MIND GAMES
Why does your brain have such a big impact on your performance? We delve into the grey matter to find out
Words: Laura Briggs
You’ve got that overwhelming urge to run to the portaloo just as you’re called up to the start line, you feel your heartrate rising, your muscles tighten. While you know you’re perfectly capable of running this race, your brain has got other plans for you – in the form of pre-race anxiety.
Your brain has a lot of clever tricks up its sleeve to stop you racing, and claiming it’s just a case of ‘mind over matter’ is rather simplistic. It’s more complex than just blocking out negative thoughts.
While your mind comes up with plenty of ‘threats’ (like telling you that you can’t run the distance, you’re under trained, that it could be dangerous) to stop you doing what you love, it also cares for you deeply. In fact, all it’s doing is trying to keep you alive, and as author and sports psychologist Dr Josephine Perry says, your brain’s function is not to make you a great runner; it’s to keep you safe.
It’s for this reason that many of us will experience some kind of threat response before and during a race. If this sounds like you, don’t worry, it really is more common than you may realise.
When you’re under stress, how do you react? Understanding your body’s response can help you overcome it
|| Intelligence makes people overthink, while perfectionism means that, although they are achieving, they can’t enjoy the experience. It sucks the joy from running ||
While there’s no quick fix to calm the nerves or still the mind, Dr Perry explains that it happens to pretty much all of us – elite and amateur alike – and there are some things we can do to help make our running easier. If you can train yourself to understand your mind and its tricks, then you may have a better shot at overcoming issues at crux times.