Unlike in other automotive disciplines, where having a competitive bike or vehicle is decisive to obtain the desired success, the Trial is at the opposite end of the scale. We could safely say that the bike and rider represent 15% and 85%, respectively, in the range of importance. What’s more, in Trial it is perhaps more important to have a good team and structure than a lethal bike.
Consequently, what makes the difference of success in this specialty is the preparation of the pilot, both psychological and physical. It’s impossible to be a complete pilot if one of these parts isn’t well worked. Nowadays it is relatively easy to find a good physical trainer who knows how to empower the pilot in this discipline, but no one prepares pilots psychologically through trained behaviors or agile mental reactions in situations of maximum tension.
This new article deals precisely with this section: the psychological one. It is an unprecedented technique, very interesting and that also fits perfectly with the needs of a sport where all success depends on the human factor. Enjoy!
Text: Fran Delfín NLP & Coach and David Quer (introduction)
The An amateur athlete, he is less accustomed to trying mental techniques, But any good athlete must always look for a way to advance, to go a little further than others, looking for new techniques and tools. Normally that search takes place outside of it, (improving the suspension of your bike, tires, garter belt helmet, etc…) when in reality The most powerful resources are within oneself, the problem then becomes, how do I put those resources into action?
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a learning process that modifies behaviors through the senses and language to achieve success. An ideal tool to become aware of our resources and know how to use them, the usual reasons why we get stuck is that we insist on staying with what we know or what we are used to.
Each of us has a model of the world based on our values, beliefs, behavior, experience, etc. The different filters that an athlete has in his mind play a very important role in the way he perceives his environment, since due to the different experiences he has had, so will his reality, that is, A rider may think that he is capable of being world champion one day or he may think that he will never make it Nowhere because he’s older.
Do you think that the athlete will face his tests in the same way having one or the other thought?Of course not. And that’s where neuro-linguistic programming comes in, which is nothing more than the way we program our thoughts.
The senses and the representational system will play a fundamental role, since they serve to perceive the world externally and internally, to represent the world to ourselves, this will be the way we collect stored and encode information internally.
But more aspects will influence these filters of our pilot’s mind, such as the generalizations, distortions, or omissions in the communication or in its language And that is why, in the role of the coach, the use of sensory acuity must be present, to detect those violations in the language of his pilot, which will be nothing more than a way of hiding his thoughts unconsciously, which will make him feel that he will be able to hide his thoughts unconsciously. It can give the trainer and its pilot information of where the limitation or problem lies of the pilot, at what neurological level he moves or the need that the pilot or athlete requires.
By changing the thoughts and emotions of the athlete, we can modify their behavior, so that from a present state, we can move to a future state, using a series of resources that we all have within us. NLP has some foundations and tools with which we can achieve any goal we set ourselves, working on our resources, these foundations are defined in pillars, presuppositions, premises, rules of mind. Something we’ll get to later.
There are also some basic ideas to change those filters that may be limiting us in part.
Goal-oriented, not problem-oriented: A problem is a poorly stated goal.
Asking yourself the How? Why?
There are no failures, only results.
Possibilities rather than needs.
An attitude of curiosity and fascination, rather than making assumptions.
To do this, there is a learning process in which the pilot will have to become aware. Remember that the best judge will decide which path is the most appropriate if for you at this time.
GLOSSARY
Representational systems are the perceptual routes through which we perceive the environment, construct our maps of the world, and explain our internal and external experiences.
Neuro-linguistic programming or NLP: it is a science through which, through language and the senses, we can achieve success. We can say that NLP is the art and science of personal excellence. Invented in the early 1970s by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, one of the paths NLP took was to study the effective ways of thinking and communicating employed by outstanding people. These patterns and skills can be used to your advantage.
Dissociated
consists of positioning oneself as an “external observer,” someone who is dispassionately contemplating what is happening in the situation.
Associated consists of experiencing the situation “we pamper” with all the perception we have in our point of view, interests, needs and desires, from within us.
ACTIVITY
1- Inducetrance.
2- Create an image of yourself performing your sport at a very high level, you need to do this in a dissociated state.
3- Observe yourself executing the sport, or the specific part you want to develop. Get in the habit of observing yourself, observing what you’re doing well, having some key points to attend to.
4- The moment you feel it’s appropriate, step into the “you” you’re observing. It becomes completely associated, for example within the “you” who is having a good performance with the bike. Familiarize yourself with everything that goes along with acting well, what colors, sounds, sensations go along with it, what it feels like in terms of your emotions and all your physical sensations. Feel the sports equipment you’re using. Pay attention to the way you feel the ground when you’re in a state of perfect coordination and balance. It’s a wonderful ability to be able to know when you’re acting right and recreate it in a fully associated state. This will allow you to more regularly recreate high levels of achievement while you are performing, in a more emotional and unconscious way.
5- Sacar from trance.
