Motivate Yourself! Metal preparedness is almost as important as physical training. To be mentally trained most closely means to be psychologically ready for the physical act of. Mental training includes several steps which include acquainting ones self with the event, setting a goal, finding out secret techniques or discovering the “trade secrets”, harnessing your inner psyche (Id) by having time set aside to discover it, monitor performance, visualize ones self in competition correcting all errors, and then combining all steps to make one the best athlete possible. Why is it that those of us who are out of a sport, and on our own to train can sometimes motivate ourselves to find the time to train and maintain a training schedule, and other times not? Sometimes we can get into the exercise habit and other times not? How can we make training part of our schedule? To be motivated to do something means to be persuaded that there is something to gain in it for one. Presumably, one should convince ones self that there is something to gain for one in pole-vaulting. Motivating one self is, however, somewhat paradoxical – a “catch 22.” What if you have to motivate ones self to motivate ones self? So, it is worth talking it over with another person.
A person who does not find physical pleasure in pole-vaulting will not continue pole-vaulting for long. What motivates a pole-vaulter? Money? No. Love of their sport, maybe? Feeling good about being good at what they are doing? Pure enjoyment, exhilaration? Being on a team? Gaining position and power and influence? Being admired and appreciated by others? Yes! Is this enough to get you out on the mats regularly? Think over what you have to sacrifice to have the time to train. A movie, dinner with friends, late night TV, time with your family? One author suggested “mainly give up work. It’s impossible to keep up.” Visualize ones-self accomplishing the goal and feel that satisfaction that comes from success. Now how will a person remember that state of motivation that the person will want to have the next time they are deciding whether or not to row? Once the person gets on the runway, it is important to make the experience pleasurable so one will want to come back.
For most people, this means a few drills as they push off the dock to remind their nervous system of what is expected. Vaulting is a highly skilled activity. It requires a dynamic coordination of gross and fine muscles in a very narrow bandwidth of correct movements. The muscles that must work together are not called upon to do so in any other activity. One small miscalculation and your vault is ruined – the enjoyment of the run of the boat is spoiled for that moment; ones motivation to get back on the water diminished that tiny bit. This adds up over the duration of a sloppy day of vaulting and vaulting becomes toxic.
So technique is important. Concentrate on quality vaulting until you can depend on a continuous improvement in form and height while vaulting. Warm up slowly – increasing your speed in a naturally progression. Gradually prepare the body for the energy production that is required for strenuous exercise.
Give it time to give you the energy you will need to feel strong and concentrated as a person develops speed. Set a pace. Be sensitive to how you are feeling. You might already know that one-day vaulting will be invigorating, and another day it will just make you tired. The human body needs rest to realize gains from your efforts. If vaulting becomes a period of suffering that you endure in order to vault well or stay fit, you may find it difficult to motivate yourself to put your all into the competitions.
Or, if on the other hand, vaulting becomes an escape from problems or responsibilities, soon it will become associated with guilt. In this case, too it becomes difficult to motivate yourself to succeed. Remember that it is the feeling that you have at the end of the visualization exercise that will get you to your desired height. Try to make it stronger. Sometimes making the image brighter hence making the feeling stronger; sometimes bringing it up closer in your visual field makes it stronger; experiment with making the sounds louder or softer to make the feeling stronger; alter the pitch. Adjust the image and the sound until the feeling is as strong as you can make it.
See you on the mats! Visualization for the Correction of Errors 1. Make a mental image of the current movement. Where is the image? Is the image black and white or color? 2. Make a mental image of the correct movement. 3. Compare the two images; find one correction.
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