Trialers, even the most pro riders struggle to keep their head in races, especially when things start to go wrong. Trial training is a challenge that all riders, professional or amateur, face at one time or another.
I’m sure this has happened to you more than once: you’ve done your training, you’ve tuned up your bike, you’ve eaten well, you’ve rested… And finally it’s time to get started and face that race.
So you get on the bike, put it in gear and set out to get over that area. And then your feet seem to go free, the bike doesn’t do what you want and your mind is somewhere else.
You feel disconnected, you pass the zone as best you can, you end up frustrated and you go the rest of the race with your head in the negative. What happened to you?
Trial areas require our thoughts to be focused on the terrain, the bike, our body… Trial is here and now, and more than in any other motorcycle discipline, concentration is vital.
In this article we teach you the sports psychology technique that you have to follow to maintain concentration for trials and that your mind, body and bike do not disconnect between zones.
The first thing you may ask yourself is… Is it normal for you to lose focus so much?
Our sports psychologist, Carla Rodriguez works with many professional pilots… And it can tell you that even they have a hard time staying focused for a long time.
A person can concentrate fully for about 45 minutes at a time before they start to feel tired and have intrusive or demotivating thoughts. The good thing is that just like other abilities, concentration can also be trained.
And how do you train your concentration for Trial?
The first step is to know how long you are able to keep your attention on a task without alternative thoughts or emotions popping up and putting you in automatic mode.
It’s not an exact figure, so observe yourself for several days to see how long on average you’re able to sustain attention. The second step will be to find out what thoughts or images come to mind, and what emotions or sensations they generate in your body. For example, if you’ve just come back from an injury, even though your body is already recovered,
your mind may need a little more time, and maybe it’s not time to get back on the bike yet.
So analyze, what’s robbing you of your concentration? How is it making you feel?
Discovering these thoughts gives you a very important clue as to where your insecurities, needs, and interests lie.
Knowing them will be the key so that they don’t assault you at times when your barriers are lower and that you can make better decisions on the fly. The third step to improving your concentration for trials is to try to solve those issues that are troubling you.
The best way not to have thoughts that interfere with your sports performance is not to repress or hide them, but to dedicate the time they are asking for, in situations chosen by us to do so.
The fourth step is for you to learn to give yourself self-instructions. These are short, very direct phrases that you say to yourself related to
actions that you want to go well
. For example, “throttle feel, open to turning, control the clutch”
With these self-instructions you keep your mind focused, avoid that internal dialogue that distracts you and better predispose your muscles to react quickly to the brain’s commands.
And the fifth step to improve your concentration for trials is to practice an activity that requires attention, such as yoga or mindfulness, or other more creative activities that you like even if they have nothing to do with sport, such as playing music or learning to change those parts of the bike that you have never touched.
These activities have many benefits at the brain level, as they use different neural networks than the ones we usually use when we practice sports, so we let the usual ones “rest”.
So, in addition to training concentration, it’s like you’re giving your brain a break. And then it will be easier for you to make an intense effort where you are most interested, which is on the bike.
So rider, think about this: if you want
to go harder on the bike you train your physique and if you want
to improve your technique you practice basic movements, right? Well, if you want to improve your concentration for trials, practice activities in which you need to concentrate and do not leave aside the reasons that make you lose attention.
These are some of the sports psychology techniques we apply with the riders and fans who
work with us at Powering Offroad
. And if you also want your head to help you win races, now you know what you have to train, apart from your physique.
