Visualisation and affirmations for mountain bikers
There’s a section of trail at my local riding spot with a few big technical ups. These are challenging for most riders and have always frustrated me because I hate stopping to walk things- it interrupts my flow.
When I was learning how to get up technical rocky sections of trail, I would watch videos and try to break down what specific body movements I needed to complete the manoeuvre. I’d then watch a short video of technical climbing right before I’d go to bed and then imagine myself doing that section of trail- and making it.
I’d then go out to a section of trail in my spare time, and instead of going ‘for a ride’, I would ride to a technical uphill section and session it.
My technical climbing skills went through the roof over a short period of time, despite my lower level of fitness after coming back from having kids and being super time poor. In previous times, I had relied on my fitness and brut strength to bash up what I could, but I’d still need to walk sections. Now, I can get up a lot more and have learnt to conserve energy in the right places.
I’ve used visualisation for all sorts of things. I have visualised myself responding to difficult conversations in a calm and kind way, I’ve visualised kicking a football through the posts back in my AFL days. I have found the areas where I needed to improve and made it a point to visualise going through each step.
There are also stories we tell ourselves about what we can and can’t do. There are all sorts of stories we hold on to and some of them we don’t even know where they came from or what they’re serving. Stories like ‘I’m not very fit’ or ‘I have a terrible memory’, or ‘I'm not good with names’. We’ve got stories in all areas of our lives and mountain biking is just another area where we create stories for ourselves.
There are many stories that hold us back from experiencing great things. Some of the stories I hear in women’s mountain biking are ‘I’m slow’ or ‘I can’t turn left’ or ‘I hate rocks’. Thinking these things is one thing, but verbalising them pushes them out into the universe and reinforces that story.
If you want to change the story you are telling yourself, and move on to a new reality, then you need to observe those things you are saying to yourself, and the things you are saying out loud. These stories create your reality.
Once we become aware of the stories we are telling ourselves, we need to learn to reframe. Reframing is bringing these stories into our consciousness and changing the words we say to ourselves. Instead of ‘I’m slow’, it can be ‘I’m working on improving my fitness’. Instead of ‘I hate rocks’, it can be ‘I’m learning skills to help me ride safely over rocks’. Instead of ‘I’m really slow on the downhill’, it can be ‘I’m building confidence on the downhills’. It might seem like a small change, but it’s really easy to fall into a constant trap of verbalising your weaknesses in your skills and abilities rather than on your strengths. I hear women all the time giving solidarity to others around their weaknesses, but rarely hear women talk about what they did well and focusing on their strengths.
One little way to actively focus on your strengths is to create a habit of writing down your wins at the end of each ride. Both celebrating your wins and noting what you’d like to work on can change your trajectory and progress you further than you’d ever expected.
The next step is to then visualise the skill you want to work on. Watch videos on it, visualise getting on your bike, completing each step of the skill. Do this before bed and let your subconscious work on it overnight. Then get out as soon as you can and practice!
We’re capable of more than we think, and I see this every single time I go riding with women. I see progress, determination, struggle and success. If we spoke to ourselves the way we speak to and encourage others, I can only imagine what is possible.