Sport Psychology Tactics - Cyclists & Training Through Mental Blocks
About the Author
Ben Foodman is a licensed psychotherapist & performance specialist. He owns his private practice located in Charlotte North Carolina where he specializes in working with athletes to help them overcome mental blocks (the yips), PTSD, ADD / ADHD and achieve flow states through the techniques of Brainspotting & Neurofeedback. If you are interested in services, use the link here! Enjoy the article below!
Introduction: Sport Psychology & Cycling Athletes
Cycling athletes and coaches have begun to realize that if all of your efforts to improve performance are through physical training, then you are just the same as everyone else. And if you are training the same as everyone else, how are you going to push beyond the current standards of performance excellence? Training your mind is the next frontier in performance excellence, and offers endless possibilities for athletes to be able to push themselves beyond current limits of athletic endeavors. Just consider the fact that one human brain is composed of approximately 80 billion neurons, with estimates that there can be approximately a quadrillion connections between them. When I see these types of numbers, I see a lot of potential opportunities to expand upon your mental game.
One area I believe cycling athletes should focus their mental training on is overcoming mental blocks. Through my work as a performance coach and psychotherapist, this is the most common issue that athletes seek consultation for and is arguably one of the most complex problems to work through within the field of sport psychology. From a neuropsychological perspective, mental blocks can be defined as the disruption of information processing which can result from unchecked psychological stress. The catalysts that are involved with the creation of mental blocks vary greatly, but the overall process for creating mental blocks is a shared mechanism throughout the human species and must be first understood through the brain structures and their respective functions.
Part I. Sport Psychology, Neuroscience & Athletes
While the human brain has many directives, one of its’ primary functions is to ensure our survival. There are many critical structures within the brain that play a significant role in this process, but for now we will focus on three key structures of the brain which are the prefrontal cortex, the limbic system and the brainstem. First, our prefrontal cortex is focused on completing higher order brain functions (e.g. executive functioning, tactical decision making, etc.). This area of our brain undoubtedly plays a significant role in our ability to manage psychological stress. But one of the things that is so frustrating about mental blocks is how illogical they are, and no matter how much athletes try to ‘reason’ with their mental blocks, they can’t move through them with ease the same way they can through other problem solving events. This is because many mental blocks are manifestations of activity occurring within the limbic system and the brain stem (no one knows exactly where thoughts come from in our brain, but it is safe to assume that certain areas of our brain influence thoughts).
The brainstem is responsible for basic bodily functions (e.g. arousal, sleep, hunger, breathing etc.) while the limbic system coordinates emotional relevance, perception, and other processes. These structures have primary control of our initial responses when we have interactions with our surroundings. For instance, if you have ever been accidentally scared you probably have had the experience of increased heart rate, eyes widening, and a sudden surge of adrenaline. This is because your brain has initially processed the ‘jump scare’ experience as threatening, resulting in your limbic system and brainstem taking control of your reactions. If stress accumulates and is not thoroughly processed, then these systems store these events to be dealt with at a later time which will continue to hinder the individual from normal functioning. This helps potentially explain the illogical nature of mental blocks because these primitive responses originate from specific areas of the brain that do not function in the same way our prefrontal cortex does.
Part II. Cycling Athletes & Psychological Peak Performance
Some factors that can affect psychological stress and induce mental blocks go beyond performance and training (e.g. mental health issues, financial stress, relationship issues, etc.). Those factors will most likely benefit from working with a trained mental health professional or seeking help from a social support system. But there are other areas in day to day life that if not properly monitored can accelerate the intensity of psychological stress and creation of mental blocks. These two areas include poor sleep performance and decreased recovery. Sleep Performance - When I am consulting with athletes on how to improve their mental performance, one of the first things I evaluate is their approach to sleep. Oftentimes, many athletes simply just ‘go to bed’ and lack a specific sleep performance routine. Just as endurance athletes don’t just show up to competition without any preparation or significant training underneath their belt, they should take the same approach to sleep. Understandably cycling athletes invest substantial time in things such as proper hydration, periodization tactics, pushing their lactate threshold through regimented speed training, etc. A similar commitment towards preparing oneself for sleep is required and if not taken seriously can significantly impede performance.
For instance, in a 2016 study researchers compared NBA athletes who received more than 8 hours of sleep and those that received less than 8 hours of sleep. Results from the study found that NBA athletes with 8 or more hours of sleep experienced a 12% increase in minutes played, 2% increase in three point percentage, 9% increase in free throw percentage and a 29% increase in points per minute whereas NBA athletes with less than 8 hours of sleep experienced a 37% increase in turnovers and a 45% increase in fouls committed. There are numerous other studies that can be cited, but ultimately what you will find are similar data points demonstrating how sleep performance outcomes significantly affect sport performance outcomes and psychological health. Furthermore decreased sleep is a hallmark feature of overtraining syndrome which exacerbates both psychological and physiological stress responses. So what are some immediate practices that you can implement to be more purposeful in improving your sleep quality? Start by establishing a pre-performance routine that you can incorporate approximately 30 minutes before bed (e.g. practicing mindfulness/meditation, turning off electronics and setting alarms, etc.). Once you start doing this on a regular basis, try comparing your perceived experience of quality of sleep with the data that a wearable device reports back to you (e.g. Garmin watch, WHOOP strap). Like all elite athletes, you need a high quantity of high quality data to help inform you if your new routine is actually translating to increased sleep performance, and wearable devices with sleep tracking features can be helpful in long-term tracking. But you should not stop here as the next metric you need to be evaluating is how well you are recovering from training.
Decreased Recovery - Rest and recovery are critical aspects towards making significant performance improvements. One scientific principle that strength & conditioning specialists rely on when factoring recovery into training is General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). GAS is a physiological process that occurs when the athlete experiences a stress inducing event (e.g. a single strength training session). After the stress inducing event has occurred the body will be in a catabolic type of state where stress hormones are released and the body recognizes that muscle tissue needs to be repaired. One of two things can happen at this point: the body experiences rest and utilizes this time to rebuild tissue and improve performance; or the body continues to experience stress and remains catabolic. To be certain different individuals require different variations in workload, but all athletes need rest in order to improve recovery. Just as you would with sleep, pay attention to your wearable device’s recommended recovery time and compare this to your internal perception about how much recovery you feel is needed.
Part III. Vergence, The Oculocardiac Reflex & Athletes
In addition to consulting with cycling athletes on how to improve the areas of their recovery performance, I constantly stress the importance of finding simple ways to stay in a relaxed parasympathetic state as often as possible. The more often you are able to stay relaxed, the more energy you are able to preserve while also reducing psychological stress and the development of mental blocks. One technique that I teach which is frequently used in Brainspotting mental skills training, is to have athletes activate their oculocardiac reflex. This reflex results from adhesion applied to the extraocular muscles which in turn decreases heart rate. Athletes should find some type of target placed directly in front of them (e.g. a pen, the tip of a water bottle, a finger, etc.) anywhere from 6 inches to several feet away from them.
Athletes can begin by focusing on the tip of the target for three to five seconds then shifting their focus to the area that is furthest behind the target for another three to five seconds (this is one rotation). Athletes completing several minutes of rotations should notice a calming effect and increased relaxation. The exact time needed to create the effect will vary from athlete to athlete but the majority of individuals should notice a physiological response. Ultimately whatever you decide to do to improve your performance as a cycling athlete, make sure that you craft an individualized, systematic routine that will improve your sleep performance, and physical recovery. These factors can have significant improvements on reducing psychological stress, mental blocks and helping you accomplish your performance goals!
Note To Reader:
If you are an athlete reading this segment of the TRAINING REPORT, hopefully this content was helpful! I put the Training Report together because I felt like many of the discussions on issues such as the Yips/mental blocks, strength training & other subject matter on athlete performance concepts were really missing the mark on these ideas (e.g. how trauma is the direct cause of the Yips). If you are interested in learning more, make sure to subscribe below for when I put out new content on issues related to sport psychology & athlete performance! Also, if you are looking to work with a mental performance specialist, you are in the right place! USE THIS LINK to reach out to me to see if my services are the right fit for your goals!
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