Fitness
How to gain a psychological edge in motocross
In search of success at the MX track? It may all be in your mind…
If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win
To be a great champion, you have to believe you are the best. If you’re not the best, pretend you are
You miss 100 per cent of the shots you don’t take
Some people want it to happen, some wish it could happen, others make it happen
As with all sports – and possibly even to a greater extent than some – motocross is a game that is 10% physical and 90% mental. The physical side to the sport is up there among the most demanding in the world. But the psychological toughness required to succeed in motocross is quite literally mind-boggling. The extent of the injuries; the changing conditions and climates; the closest, most physical racing motorsport; the rivalries that sometimes verge on full-on hatred; all have seen many a champion crack under the pressure and fall from grace.
The right mindset is key to winning
© Ray Archer / KTM / Red Bull Content Pool
Thankfully, we have teamed up with some of the top minds in the sport in order to give you guys some tips and tricks to ensure that you are ready to hit the track with your head in the right space and your confidence through the roof. Follow these tips and the results shall follow!
Ed Bradley is a former Grand Prix motocross racer and owner of the awesome Doncaster-based Moto Parc practice and race facility. Since finishing his racing career, Ed has gone on to become a master practitioner of NLP (neuro-linguisitic programming), hypnosis, and Time Line Therapy. With his background in motocross racing and his current status as an NLP coach, Ed is the perfect man to provide us with some starter tips to get our heads in the right gear…
Ed Bradley will help you get your brain in gear
© Max Hind
Set yourself a goal
"The best way to get a psychological advantage over your rivals is to set a goal. Aim for a position: if you usually finish 10th and think that 8th is achievable, then aim for 8th. You can put all your focus and energy into achieving that position. Success is achieving the goal you set out to accomplish, whether that be 1st, 8th or 20th. By successfully achieving goals, your subconscious mind begins to believe that you can achieve anything you set your mind to."
You need to ride your own race
© Lapo Quagli / Red Bull Content Pool
Related
Focus on that goal
Comparing yourself to others and their performance is a huge mistake
"By setting a goal, you know exactly what it is you want to achieve. Focusing solely on achieving your position in a race means that it no longer matters who you are racing against or what positions they finish in. You are on your own journey to achieve what you want (your goal). Comparing yourself to others and their performance is a huge mistake made by riders, giving away any psychological advantage."
Come up with a race strategy
"Have a race plan for different scenarios. We all use strategies in races; however, most riders don’t know they are using them. If something happens on the start and you are last, there’s only one option, or strategy, and that is to go as fast as you can all the way to the finish flag to achieve the best result possible.
"If you get the holeshot, however, there are more strategies to pick from: do you ride your own race pace start to finish, do you break away by putting two fast laps in at the start and then settle down, or do you save your energy and push for the last two laps? There are many combinations and it depends on where your main rivals are in the race. Gain a psychological advantage by knowing your race plans for each situation."
Have your strategy worked out before the gate drops
© Lorenzo Ferroni / Red Bull Content Pool
Have some routines and processes in place
"Your subconscious mind learns by repetition and likes familiarity. Using routines and processes when preparing for a race, whether being in the holding area, preparing your gate or putting yourself in the right position on the bike, means that you have something to focus on rather than letting your mind wander and get distracted by other thoughts that are less useful to your performance."
Don't overthink
Thinking about who’s in your race and how much you want to beat them is no use to you
"Your best performances come when your mind is clear and you are in ‘the zone’. Thinking about what gear you need to be in on certain parts of the track, reminding yourself to use a certain technique or thinking about who’s in your race and how much you want to beat them is no use to you. You know your goal and what position to focus on and the strategies you are going to use. When you are on the start line and automatically going through your routines and processes, let your mind be clear and empty of thoughts, soak up the experience and breathe."
Don't let anyone throw you off ahead of the start of the race
© Garth Milan/Red Bull Content Pool
Carry yourself like a champ
"Your posture/physiology, your thoughts and your feelings are directly linked. If you slump your shoulders, drop your head and look at the ground and think about things that cheese you off, then in no time, you will begin to feel glum. If you started thinking about a jump on the track that scares you, in no time you will begin to take shallow breathes from the top part of your lungs, your pulse will increase and maybe the palms of your hands will become clammy as you feel anxious about the scary jump.
Focus on good posture and deep breathing to improve your positive thinking
"You can improve your mental state by remembering a time when you were super-pumped, motivated and excited to race. See, hear and feel these things you noticed in that moment and you’ll notice that your spine straightens up, you have that light buzzing feeling that goes with excitement and the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Pay attention to your posture/physiology and focus on good posture and deep breathing to improve your positive thinking."
Focusing on a scary jump will just freak you out
© Garth Milan/Red Bull Content Pool
Practice visualisation
"You can gain a psychological advantage over your opposition without using any petrol simply by practicing in your mind – we call it mental rehearsal. Imagine yourself achieving your goals and using new techniques by seeing, hearing and feeling what it's like to be doing it perfectly.
"Thoughts become things. Imagining yourself as the master craftsman at what you are performing will speed up the process of making it happen. Your mind can’t distinguish between a memory or something you have purposefully imagined and created yourself. So if you imagine doing something that you haven’t done before, then when you do it for real, your mind will have an idea of what to do. There will be some familiarity with what you are performing."
Relax your mind after a race
"Racing takes both physical and mental energy. After a race, most riders will sit down and relax physically and then talk about the race and what happened in it. They will think about getting the bike ready for the next race, about what their parents, mechanic, girlfriend/boyfriend, cat/dog are thinking about. This generally provides no mental relaxation. It may distract you from thinking about the things you don’t want to think about, but it doesn’t provide mental relaxation.
"To mentally relax, find a place where you can be left alone without being disturbed and either lay down or sit with your head rested. Let go of all tension in your body starting from the top of your head, and relax each part of your body down to your toes. When physically relaxed, let all thoughts melt out of your mind and relax in silence for up to 30 minutes. If any thoughts come back in to your mind just let them drift off and fall back into the silence and enjoy the quietness from your own thoughts. You may feel a warm and comfy heaviness to your body in this relaxed state. Time becomes distorted, so use an alarm to let you know when your time is up so you can let any thoughts of time pass you by. Afterwards you’ll be recharged mentally, giving you an advantage over your competitors who stress between races."
Follow Ryan Dungey's advice on mental preparation
© Garth Milan/Red Bull Content Pool
Take Ed’s mental tricks to the track and you’ll find yourself in better positions both in the race and in your mind. If you’re serious about being successful on the motocross track, these exercises are quite literally just as important as each and every rep in the gym and every kilometre on that run. Don’t believe us? Just listen to what four-time Supercross champion Ryan Dungey had to say about the subject and getting in the zone when we spoke to him in California recently…
I kept it as a step-by-step process. I focused on executing those steps and kept my mind on myself
“For me, it was all about the execution. It was just about going there to get the job done rather than trying to psych anyone else out. I would get through practice, try to get the best time in qualifying in order to get the best gate pick. When the gate dropped it was about getting to that holeshot line first and so on. I kept it as a step-by-step process. I focused on executing those steps and kept my mind on myself. That’s harder to do when there’s a stadium full of people and riders all around you – it’s easy to get side-tracked. But if I kept my focus and hit those steps, maybe that would mean a win; a lot of times it did and sometimes it didn’t. If it wasn’t a win, I would simply just move on to the next weekend and take it one race at a time.”
So remember, if you want to get ahead mentally in motocross:
- Set yourself a goal
- Focus on that goal
- Come up with a race strategy
- Have some routines and processes in place
- Don't overthink
- Carry yourself like a champ
- Practice visualisation
- Relax your mind after a race
