Letting-Go Trailer
Kelly Slater is Mad!
Kelly Speaks With Forked Tounge
You don’t get to be a nine time world champion if you are a mental midget, but after watching the Kelly Slater documentary “Letting Go” I’m wondering how many more WCT titles Kelly could have won if he’d just taken some of his own advice.
After a couple of tough years KS decides in 2005 he has “got ahead” of himself and needs to let go of his ambition, angst and striving for the title.
And guess what? That mindset works for him! Kelly wins in Fiji, then again in the next event in Tahiti.
Kelly reckons he is a better competitor when he’s “not stressing out in a heat” and “enjoying himself.”
But as soon as he finds the winning formula and has slipped comfortably into contention for crown #7 he promptly forgets his “letting go” state of mind and grasps tightly for the reigns.
By midyear, before the J-Bay final, Kelly is once again embroiled in a title fight, saying “I’m going to kick his (Andy’s) arse”– Hey! Whatever happened to the “letting go” bro?!
Sure, Kelly won the final in a controversial decision, but only after admitting to having to suck down a gutful of nerves on his first wave. The battle continued in Kelly’s mind right through Europe and up until the title decider in Brasil, where he even “doubted” himself going into the event.
Kelly is the greatest surfer ever and the whole “letting go of results” that he talks about during the first 15 minutes of the DVD is critical to your surfing success.
This whole doco showcases the most interesting contradiction in high performance surfing - the more you want a result, the less likely you are to get it. Why? Because you become so focused on getting the result, that you get stressed, lack confidence and ultimately feel out of control.
So how do you become a winner, without wanting to win? Well it’s simple really – you have to take a lesson from Kelly – let go of results and focus on the process of becoming the best surfer you can be.
Get focused on the things that you have control over - getting your boards right, getting your technique right, getting your heat tactics right, getting your mind and body right – and then, the heat wins, contest results and world titles will take care of themselves.
Dr Mike Martin is widely acknowledged as the leading expert in surf psychology. He is author of Six Steps to Surfing Success:How to Create Heat Winning Strategies, and Head Honcho at SurfSuccess.com, which specialises in teaching contest surfers how to structure their contest thinking to convert 15%, 25% even up to 50% of their heat results into wins. SurfSuccess.com is a first-of-its-kind heat strategy development website that delivers sure-fire high performance thinking strategies for contest surfers to dramatically boost their heat win ratio in as little as six weeks. Go here now for details: http://www.SurfSuccess.com/new-member-info.html
The Meaning Of Letting Go!
