Lorraine Huber
#3: Beyond elite performance, transitioning, and the skills needed to reach our dreams with Lorraine Huber (Part 2)
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In this second part of the conversation with World Champion skier Lorraine Huber, she discusses life after achieving her title and the invaluable skills that helped her on and off the mountain. Lorraine explores how her mindset, perseverance, and mental strength in freeride skiing translated into motherhood, coaching, and public speaking. She reflects on maintaining focus, handling life’s pressures, and the importance of surrendering to the process, both in sport and in everyday challenges.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Lorraine Huber
Lorraine Huber, the 2017 Freeride World Champion, is one of the top female big mountain skiers globally. With over 25 podiums on the Freeride World Tour, she has starred in ski films by Warren Miller and won the Best Freeride Female award at iF3. Based in Austria, Lorraine is a certified ski guide, freeride coach, and founder of the Freeride Center Sölden. She leads the popular Women’s Progression Days camp and is pursuing a Master’s in mental strength coaching at the University of Salzburg.
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SHOW NOTES / RESOURCES
Conversations with God by Neil Donald Walsh, 1995: This series profoundly impacted Lorraine's perspective on spirituality and personal growth, emphasizing that life's purpose is about experiences rather than rigid achievements.
Atomic Habits by James Clear,2018: Lorraine highlights this book for its insights into behavior change and the importance of establishing automated habits to achieve lasting results.
TRANSCRIPT
Flow, unleashed, unleashed, unleashed.
Cameron Norsworthy
I'm always fascinated by how that one person makes it to the top in a field in which 1000s of people, if not millions, have vied to be the best, how is it that the one has made it to the top of the podium. In the second part in our conversation with World Champion Lorraine Huber, we chat about life after becoming a world champion, and what skills are most important to achieving our dreams.
Welcome to flow. Unleashed. I'm Dr Cameron Norsworthy, scientist and high performance coach to multiple world champions. In this show, we unpack key insights on specific topics so that you are kept up to date with the latest science and practice of human performance. You
I'm always kind of asked this question and myself, I'm always fascinated by it, are they the same skills that get you to become a good athlete as that get you to become a great athlete?
Lorraine Huber
Well, you know, if there's one thing that you need do something like a world championship, it's just sticking with it. Don't give up. Just keep going. Keep going. You know, I was amazed on the tour, how many people would maybe have a bad season or two, and then they're like, Ah, this isn't for me, and free riding shouldn't be a competitive sport anyway. It wrecks the soul of free rider. Whatever they would tell themselves, some story they would just stop after a season or two, and that's a hard question for me to answer, because I don't think I'm that different to anyone else, but maybe that is a trait that differs me from other people that I won't give up. It's like, when it gets challenging, I get interested. It's like, oh, this is cool. Let's, let's really dig, dig in here, or let's get my teeth into this. Maybe that would be it. It's hard for me to really answer that.
Cameron Norsworthy
Yeah. And, you know, I see that across different world champions, it's that leaning into that challenge. And, you know, there's a natural inclination to seeing it as complexity rather than a problem or difficulty or barrier and obstacle, yeah. And I'm always fascinated by is that, you know, the upbringing people have, or is that, just like a natural inclination or disposition passed down from parents? And there's no one answer for this, but there's certainly in terms of us all developing, you know, I think your your message around just keep going, you know, if we put in those steps, if we focus on the process and put in that work, we will eventually look back and go, Wow, look where I've ended up.
Lorraine Huber
Yeah, that's right.
Cameron Norsworthy
It is a stark truth that the history books may have been rewritten if many of the talented athletes that fell by the wayside did things differently. If some were more mentally competent, more emotionally mature, less distracted by sex, drugs and rock and roll, believed in themselves a little more, or had parents that supported them, or got given a checkbook that afforded important opportunities that could grow and crystallize their ability, then there might be different names written on trophies and awards. Importantly, we will never know what is in store for us. Personally, we do not aim high and commit and embody the journey that's required to meet our dreams. Becoming a world champion is no small feat. But what next, does all the hard work and journeying to reach our dreams end there? Or is this pursuit of our dreams a priceless experience and invaluable to the rest of our life? Do you feel that the skills you've learned to be able to compete at that pinnacle and under that pressure has been transferable to motherhood and you know now you're also a coach and a keynote speaker, and you're still doing films and all the rest of it. Do you feel that that those skills are easily transferable.
Lorraine Huber
You know what? Like? One of the coolest things was how well my skills, like performing in the pocket and all that stuff we were talking about and being in the Stargate, how well it transferred to giving birth. That was cool. I. Not expect that, but it was so similar. I found so many parallels, because with giving birth, you have to completely surrender and trust your body and really get out of your own way. It's it's just like skiing. You prepare, you educate yourself. So it's like skiing, right? You visualize your line. You have all the analytical stuff, but then when you're in that Stargate, you have to just let go and trust that you've done all the work, and your body is the real pro, not your mind. The bodies knows what to do you want to calm your mind and hopefully won't get in your way. And it's the same with birth. I just thought that was so cool. I had such a great experience. I was able to have an unmedicated birth like I wanted to. So yeah, that definitely transferred. And in terms of parenting, I'm still very much in early parenting. I feel like the challenges are really still going to come up as Freya gets more independent, and where I get tested a lot more, but so far, it's been more physical, right? Like learning how to deal with the sleep deprivation. But yeah, there are skills like, well, with the sleep deprivation. For example, instead of being like, Ah, she's crying again. Like, bloody hell, I wanted to sleep and like, ah, like not accepting that, or like having all that resistance. It's like, well, it's a chance for me to connect with her. It's a chance for me to to, you know, bond with her. So that's a mindset thing as well, and that's something I am aware of. Like, if I, if I have a repeated mindset where I feel like, Oh, that's really not getting me anywhere. Like, if it goes on and on, I will notice it, and I'll be like, maybe I should try and see that in a different way. Or, how can I reframe that? Or, you know, maybe I'm really not doing myself any favors there. That doesn't mean I can always manage it, but if, yeah, like I said before, without that self awareness, you're not going to be able to make any changes. So I think that helps me, that I can just kind of forget everything else and just be really in the moment and see what's right in front of me and feel what's right in front of me. And kids are just amazing like that. I know we've spoken about that they're just so
Cameron Norsworthy
cool. Yeah, it's a real privilege. They often see them as my little bitters, wherever I'm in my head and steering about the future or something I did in the past. Just be able to sort of play with kids takes all of that away. And you know, there's so much to learn, or I find anyway, so much to learn from hanging around kids living a high performance lifestyle is complicated. Whether you're a busy executive young parent or aiming to climb your mountain, our goals in life can feel overwhelming in a world in which people are expected to have 17 different jobs in their career, work hard, pay their rent, be healthy, keep up with the Joneses and have a balanced life. It can be a challenge the demands of modern society to be many things, do many things and not get rattled or drop the ball along the way. Is daunting. As we strive to do it all, we become frazzled and ultimately dissatisfied with our life as the impossibility of doing it all becomes increasingly clear. So how do we beat this conundrum?
Lorraine Huber
Like as an athlete, I actually feel pressured to want to do it all. I feel pressured that I should be that that kind of mum that isn't just happy being at home with a kid, like I have to also want to do filming, and I have to also want to do all these cool skier things. I'm like, You know what? I'm good. I like just focusing on Freya right now, I have so much to learn. I'm getting to know her. I'm getting to know myself as a mom, and what's important to me, and whatnot. Kev and I are figuring stuff out as parents. Like, there's so much going on to add. Like a lot of athletes, they don't even take time off as a mum. It's just like business as usual, because they're too afraid if they take time off, that they'll get dropped by their sponsors, so they go to all the team meetings and commitments and shoots and all that stuff, while kind of doing the motherhood thing as well. That I think would have been stressful for me, like for me, it was good to just be really focused on being a mom, and once I feel a bit more settled in all that, then absolutely I can imagine taking other things on again, but I did feel pressure that I have to do it all, and because that's what the modern woman mother can do. But I actually don't want to do it all. I like. Like this, being at home, mum thing right now, it's really cool.
Cameron Norsworthy
When I'm working with people who are parents, what you're saying just sings true with almost all of them. You know, there's this sort of desire to be greater. Be a professional. Be a great parent. Be a great this, be a great that, and ultimately we end up dissatisfied, because it's almost impossible to be great in all those areas, and our expectations are sort of up here. But then the rear, even if we're doing a really, really good job and we're juggling amazingly, still trying to we still feel funked and deflated at the end of the day, you know, mildly or intensely, because we want to do everything you know. And I guess that you know, perhaps your athlete career has helped you in that way, because you did focus on skiing, and you made a lot of sacrifices to be able to train and and have that singular activity in your life.
Lorraine Huber
And I didn't get better, or, like, really good, until I did that, because I had a phase before where I was running the free ride business. I was guiding, then I was a marketing tutor at the University of Innsbruck. Oh, and I kind of was trying to do some photo shoots and stuff and comps as well. It was just too much. You know, it was. I was spreading myself too thin. And then when I made that decision, okay, I'm going to really give myself one season here, that was after my knee injury, to figure out what do I actually want to do with my skiing. I said to myself, look, I'm giving myself one season to just just focus on skiing, not all the other stuff I had before I'd finished my studies, and just see where it takes me. And that's when I started actually really progressing. And I do think there's a lot to be said for focusing on one thing. It's a luxury. I think it's a huge privilege that I get to be at home with my daughter, especially living here in the States right now, where mums aren't supported. They go back to work full time at three, four months postpartum. I would have been miserable doing that, but a lot of mums like it. They say they want to go back to work, and that's fine. I respect that, but just it wasn't for me. But I do think that us women get this message of, you know, even friends, close friends, said to me, Well, you're not going to be that kind of mom. Lorraine, like before I had Freya. You're not going to be that kind of mum. That's just going to be at home, that traditional mum, you'll always have other things going on. Yeah, it seems like there's this expectation that you aspire to not just being the at home mom. That's not enough. You also want to be still active as a professional and doing all this other stuff, and have the sponsors and all that. Yeah, you just have to find your own path, right? You have to find your own path in it. There's a lot of good ways of doing it, but that that can be difficult, I think, in parenthood, but I'm just starting to wade through those murky waters. So I might be hitting you up for some tips as well, like, how did you do this?
Cameron Norsworthy
Yeah, I mean, it's, I think, as you mentioned prior, as well, it's difficult for everyone. You know, there's so many things we can do and be in this world, so many distractions and shiny, shiny opportunities and goals. And often we feel that we need to be more, more, more more. And actually, often we need to be less to be more. And you know that often comes easier with age and wisdom. But when you're young, it's it's difficult to to kind of embody that lesson, how do you feel? You've changed by becoming a world champion.
Lorraine Huber
I mean, it definitely gave me a lot of confidence having managed to actually clinch that title. But it's not just the title. It's like how you get there. It's like overcoming all the hurdles. It's that being able to have gone through all the tough times and not give up and keep going and keep working. That is what it was. It's not the final title. I think even if I had just stayed runner up world champion, which I was back in 2014 I would have had it as well. But, of course, it's the cherry on top, you know, and you get public recognition, and now you are somebody, and you get awarded, and you get to feel special and important. That's nice. It's nice to be in the limelight, you know, absolutely. But. And just not having given up, and having stuck to my guns and working through all the adversity, gave me huge confidence that I could do whatever I set my mind to, like I truly believed it. Then my mom has always said that to us girls, to my sister and I, she's always said the world is your oyster. You can do anything you set your mind to, but to really, truly believe it is. You know, took me a long time to get there, but that's what I want to say to the listeners. You don't have to be world champion to to reach that level of confidence in your abilities. Not at all. You just need some kind of path of growth that you just keep working on something, and, you know, you'll have the setbacks, which is good, because that will be where you get your confidence and power from then, and you get to work through all that and show yourself that you're a determined person and that you are committed and that you can do hard things. Basically,
Cameron Norsworthy
yeah, I love what you said there, you know, often we we think of this confidence as this full, big thing that we need to be in and attain. And often I like to see confidence as a wall, you know, and and actually building it, brick by brick is far more concrete. It it lasts longer, it's less fickle. You know, when we meet adversity, one or two bricks might get knocked off, you know for sure, because we're human, but we still have most of the wall left. If we've built those mini mastery experiences, and we've grown, and we've got those mini blocks of confidence, and often, we kind of want to jump ahead and just feel supremely confident and not put that that work in, and not have that pipeline as as you suggested. It really
Lorraine Huber
that metaphor that, because it also makes me feel like, Ah, it's something that I can manage. I can put the bricks up there. It's not this, like nebulous concept out there. I think that's a great metaphor.
Cameron Norsworthy
And now a quick question for you, do you enjoy learning about the psychology and neuroscience of human performance? Can you see yourself helping others to raise their game? Well, we have designed the ultimate course to train our coaches so that they can amplify the performance of other elite professionals, and now we are opening it up for you, too. If you want to take your knowledge and practice to the next level and become a coach, then join us on this year's ICF approved flow coach accreditation. If you want to find out whether it's the right fit for you, simply go to flowcentre.org All right, I know we're running out of time. Is there a book or a film or a person that has changed your life for the better or helped you unleash yourself in a way that you'd love to pass on to other people. I'm
Lorraine Huber
going to mention two books. I actually mentioned one of them already, the conversations with God series from Neil Donald Walsh really did change how I saw a lot of things. So I would say that was life changing, because that's a hard feat to claim for a book, that it was actually life changing, like, How many books have I read where it's been inspiring, it's been really cool, but then I just go on with my normal life. But I'd say that series, and then also, just
Cameron Norsworthy
quickly on that I've read that, that series, and it was instrumental for me as well, because it it allowed me to get a handle on spirituality in a non religious manner. And I love that analogy of the consciousness dripping down as raindrops, and then you kind of going back up and this circulation of of of people. But yeah, what did you really get from that, that series
Lorraine Huber
I with you about the spirituality and I mean, Neil really does. He takes a lot of pressure off people, saying that we're here to have an experience, and God doesn't necessarily care if we go to church or what we achieve. It's really he's living through us by experiencing these things. And I also loved that, you know, we have this beam of like this little glint of God all in us, and that we are designed to forget where we come from so that we can have this world experience, yeah, that the whole like, bigger picture spirituality of It was eye opening to me and just helped me to go through life. I think, actually, I don't, I don't consider myself a religious person, but I would say I'm a spiritual person to some degree. It's not that I'm really. Practicing that much, but some of just having the ideas of there's a lot more out there than that we can understand and comprehend and measure, that's for sure. And the other book I want to mention is atomic habits, which I could imagine a lot of people who listen to the podcast know by James clear, and you know, some of what we were talking about with installing these automated behaviors for training comes from there. Like, you know, the process of really changing behavior, I thought was extremely powerful knowledge to have and to apply. Definitely life changing, because it has to really show in behavior. Doesn't it mean life changing could be an idea as well, but if it actually affects behavior, that's when we really do have that big change, I think that I would consider to be life changing.
Cameron Norsworthy
Lorraine, thank you so much for your time and energy. It's been fascinating going over how you perform under pressure, what has worked for you during your journey. And I've really enjoyed the chat.
Lorraine Huber
I really enjoyed the conversation. So nice to have a break from the day to day here and to really delve into all this stuff that I love. Yeah, I look forward to more.
Cameron Norsworthy
Thanks for tuning in. If you've enjoyed this chat and feel like giving back, please share it and subscribe. It makes a huge difference in helping others to find this pot. If you want further details about this episode, please go to the show notes. That's it for now. Keep evolving, and we hope to see you when the next episode drops. You have been listening to flow. Unleashed. You.