MOUNTAIN BIKING: Mental training helps to win gold

HEALTH & FITNESS

Words: Andrea Kellerman , Sport Psychologist | Photos: Natalie Bergstrom & Nédene Cahill

Victory for Nédene Cahill at the recently held 2013 Mountain Bike World Championships, in Pietermaritzburg.

MentaL training helps to win gold

There are many theories on how to train the body, so that athletes can push themselves harder and achieve their ultimate goals.

Many athletes push themselves to the limit, increase their physical fitness and ability, eat healthily, and take all the necessary supplements, but don’t necessarily achieve their goals. The reason for this is that they have not trained their mind to operate in a peak-performance zone. When one isn’t 'in the zone', one can feel stressed, worried, fearful, and lack the confidence needed to win a race or an event.

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Mental training is proving to be vital for an athlete and is the key difference between winning and coming second. The great news is that we can train our minds and brains to perform better!

It was smiles all round for Natalie Bergstrom (right) and NĂŠdene Cahill (left), who won gold at the 2013 Mountain Bike World Championships.

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NĂŠdene Cahill totally focused on the task at hand: winning!

Natalie Bergstrom and NÉdene Cahill recently won gold at the 2013 Mountain Bike World Championships, in Pietermaritzburg, and explain how a mental training programme helped them to win.

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During the initial intake-sessions, they had to explain exactly what their training and racing consisted of. For example, they had to describe their thoughts, feelings, sleep patterns, what the races were like, what made them feel worried, and so forth.

Negative thought patterns, behaviors, and beliefs were then eliminated in a guided visualisation session. During this session, the conscious mind relaxes and we are able to work with the unconscious mind.

The conscious is like the policing system of our mind that helps us make conscious decisions.

A jubilant Nédene Cahill.

The unconscious mind, about 90% of our mind’s capacity, is the part that stores our feelings, experiences, and automatic behaviors and beliefs. When the mind is relaxed, we can work with the unconscious and help create positive thought patterns and feelings. We can also help the mind visualise the perfect outcome of a race or an event, which increases confidence and strength. In this relaxed state, the mind cannot tell the difference between reality and fiction, which means that the newly created positive outcomes are seen as our reality and we can then repeat them in real life. The sessions are recorded on a CD and we can achieve permanent changes in behavior and thought patterns by listening to the CD over a number of weeks.

"I was always very anxious, nervous, and worked up before my races, losing energy and the race before I even started. Even the slightest of hiccups would

make me very negative and I saw everything as a problem and not as a challenge. It was recommended that I try mental training and it was the best thing I ever did," said Natalie when asked why she came to our practice for mental training sessions.

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Nédene, on the other hand, said her coach told her to come and that the mental training helped her to stay focused and positive. She had lost confidence in herself, as she'd had a number of bad incidences during races. Even though she was strong and made good progress in her training sessions, she was just not able to repeat what she was able to do in her training, in her races. Her performance dropped, she was falling ill more often, was worried about her nutrition, and felt she wasn’t as strong as she needed to be.

Natalie feels that if she hadn’t trained her mind, she wouldn’t have won gold at the World Champs. She mentioned that she might not even have started, due to her pain and doubts.

Mental training helped her to overcome her two injuries that were incurred leading up to World Championships. Furthermore, it helped her to tackle the most technical sections without any doubt or hesitation.

mental training helped both of them to believe in themselves, to be completely focused, positive, and determined.

Both athletes agree that they would most certainly encourage all top competitive athletes, who need to stay focused and positive, to go for mental training. "It shifts

On the day of the World Championship, Nédene was able to visualise the 'perfect Race' and remain focused, no matter what happened. She arrived at the start line in a positive frame of mind and was determined to win; nothing was going to stop her.

Natalie reported that the mental training changed her way of thinking and approach to races. She was a lot more relaxed and not so stressed. At the start of the World Championship, she went in totally focused, confident, relaxed, ready, and determined to win it. On top of needing to be more confident and focused, she was battling with two severe injuries; one being a knee injury, which she was told would require surgery.

your mind into a very strong, positive place, and makes you focus and approach your event in a calm, relaxed mode. It also makes you focus on yourself and your race, and not on your competition," concluded Nédene. • For more information on brain and mind training, visit: www.eq-advantedge.co.za

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