At about the age of 5 or 6, per the recommendation of my Physical Education Teacher, my parents enrolled me in gymnastics classes. I guess I was always full of energy and often swinging on the monkey bars, jumping and flipping around the gym mats at school that putting me in a organized gymnastics class seemed to be a good idea. I am thankful for Ms. Marvin’s recommendation as I continued doing gymnastics even into college.
From early on in my gymnastics career I was taught the power of mental imagery training. At a very young age I was taught that the thoughts we put into our head will affect our performance. If you wanted to have a perfect performance you need to practice perfect thoughts. Our coach would turn the lights down and we would have to lay still working on relaxation and breathing and imagine ourselves going through our routines with perfection. We would do this so many times before each event would be prepared to give a perfect performance.
Of course we still needed to practice and complete thousands of repetitions to perfect our skills but what I did learn is that all the practice in the world will not matter if your mind is not right. You have to include brain training to be good at sports (and life). If you can teach your mind to think positive thoughts your body can follow. If your mind is full of negative thoughts before, after or during the event, you will fall apart.
This weekend of triathlon training was a reminder of the importance of brain training. I had a few tough sessions that really tested me physically but more so mentally. We often confuse pain signals when we are fatigued. I am tired, this hurts, I need to slow down, quite, stop. Our mind can gives up before our body really needs to give up or slow down. Sometimes when I feel like I am dying I do a systems check. I will ask myself If I am really hurt or injured? Is my heart rate within expected range? Am I light headed? If the answer is no to my systems check, I often know my mind is getting the best of me. Then I ask myself what is the problem? Ok I am tired. Negative thoughts can start to enter our minds when we get fatigued. We can start to check out as our thoughts wander to the dark side.
Here is where brain training comes into play. I have already pictured myself performing well. In my mind I have actually pictured my bike splits, watts and pace, I have already envisioned what numbers I will see when I look down at my bike computer or watch. I want to see those numbers because I have practiced them in my head and in my training. I am capable of this. Negative thoughts try to creep in because it is hard. I move on to some of my mantras “finish line is waiting for you,” “pain is temporary,” “this is a gift, be grateful,” “one step closer,” “you got this.” If I am able to control my thoughts most often my body will respond favorably. I am thankful I realize the relationship and work hard on setting my mind straight. This takes time, practice and consistency.
