Ruka Adventure Racing - RAR

are you tough enough

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by Steve Ward______________________________________________________________________Español_____English

Are You Under Performing?

Adventure racing is a physically demanding sport; no one would deny that. And as a result, people rightly, spend a large amount of their time training physically to prepare themselves for the challenges of competition. However, consider this, how often have you heard yourself, or others, talking about how mentally demanding the event, or parts of it were? How many times have you had to overcome mental barriers? What is your motivation like? Your determination? Your ability to deal with setbacks? How do you perform when the pressure is on? What levels of commitment and self-belief do you possess? Mental toughness is with out doubt a fundamental component to successful adventure racing. Now ask yourself this...how much time do you spend preparing yourself mentally?

Peak Performance = Physical Training + Technical Training x Mental Training

Many people are under performing because they are training almost entirely physically, and ignoring the fact that as humans our performances are influenced by our thoughts and emotions. There is actually no such thing as a purely physical performance, because every action, no matter how small, starts first in the mind.

Did You Believe In Father Christmas?

The barriers to success are most frequently in the mind. As humans we are constantly setting limitations to our performance, often based on our beliefs. How many of you, when you were younger, believed in Father Christmas? Maybe you believed so much, that you heard the bells on his sleigh, maybe even saw him, or at the very least , wrote to him. This is the power of belief. Mental training allows you to overcome limiting beliefs, and importantly to build powerful, positive beliefs.

If you want to achieve your true potential - not your perceived potential - then mental and emotional skills training is the fastest and most effective way to do so. After all, there is a LIMIT as to how much physical training can be undertaken, no matter how fit, healthy and motivated you are.

Imagine how well you would perform if you could have the levels of motivation, confidence, self-belief, determination and persistence that you wanted. How would it feel to know that you had a positive mental attitude, and that you could perform consistently under pressure? What most people don’t realise is that mental skills are not bound by genetics - they are learnable, just like physical skills. You can train yourself to develop the mental skills that you want, and in doing so, you can make significant improvements to your race performances.

Are You Planning For Success, Or Leaving It To Chance?

Have you ever had one of those races when everything went well? Where it almost felt effortless. Where you just seemed to keep going, and things seemed to come quite naturally and easily to you. It’s great when that happens isn’t it? You were in what is often referred to as ‘the zone’, or in flow, a peak performance state, where the subconscious mind takes over, and you don’t have to consciously think about what you are doing, it just seems to happen. How often does this occur for you? If you are honest, it is probably down to chance, everything just seemed to click INTO place. Mental training can help to take the chance out of these peak performance experiences.

Are You The Average Adventure Racer?

Right now, right within you, you possess the ability to perform at levels greater than you currently are. This ability lies within your mind, three pounds of grey matter between your ears - the most potent performance enhancement tool of all time.

One of the most valuable lessons that you can learn is how to operate your mind and emotions in the most effective and powerful way. Most average people spend more time learning how to operate their home computer than their own brain. Most average people know more about the emotional reactions of their favourite soap star than they do about their own feelings. The average adventure racer does not think that they need mental training. The average adventure racer is going to be left behind. But don’t let that be you. To be above average you have to do the things that average people won’t do. Mental skills training, is the difference that makes the difference!

What Mental and Emotional Skills Do I Need To Develop?

Many sports people - even professional athletes - leave their mental and emotional preparation to chance. The best performances happen when the body, mind and emotions are focussed on the same goal, each functioning at it's maximum potential. A planned programme of mental skills training will significantly improve the performance of any racer, regardless of age or ability. Studies have shown that 85% of your success, whether it be in sport, study, business or life in general, depends primarily on your attitude rather than your aptitude.

Given equal physical talents the person, or team, with the superior mental and emotional qualities will always win. Even given less physical talent, the person, or team, with the best mental and emotional qualities will often win.

So, having established the importance of mental training for all sports people, what are the skills that need to be developed? There are seven key areas in mental training. The Seven Skills of The Sports Mind:

• Positive Motivation
• Powerful Goal Achievement Strategies
• Concentration and Focussing Techniques
• Emotional State Mastery
• Confidence and Positive Self Image
• Positive Mental Attitude
• Precision Visualisation Skills

How Do I Develop These Skills?

· Mental skills training needs to become a regular part of your programme if you are to really benefit from it, but this could be as little as 15 minutes per day! Mental skills training can be used very effectively both first thing in the morning, and last thing at night, which not only allows the subconscious mind, which is extremely powerful, to go to work, but also means that it can be easily adapted to your normal daily routine. The winter period is the ideal time to learn these skills, and to practise them, so that by the start of the season you have them in the tool kit, ready to use come race time.

· If you are training hard physically, are committed to improving your adventure racing performances, and achieving peak performance, and personal excellence, then it would seem logical to spend time training the most powerful performance enhancing mechanism of all – your mind!

What Next?

· Over the coming months I am going to show you how to develop commitment and motivation through setting powerful, compelling goals; how to develop mental toughness by improving your confidence and self-belief, managing your emotional state and developing a positive mental attitude; and how to achieve peak performance through managing pressure, using visualisation, and developing competition focussing strategies.

· Until then remember that every great journey, starts with one small footstep. Join me over the coming months for a journey into peak sports performance, and prepare to unleash your full potential!

· See…Believe…Achieve!

· Steve Ward runs Maximum Potential UK Ltd a mental skills coaching and consultancy service for sports people, teams and organisations, in all sports, and at all levels from recreational to international/professional. He is a Sportsmind Institute of Australia Advanced Performance Coach, NLP Master Practitioner, Master NLP Hypnotherapist, and is a Level 5 Member of the British Association of Sports and Exercise Psychologists. Steve has competed and coached in a wide variety of sports, and is currently involved in cycling, running, and duathlon.