Sport Psychology: Facing Jumps

Interviews

Sport Psychology for Dressage Riders

Question:I am a competent dressage rider, but I must pass a jumping test to proceed with my instructor training. I had a very bad experience when first introduced to jumping. Now I freeze up, go blank, and forget my course every time. Help!

Answer: The mind is a beautiful, and sometimes terrible, thing. It can be a devastating experience to find a blank slate where you once had a nicely functioning brain! What happens? Where do those nice, logical thought processes go?

When we are under pressure to perform, especially if there is a past history of fear, the mind can go strangely blank. Sometimes when the brain feels threatened it goes into a survival mode. The thinking centers of the brain shut down, and we slip into the “reptilian brain”. This is a primitive portion of the brain that supports our fight or flight instinct. Logical thought disappears as the body’s system becomes flooded with adrenaline, cortisol and other “fear” neurotransmitters. This can be an intensely disturbing and frustrating experience. It can also be self- perpetuating as we become “afraid of being afraid”. Fortunately there are several solutions you can work with. First a little education on the brain.

There are two different aspects of the brain that need to be engaged when we are under pressure to perform. The first part of the brain we need to use is the logical, analytical left side of the brain. The second part of we need to use is our intuitive, sensual, right side of the brain. Performing well under pressure requires a delicate balance of these two types of “thinking”. If we only ride from our logical brain then our performance can tend to be stiff and mechanical. If we only ride from our “feeling” brain our performance can lack direction and purpose. Most people find their best performances come from a mostly “feeling” brain, with a few, very focused, logical thoughts. To make your jumping performance more calm and automatic, here are a few ideas:

Make sure you have an instructor and horse that you enjoy and trust. Because your initial jumping experiences were negative it is really important that you make your current experience very positive.
Practice, practice, practice. Some experts say it takes 10,000 hours of repetition to become an expert at any given activity. Practice a lot of jumping courses, even if you are just trotting or cantering over poles on the ground. If you are forgetting courses of 8 jumps in competition, then teach yourself to remember courses of 10 jumps in training.
Monitor your self-talk. If your internal dialogue sounds like this, “Oh god, here we go again. I know I’m going to blow it…” then you are setting yourself up for failure. Keep your inner words positive, even if it feels like a lie. If you say positive words often enough you will start to believe them.
Learn to remember your courses in chunks. Instead of trying to memorize 8 unrelated jumps, memorize the jumps in relationship to each other. For instance, think “forward outside line, collect for diagonal combination, to forward 5 stride line….”.
Write your course down on paper, several times. Walk it in the barn aisle, visualize it in a quiet spot, or watch other riders. Try to incorporate as many different forms of learning as you can.
Learn breathing and relaxation techniques to convince your primitive brain that it is not in danger. If you are physically relaxed and breathing deeply you will be much less likely to kick into a “fight or flight” pattern.
Have fun! Make your jumping work playful and light. Hang in there and keep repeating. Sooner or later it will get easier.

These techniques are the same used to remember a dressage test. If you would like more information, or even a nice Christmas gift, check out my book, “Memorize That Dressage Test”. You can find it on my web site, www.seanaadamson.com. You can also email me directly with questions or comments at seanaadams@aol.com. I enjoy hearing from you!