okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Mental training in Swedish newspaper
I'm killing some time in the airport, hoping to get on an early flight and make it home before midnight...but expected that I won't be so lucky. To kill time, among other things, I read an article in Mora Tidning about Martin Johansson's mental training. Here is a rough translation of a bit of it:
“These guys have completely different needs when it comes to the mental aspect. I have to listen to them and meet their needs,” says Asa
“I train twice a day and there are also competitions. I should think about what each training session should give me. My strategy is to train speed; so it should be fast, but it can’t be 110 every workout,” says Martin.
“I integrate the physical and mental parts,” explains Asa about how she helps Martin.
Johansson gives an example from when he made his debut in the orienteering WOC. He was really nervous before the qualification.
“I was so terribly nervous and I felt bad. In the final I thought about it and asked myself what I really wanted. Before the qualification I hadn't done that,” says Martin as one of the explanations for why he was so nervous.
“That is just the situation where sports psychology is so important,” according to Asa Mattsson.
“These two guys have decided to involve mental training in their everyday training. More people should do that,” according to Asa.
