Rickard Gustafsson | Saturday, 21 February 2026
This weekend I’m away skiing. I’m not a skiing nut but it is okay. And I think I’m an okay skier also. One painful thing is that many of the locations where you go skiing in Sweden is located near good or great fishing locations. From the cabin we are staying now I can see a river. Not the best river but it holds some grayling, trout and salmon. The salmon and trout is stocked as this river isn’t flowing freely.
And that I’ve brought a fly rod with me on each of the skiing trips I’ve made this year reminds me of the fishing nearby even more. This time I’ve gotten some casting in. A little bit of accuracy standing on the balcony. No one did see me so not any smart comments this time.
There are some things that skiing and fly casting have in common. If you look at the tree you will end up in the tree. Look at the ground and you will end up on the ground.
So to keep out of trouble pick the correct targets!
It is interesting with the gaze. High level performers have this in common. The gaze works differently than on beginners and lower level performers. I think we can identify high level performers in any task by just looking at their gaze. I don’t have the source available, but we can use this to our advantage. Use the gaze the same as a high level performer to directly increase your performance in your activity.
For fly casting, pick your targets. It can be harder here as we need two targets and one of them can be hard to see.
I’ve used this knowledge to improve my skiing. By lifting my gaze looking further down the slope and where I want to go I think I’ve improved. I should add some lessons also. But I save that for the future if I end up going skiing more often. I think the last time before this winter was 2018. So not an avid skier. And I don’t know how to practice this before going on a trip. Not more than keeping some leg training going.
So remember that the eyes are important for performance!
And I’ve stumbled upon interesting videos that could be me now in the snow. Some good inspiration that practice doesn’t have to be serious and fun. Even the snake walk is there:
https://youtube.com/shorts/_Wv2ihh7-Ac
https://youtube.com/shorts/R9jxJ-Pw6Fc
Cheers, Rickard