You're only as good as your lowest level of mastery
What does it mean to be good at your job or have good skills in the outdoors? Well, you have to start with being high performance and that high level of performance requires that you achieve mastery over a broad set of skills. Terms are important here’s for this discussion skill mastery a comprehensive and advanced understanding of the skill, shown by the ability to consistently perform tasks related to that skill at a high level. In an outdoor context there are a lot of skills that you need to be proficient at before you can start consistently delivering a high level of performance. Ego and bravado play a big role in halting mastery because it is so hard for us to self-identify how good we are due to our on biases.
What does skill mastery look like?
Skill mastery is achieved when you are able to perform a skill or task at an unconscious level. Just because you achieve mastery over one skill does not necessarily mean you have achieved mastery over anything else in boating. Some boaters are rock climbers and thus can achieve mastery very quickly over rope work because they are putting in the time with ropes. Other boaters may have a near perfect J-stroke simply because they are raft guides for work and spend most of their time J-stroking guests across flat water. So what is required to achieve mastery on boating?
Proficiency: Most importantly Mastery requires a deep understanding of the nuances of the skill plus the ability to perform a skill, its various components, or tasks with effectiveness at an unconscious level. For instance, the skill of successfully navigating a class V rapid requires high levels of proficiency in the components of running the rapid including boat control, reading water, paddle control, communication, and group management.
Consistency: Mastery goes beyond simply performing well one time, it requires a high level of performance under various conditions and stresses. Can you consistently read class V water in a way that will allow for successful navigation in a variety of rivers, flow levels, and crew conditions?
Adaptability: Mastery requires flexibility in using the skill in different contexts and goes beyond repetition allowing for creative application of the skill. This requires both a high level of proficiency, but also the ability to take the concept from theoretical to practical in any situation you are faced with.
Continuous Learning: Mastery requires the ability to be the student and seek out knowledge of the skill in all its forms. Sometimes you have to conduct research, other times you may need to find other teachers to learn the ways in which they apply the skills to their situations. More than just diving as deeply as possible into the skill you may need to learn allied skills to help you boost the effectiveness of the knowledge base you already possess.
Teaching and Mentoring: There is an old saying that states the only way to show true mastery is to accurately articulate the concept to their people. You learn a lot by teaching because it forces you to readdress the things that allowed you to become proficient at the skill in the first place.
Skill mastery requires a huge investment of time and energy into learning the skill as well as putting yourself into situations where you would use the skill. Training opportunities are everywhere and it is important to put yourself into as close to real life scenarios as are safe to do. Learning how to flip a boat int a boating class is no good if you aren’t making the time to go out and practice on the water regularly. This helps keep your skills sharp and to be ready for the situation where you will need to perform.
Achieving Skill Mastery
The impact of stress on skill performance can’t be understated, but it depends on the nature of the task, the individual's stress response, and the level and duration of stress. While some people may be able to harness stress to improve performance in certain situations, excessive stress generally hinders skill performance by affecting cognitive and physical abilities. At the end of the day it all comes back to skill mastery
Skill mastery is such an important concept to working through the stress on the river because achieving mastery over a skill means you have a strong baseline for being able to perform that skill unconsciously. Improving your mastery also has a lot to do with your head game and managing stress effectively. Stress management on the river is a whole different animal compared to being at home. Techniques, such as relaxation, mindfulness, and meditation just aren’t effective. There are several techniques such as taking a break, the 4-4-4 technique, and proactively training to avoid pushing too hard too fast that can help. If you’re looking for more stress management techniques check out our beginner rafting series.
They say it takes 10,000 hours to achieve mastery over a topic, but you have to break that down into parts which means dedicated training is the key to unlocking your potential. Here’s some tips for developing mastery as your out on the water:
Take time every day on the water to focus on your form. Trying to achieve at least 1 perfect paddle stroke.
Try to flip a raft in a calm spot every day you’re out on the water so you can train yourself to recover from a flip.
Find an easy water section to practice swimming in current so you can become comfortable trusting your equipment.
If you’re lowest level of mastery consists of only a forward paddle then begin by adding training into your routine one item at a time and shoot for a backpaddle next, followed by managing your weight, then progress to harder skills focusing your energy on one new skill at time to maintain forward progress.
How stress impacts skill performance
Stress is a major factor in skill performance and determining skill mastery, because stress makes us suck. If you haven’t read our article on how stress degrades performance check it out here. Stress can have both positive and negative effects on skill performance, depending on the individual and the situation, but ultimately it is the measure of how good your outdoor skills are because it is your mind reverts to your lowest level of mastery under stress. This allows you to judge your mastery over the skills that you are performing. Like I mentioned before to achieve mastery you will have to be performing at such a high level it seems unconscious thus requiring so little attention to perform the skill that you can do it despite the effects of stress or distractions. Achieving mastery requires you to understand how you react to stress physically and mentally.
In what ways does stress enhance performance impair performance for you?
How does stress affect your short term memory and attention?
What physical effects do you experience under extreme stress?
How does stress influence your reaction time?
Does your emotional state change drastically in stressful situations, and what does that mean for your performance?
You have to understand your stress response so that you can train effectively to manage the stress and increase performance in a particular skill set. Taking extra time to develop those skill gaps will make you a stronger boater and a better all around team member because your average level of mastery will be so much stronger.
