Sports Psychology

I’ve been an athlete of some form or another for 30 years, I’ve studied Sports Science and had Sports Psychology support in the past and I can’t stress enough how much Sports Psychology can help an athlete at any level.
I’ve seen athletes get so wound up before races that they throw up, seen golf players throw their clubs in a hulk rage and top athletes perform well below par in top competitions. Ok I might be focussing on the competitive element here but when push comes to shove, when we are under pressure our thought process can mean the difference from success or failure. Whether it’s hitting your first double jump or hitting a turn off the brakes to riding over those forever awkward off camper wet roots our thought process plays a big part in our physical actions.

Look at the top flight athletes like Ratboy (Josh Bryceland) for example; do you think he’s Series World Champ just on his riding ability alone? His flare in riding is just as good as his mental approach which I am sure has been nurtured over the years by his mentors and his behind the scenes support staff.

Ok you might think this is a load of baloney but I challenge you to bear with it and read it to the end, take away what you will but give it a go. Think of it as Jedi training if you want to.

The following video will get your thought processes warmed up;




This pic above says a lot to me, we all have different comfort zones however when we go beyond our comfort zones and push ourselves it’s where the real magic happens as long as your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time) and you believe in yourself and keep working hard almost anything is possible. The proof is in the pudding, watch this video now and you’ll see what I mean.



Positive Affirmations

Ed Moses once said:
"Ain't no sense worryin' about what you can't control, 'cause if you can't control it, ain't no sense worryin' about it.
And ain't no sense worryin' about what you can control, 'cause if you can control it, ain't no sense worryin' about."

From the statement above we can assume that Ed Moses kept it simple, did not worry and kept things under control. We can use statements or Affirmations to help keep us positive and motivated. Statements like ‘I’m fast and getting faster’, ‘that was a mint run’…..Other positive affirmations could include:

I killed that section of the trail
I’m so stoked on my riding right now
My skills on the bike are getting awesome
The more I ride the better I become
If I love the hill and the hill will love me back
Me and my bike are a well-oiled machine
I smashed those turns
I’m going to go even faster next time
Champions are made in the winter (this is more of a statement but still is a thought provoking one)

When I raced 4x I used affirmations quite a bit especially on the start gate I did not look around at the competition I focussed on me and used positive affirmations. Ok I didn’t light the world on fire but it helped to keep the nerves under control, I was always relaxed and my gate was always consistent. I was once asked by a Sports Psychologist to choose a role model someone who I looked up to then was asked what makes them a great athlete, what traits do they have that I admire and to adopt them into my riding. I chose Dan Atherton at the time and how he attacks jumps and flows. I think it’s good to have role models it’s someone to look up to and learn from even if it’s just watching them on TV. This did not work for me, even though having a role model did help the traits part were just too much to muster.


Processes
Improving your riding is all about processes. If you can piece together the processes you are onto a winner…Ok I’m being a little vague so let’s start breaking down the processes. List 5 areas of your riding you’d like to improve on. You could write down more but a short list is better to focus and work with. Now rank each of these from 1 to 5 (1 being ‘poor’ to 5 being ‘outstanding’) You should be able to see what you need to focus on to improve your riding this is the ‘What’. Taking the one that scored the least let’s say it’s ‘cornering’ well your next step is the ‘How’. how are you going to make it better? You need to look at the processes that helps you to become better at cornering this can be from watching videos on the internet like the following:

Downhill Corners with Steve Peat

How To: Drops

How To: Bunny Hop


Try videoing yourself or booking yourself on a coaching course or reading a book. I’ve tried all of them and the single best thing I’ve found is using your mates. Learn the fundamentals but let your mates see how you’re doing and let them help you. After a bit of practice you’ll be hitting corners like you’re on rails because you have all the tools to do it right. It will also help to develop your confidence. If it ever goes wrong don’t bring yourself down. I am guilty of admitting I’ve felt like throwing the bike at times, sports psychologists explains this as the inner child in us lashing out. The best thing you can do is go back to your processes assess where you went wrong and correct it. Throwing your bike will not help you jump further. Try out your processes for a month and return to your list and rank yourself again and see what difference it’s made.


Goal Setting
This is such a simple task and works really well. Some people like to log their training others just go out and ride. As you start to get better it’s sometimes good to have something to aim for, it gives a sense of purpose and provides motivation. Goal setting can be broken down into short, medium and long term. As long as they are SMART you can’t go wrong. If you do a weekly diary set weekly goals. Your medium goals are goals that you hope to achieve in the next 6 months or so and the long term goals are your ultimate goals.


Focus
This is the last but by no means least of tips that could help your riding which is focussed on keeping relaxed. The worst thing you can do is tense up especially when hitting something new for the first time or at the start of your race. There are a couple of things you can do to help you relax and focus. The first is yoga…yes yoga. Yoga exercises complimented by breathing help to make you more relaxed and flexible. It also helps to develop core strength and balance.

The second is meditation. Have you ever seen some of the top DH athletes in a deep trance going through their race run in their head before they start, well this is a form of meditation. They are blocking everything out of their mind and focussing on the course that follows. You can use this for the 15ft jump or the steep drop. By blocking out negative thoughts and focussing on the job at hand, using the processes you will nail the jump and steep drop for sure. Meditation techniques can help you to control your breathing, help you to relax and focus better.

So there you have it some simple tips that could help to improve your riding and release your inner Jedi. To help I have teamed up with The Mountain Bike Rockschool who is offering a free coaching lesson to help you get started. To enter just add a comment below and we’ll pick out the lucky winner in November. The coaching session will take place in the UK in Nottinghamshire.

themountainbikerockschool.co.uk/

By Paul Dodsley BSc, FSMT

Posted In:
Stories Reader Stories