Negative Self Talk What’s going on in that helmet of yours?

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, either one is probably true.”
– Anonymous

What is self talk? It is all the dialogue you have with yourself inside that helmet of yours. It can have a purpose, it can be random, it can be verbal or it can just be thoughts. Self talk can surely be positive but in the motivated athlete with high expectations it can quickly become negative. Negative self talk can stop you dead in your tracks and it has nothing but detrimental effects on your performance out on the track. Are you crazy for talking to yourself? Absolutely not. It is normal for athletes, especially sports like motocross where you are out there battling on your own. You can be your own best friend or your own worst enemy depending on if you actively stop the negative self talk and replace it with positive self talk.

First you have to recognize that you do have negative self talk going on when you ride. The easiest way is identify negative self talk is right after you make a mistake out on the track. Did you beat yourself up mentally after the mistake or did you pick yourself up with positive thoughts? “I sucked in that corner! Man I suck!” vs. “OK I will rail that turn on the next lap! My entry was better, just need to get that exit down.” When you come off the track do you describe your riding in mostly positive terms or mostly negative terms? “That moto was worthless. I am really riding tight today, I should just go home,” vs. “I was better in the whoops but man I am going to kill the turns on the next moto.” More than likely you engage in negative self talk because it actually takes an active effort NOT to have negative self talk. It is much easier to be negative and give up than it is to stay positive and focused on improving the task at hand.

Here are some common sources of negative self talk

• Demanding perfection: “I have to to rip a holeshot and come out of the first turn in the lead.” This is motocross! Getting a hole shot every time, getting through the first turn always in the lead, having perfect laps for the entire race are all unrealistic goals to think you can achieve. Think of how many things out of your control have to go your way to achieve any of those things! Yes, you can achieve those things some of the time for sure but you cannot expect to get them every time. It is awesome to work towards perfection but totally unrealistic to demand a perfect performance every time. Doing so will only lead to anger and frustration when you don’t achieve perfection which can lead to a flurry of negative self talk and the destructive results it can cause. Striving for perfection is great, demanding it is not.

• Focusing on the past or future: “I can’t believe I cased that jump!” or “I have to win this moto to get the overall.” Dwelling on past mistakes or worrying about what may happen takes your focus away from the only thing that you can control: the present. Your energies and thoughts should only be directed towards the only things you have control over: right here, right now. Anything else is just unproductive distraction. Right here, right now! That’s all you need to think about!

• Focusing on weak areas during races: “Man I hope I don’t get passed in the whoops, I hate whoops.” Improving as a racer means identifying and working on your weaknesses but only during practice! Focusing on your weaknesses during races will only erode your confidence. Races are the times you focus on your strengths almost to the point of being cocky. Pump yourself up by focusing on things you are good at and where you are going to kill it! This boosts confidence and helps build positive, helpful thoughts and self talk. Train your weaknesses but race your strengths!

• Focusing on the outcome: “I gotta win this moto.” Dwelling on the outcome of the race puts your mental energies in an area where you have very little control. You cannot control how well others ride, you cannot control track conditions and you cannot control who crashes for example. These are all things that make a large part of the eventual outcome of the race. The only thing you can control is your own performance so focus your internal dialogue on the process oriented things you need to do and the race outcome will take care of itself.

• Focusing on the uncontrollable: “I can’t ride well in the mud! Why does it have to rain?” “This delayed start totally screwed up my warm up.” Saying these things to yourself is just a waste of energy because you have absolutely zero control. Again, this takes your focus away from the things that do matter, the things that you can control: right here, right now.

Now that you have recognized what negative self talk is and some common triggers for this destructive behavior you can actively work on stopping it and replacing it with helpful, positive self talk. Negative self talk can almost become automatic you may not even be aware of it until you step back and really think about how speak to yourself out on the track. Identify both the negative thoughts and the helpful, positive thoughts that you may have. Purposely include the positive thoughts that can help your performance when you are out there and try to get rid of the self defeating thoughts and self talk. One way of overcoming the negative self talk is to literally park these thoughts as soon as they come up:

• Be aware of negative self talk: the first step in controlling your internal dialogue is to become aware of what you say to yourself when you ride, both in practice and during races. Not only do you want to increase your awareness of what you say but also what situations cause you to become negative. For example you may be always have positive self talk when you have a top five start but be totally negative should you find yourself out of the top five after the first turn: “I just blew the start, I might as well put it on cruise control.”

• Park the negative thought, replace with positive self talk focused on the process at hand: you literally have to park the negative self talk to stop the negative train of thought. You have to just plain stop those thoughts in your mind; you can envision slamming on your car brakes, you can visualize a big, red stop sign, whatever you can think of to immediately stop the thought dead in its tracks. This is harder to do than to say for sure but with practice it will come just like any other motocross riding skill. You then replace it with a positive thought and positive self talk. Think about it this way: you can only think of so much while you are riding and the more you fill you mental capacity with positive thoughts, the less room negative thoughts will have to creep into your mind. It is best if you know in advance what positive thoughts and talk you will use in specific situations so that using them to replace the parked negative thoughts becomes automatic and requires less mental energy and time. Example: “I blew the start! I might as well…” PARK IT Auto replace with: “OK good! You are in a good spot for such a crazy start, now weight that outside peg hard and smooth throttle on the exit…”

• Practice! Just like cornering and starts parking the negative self talk and replacing it with positive self talk and thoughts requires lots of practice. You will have to pay a lot of attention to what you say to yourself and when it happens at first but like anything else it will improve. The park/replace action will become automatic and you will not have to apply so much mental energy to it anymore and eventually it will become instantaneous and an unconscious skill just like shifting or clutch use.

Think about this: how much of your racing results is mental? 20%? 30%? 50%? Now what percentage of training time do you spend on mental training?

Coachseiji.com clients can receive exercises to help defeat negative self talk and help in developing a competition self talk plan. Just one more benefit of a coachseiji.com coaching package!