Article originally published on the now defunct UrbanFreeflow.com. Follow Jussi Tarvainen on Instagram for more insight. Also, check out FormSupreme.com for more great training articles and Instagram.com/formsupreme for more amazing content from Jussi. Click here for part 1.
How do you know when fear takes over your body?
If you don’t know when and how to strategically push through your fear and when to listen to it, it can take control of your mind and body and block you from [ever doing Parkour] at your 100%.
Physiological Progression Blocks
Fear can often negatively affect your performance. Here are the most common symptoms how fear can start to corrupt your ability to perform at your full potential.
- Increased heart rate and shallow breathing (less oxygen traveling to your brain and muscles)
- Shaking (wobbly knees and feeling weak)
- Flushing (Your face going red)
- Bladder relaxation (sudden need to pee that distracts you)
- Slowed digestion (butterflies in your stomach)
- Cold sweat
- Cluttered thinking
- Body stiffening up from mental tension
Underperforming is often caused by fear that leads to your body not functioning at its peak. The above physiological responses often sabotage your body from working at its optimal level. You can decrease and erase these symptoms with specific mental techniques.
Mental Progression Blocks
These are the most common internal progression blocks. If you want to keep making consistent progress in [Parkour & Freerunning] you need to learn mental techniques to overcome these mental obstacles.
- Fear of big jumps,… rails, … drops etc.
- Fear of falling and getting seriously hurt
- Fear of making mistakes, failing or getting laughed at in front of people you respect
- Fear of what others think and getting embarrassed in front of people
- Fear of the unknown (especially when trying out new tricks and pushing yourself to the next level)
These fears then lead to:
- Nervousness and anxiety
- Second guessing and not committing
- Freezing, paralyzing and choking up
- Overthinking and self doubt
- Underperforming and making mistakes that can lead to falling and getting badly hurt
We humans share the same fundamental psychology and everyone in every sport face these same mental obstacles. Luckily, for every mental obstacle there are mental techniques you can use to overcome them which you’ll learn more about next.
Inner Progression Amplifiers
In addition to using mental techniques to overcome internal blocks there are also mental techniques you can use to accelerate your improvement:
- Special visualization and Reanimation methods to learn new tricks and moves faster and safer
- Unique focusing methods to get rid of self sabotaging distractions
- Goal setting strategies to stay motivated and reach your dreams faster
- Methods to take advantage and speed up your learning by making more mistakes
- Advanced techniques to getting into the FlowZone as easy as snapping your fingers
- Confidence gainers that increase your ability to commit to tricks
- Controlling your emotions instead going from being ecstatic to depressed
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