'm currently reading a nonfiction novel titled The Power of Habit. It's written by Charles Duhigg and I highly recommend it if you are looking for a summer read. In it, Duhigg discusses the nature of habit loops which you can read more into if you so choose.

Here is my personal 4 step method to handling popping:
1. Keep a journal. Record all of your pops, lands and falls.
2. Figure out the ratio of pops to landed/fallen on jumps. The number might be large enough to widen your eyes and send a shiver down your spine. If so, the shock factor step has been completed.
3. Pick an affirmative keyword to repeat to yourself right before you take off on every jump. "Land" is a simple and effective one.
4. Continue this process until you change your habit from popping, to landing! It takes about a month for a habit to be
completely changed so be patient.

Best of Luck!!