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(This blog was originally posted on March 9, 2014)
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| Photo by Sara Fogan |
Have
you ever wondered where a champion athlete goes after she wins an Olympic
medal? If she is still competing, she goes right back to her coach to continue
training. She may also brainstorm with teammates or participate in (or teach) a
clinic to improve her technique or learn new skills in order to continue to
excel in her sport.
On
March 8 and March 9, 2014, I audited The Dressage
Life symposium at the Los
Angeles Equestrian Center in Southern California. Charlotte Dujardin, the 2012 British
Olympic gold medalist in dressage
and reigning world champion in the sport, was the featured clinician. She and
her former trainer, International Grand Prix champion Judy Harvey,
were here to share their expertise with six accomplished equestrians and their
equally impressive horses to work through specific training issues. They were
there to observe, praise/critique, correct and motivate each rider to continue
improving in her sport. Ms. Dujardin treated everyone with respect, humor and a
little tough love—including Hilda Gurney,
a former Olympic bronze medalist in dressage and popular trainer in Southern
California, and her mount, Wintersnow.
It
wasn’t really a surprise that Ms. Gurney was there, but the incredible
opportunity to watch these two champions cooperating to achieve a common goal
did give me goose bumps. After all, in another context, they would have been
competing against each other for the same title. But here they were
teacher and student, and even champions will go back to school in order to
remain in the game and stay at the top of their class.
“It’s
wonderful to watch two Olympians work together,” Ms. Harvey commented at the
end of their session. She added that Ms. Dujardin benefitted from her student’s
experience as a competitor in dressage, while Ms. Gurney would have been
inspired and motivated by her teacher’s enthusiasm and technical skills.
“I
still learn and watch [and visualize] other riders to get better at what I do,” Ms. Dujardin explained during a
Q&A session during the clinic. She recounted a time when she used to have a
really tough time doing a half-pass at the trot. Then, right before a major
competition, she found a catalyst to overcome this block: while observing a
former Olympic gold and silver medalist, Isabelle Werth, practice
this movement, she finally “got” how to do it. Dujardin explained how mentally
replicating every detail of Werth’s practice ride during an imaginary ride on
her own horse, Valegro, enabled her to finally ride the half-pass in her own
competition later that day.
“Sometimes, watching someone else and
visualizing what they do helps me to understand what I need to do to understand
what I am doing wrong and correct technique if I feel stuck,” she said.
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in
Southern California. She graduated with honors from the
Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about
Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2014
