By Teemu Virtanen

In long distance skiing, like in any endurance sports, physical shape is the key component in an athlete’s performance, but without a great mental capacity one won’t be able to succeed. A skier needs to be mentally strong and tactically savvy to be able to beat his or her rivals. Some are born to be fearless fighters and others crack under pressure, but the great thing is that anyone can train his or her mental strength.

In today’s sports, mental training has become a term that all professional athletes are familiar with. Many athletes do mental exercises in their everyday training schedule, but there are still many who do not pay much attention to mental training. Various techniques and methods are used in mental training to fortify an athlete’s mental capacity.

Fundamentally, mental training deals with the direct influence of psychological processes on movement. This includes certain cognitive strategies that are used to optimize movements. This is achieved by the repeated, intensive “thinking through” of an optimal movement sequence, but without its simultaneous execution.

The wider mental training concept that is used nowadays also includes all thoughts and feelings in competitive sports. Trainable areas which belong to the comprehensive definition of mental training are for example focus, motivation, mental strength and mental preparation for competition.

Naturally, every athlete has different mental strengths and weaknesses, but in most cases stage fright and stress situations during competitions have so far been the enemy of a competitive athlete. Mental training can help to recall the peak performance when it counts the most during competition. As the competition approaches, an athlete can put himself or herself back into the best competition situation and to visualize the high feeling of that time. One can also use meditative music to achieve optimal relaxation before the competition.

One of the most important aspects of mental training in long distance skiing is not to lose sight of one’s goals, which can happen after hours of skiing. A skier must stay focused for a long period of time, and sometimes the mind can shift off to mundane things. With certain mental exercises, this unwanted lapse of concentration can be avoided. Additionally, advantages of mental training can also have a positive effect on other areas of life. For example, it trains focus and determination in school or professional life.

Let’s take a look at some useful mental exercises that can help you to become a stronger skier. The co-founder of the German Mental Trainer Academy Andreas Mamerow, a famous mental coach, has a couple of great tips for those who want to strengthen their mental capacity.

Clear goals: Clearly formulated goals lead to a better performance in competition. Vague objectives often stand in the way of athletes and teams. Only when clear goals have been set do athletes and teams know what they are training for and how they can achieve them.

 Learning to activate potential: The ability to recall the feeling that occurs when you have achieved your peak athletic performance can help you in competitive situations.

Positive Affirmations: These help to cope with failures while staying motivated. For this you write down short, positively formulated sentences in first person form and present tense. Example: “I think positively”. “I am focused.”

Say stop: This exercise helps to stop negative moods and self-doubt. As soon as you realize you’re thinking, “I’ll never make it.” or “The others are much better than me,” picture a stop sign and say to yourself, “Stop!”.

 Correct self-assessment: Mental strength exercises are often about training realistic self-assessment, such as predictive training. A possible exercise for this could be like this: How long can you hold your breath? Then you make a prognosis and check how long you can actually hold your breath. The more precise the initial prognosis, the better you can assess your sporting performance yourself. “By knowing exactly what you have and what you don’t have, you can precisely measure your own performance. That gives you a lot of self-confidence.