9781422278710

What Do You Think? You have done all the training, eaten effectively, and stretched to warm up your muscles. Now it is time to jump off that cliff, drop down that megaramp, or build speed for that 1080 in the halfpipe. How do extreme athletes psych themselves up to do the things they do? There a number of different techniques that athletes from different sports use. training to prepare himself mentally for the task of climbing some of the world’s toughest mountain faces faster than anyone else. Autogenic training is a German technique that is executed by repeating a series of visualizations to achieve a state of relaxation. Going through these visualizations before performing can help athletes channel their fear and get to a relaxed place in their minds. Skateboard legend Danny Way uses reflection to help get him in the zone mentally when standing at the top of one of his megaramps. He takes some time to think of all the good things in his life. Then, he goes a step further, thinks about all of the mentors he has had in his long career, Speed alpinist Ueli Steck of Switzerland uses autogenic

On jumps that I can barely get over on my 125, I’m hitting them in the correct gear, I’m back on the bike a little bit trying to compress that back end to get the bike to lift up the most. Right when that front end starts coming up, I’m lifting up at the bars, pulling it into my chest and pulling the bike up as far as I possibly can. “ ”

– Ryan Hughes, professional motocross driver

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