BIKE: What is sports psychology and for which type of biker is it interesting and relevant?
Paul Schlütter: Sports psychology is a field of research and work that deals with human behaviour and experience in the context of sport. I like to describe it as athletics training for the mind. Accordingly, it is relevant both for top athletes to optimise performance and for hobby cyclists to set goals. However, sports psychology is not an emergency parachute that you only pull out when you are about to crash. The effect takes time and work. After all, you don't turn your entire training programme upside down two weeks before a competition.
When you hear sports psychology, it is often associated with mental training. Is that true and what is it?
Mental training is a branch of sports psychology training. It represents the systematic application of visualisation without actually involving physiological aspects. In visualisation, i.e. imagining movements and actions, we refer to individual aspects of sport and train them purely through their mental representations. The same areas of the brain are activated as when performing the actual movements and actions.
You can download the article "Fitter with biking" from BIKE 6/2021 as a PDF below. The article costs 1.99 euros.
Can it be trained like endurance, strength and speed? Is it enough to deal with it once or does it require a certain continuity? What could MTB-specific, sport-psychological training look like?
Yes, just like physical training, sport psychology skills can be trained. Especially at the beginning, bikers should practice continuously - for mental training in particular, I recommend three sessions of 10-20 minutes per week, depending on the action to be visualised. In the long term, it's a bit like many other things: Once you've got the hang of it, it's easier to get back into it. Important: the combination of mental and physical training provides a better stimulus than physical training alone. At the same time, purely mental training also seems to be better than no training at all. Mental training when biking often involves things like the start, descents, chasing, and longer stages with a lot of metres in altitude.
>> Here you will find a Free worksheet for getting started with visualisation <<
What other methods are there apart from mental training?
There are training programmes in which you can learn to consciously manage your attention through mindfulness and thus deal better with negative thoughts, emotions and physical signals. Skilful goal setting is also extremely important - not only for short-term motivation, but also for long-term motivation, bikers should learn how to set well-founded goals. There are also topics such as stress management and resistance training, returning to sport after accidents or injuries, etc.
Keyword stress. How can bikers overcome specific fears if they are afraid of descents, certain key points on a tour or long climbs with a lot of altitude metres on multi-day Alpine tours?
Do you really have to overcome fears? A certain amount of activation (including emotional activation) is simply part and parcel of performance situations. As a first step, I would question this basic assumption that anxiety is something negative for performance. What can also help here is to defuse the fears somewhat with cognitive defusion, e.g. by inserting thoughts such as "Thank you brain for warning me about this challenge". Because: regardless of whether I as a biker am afraid in the situation or not - the task ahead does not change as a result. So it can be more helpful to accept this fear as part of the experience, even to take it with you, instead of trying to use your already limited cognitive resources to get rid of it.
Ambitious amateur racers in particular know the feeling the day before a competition or before the start: nervousness. What is the best way for bikers to deal with this?
Nervousness is simply part of any performance - it is even necessary for top performance. Bikers should think about a certain routine in advance that will allow them to prepare themselves as well as possible for the task ahead. It is important to choose things that you can actively influence (e.g. talking to yourself, preparing your water bottle, checking your equipment again). If you make your pre-performance routines dependent on external factors such as the weather or other participants, you run the risk of simply increasing your nervousness if things go wrong.
The race or the Alpine stage is drawing to a close, but you've run out of steam. How do you push yourself again?
In such a situation, visualisation can help to motivate you over the last few metres. Another option is so-called anchors. These are things or actions that help to focus attention on the present moment and thus take away some of the signalling effect of negative thoughts, emotions and physical signals. For example, bikers can practise concentrating purely on the feeling of pressure from the pedals on their feet, the wind in their face or the texture of the grips in the palm of their hand in such a situation.
And how can bikers switch off from everyday life and find inner peace?
Relaxation exercises, mindfulness exercises and meditation can be very helpful, but they are not for everyone. A walk without listening to music, a technology break on the sofa with a good book, even social contact are all things that can support both mental and physical regeneration. A basic credo: I am more than "just" a biker! It's often the things outside of sport that allow us to really switch off and recover.
Whether before the season or before important events: goal setting is always an issue. What is the best way to set goals?
As a general rule, goals should be based on your own values and be so specific that it is easy to check whether they have been achieved. Positive wording is also important: "I want to stay injury-free this season" instead of "I don't want to get injured again this season." If the main goal is to build muscle during the winter break, then this should be formulated in appropriate detail. How much do I plan to gain? Over what period of time? How many calories do I need to eat in excess? What is the best way to divide up my macronutrients? Sub-goals can then be established on the basis of these answers. Rule of thumb: Goals should be realistic, but also challenging - the answer to the question "How likely do I think it is that I can achieve this goal?" should be "80 per cent" (or more).
Tip for short-term goal setting: Before the training session, make a note with three goals for the session, only one of which may relate to an objective performance parameter. This promotes motivation for the session and a process-orientated approach to training.
Now you have set yourself goals, prepared meticulously, considered alternatives and yet you still fail. How do bikers deal with defeat and frustration?
In the short term, it can make sense to attribute defeats externally, i.e. to name reasons that have little to do with yourself. This can initially protect your self-esteem and make it easier to process the defeat you have experienced. At the same time, it can also help to realise - perhaps in discussion with others - at least three things that went well despite the lack of results. In the long term, it is important to identify factors that were involved in the negative performance and can be influenced. Appropriate goals can then be developed for this, which can be taken into account in the further planning of training and seasonal highlights.
You can download the article "Fitter with biking" from BIKE 6/2021 as a PDF below. The article costs 1.99 euros.
