Mental Control Philosophy
Coaching from Lionel Space, Phoenix AZ
The most powerful muscle in our body is our brain.
It contains our fears, our reservations, our safety limits, but also has the programming of imagination where we can develop controls over just about everything we do.
Controlling the brain is not about turning off the pain receptors to allow us to accept more torture and suffer more.
It's a far more Zen operation, where we accept, embrace, and live with that response so that we become the master, rather than just a shield.
Once this control is established, the limits of your physical abilities can be greatly determined by your mental abilities.
There have been amazing stories
of people that exhibited incredible strength during an emergency rescue.
During those dire moments, they found a mental ability to go beyond the natural limits and obtain strength that should not have been available.
However, doing so puts our bodies into the red zone (past safe limits) and negative physical consequences can result.
This same mental fortitude is required to sprint successfully.
To successfully get top speed in a sprint, the athlete must think beyond just putting out their maximum, but attempt go beyond that.
As one practices sprinting abilities, this mental aspect is developed.
The increase in physical demands creates an adaptive response in the body, which ultimately increases the strength of the athlete, which subsequently raises the red zone.
On the surface, this may appear to be a normal development of exercise.
However, using one's imagination to exceed perceived limits is paramount to pushing into the red zone consistently.
It's not about putting out one's best, but putting out more than what was thought possible.
The difference is very evident when put into practice.
When I coach a fit cyclist on their first sprint sessions, they have no problem doing 8 or 10 sprints.
The problem is, I'm riding right beside them, talking to them as I observe their efforts.
After a few months of practice where the mental aspect is emphasized, their speeds have risen considerably and they are spent after 3 efforts.
One could argue that the increased speed was more taxing on the body and that's why they're spent.
That is true, but that phyiscial ability was 99% available when they started learning sprinting and only through better control of the physical from their mind were they able to push the body into those higher states.
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