"Those" days. A sports psychology question.

[Phteven]

I'm sure anyone who does some kind of sport knows the days I'm talking about.
The days where the only goal you can kick is an own goal, the days you fumble every ball, the days you fall down and hit your head on a blue run then fall down again 6 times on the way to the bottom, the days when riding your bike up a small hill feels about as achievable as climbing Everest without oxygen.
I had one today - an hour and a half to do a ride that I can normally do in about an hour. Maybe it was the bike but it felt like it was me.

Soooo....... what do you do on those days to shake the bad mojo?
When I ski I head inside and have a hot drink then I change up the tunes on my iPod but that's not always an option so I'm looking for other tricks.

Any sports psychologists out there.

[Mother Goose]

For me, I focus on what I CAN do. Yup, I'm still on that bike... and hey, instead of getting exercise for an hour, I went for an hour and a half - imagine the benefits I'm reaping from that!

I do what you do when you're skiing - I change my play list. I have a play list entitled "bad attitude" and it always gets me fired up!

I focus on my goals - I remind myself what I'm trying to achieve. For example - I'm trying to return to running and lose a total of about 30Kg. On days when my back is bad and I struggle to do what I consider to be basic exercises - I remind myself that those boring little rehab things my trainer makes me do are ensuring I reach my end goal.

I focus on what I CAN do and AM doing.

I pick a focal point. Sounds dumb but it forces me to focus and tune out the negativity.

If it's something that is technique related (which if I'm running can be something as simple as my stride being out), I go back to basics. I start from scratch. That means I press stop, get off, walk around for a few moments, get back on, restart the machine, and start from the beginning. If I had built up my speed and incline, I ignore that and go back to the beginning - a neutral position. If that doesn't work, I pick one thing to focus on - maybe it's my breathing or my rhythm - but making myself focus on one thing usually is enough to kick start me again.

If none of that works, I sulk and stomp around for a bit and then shake it off telling myself tomorrow will be better

However, if at any point my "funk" is likely to result in bad form and technique to the point of causing injury - I cease all activity immediatley and either find a safe alternative or pack up and go home to start again tomorrow.

Hang in there. Be kind to yourself, everyone has off days and sometimes it is something simple, other times it is our body saying "hey, back off and give me a break already!"

[C~Q]

I just have to tell myself that it's a one off. I know i'm not like that all the time. Often i'll have a crap class, forget the chorey, I know my tech is crap because i'm tired, i'll have people walk out in the middle of the class, people giggle or give me "looks" that make me doubt myself...so much can go wrong and often it takes until I get back up there and have a great class, to show me that it's not the norm, it's just a bad day.

But sometimes when I really lose my mojo and i'm struggling, I have to have some time off, focus on why I love doing what i'm oding and it usually comes back to find me (my mojo that is )

HTH