17 Mind-Hacks For 2017

Get your mojo working with our top tips for boosting morale and heightening focus.

- Dr Josephine Perry

Getting ready for the coming season means preparing mentally as well as physically. At its most effective, this involves implementing lots of seemingly small steps that together have a significant overall effect. Allow me to explain, with a little unexpected help from a schoolkid…

Recently I was asked to speak at a school’s career day, where my rather clumsy attempts to define sports psychology were eclipsed by an attendee who summed it up in four words: life hacks for athletes. He meant ‘hack’ in the modern sense — a problem-solving solution — and he had a great point.

Sports psychology offers hundreds of small interventions, which, if used in the right way at the right time, can make us much more successful. Elite cyclists and their support teams use many of these ‘hacks’ — here we share 17 of them to help you get more comfortable, confident and successful on the bike in 2017.

1 Set season goals 

Set the right goals at the beginning of the year. Make your target something that is tangible, achievable and that you can control. Matt Bottrill, coach and UK 50-mile TT record holder (1:34.43), does this with all his athletes. “You need a positive goal, one which helps you focus on what you want, not what you don’t have. Every time you train and it hurts, think of how good it will feel to achieve your goal. Goals need to be realistic, but aim to push past them.”

2 Set event goals