Is getting angry with myself if I get scared counter-productive?

It feels like it’s becoming a real issue.

Bit of background, life-long bmxer, was always a little bit scared, about 6 years ago worked really, really hard at losing the nerves, got to the point where if i convinced i could do something, i’d just do it, no messing around. All was good.

Got hurt a couple of years on the trot, my local dirt jumps ride between april and october, i missed this window pretty much, this was 2 years on the trot. My sheepish ways came back, couldn’t get back into it.

Started MTBing just under 3 years ago, it was fine if i was rubbish, it was something new, because it was new, i wasn’t doing anything too dangerous and knew it.

Now i’ve been doing MTB a while and know im of a strong standard when it comes to bike control, gaps etc, i get really, really annoyed if i bottle something.

For example, i went to BPW recently, first line of jumps on enter the dragon, these are things in terms of size and speed i would have been hitting on my BMX, as doubles, with little convincing in my hay day, i got that down about it that it really ruined my day.

/ramblings, conclusion is after that, i shouldn’t worry about it, it’s fine to be scared, but then it leads onto another problem in my head, it’s not ok to be scared and leave it at that.

Why does the mind have to be such a pr*c%?

It’s hard to see an upside of being angry with yourself for being yourself.

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
– Yoda

Of course it is. If you want balls to do hard stuff, you need to focus and become calm.. watch a few martial arts films 🙂

Don’t think – just do.

I used to love jumping, now I freeze and panic at the thought of it 😥

Really winds me up too. 😡

How can you not agree with Yoda? the little dude makes sense.

The body relies on fear to make you effective, the sympathetic nervous system is working to get your body ready for a burst of energy because that is what your body requires at that precise moment, it is the same as the prehistoric fight or flight reflex controlled by the central nervous system. The key is to control that fear so it doesn’t reach a point that it is having a negative effect. For me personally although it sounds quite hippy mindfulness meditation teaches you how to control your fear so you can use it to your advantage.

I also think with age you tend to realise your own mortality, I know for sure that things I did at 16 without second guessing I wouldn’t even attempt now.

Have a word with Jedi (UK Bike Skills). He does head stuff (I think). Also, rabbit off here used to properly crumble if she entered a race, went to see a sports psychologist and the next year was only beaten by world cup racers (pretty much IIRC).

So, either sports psycho or maybe go see Jedi.

The body relies on fear to make you effective, the sympathetic nervous system is working to get your body ready for a burst of energy because that is what your body requires at that precise moment, it is the same as the prehistoric fight or flight reflex controlled by the central nervous system. The key is to control that fear so it doesn’t reach a point that it is having a negative effect. For me personally although it sounds quite hippy mindfulness meditation teaches you how to control your fear so you can use it to your advantage.

Verging on some CBT background there.

@deanfbm – jack of all trades me 😀

Is getting angry with myself if I get scared counter-productive?

Yes, of course it is. Fills your head with disabling emotions when you want it to be either empty or full of encouraging thoughts.

Best interpretation I heard of how to deal with fear is it’s a warning to yourself that there’s something you need to prepare for.

Then you just accept the fear, accept you have something to deal with, and find a way to deal with it. It’s perfectly ok to get scared when you’re doing something risky – no need to beat yourself up about it

I suspect some time with a coach will help you a lot

Dr Who nails it better than Yoda. Last week he described fear as like a superpower, it allows you to think faster, be stronger and jump higher. 😆

I’m fond of jumping but have realised that i’m a poor reflection of a shadow of my youthful self (like you, many year bmxing). When i started mtb (07) i hadn’t ridden a bicycle for 4 or 5 years, so took myself down to the local dirt jumps and forbad myself to leave until i’d cleared all the lines. Took a few hours but what happened that day gave me the confidence to take it to the wild. Had a few bad crashes since and it does make you think (one took two years to fully recover from). I still hit biggish jumps now but if i don’t feel like doing them, i don’t beat myself up about it. I’m happy in the knowledge that i could do it, just not that day.

I don’t think being afraid helps, in the case of jumping. Fear is going to create tension and anxiety, when you need to be calm, relaxed and focused.

I find that focusing only on the successful completion of the thing to be most useful. You need confidence not doubt and fear.

I know exactly what you mean.

I’ve done the same before but got over it eventually on most occasions.

Best advice I’ve ever had is to calm yourself down and imagine yourself riding it perfectly. If you can’t imagine it, you probably can’t do it.

Fear is going to create tension and anxiety, when you need to be calm, relaxed and focused.

This is exactly what i get hung up on as soon as i sense fear. Fear creates tension, tension creates mistakes, mistakes lead to breaking myself for a bit and makes it feel like hucking.

I think part of it too is when BMXing, i would have a couple of proper falls every ride, it was fine, i was doing it all the time and relaxing with it, accepting it and things would normally come out fine.

Now, on my MTB i only have the equivalent falls every few weeks, falls where you knock the wind out of yourself, not enough falls is making feel like im made of glass, which is nonsense going round in my head only adding to the tension when i sense fear.

Fear is the mindkiller.

The little green dude speaks much truth.

“Do, or do not. There is no try.”

It’s easy to say, but you need to be in your comfort zone, if you’re not then tension and anxiety will stop you being able to do the thing you’re scared of. You need to get in to the happy, calm place in you’re head. Things will then flow.

You’re supposed to be having fun, remember?

Awesome quotes here 😀

Just trying to think of one from Mr Lee

Euro – Member
Dr Who nails it better than Yoda. Last week he described fear as like a superpower, it allows you to think faster, be stronger and jump higher. 😆

Ha! 😀 , yeah like that.

If your scared you’ve overestimated your ability – that’s paraphrasing Ueli Steck – a man with far bigger balls than most – channel the anger and practice more – repetition is the father of all learning …. (That last bit was a Lil Wayne quote I’m ashamed to admit)

“Do, or do not. There is no try.”

Always liked that one, especially when I hear someone say “I am trying to give up smoking”.

Personally, I’m trying to give up chips.

Give up chips…?

Not possible.

Go on a course with Jedi. It’s as much about the mind as it is about riding ability but you won’t be coerced or hypnotised into doing 30ft gap jumps. Money well spent especially if you are hitting a wall or getting the fear.

Star Wars all the way.

“do or do not…” is (possibly sadly) one of my mantras for a lot in life – whether it’s healthy to base decisions on the words of a muppet is questionable I guess?

Then on to Jedi – totally worth the money for his astonishing mix of technical and mental coaching. Every time I approach something new or scary on the bike his four questions rattle through my brain and if I can’t answer yes to them all I back off and leave it for another time. Get yourself down to Herts if you can.

I get angry with other people.Just punch some random.

If your scared you’ve overestimated your ability

I’d say that’s a really poor way to look at it.

Fear and ability level are pretty much unlinked in my view.

Fear sets in when your mind is not in its comfort zone, your mind may not be in its comfort zone due to simply having a bad day, not having that poo before you got out or the morning bacon not being crispy enough, you get the gist. Your mind could be out of its comfort zone because you’re doing something a little bit new too, generally not because you’re not capable of it (well that’s how it goes for me anyway).

I don’t know about anyone else, i look at something because it peaks my interest, an image flashes in my head of what i want to do, ie i have a game plan, it’s all been done in my head, i know/am capable of it. I never look at anything seriously im not capable of, hence am only getting angry at getting scared of stuff i can do.

Been debating the jedi thing, thing is i’m at that point where i am hitting 30ft gap jumps, how can the set tabletops at BPW even install even a small amount of fear into me? Is that the sort of thing jedi helps with?

Good thread, a welcome change from the usual STW diet of tyres, brakes and wheelsizes.

Have you stopped doing your big jumps completely and want to start again? Or are you saying you sometimes can and sometimes can’t?

If the former than UK Bike Skills might be a good bet. Otherwise maybe it’s more about accepting that it comes and goes?

I’ve had a long period of building back up to speed after getting my arm broken last summer, and now I’m finally as fast or faster than I was before. I’ve got angry with myself and the **** who broke my arm at times, but mainly just tried to get on with other sorts of riding and waited until I was feeling it again.

If your scared you’ve overestimated your ability

Thoroughly disagree. Fear comes from many sources. I get scared out of doing things I know full well I have the ability for.

Climbing is a good example, where things are graded. I could do 5b climbs all day indoors, but outside I never did anything over 4c. I knew I could, I just became unreasonably afraid. I suspect most arachnophobes are well aware that they are physically capable of occupying the same room as a spider.

Have you stopped doing your big jumps completely and want to start again? Or are you saying you sometimes can and sometimes can’t?

Mixed bag, in terms of big jumps as in dirt jumps, on my BMX, that’s long gone, just doesn’t happen, fear is well and truly set in on that one now, but that’s sort of OK, i know and have proven to myself that if i want to do it, i HAVE to spend a few days doing mind numbing, boring, simple stuff, building back up, but i have methods for getting to a happy place on the BMX in terms of fear, it’s just that i just dont do it enough anymore and dont have what i want to ride on my doorstep.

On my MTB, it comes and goes, a good example would be chicksands if you know it, the big step up/double line, i can turn up and it’s the first thing i do to warm up, other times it’s like an elephant in the room, im scared of it, get wound up because it’s nothing in my mind, so why should i be being scared of it? Get annoyed and end up not doing it.

I remember reading some stuff that some feeling feel the same but actually mean different things, for example, the butterflies in your stomach. They could mean you’re excited, they could mean you’re anxious/scared, if you’re not sure how you’re feeling in the first place, if your mind is in the wrong place, they could be interpreted in a negative way, it certainly happens to me.

Sounds to me like it’s your general mood that’s varying. Some days you’re agitated and stressed, others you’re not. I don’t do big jumps but the rest of my riding is certainly affected by my state of mind in normal life.

state of mind is very imortant. being here now as i call it. that is different from concentration on a jump. mental skills affect the physical skills

don’t forget, whatever you’re looking at to ride will be there tomorrow

It sounds like a confidence thing Dean and it seems you already know when your mojo is having a holiday. The fact you recognise this is a good thing. The bad thing is that you’re give yourself a hard time when you’re not on it. There are no medals for doing things you’re not in the mood for and you need to learn to accept that although you have the ability to do it, it doesn’t have to be today.

I get nervous if i’ve been off the bike for a few weeks. We usually start with a pretty tech DH run and i’m generally shitting it as i think i’ve forgotten how to ride a bike. A few turns in i’m either reminded that it’s a piece of cake or it’s a hard as i feared. Thankfully it’s usually the former but if it’s ‘one of those days’, i just take it easy. There’s always the next time.

Know the feeling. I get annoyed when i bottle stuff ive ridden countless times before. Like the fairly big step down at Woburn, done it loads before but haven’t done it for ages and its annoying. I actually find it stressful. I used to ride it every time just to make myself sure I could still do it or something, like I was putting pressure on myself to do it every ride just to make sure I “kept on top of it so to speak.

For stuff like at BPW I always ride a bit more reserved because in the back of my mind I know it’s a long drive home and I dont want to do it one handed again like I had to when I wrecked my shoulder at FOD haha. Its all just mind games, hard to get over some times at least for me.

It doesn’t anger me, I just get days when I’m not in the right mind and others where it’s working fine. If I’m not up for it I just move on to stuff I am.

My biggest problem though is I look at the potential consequences of things too much, not just in mountain biking. It can be an advantage when ensuring you make the right choices in some things, but for MTB it makes you stall and that’s where crashes happen. Sometimes I can switch that bit off and just look at what I want to do and where I want to go, and then just do it, but not think of the nasty vertical drop off the side of a steep switch back, that big rock I could hit my head on, that unseen danger the other side of a jump or drop I can’t see (and isn’t there).

Currently reading Steve Peters’ The Chimp Paradox. Brad, Chris Hoy, Pendleton and Ronnie ‘O Sullivan all use him, so there must be some useful stuff to take from his theory.

don’t forget, whatever you’re looking at to ride will be there tomorrow

A good one. I have a jump in the nearby woods that I have a mixed relationship with. Tried it first time and cased it (commit and do – not half measures!). Didn’t come back to it for ages although I’d hit bigger stuff elsewhere, and sailed and landed perfectly. On a new-to-me bike I was passing through (without pads) and just went for it: power down, ample speed, landing spotted, launch and perfect landing (no one with a camera though!). Only hit it a couple of times since, but I know I can do it and that’s good enough for me. No point in being angry cos experience should tell you can do it and it’ll be there tomorrow when you’re feeling it.