Improve Your Weightlifting Self Talk
“I swear I’m never going to be good at snatching.”
“Every single time at this weight, I start to mess up.”
“Welp, here we go again, I knew I was going to miss it forward.”
“My technique sucks.”
“It feels so dang heavy, there’s no way I can lift this.”
“Ugh. I have no clue why I missed it. I suck.”
I am sure I just rang a bell with some of you out there. When a session is going rough – do any of those phrases sound familiar? You start to miss lifts – and the self talk starts to become very self destructive. I’ve gotten in the habit of asking athletes what they’re thinking after a lift and a lot of the time the responses are self destructive instead of constructive.
I want to challenge you to BE AWARE of your self talk. You might not change it in a day, but I want you to be aware of how you talk to yourself after a missed lift.
Would you talk to a co-worker like you talk to yourself? Would you talk to your spouse, children, or friends that way? Absolutely not. So let’s STOP being our own worst enemy, and start being our own internal motivator/mental coach.
Start with a simple step:
After a missed lift, think about how the lift FELT, and then ask WHY it felt that way. You can start to speak to yourself in a constructive way that can give you confidence to make it the next time.
How did it feel?
“Ahh, I felt like my contact was weak.”
Why?
“Oh, I guess I did feel my hips came up a little too high off the ground that time.”
Yes!! Now, you have a constructive focus for the next lift – push with your legs harder off the ground and keep your chest up, which will lead to a more solid contact.
That’s just one example, but by focusing on what you FELT during the lift – you can ask yourself questions about why it felt that way. You might not have the answers right away – but at least the wheels are turning in your head and the answer will eventually come! That’s a heck of a lot better than just telling yourself you suck and that you’ll never be good at the lift!
Check our self talk and make sure your own brain is not your own worst enemy, but an ally. Here are some more tips on how to do that: Watch That Self-Talk.
Invictus Athlete Programs
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