On The Pegs May 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 5 | Page 77

On The Pegs
A
VOL. 5 ISSUE 5 - MAY 2020
77
fter the 20 years I’ve been competing in trials, I have come to the con-
clusion that although trials takes a fair amount of muscle and physical
finesse, trials is mostly a mental sport. I’m not talking about intelligence
here. After all, how many brain surgeons do you see hitting the rocks every
weekend? The mental side that I’m talking about is being able to ride at your
best any time you want.
Trials is uniquely challenging mentally because it requires razor-sharp focus
an average of 45 times over a period of four to eight hours. To pay attention
to the mental side of trials is to perform or ride as close to your absolute best
on a consistent basis. I like to call this your performance state of mind, or PSM
for short. As you can imagine, top athletes share several characteristics of PSM
including a positive state of mind and being relaxed, focused, energetic and
confident.
I’d bet that most of you have had a brush with PSM -- when you cleaned a
section that you thought was way out of your league and it seemed easy and
relatively effortless. Even if you have not yet experienced PSM in your trials rid-
ing, you’ve likely experienced it somewhere else in your life.
The most common characteristic of PSM is having a positive attitude. Actually,
the process begins before your engine is even running – when you walk the
section. If while you’re looking over the sections you think “I hope I don’t hit
that tree,” there’s a good chance that’s exactly what you’re going to do. This is
the case because we tend to do whatever is on our mind, which is perhaps the
single most revealing aspect of the human psyche.
On the other hand, there are many distractions that when not dealt with
properly can lead to poor performance -- the weather, the sections, the observ-
ers and your competitors. In order to ride your best, you can’t let these distrac-
tions affect you. The most effective way to deal with these distractions is ask
yourself “who is in control of my mind, the distractions or me?” If you answered
“me,” you’re on the right track. Understand that controlling your thoughts is the
first step towards achieving your PSM.
There are some athletes who use anger or pain to help them focus, both of
which present many problems. Anger releases toxic chemicals that are harm-
ful too the body, while pain has obvious drawbacks that we’ve all felt. To use
any negative motivation is much to harmful and it quickly takes the fun out of
competing. The motivation needs to be positive. Before some of my best rides,
while I was preparing to ride a difficult section, my thoughts were “I’m going to