'Embrace the Hit:' How this skeleton athlete let this advice guide her through motherhood

SALT LAKE CITY — Imagine flying down a narrow track of ice face down in a sled with no ability to brake or steer and hearing this advice: embrace the hit.

That is what Courtney Spencer's coach told her as a 26-year-old athlete taking on the skeleton for the first time. She wrote about how that advice has carried her well beyond the track in her new memoir: "Embrace the Hit."

When Spencer started skeleton, when she approached the wall and tried to steer away, her coach told her to embrace the hit.

"If you embrace the hit as you're leaning into it, it'll put you off on a better path," she recalled. "Embrace it. Absorb into it."

Spencer said this coaching moment became a life lesson.

Embracing the Hit in Motherhood

Spencer said motherhood gave this lesson a whole new meaning.

"I was a workaholic, type A," she explained. "I found myself, like, in my pantry eating cookie butter out of the jar crying."

She realized that she wasn't embracing motherhood, she was steering away because of her focus on the ideal. So, she changed her language.

"I changed three words from 'I have to' to 'I get to,'" Spencer said. "I wanna be present and not perfect."

Faith Changes How We Carry Hard Things

Spencer explained that this principle went even deeper as her faith developed.

"When I was recruited for skeleton, I converted from Lutheran to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," she said.

During that season, she was studying scriptures and pondering on what it meant to trust God. The lesson moved from simply embracing challenges to embracing them with help.

"It shifted me from embrace the hit with him," Spencer said. "And then the hits don't hold you on the wall for as long because you're doing it with the Savior and not by yourself trying to figure that out."

Showing Up Matters More Than Being Ready

Spencer shared a story about her first skeleton combine. She came dead last, but another athlete said something that stuck with her.

"This athlete comes up and she goes, 'You showed up. That's the hardest part,'" she recalled.

We can all learn that lesson. Just show up. Not because you're for sure going to succeed. Not because you'll always feel confident. But because growth comes when you're willing to be present.

"Everything else will be what it is, but show up, go there, do it, and just embrace it," Spencer emphasized.

The Present Moment Matters

In her book, Spencer wrote about treating the current season of life as meaningful rather than just getting through it until things get better.

"When we waste time, we only delay blessings. This life matters. This season matters. Even if it feels like a temporary stop along the way, the Lord asks us to...treat the now as holy, to show up fully, to plant, to build, to love, to grow."

She said not to delay your joy, growth or gratitude until things get better. Engage with what your life is right now. Whether it's parenting young kids, building a business, navigating relationships or dealing with a difficult season, the present moment deserves your full attention.

Hope Helps Us Keep Moving Forward

"I have come to learn that the act of embracing - truly opening your arms and heart to life - is rooted in hope. Not a shallow hope, but a hope born through progression, through the willingness to keep moving forward even when the path feels steep."

That kind of hope doesn't ignore the hard things. It refuses to let hardship have the final word.

"A really good friend told me it says over and over again in the scriptures, 'It came to pass,'" Spencer said. "Nothing came to stay."

She said those words have become a powerful perspective for her. Challenges aren't permanent. Difficult seasons don't last forever.

"It's going to come to pass," she said. "And it's supposed to so that we can learn and keep going forward."

Get the book at embracethehit.com.

This story originally aired on KSL TV and has been reformatted for a digital audience using artificial intelligence.