Maybe we should call it the Zen of skeleton racing.
Lincoln DeWitt, the Park City athlete who won the World Cup in skeleton last season, trains two ways: physically and mentally. That physical training is needed goes without saying. But mental gymnastics?
The 34-year-old computer programmer told the Deseret News that he does "a lot of mental imagery."
What does that entail? DeWitt will "picture the whole track in my mind and exactly what I want to be doing" on a skeleton run. "Oh, it's the most important thing, for sure."
The other side of the coin is physical training, he said. He works on his start, which is crucial to a successful run.
A skeleton slider launches himself explosively from the starting block, lugging his sled (which can weigh up to 95 pounds), then lunges onto it at the top of the first drop.
To condition himself, DeWitt said, he does a "lot of weight training, which involves mostly leg work and a lot of sprinting." This is both normal running and simulated sled-pushing "because we push the sled, bent over." He is also an experienced mountain biker.
"I have a sled with wheels on it that I can push in the summer," he said. He also travels to Calgary, Canada, a couple of times a year to rent an indoor training facility that is iced during the summer.
He has a sharp memory of his first time on a skeleton run when the Bear Hollow track was new. He decided to find out what it felt like to fly down the track.
Deseret News graphicBobsled and skeleton primerRequires Adobe Acrobat.
He started about halfway down the track.
"I remember going through the first four turns, and they're fairly gradual turns," he said. "It was interesting.
"I could feel myself picking up some speed." Then his sled was coming up on the first big, high-G turn.
"It looked like I was going to run into it," DeWitt recalled. "I remember thinking, 'I have no idea how this is going to work.' "
Gravity's heavy hand shoved him into the sled and shot him toward the next big turn.
"The whole way down was just a complete blur, but a very enjoyable blur," he said.
"Couldn't wait to get back up and do it again."
E-MAIL: bau@desnews.com