Here's one:
You have to ask why they thought it was a good idea?
I happened across this on LinkedIn, which explains some of how our normal, quite acceptable, decision-making can go wrong:
The presenter explains the difference between what we typically think affects and controls our decision-making - elements such as our attitude and the skills we know we have from training - and the other factors that are far more difficult to account for - things going on in our brain and body that we can't control.
If you didn't watch it, go back, it's only four minutes.
The first video showed a classic example of a 'brain and body' factor that most of us have experienced, the beer bottles are evident.
But there are more subtle pressures that can affect us. A couple of examples are being late, so perhaps travelling a little bit faster or taking gaps that we wouldn't otherwise, or being upset from a recent argument.
Another one many of us will have experienced are exam nerves, the pressure to perform, when often we tense up and make 'stupid' mistakes. Or how about peer pressure? You 'need' to keep up because you don't want to look 'bad'.
I mentioned exam pressure. A common example is 'big match' nerves. You might not think that sort of thing would ever apply to you while out riding, but it can.
I had a Born Again trainee who could do one thing at once, not two. She could perform good clutch control and ride well in a straight line. When parked, she could turn her head to look through a turn.
But not together.
So I asked whether she liked music, and what type?
“Well,” answered this mother of two teenage boys “Heavy rock, actually!”
So I got her to sing ‘Born to be wild’ as I pushed her around a loop (big enough that we’d just got to the chorus at the end of the first verse as I collapsed). Quite happily, she was looking through the turn.
The way I use this is that the logical part of the brain nags: “Oooh, last time you were in front of a crowd you tensed up. Whatever you do, don’t think about TENSING UP!”. So the practical part of the brain, that just wants to get on and do it, gets over-ruled.
Solution? Give the logical part something to do, it’ll be happy when it’s busy and won’t make mischief.
Singing is good as it takes a lot of concentration. Another – particularly good for riders who’ve had cornering problems (that’s a euphemism for ‘crash’) - can be to tell the logical part to talk them through what they should be doing rather than picking fault: “Slow now, press now, look now, roll now”, etc.
People talk about ‘the power of positive thought’ without actually understanding what it can achieve or its limits – try using the ‘tell me’ method to juggle and you won’t be able to think fast enough! Also, if you’re going to talk yourself through an action you need to know what ‘perfect’ looks like.
So let's end with another video. It's riders attempting a manoeuvre they will have learned to do within the space available. But there's an added pressure, someone has put a fence in the way, instantly adding mental pressure.
I call that sort of mental pressure the 'mountain goat' effect; the goat sees fresh grass, so hops across. Goat doesn't care whether it's an 4" deep ornamental rill or a 4,000 ft ravine. If the *fail* riders had ignored the fence, they might well have been fine.
