this is bike related,but can apply to anything in life.

won’t add to my post atm as the list could go on a bit (of things i’m afraid of trying e.t.c 😉

Depends. Fear is actually a rational reaction to things that are of danger to us. Most important is how you manage that risk and whether you can cope with the negative outcome should it happen. Often these negative outcomes are not as bad as we feared, even when they occur. Hiding from things simply due to fear when you wish badly to do something is short-changing yourself.

open mind, listen to others experiences. bmx’ing will kill you.. well if i learn to relax pump, wear the right gear, listen to others and start small…..

I don’t think I’ve ever overcome fear, I control it. Or not, sometimes.

To conquer fear you must become fear…

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF5q_4tXDLk[/video]

Focus on the technique, not the action itself.

“It’ll be fine”

That should go on my headstone.

wysiwyg – Member

“It’ll be fine”

Yeah pretty much. Relating it to MTBing, it’s been jumps and drops this year… Relating it to motorbikes it’s been massive chunks off my laptimes… Relating it to real life it’s been killing spiders, now I have a small child and no-one else, I have to do it myself. the old “it’ll be fine”… will be the mantra I use generally. Just suck it up and you know what…. up to now… it has indeed been fine.

Tonight I’m off to Swinley forest, to the jump gully, there’s 2 jumps with higher/steeper entries and I must admit, I’m a bit scared about attacking them instead of the slightly easier entries… But… I’m pretty sure after a few warm ups i’ll just hit them and think “it’ll be fine”… I’m sure it probably will be,

Watching other folk try stuff helps.

Either you see a load of folk hit something, and it looks fine (so it probably is). Or you see someone totally cock it up and they’re ok. In which case you can think “see, I can cock that up and it’s ok”.

Of course this can back-fire, very occasionally you see someone burst themselves which is quite off-putting. But then you have an excuse 😉

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Stupidity helps, that and stupidity.

Me “F you fear”

Bone crunching thud

Fear “I did try to warn you”

😀

I don’t have an answer but know what you mean. Wish I did mind!

It’s those activities that you have a greater chance of success with if you go at them with confidence (jumps/drops/doubles in mtbing, loops in windsurfing or just a big rock jump where you have to make it over an obstacle for example) and therefore a reduced chance of hurting yourself. The alternative is to do them with too much caution, come up short and then inevitably hurt yourself, making the mindset even worse for next time.

When experiencing fear telling yourself that the safest thing to do (assuming you have already started and it’s too late to stop) is really go for it is the hardest bit as it’s so counterintuitive.

Levangelism* works for me.
If you find yourself faltering on a run in and second guessing yourself in order to pull up (didn’t quite have enough speed, missed that turn a fraction, pedals not quite level etc etc) then as written in the book of levengelism – thou shalt count down from 3, then hit the line no matter what happens. You will find that once you are committed your mind is clearer to focus on making it through the line and not wondering if this is the perfect run to carry on with.

*for Levanglism, see Jimmy Levan.

Rationalise the activity, focus on the technique. Break it down and practise. You’ll know the odds of success if you can nail the relevant techniques. If it’s unrealistic, don’t be an idiot thinking you can wing it.

If its properly dangerous and you still want to do it and you know you have the skills…. then sit down before. Imagine all your worries and responsibilities, then put them in an imaginary box in your mind. Shut the lid. Then nothing else exists except for the thing you are going to do. Then do it.

I am suffering this alot at the moment.
There’s a decent size drop in my local woods that I was always terrified of, I eventually bought a big full susser and rode it a few times, but it was just a case of rolling off it and hoping for the best.
I then bought my Covert and rode it only to have my foot come off the pedal and the saddle to come a few mm from castrating me.
Obviously this didn’t do my confidence any good. In the meantime I built a quite big kicker further down, probably harder than the drop itself but I’m fine with it, I fly off it no probs, because I built it myself.
Last week I spent about half an hour trying to ride the drop and bottling, until some I spotted some people pushing up the trail and had to ride it! yesterday I was out there and spent an hour trying to do it but just couldn’t, brakes came on as if on their own.
The fact that someone got airlifted to hospital after crashing it last week and ending up with spinal injuries doesn’t help i suppose…

Practice. Start small & work up. No point going big, getting hurt and never trying again.

Best tip I heard for dealing with fear is to see it asa a signal there’s something you need to prepare for – it’s a warning rather than a barrier in itself.

This leads you to focus on solving the problem you have rather than focussing on the fear, which at the end of the day is just an emotion.

Which in MTB terms means learn good technique, start small and slow and practice, practice, practice.

If you fill your mind with ‘look where you want to go, shift your weight here, pull up there, push down here etc etc’ there’s a lot less space in your head for the fear…

Build up to it. If you’re afraid to hit a ten foot drop, go hit a one foot one. Get comfortable with that, then try two, then three.

Same with gaps or steep stuff or ninja armies or pirates with laser beans or anything else.

Basically, learn the technique in an controlled scenario where the fear isn’t an issue, and then apply that technique.

Depends. A lot of dealing with fear is understanding what it’s for. That big shot of adrenaline is there to help you deal with something right in front of you. Just because you get that hit, doesn’t necessarily mean there’s anything to be afraid of – e.g. jumping off a 5 meter board at the swimming pool. Recognise what that hormone’s for and use it to help you. If you can enjoy the feeling of that adrenaline shot, even better.

Rationalise the thing in front of you, you know the consequences, you know your chances of success, how well you have the technique dialled already and how you can apply it here. The adrenaline’s an aside, and doesn’t really help you work out whether or not you should do something.

Edit: pretty much what broess said!

The “elsewhere in life” thing is interesting, because we’ve not really evolved to deal with long term decision making. We get anxious about making a decisions, career decisions, relationship decisions. Anxiety is fear spread thinly.

The closer you get to making that decision, the more the adrenaline builds. If you take that adrenaline/anxiety/stress as a sign that taking this decision is bad, and turn away from it, you’ll feel a sense of relief and being released from that anxiety, which reinforces the feeling that turning back was the right thing. It could be the best decision or the worst decision you could make, but if it’s important, the mechanics of the anxiety and positive reinforcement of inaction will be the same.

Recognising what’s going on will help you deal with the anxiety, maybe turn it into excitement, and look rationally at the facts of the decision, and if it’s the right thing to do, do it.

Growing up I had a genuine belief I was unbreakable and was absolutely fearless as a result.
I used to shimmy up 5 floors of drainpipe to the top floor of a block of flats and then hang down from one balcony dropping into the next back down to he ground floor.

At 28 I was seriously injured in a motorbike crash, it’s legacy being a bad back and the seeing of pain and injury everywhere.
I now feel fear deep in the pit of my stomach when stood on the ground staring up at a tall building and every now and again when flying down the motorway it occurs to me one wrong move and I could have my lower extremities crused to a pulp by a red hot engine while entombed in a ball of mangled steel.

But I try not to let it bother me. 😀

Fear is actually a rational reaction to things that are of danger to us.

That’s it basically, “Risk Perception” innit…
IMO/IME being thick helps up to a point…

Thick people are less likely to “Over-think” things and foresee many of the scary consequences of their actions, hence they confidently take greater risks and more often than not find their judgement reinforced when things pan out for the best.

More intelligent people are often more risk averse, typically because they think ahead and will often weight their judgement of risk based on consequences towards the “Catastrophic” end of the scale, hence they don’t take the risks…

There is a tipping point of course, you don’t have to be thick to take risks and get all Rad on the bike, it just takes more training and repetition, you have to basically demonstrate to your brain that its estimation of risks is off, so repeatedly riding that slightly scary Jump or Drop builds a little confidence and muscle memory for the next scariest thing, and you need to keep it up, once you take a bit of a break from riding challenging stuff you’ll slip back into “The Fear”…

All IMO etc, etc…

Through familiarity. If you can’t do a 4ft drop find a 2 or 3ft one that you can do and force yourself to do it until you get bored. Say I’m going to take an hour and do this drop 20 times. Even if you’re bored of it after half an hour make yourself complete the full 20 and don’t even think about the 4 footer until you’ve finished. If the 4ft drop still looks intimidating come back another day and do the small one another 20 times.

Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses!

This quote from Dune helps me

Positive visualisation techniques help followed by a big dose of committment to the said scary act be it on a bike, climbing something big and scary, committing to tackling a big bloke playing rugby etc etc etc. if you concentrate and visualise negative thoughts you WILL fail to commit whole heartedly to the act and that’s when injuries occur in my experience. It’s the same with coming back from a serious injury, if you have done all the strengthening and stabilisation work in the gym etc as long as you are properly healed and you could do it before you will be able to do it again.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very concerned about heights and my ability to cope with them and as such I admit that I have a fear of extreme or exposed height/drops. But I know if I had to overcome it for some life saving or heroic deed I would, using my prescribed techniques 😆 ……..but for now I can stay having the half a crown sixpence experience ever time I watch a video or experience it in real life!

When i used to skate i would try and visualise what i was about to do and break it down into chunks, eg – pop, flip, catch, land. I found that helped a lot. The closer you’ve been to doing something the easier it is to visualise which is why it’s best to start small and work your way up.

Haha snap suggsey 🙂

Belief

More intelligent people are often more risk averse, typically because they think ahead and will often weight their judgement of risk based on consequences towards the “Catastrophic” end of the scale, hence they don’t take the risks…

Makes me sound intelligent. I’ll go with that. 😉

Fear is your mind’s hazard identification mechanism. The next step is to evaluate the risk of it happening. Then take action (or not). Understanding the risk is the most important part of overcoming fear.

Skill reduces risk. With my modest skills, more mitigation is required!

There’s nothing better than being at the top of a run with that “pit of your stomach” feelin. Being aware that the consequences of failure are severe, but possessing enough belief in your skills to embrace & overcome is liberating to me.

Eg, there’s a massive boulder right after a double on Ft.Bill worldchamps that will take your leg off. I’ve never hit it, but I always think about it at the beginning.
It’s a point I mention frequently to sedentary mumblers, that it’s good to be “fearful” at least once a day. Even if you have to get in the way of harm to avoid it

I generally run away..

It’s worked out pretty well for me so far

Sometimes it’s the fear that the bike will break, not me. If I break the FSR, I’ll be gutted, as it’s unlikely the wife will let me have a Rune and Pikes (to put all the bits that did’t break on).

thanks for the replies,a lot of things to think about.

i’ll be honest my bike skills are non existent (am 39 and have never learned to wheelie/bunnyhop e.t.c). the fear has always stopped me from really trying to learn how to do them (i know i’m very sad/a lightweight 😳

i bought a lovely bmx a few years ago but didn’t do anything on it apart from ride round on it (which i did enjoy).the fear part just kicked in. i did try and learn to bunnyhop on it but could get at a guess about 1/2 an inch off the ground 😳

i know at the end of the day i need a huge dose of mtfu btw 😉

what is annoying is that i want to get another bmx again (but exactly the same scenario will play out with it if i did buy one).

back in the early 90’s i did attempt some descents on a fully rigid marin that i wouldn’t do now on my duster (partly when i was in a mtb club and everyone else did it,so i had no choice).

today though due to things (depression/laziness e.t.c) i don’t ride my bike any more (only to shops e.t.c) which i hate,as i love/d riding my bike (so that has a baring on the situation too). i also ride alone as none of my friends are into cycling (although i have been invited and done a few rides (2) with the guys at the bike shop i go to.

i do kick myself at my lack of skill on a bike,and why i don’t do anything about it.

Aha – all you need is a few more group rides. Something slightly out of your comfort zone and the group speed and flow will carry you through it. You’ve been there before in the 90’s, so you will be fine again.

So more shop rides, local club, a stw pootle, post up for some locals riding near you etc. – Eg – Look at the Hampshire riding thread – there’s always lots of folk nearby.

For specific skills, or bmx, maybe book some coaching. The confidence from learning skills from a proper teacher and then more regular riding will help no-end.

i do kick myself at my lack of skill on a bike,and why i don’t do anything about it.

We all do that mate. This year I sat down at Xmas and decided I was going to do more and more… I progressed to BPW, then Jedi then onto jumping. I’m still no super god by a long long way, but I can now happily get air time and not panic. 6 months ago, I had 0% air time. I’m 42 BTW.

Balance the consequence of your actions – often it is safer to commit and roll through something than it is to hesitate – i.e trust the bike.

Also you will perform best from a position of calmness, so if you panic or think about it you are not going to perform well, and therefore be in more danger, than if you had remained calm. So you may have to fake confidence.

The inner game of golf (and tennis) talks about two sides of the brain – the one side is the quiet side that can just do the task, but the other side is the doubter that fills your head with negative thoughts, so you have to keep that side quiet.

That’s easier on the bike than in golf or tennis, but the principal is the same.

Think of something happening at high speed in a car, often you take evasive action instinctively (possibly because of training), but if the doubting side would have got a chance it would have told you that you had no chance. You brain is capable of a lot more than the doubting side accepts.

And stop looking at the ground so close in front of your front wheel…

If you think your skills are lacking, then that issue will certainly hold you back from overcoming your fears. Best way forward is take some coaching, training lessons. I did some recently and am amazed at how I overcame the negative thoughts by gaining some simple skills which made me a better rider. My biggest fear was tight downhill switchbacks. Not bothered about drops as long as I don’t think about them too much and only ride to MY ability not other riders. But as every ‘good’ trail has a decent steep corner or switchback I’d get the swirly dark pit every time I rode out. To the point I’d get off and walk (which actually is more difficult if it’s slippy).

Just a few hours with a good instructor will get you going again and worth every pound spent IMO. Getting the right skills to take on bigger obstacles is something a lot of riders don’t do as riding bikes is so accessible. We often find ourselves stuck in a rut, same habits and kicking ourselves after thoughts of avoidance sour the ride especially if we can’t ride every day. A good instructor will show YOU and help you overcome that ‘I’m going to crash and die feeling’ you’ll also learn how to use your bike and trails way better than you ever did before. It really, really is worth it.