The 100 Dollars Attention Budget
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Skiing
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Keith Code in the awesome book A Twist of the Wrist++ talks about the attention span and how important it is to avoid spending your attention on things that are irrelevant - he does that in the context of motorcycle racing, but it applies anywhere in life and other sports.
In every corner, imagine that your total capacity to focus is like a 100$ bill. Every little thing that requires attention will take away from that 100$ bill. Gear shifts 20$, balance 20$, that little rock on the left 5$, lean angle 10$, traction, throttle movements etc.
Everything costs "attention moneys". The more you spend on things that are irrelevant, the less you have to spend on things that are important.
Recognizing the things that deserve your attention moneys versus the ones that don't is very important. Building in certain skills will reduce the amount of attention you need to spend on that skill in the future - so practicing the important skills is important etc.
Further, optimizing your movements and habits to reduce spending is key, like reducing gear shifts - in most corners, you can select a gear at the beginning and maintain it through the turn, avoiding that iffy gear shift mid-corner.
Skiing
Having good balance is the number one attention saving skill, as most brain power is spent trying to stay in good balance on the selected line.
Having proper movements is critical and great technique is critical, since that keeps you balanced and in control, on the selected line. Any wrong or extraneous movements is a waste, especially rotation and skidding.
Having movements start with the feet and centered around "feeling" with the feet is another factor, since there are many nerve endings in the feet, dedicated to "feeling" balance, so you'd be using existing strong and fast neural connections.
Warm feet are critical - cold feet are not as sensitive.
To be continued.
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