Mental preparedness for riders
with Iain Shippey, performance coach to some of SA's top athletes.
As much as physical preparedness for rider and horse is important for good performance in training and competition, addressing the mental side of things can take your game to the next level.
We chatted to Iain Shippey, mental performance coach from Thincsport, about mental preparation.
Iain’s philosophy incorporates specific strategies that you can employ to help overcome performance anxiety and maintain focus during competitions. Many can agree that performance anxiety is very real and can paralyse many athletes.
In sport we tend to adopt a very dualistic, win/lose attitude, radically reducing all our effort to two outcomes. First place or loser.
From a slightly different perspective - how many winners are there in Comrades marathon day? Many winners: Gold, Silver and Bronze medalists, but also everyone who made it over the finish line in under 12 hours. If we only celebrate 1st place, we miss out on so much.
So it starts with reframing what competition is all about. Executing what you have been training so hard at, managing your anxiety better and building an upward mental spiral after making a mistake. We must also emphasise the partnership between horse and rider and how that relationship grows with each triumph and each learning curve.
Developing a pre-competition routine helps you transition into a competition mindset, Iain covers techniques to enhance self awareness and processes to regroup and refocus after inevitable mishaps.
In the highly demanding world of equestrian sports, mental resilience is crucial. How do you train yourself to bounce back from setbacks and stay motivated throughout your journey?
Resilience is vital, especially in building horses and riders. Why are you ultimately riding? It is also essential to have a coach or thought partner that helps to map out your progress.
Dan Carter, the legendary All Black rugby player writes in his recent book, the Art of Winning: “Everyone wants to win. But that isn’t the purpose, it’s a goal. Your purpose is something bigger than that.”
Setting realistic and achievable goals is crucial for positive steps towards your dream.
Starting with the “Why?”
Why are you riding and investing all this love, time, effort and money into this extraordinary sport?
Getting to the “What?”
What are you seeking to achieve this year?
Broken down even further - What are you seeking to achieve in the next three months?
Now to the “How?”
Making this process more objective is to ask for the honest feedback from more experienced riders/ coaches and your potential. Once you have this insight from other respected riders/ coaches, measure your progress month by month, lean into this journey and learn from the experience.
Visualisation and imagery are powerful mental tools. When imagining certain scenarios, activity in the brain and muscles is similar to actually performing these scenarios - just at a lower level. This is known as “neurological patterning’. Thus when a rider vividly imagines competing or visualising their test or course, similar connections between the brain and the muscles are used.
“Through imagery, you can make your body believe that you are actually performing athletic movements.” - Edgar Tham
Any competitive rider can agree that dealing with pressure and high-stress situations is a difficult part of the sport. Quick decision making, mental strategies and staying composed to make effective decisions are skills that need to be practiced and developed.
Riders are encouraged to embrace it, seek it out and practice and become comfortable under pressure.
“Only special athletes walk towards pressure, seeking what they fear. Pressure is uncomfortable which is why people actively avoid it. Training the mind to be comfortable in the uncomfortable where the warrior athlete thrives.” - Dr Ceri Evans
Most people actively avoid pressure because it is uncomfortable. It make us feel fear, anxiety, doubt, tension and frustration which leads to foggy thinking and tunnel vision.
Building and maintaining self-confidence is key in any sport, especially equestrian sports because of the relationship between horse and rider. One needs to thrive off the other.
There are various sources of confidence, some being our training, our conditioning and both the horse and rider’s past performance.
Riders need to be proactive about building a framework to be able to trigger an upward spiral after we spiral downward from successive mistakes. Training under pressure and simulating competition-like conditions are great tools to practice confidence.
A healthy work-life balance is essential for any athlete and managing mental well-being on and off the horse is no exception. Riders need to reflect on which activities “re-create”, energise and recharge them. Many dedicated athletes don’t do enough away from their sport and bundle all their self-worth into one basket. When they are not riding well, their entire life feels like an absolute disaster. There is a danger of over-thinking and living in one’s own head too much. Having a trusted coach that creates a safe space to unpack a rider’s thinking and shine a light into the dark places can really help in a substantial way.
Arguably the most important part of performance and mental coaching is managing mental fatigue, dealing with distractions and maintaining focus during training and competition.
Mental coaching seeks to build new levels of self awareness. In conversation Iain partners with riders to identify their primary detractors and emotional triggers. Once these are identified various techniques are practiced to reset and regroup after lapses in attention.
Mental fatigue is real and riders need to be able to identify the things which help them to recharge in the midst of strenuous competition. There are different levels of intensity when it comes to concentration and riders need to learn when to “switch on” and “switch off”. If you are not aware of this, you are likely to succumb to mental exhaustion.
If you want to delve deeper in the world of mental preparedness, get in touch with Iain through Thincsport.net.
