what gets into your head?

fascination

fascination

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what will make you mess up, dance poorly? etc.....we know that, after a certain point,a lot of it is mental....lol, discuss your mental issues :)
 
Cha-cha. Yes, that's right. The whole danged danced. I'm pretty sure that at this point, a big part of the reason I continue to struggle as badly as I do with this dance is that I have a mental block built up over the entire dance.

One bad dance can wreck me for a while. I've mentioned a couple of times here the time my first dance at a particular competition was a waltz that I could not hear the timing to *at all*. I spent the entire song knows perfectly well that I was hideously off time and not being able to fix it. Suffice it to say, I don't feel like I was able to come out and bounce back perfectly in my next dance.

Fighting with my partner hurts. It doesn't happen often - people have remarked to me how remarkably pleasant our partnership tends to be. But we're human, there are times we butt heads, and when it happens, it's *really* hard to keep it from affecting my dancing.
 
Distraction control - when i'm at a competition, i try not to pay any attention to other competitors in our class during a warm up. This has been my experience with most of my competitive history in various sports. My perception of someone being either "better" or "worse" than me shifts my focus from where it should be (on me & what I need to do, or "us" i should say LOL since it's a partner dance) to a focus that is not internal, or disciplined. I tend to perform better (not related to placement) if I mentally limit getting psyched out by other competitors. Warm ups are the worst because it's what sets me up for the performance. Recognizing this is a danger-zone for me, i have to make a big effort to not watch others warm up.

I have the same issue with what you mentioned as well, Jude---if i'm having a mini spat with my parnter (luckily it doesn't happen too often), our dancing is not harmonious LOL
 
Miss Silly said:
Distraction control - when i'm at a competition, i try not to pay any attention to other competitors in our class during a warm up. This has been my experience with most of my competitive history in various sports. My perception of someone being either "better" or "worse" than me shifts my focus from where it should be (on me & what I need to do, or "us" i should say LOL since it's a partner dance)
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I've been told that as dancers, we shouldn't focus too much on our partners come comp day. We should only focus on what we can control, which is ourselves. As much as we try, we cannot control our partners :p
 
wow...this is fascinating...I love to see how different things affect different people...I will weigh in on this shortly
 
stash said:
I've been told that as dancers, we shouldn't focus too much on our partners come comp day. We should only focus on what we can control, which is ourselves. As much as we try, we cannot control our partners :p
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HAhahha true. I've tried. :-P

But i suppose what i mean in general, not to focus on other couples.
 
for me, if the first set is rough and my pro responds to that by being displeased, I struggle to re-gain my equilibrium...and, in general, I would say that I am greatly effected by his affect....I wish I was better about that but I have a lot of difficulty with it...regarding my fellow competitors, I don't have a great deal of trouble with that...they are at whatever level they are at and I am at whatever level I am at....now, if I perceive that the levels are close and it is a big event that I would really like to win, I can let that get in my head....particularly if I perceive that I have other deficiencies in the moment, like a sleep issue or am getting an illness or injury, or the previously mentioned pro/am dynamic, or a panel that I know won't be a particularly good thing for me (or even one that I suspect might be good for me)...I also don't dance terribly well late in the evening unless I have had a nap and a chance to properly warm up....

regarding lessons, if I am too tight or tense, or haven't eaten enough...that can be a bad thing...also, if I am getting only negative feedback and it is coming in generous portions, there is a point past which I have trouble pulling myself up and will crash and burn...on a lesson or at a comp
 
I don't think any of my pros have ever given *negative* feed back while AT a comp. Correct things between rounds, yes, but I think they know being down on me (or I assume any of their students) would not be putting me in a good mental place.

Not placing well, ESPECIALLY if I feel like I danced well, really gets to me. I start second-guessing my ability to judge my own dancing (not to mention question the value of working hard without rewards, but I'm pretty much reward-based. No positive reinforcement means I stop making an effort, regardless of the activity.)
 
Not placing well, ESPECIALLY if I feel like I danced well, really gets to me. I start second-guessing my ability to judge my own dancing (not to mention question the value of working hard without rewards, but I'm pretty much reward-based.
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we have discussed this before.. this can be a slippery slope to persistent dissatisfaction.. my wife doesn't want to compete pro-am anymore due in part to her belief system being similar.. in am /am we have won us titles so it works for her. for me pro -am isn't about results as men are generally screwed anyway its about improvement in my dancing. which then translated into improved am/am results and then the mrs is happy. other wise she would prolly cut me off ( of pro am ) lol
 
I struggled with this a lot more when I knew less about how things work and when there was no predictable pattern to what was happening...now, very often I can gage a good deal of the formula/odds before I step on the floor....it can still get under my skin, but it doesn't affect my dancing...as long as things stay level with my pro and I , I am pretty good...that is pretty much the critical factor for how I dance and for how I roll with everything else that happens
 
I don't get distracted, but if I get into that "really want to win" zone and I feel panicky because other factors like my physical health or the floor or something isn't quite right, I can do the total brain fart about where I am in a routine....I mean you can knock, but no one is home...I HATE that
 
There have been times where a collision on the dance floor has very much gotten into my head. Usually I can bounce back from them without a problem, but, well, let me give a f'rinstance. The first time I danced silver standard, I had a run-in with another couple in the foxtrot. No biggie, even though we were enough in each others way that we had to stop and reset. But when we did so, the other couple restarted at the same time, I zigged, they zagged and we ran *right* back into each other. Reviewing the video with my pro after the comp, it was very obvious that I was flustered for the remainder of the dance.
 
yep, and for me, the length of time I have been doing something has a lot to do with how well I recover...if I have been doing basically the same routines for a few years, I am pretty good with flexing to whatever crazy things happen and even ad libbing...but if something is newer, I have a hard time instantly choosing how to respond to a change in plan
 
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