One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned over my many years in our sport, as a racer and as a mental coach, and one that many young racers need help understanding, is that training does matter. Too often, racers waste their time during training; the things necessary for quality training are only there sometimes. I can’t tell you how much it irritates me when I’m on the hill working with young racers and seeing them do things that prevent them from getting the most out of their training.

With that said, let me present to you my 5 Things I Hate To See Racers Do in Training:

1. Talking to other racers just before they leave the start gate.

Focus is the most essential mental contributor to quality training. If you aren’t focused on what you need to improve, you will keep doing what you’ve done in the past (which won’t make you faster). Yet, I often see racers chat it up before their turn in the gate, continuing to talk while in the gate, and, surprisingly,, racers who are still talking to their pals as they leave the gate. What’s missing here? Focus, of course. They are focusing on their conversations and what is behind them. They should focus on what they are working on and what lies ahead in the course.

Tip: About two minutes before your training run, stop talking to the racers around you. Narrow your focus away from others, do some mental imagery of your upcoming run, and grab a keyword to help you focus on what you’ll be working on in your training run.

2. Cruising to the first gate in training.

When I was racing, the clock started at the starting gate; I’m pretty sure that’s still the case! But you wouldn’t know it by how many racers approach the first few gates of a training course. I regularly see young racers ease into the course by cruising to the first gate or two before setthigh-energy sport that requires power, speed,, agility and an aggressive mindset. You need intensity and aggressiveness from the moment you kick out of the start to lower your time.

Tip: Get your intensity up (“rev your engine”) before you get into the start gate by jumping up and down. Fire your mind up with thoughts of attacking and explode out of the training course start gate and attack the first gate. By doing this in training, you condition your mind and body to similarly charge to the first gate in races.

3. Giving up without a fight in training.

This is my number one pet peeve when it comes to training. So many racers I see will get in a bit of trouble on the course and ski out. What a truly terrible habit to get into!  If you let yourself give up at the slightest problem in training, that’s what you’re training your mind and body to do in a race. Some deeper psychological issues, often perfectionism and fear of failure, usually cause racers to bail out of a course at the slightest mistake. But the bottom line is that when you ski out of a course, one thing happens 100 percent of the time: you lose, whether not improving in training or DNFing in a race.

Tip: Fight for your life to stay in every course. Of course, there will be some training runs where you ski out because you were on the edge, skiing so fast and couldn’t hang on. Those  “ski-outs” are good because you are pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone. Learning never to give up after a mistake will serve you well in races where even the top racers make mistakes but get right back in and fight to the finish.

4. Letting up at the last gate in training.

Many young racers ease up at the last gate and cruise across the finish line in training. This is another habit that drives me crazy. Like cruising to the first gate, racers are ingraining, letting up before the finish line. How often have you seen a racer having a good run and then, with only a few gates to the finish, hook a tip, lean in, or make a mistake? This frustrating experience usually occurs because racers think their run is over and lose focus and intensity. But just as the clock starts at the starting gate, it stops when racers cross the finish line, so you must be focused and intense through the finish.

Tip: In training, always ski hard past the last gate and through the finish. Coaches, always have a finish line for your training courses so they can get used to skiing training courses as fast as possible through the finish.

5. Asking coaches to reset when the training course gets a bit rough.

Young racers love to be one of the first on a newly set training course. It has  “hero snow” and it’s much easier to ski well. But how often do racers race under those ideal conditions? Unless you’re in the top seed, not often at all. Yet, I constantly hear,  “Hey, coach, the course is in terrible shape. When are you going to reset?” If you know you’ll be starting back in the pack on race day when the course is chewed up, your most essential runs during training are those when the course gets rough. The only way to ski well in tough race conditions is to learn to ski well when you train in those conditions. Doing so teaches you what you must do to make it down a disintegrated course and build confidence that you can still ski well, even if it is rough.

Tip: Rather than trying to be the first on the course, go at the end to simulate realistic race conditions. When the course is good and chewed up, say, “Bring it on,” attack it, and ski your fastest (while realizing that it isn’t likely to be pretty or perfect). Coaches have racers who will be in the first group in races go first and have racers who will be in the later seeds go last on the training course.

You spend many hours during the winter doing your on-snow training. Its purpose is to improve as much as possible so you can translate that skiing into going fast on race day. Here’s my challenge to you: Do everything you can to ensure that every training run you take is of the highest quality, which, over time, will enable you to become the best ski racer you can be.