For those that don't know Sarah Hendrickson, meet one of the most exciting female athletes around!
Sarah Hendrickson is an American ski jumper who won the first ever women World Cup season in 2012. She is a 22-time World Cup medalist and 13-time Continental Cup medalist. It goes without saying, but we were delighted to catch up with here and even more delighted to have her on board The Flow Centre.
Her career highlights include:
22-time World Cup Medalist (13 Gold, 6 Silver, 3 Bronze)
13-time Continental Cup Medalist (4 Gold, 4 Silver, 5 Bronze)
In 2014, Olympic Winter Games, 21stIn 2013, World Cup, Second Place OverallIn 2013, World Championships Gold MedalistIn 2012, World Cup Overall Champion
In 2011, U.S. Normal Hill ChampionIn 2011, World Championships Normal Hill 16th placeIn 2009, World Championships Normal Hill 29th place
Cameron: Have you ever experienced flow?
Sarah: I think that time at the world championships. I remember being at the top and just so nervous. I was like "I can't feel my feet right now! I don t know how I'm going to do this!" and then I got to the bottom after my second jump, and obviously had won, and it was like something else took over my body, because there was so much pressure and everything. I don't know how I performed to that level with that much pressure, my mind just took over and muscle memory and everything. It was like "Okay, you know what to do subconsciously, and just focus." It's kind of hard to explain.
Cameron: Yeah, especially when you remember it. You get all those feelings and tingly sensations, and then you're like "But, how did it happen?"
Sarah:Yeah, exactly!
Cameron: So, describe some of the characteristics that you might have felt during it? You said everything felt amazing. Can you go into a little bit more about how that felt, or what you feel you experienced?
Sarah: I guess effortless is the right word. Your body is doing all these things, but it is all subconscious, you don't have to think about it right there. It's hard to explain, I guess effortless and flawless, almost numb. But that's the first experience I think of when you describe flow, the world championships in Italy in 2013.
We have two jumps and I was winning after the first jump, then we jump in reverse order, so I was going last on the second jump. The girl before me was within a small margin of me; she jumped and I could hear the crowd cheering. I was just trying to block everything out and focus on myself. I remember thinking "My feet are numb!" I was kind of freaking out, thinking "How am I going to pull this off?" then I was just like "Well, nothing to lose now. Just shake it out." That's when the hours of training comes in, the muscle memory, your mind just goes into reserve mode, just don't focus on the pressure, don't focus on the small details; everything will run its course.
Cameron:What did you do to help you focus and get into that state?
Sarah: I blocked out the outside world. When I'm jumping, I've been jumping for 13 years now, I just focus on one or two really simple things. It doesn't mean anything to the outside world because they're technical terms for ski jumping, but I relax my arms, balance and timing. Timing is so important in ski jumping, timing and rhythm. So, I just pick those two things that I had been focusing on and just hone in on that, everything else will just come. I didn't need to focus on the other stuff because I was in that mind set, the muscle memory or whatever would just take over.
Cameron: When you focus on it, do you repeat the words, like relax your arms? Or, do you almost use the words to brainwash yourself? How do you focus on it?
Sarah: Yeah, exactly! Part of me is hearing the announcers and people calling scores or whatever of the girls in front of me. So, I try to speak to myself as loudly as I can in my head so that I don't hear the outside. I'll even try and shake my head so that I don't hear. I just don't want to hear that, you can't think about jumping a certain distance, that's not how it happens. You have to focus on the miniscule things, that going to make you jump further. Repetition and even whispering words out loud sometime, or just yelling in my head.
Cameron: What else do you think helps you get into that zone? Is there preparation that you might do leading up to it the morning of, the evening of? Or anything else that you do as you're walking up the steps, preparing, or when you're sitting down, or just before you take off?
Sarah: Yeah, repetition actually, and not just in words. I have the same warm-up routine that I do a certain time before a jump. How I put my equipment on and stuff. I'm kind of OCD, so those things are necessities. I know exactly what time I need to put on my stuff, when I'm waiting at the top, 10 jumpers before my tie my boots a little tighter the step out and start putting my skis on. Repetition is really, really important for me, just doing the same thing over and over, and I do it the same for training. You need to compete like you train and train like you compete. Have that same physical repetition and the mental preparation the same every single day.
Cameron: Do you have any other big flow experiences? Maybe one that tops the world championship?
Sarah: It's a bit different, because I didn't have a good result, but I guess doing the Olympics. I had some serious surgery about five and a half months before Sochi. I managed to get through rehab, but I just wasn't as prepared as I wanted to be, but my coaches felt like I deserved to be there.
The training days leading up, my knee was in so much pain and I knew I wasn't mentally strong enough and prepared to be there, then on competition day I got unlucky with the wind. But, my practice jump that morning, we always get one practice jump, my coach just looked at me and was like "Oh my God that was a million times better!" He was like "You showed up for game day! Regardless of the pain you're in and everything you've been through these past six months, you just put it all aside, and your body knew exactly what to do, and you had an awesome jump!"
I was just in that kind of mindset. I just pushed the pain away, pushed every doubt and piece of junk that I'd gone through out of me and just had a normal jump. And my coaches saw it. The coaches from the other nations saw it too, it was kind of crazy. It was like even though it had been a while my body still knew what to do.
Cameron: What helped you jump that morning?
Sarah: I don t know! I just thought "Don t have any regrets. You've trained so hard to be here. Maybe you're not at your strongest but you've worked so hard, now let's prove it." I had to change my warm-up and everything, my knee was so bad I couldn't even run. But I figured I've got three more jumps today, then I'm done. After today I can just rest and reassess everything. I had another surgery after that, but it didn't matter at that point, I was just like "Show them what you ve got!" I'm ultra-competitive obviously, which makes it easier to get into that mindset.
You have to find a balance between focused and almost not too serious, though. If you try to hard when you're super competitive in ski jumping it just doesn't work. We all say that technically, it a very simple sport, but it's against everything that your body wants to do, so when you get too focused, there's no flow to it. It's too choppy; it's not smooth and it's out of rhythm. So when you stay relaxed and just focus on a couple of things, everything is much smoother, you develop the power better and it all just comes together much better than trying to force it.
Cameron: So what do you do to help yourself stay relaxed?
Sarah: Well, I'm friends with a lot of the girls from the other nations, so we'll all be talking at the top of the hill, kind of joking around before getting ready to go. Like if it's been a bad day and I'm kind of down on myself I think "I'm not going to pull off the best jump right now, but look at the view! Think how hard you worked to get here, you're so fortunate to be here." I just kind of step back and make the most of the situation, because competing is really stressful. This is the best job in the world, but it stressful.
Sometimes that's easy to get down on, then I think "Why do I put so much pressure on myself?"
I try to step away from all that negativity and just appreciate where I am. You can't have a good day every day and the people that really matter, the ones closest to me, they know that I've worked really hard to get here and are just like "Alright, shrug it off, you can't be on top every single day."
The Flow Centre would like to take this opportunity to thank Sarah Hendrickson and the Wasserman Group for their time and energy. We would also like to thank you for taking the time to read this post!