The Thinking And Psychology Behind Trials

[Matt Vandart]

Right dudes,

I find that if my mind isn't in the right place I f**k things up. However if my mind is in the online with what I am doing it goes well.

I have noticed with some of my mates I ride with that this is the same, especially one that when his mind is on form he rides really really well.

Would like some thoughts on what you guys reckon on this subject.

Like how do you get your mind set right.

How do you focus your concentration.

Do you run through exactly what you are going to do and when.

Do you do it with just mindless clarity.

One guy I ride with that is shit hot, really, when he's setting up for something the look of concentration is so intense that he seems to have done the move and is up there even before he moves, if you get me.

Like if you watch a cat jumping up a really high wall.

What are your thoughts on this?

[RossMcd]

Usually if its something i have never done before and its something that would really scare me I usually blank my mind and just horse myself at it! No thinking involved or anything. Works best for me! Usually if you walk through something you can sometimes put yourself off by thinking the worst is going to happen.. Thats the wrong way going about it.. Usually not thinking works best! But sometimes it can be a bit stupid..

[Nic84echo]

Personally I have to be in the right frame of mind before I've even gone out the door. If I'm in bad form for whatever reason I tend to ride very badly. With the odd exception where a bit of anger translates into a real assult on whatever I'm trying to make. But on the whole I need to be really calm to concentrate properly, so its chilled beats on the ipod and a warm-up of easy stuff to get me pscyhed for the stuff I know I'm probably going to **** up! The mind over matter thing is true, if you're thinking 'I can't do this', you probably wont.

Another thing that makes a massive difference to my riding is the people around me. The pressure of folk watching helps push me a bit further. Or a bit of competition to liven things up.

It's always fun to analyse your friends and how they ride. I have two types. The calm quiet ones, they tend to clear sections as if they'd done it a million times with the smoothest of moves. And the angry ones, who are all bashers, and cant get up anything without removing a chunk of wall or frame, or both

[psycholist]

Thinking through the possibilities if stuff goes wrong is part of the reason I'm shite at trials. The risk/reward starts to look very unfavourable once a big fall is involved, even though I've taken some really nasty falls (Like straight onto my face into concrete backwheeling off a 2 foot wall) and walked away with very minor injuries I still don't like being in a situation where that can happen, so I stick with stuff that's difficult but not dangerous.

Trials is all about muscle memory though. There isn't time to consciously sort everything out as you go over an obstacle. Once you know you can confidently do each component of a line, then stringing it together I'm thinking only in general terms about what I should be doing - stuff like 'front tyre must be here', 'switch to back at this point', 'keep weight forward' etc., so I assume I can automatically sort out all the balance and weight shifts needed to get to each point. Sometimes I even get it right ...

[Phatmike]

I totally believe that top riding will be from mindless clarity.

However trials is a learning process, which requires active mental action - quite the opposite from a no-thought state. I think you must maintain the balance between being totally focused on what you're doing in order to learn it, (applying consciousness), and also being able to subconsciously draw from your mind and muscle memories.

An example of that is a move like Hooks - I know how to hook, however if I'm trying a big one, I might have a few great first goes and then lose it as I start to think about it more and about how to get up it.

But I believe and know subconsciously that my mind is capable to control my body in order to achieve this, I've probably done this height in the past - so why can't I make the damn hook?! More often than not it's because my mind is too bogged down and too focused to allow me to draw upon this powerful subconscious knowledge about getting up the wall. So what do I do? Simple; Once I've had a few (close) failed attempts, I'll often spend a few minutes doing some gaps, or trying some bollards etc, and then with a completely clear head, safe in the beliefs that (usually) I'll go for the hook and make it first go!

One way to reinforce these beliefs (which is discussed a lot in trials) is visualisation: If you can clearly imagine yourself nailing a move then you've a much higher chances of doing so. This goes even further if you can then consciously imagine it - that is to fully immerse yourself in this imagination (which might only take 5 seconds to do before you start drifting off into 80" sidehop dream land) and to be aware of the different things going on - for example where you body position is at different key points in this visualisation, or when you're kicking, or how hard! By doing this you are already training your body and mind to do exactly everything you've visualised, and preparing for it also.

The bonus is about drawing upon this knowledge consistently - remember a time when you didn't know how to pedal hop; you'd need to think about the kicking, jumping, braking and pretty much everything until you had it nailed. However now, you know how to do all that, so you can think about, say, jumping harder to make a sidehop. This can be applied to pretty much any area of riding - I'll take hooks again for example:

If I know how to hook, and I am trying a wall I know I can make, the belief I will make it is very strong in my mind, so I do not need to actively think about how to hook. What I can do with my mind during that time, is how to hook better.

[trialsmax04]

This is an intresting thread. I find more with moto trials i have to be well on form more than bike trials. If i go to a trial with things on my mind or if my bike isnt right i get upstight easily and make silly mistakes. However if i go out in a good mood and just go out to enjoy myself i ride really well. Music helps me the most. I will normally put my walkman on with some classic house music on or something like that and it really gets me in the right frame of mind. When im riding (bike trials) i normally find something that i know i would struggle on or a tough line. Then just keep riding it untill ive learnt how to do it

max

[Danny@phatworks]

Some great words posted above from Mike.... I think trials is mostly a mindset, especially when riding to your limits. Having control of that mindset and being aware of it is a different ball game though. You can kind of be out riding and not riding particularly well say for a morning, your energy feels drained and then in the afternoon have the best days riding where something in your sub consciousness just flips the switch, having the ability to always have that switch on is a very hard thing to do, so again being aware of this is a valuable asset to riding to your best consistently I believe.

[willis-gu]

I think what i am going to do, make sure i commit a total 100% AND JUST f**kING DO IT!

p.s a bail plan is also quite useful

[bikeperson45]

I gonna start listneing to music and see if that makes any difference. What I hate is when I sort of think 'I definatly can't do, but I'll try and crash' becuase then this puts me in a worse mood for the rest of the ride and contaminates it.

And normally when I try something difficult, it's weird, like I just shut down and hope my body moves right to let me make it. Few deep breathes before helps me

And when I make a bail plan I start to use it, so everytime I try I'll bail at the same point because I know i can

Edited November 23, 2009 by bikeperson45

[Ali C]

I always say trials is as much mental as it is physical.

whenever I ride I am never doubting anything I try, I am always positive, always believing i will land the move. Once doubt creeps in your chances of nailing the move reduces noticeabley

[psycholist]

You could try my method and be so bad at bailing that if you get it wrong it's pretty much certain you're going down with the ship. Guaranteed to increase the percentage of lines you make cleanly admittedly at the expense of the number you attempt in the first place ...

If you're on your own listening to music is brilliant as it allows you to switch off all the distractions around you. If you're in a group it's a bit weird though...

Given the danger of falling off something trying not to laugh at some of the conversations that go on once we get going it might be somewhat justified come to think of it ...

Edited November 23, 2009 by psycholist

[Matt Vandart]

I gonna start listneing to music and see if that makes any difference. What I hate is when I sort of think 'I definatly can't do, but I'll try and crash' becuase then this puts me in a worse mood for the rest of the ride and contaminates it.

Cool way of putting it.

You could try my method and be so bad at bailing that if you get it wrong it's pretty much certain you're going down with the ship. Guaranteed to increase the percentage of lines you make cleanly admittedly at the expense of the number you attempt in the first place ...

If you're on your own listening to music is brilliant as it allows you to switch off all the distractions around you. If you're in a group it's a bit weird though...

Given the danger of falling off something trying not to laugh at some of the conversations that go on once we get going it might be somewhat justified come to think of it ...

Sounds like when me and my mates ride, cool, wish I could have got my shit together when I was over there and come out riding.

Well the Cork ferry will be back soon.............

[DannyBazz (:]

Well my method is just to give it your all. I try and focus my mind, and block out anything that might distract me; Traffic, Peds/oaps, other riders. I imagine myself doing it, then just go for it. If I don't make it after the first few attempts, i go do something else and come back later.

I used to be like a semi pro type rollerblader, and this is what I did then, so it must work, haha.

Also, I find watching a vid of one of my favourite riders, Ie, Ali C, TRA etc, gets me really syked for a ride, and I'm really up for it, and willing to give it my all.

(:

[Matt Vandart]

Well my method is just to give it your all. I try and focus my mind, and block out anything that might distract me; Traffic, Peds/oaps, other riders. I imagine myself doing it, then just go for it. If I don't make it after the first few attempts, i go do something else and come back later.

I used to be like a semi pro type rollerblader, and this is what I did then, so it must work, haha.

Also, I find watching a vid of one of my favourite riders, Ie, Ali C, TRA etc, gets me really syked for a ride, and I'm really up for it, and willing to give it my all.

(:

Hmmm.............

[indianatrials]

Ali truly does know everything! Im not being sarcastic. I was this () close to making a 35 inch tap to rear yesterday, and thats saying alot because the biggest up to rear ive ever done is 25 inches. I was thinking i could do it and it works.

I always say trials is as much mental as it is physical.

whenever I ride I am never doubting anything I try, I am always positive, always believing i will land the move. Once doubt creeps in your chances of nailing the move reduces noticeabley

[Matt Vandart]

Anyone else?

[Jan Tore]

Anyone else?

I clearly have to be calm and unstressed to have a successfull ride. Once I start getting pissed because of fails, I can't perform shit.

I usually try to just ride about, and see what comes, with a clear set of mind. That I'm going to succeed everything I try.

[psycholist]

Sounds like when me and my mates ride, cool, wish I could have got my shit together when I was over there and come out riding.

Well the Cork ferry will be back soon.............

I'm pretty sure all trials riders are about the same in terms of the madness that's never far from the conversation. Looks like the Cork ferry has disappeared alright. Conveniently done Laoghaire near Dublin has a great mix of natural and street lines and a ferry goes straight there from Holyhead (Which incidentally also has a few class trials bits as we discovered when our ferry home was delayed a few hours) ...

I also have some days where I see and nail lines I never thought of before and others where nothing seems to quite work right and it's hard to work out what causes the change. Main thing to do is not spend time getting pissed off at not being able to do a line (Unless you're really close and adding polish of course) as a succession of failures trains the muscles to perform the failed version of the move rather than the intended one.

Edited November 25, 2009 by psycholist

[Matt Vandart]

I'm pretty sure all trials riders are about the same in terms of the madness that's never far from the conversation. Looks like the Cork ferry has disappeared alright. Conveniently done Laoghaire near Dublin has a great mix of natural and street lines and a ferry goes straight there from Holyhead (Which incidentally also has a few class trials bits as we discovered when our ferry home was delayed a few hours) ...

I also have some days where I see and nail lines I never thought of before and others where nothing seems to quite work right and it's hard to work out what causes the change. Main thing to do is not spend time getting pissed off at not being able to do a line (Unless you're really close and adding polish of course) as a succession of failures trains the muscles to perform the failed version of the move rather than the intended one.

This, I believe, is a big problem for older riders just getting into trials.

[Jan Tore]

This, I believe, is a big problem for older riders just getting into trials.

How can one prevent learning the muscles the wrong moves then? Not ride?

[Matt Vandart]

Well that's the conundrum innit.

[ScottTrials]

In my case, I normally walk through it without my bike. ie: a sidehop, I will start from being stood then compress and leap up onto the object and if I can land it on my feat. It makes me think, I can do this on a bike. Alot of people so far have said that they need to be calm to ride at there best but I dont agree 100%. I find that if I have just had an arguement with someone, getting out and riding helps me think about the situation with that person. It basically clears my mind of other crap that will put me off and only having trials and the situation in my head helps me try new stuff. Also music helps alot. I have a playlist on my phone for riding as their the type of songs that help me relax apart from when the screamo arrives, then I just try stupid stuff.