Mind Over Matter: Let's Talk Mental Game

Recently we have had athletes come down to train at Fluidity Freerun Academy and what I noticed is how their presence can really have an impact on the community training around them. Watching someone talk through their process to build up to big moves and powerful lines then watching them send the full thing in front of you ignites a fire to train harder unlike anything else. What I find inspiring is their ability to look at a jump or challenge, know they can do it and send it without much lingering thought.

This is what separates someone who trains parkour from someone who is an elite parkour athlete. Not just their skill level and moves in their arsenal, though impressive to watch. No, what truly makes athletes stand out is their mental game. The solid confidence in their abilities. Their acute awareness of how their body can move, which translates to how they understand if a challenge is something they can achieve. They know their limits. But they can also push past them to unlock things we may never have seen before in the parkour scene. 

My mental game is where my real battle begins. I have been training parkour for a while now, so I have a good understanding of my jump distance, movement strengths and weaknesses and limits. I have got to know the facility very well in my time here and I have many challenges here that I want to “tick off” and improve my tech on, moves I want to achieve with more power and confidence and create flowy lines by moving rather than thinking. I want Fluidity to feel so known to me by the way I move through it, and one day I want to look back on all the challenges I have done with fondness as I move onto bigger and more complex challenges.

Here is what a bad mental game day looks like for me:

When approaching a challenge I have wanted to send, my mind is already playing tricks on me: the jump looks larger than it did the day before. One slip of my foot early on in my warm up jumps and I fear landing on bars or that section of wood for most of my session. Standing up high, my knees turn to jelly and I no longer trust that my body can make it, despite previous training telling me the contrary. 

Ultimately, my brain tells me that I can’t do it. Even jumps I have broken before become an impossibility. So then I step away once. Then the next challenge feels unachievable. I end up walking away over and over again until I end the session feeling like I have achieved nothing.

I am sharing this with you because not every training session is about ticking off challenges. The real progress for me, is telling myself that I know I can do something, even when it feels scary, and push through my mental block. When this happens, I feel a fog lift, my vision clears in a way that is hard to describe, but suddenly I prepare and send. That feeling when I am on the other side is evidence to my former self that was standing across from where I landed that I can trust myself and my body to achieve my goals. Training your brain out of self-limiting beliefs is hard work. Having a session where “all” you do is face your mental battles is worth its weight in gold.

Here’s how to push past your self limiting beliefs:

Progress is not Perfect - Perfectionism can manifest through constant self-analysing and reflecting on what you have done in a session and criticising it. Yes, it is good to reflect on what you could improve, but don’t forget to look at your progress as part of a big picture rather than that one session. Every time you train, you make progress. Yes, even failures teach you something.

Make a Mantra - Choose a few words of affirmation that you can tell yourself when looking at a challenge or feeling scared. This will help to challenge the loud noise clouding your mind. Make it simple and words that speak to you. 

Fail, then try again - Learning to return after a bail and attempt something again after not getting something (injury dependent, of course) can help disrupt the sense of danger associated with the challenge you are trying to overcome. The longer you leave something, the more time your brain has to tell you that you can’t do it!

Collect Evidence - When feeling demotivated, look at the proof to challenge negative beliefs. Every small thing can be evidence. When put together it is harder to tell yourself you can’t, when over and over again, you have shown that you can.

Athletes have to have a mental fortitude so they can achieve great things. This applies to anyone who is training in any capacity. Your mind can be your biggest limitation to your progression. But once you get your mind on your side, it can unlock so much more.   

Go send (because you can),

Demi