So last week I was very excited as it was my online seminar in Mental Skills for Dressage with Charlie Unwin and Anna Ross. I have a been a fan of Charlie Unwin, Performance Psychologist, since I attended a workshop with him 4 years ago. His methodology on mindset really helped me with my competition nerves. Anna Ross is an International Dressage rider whom I have looked up to for a while and met at Bury Farm High Profile four years ago.
In this blog, I will briefly outline the topics discussed to improve dressage performance both at home and in competition. Mental skills account for 50-90% of sports performance. To take advantage of psychology to improve your performance you need to integrate it practically into your day to day skills.
Charlie and Anna discussed how this could be achieved in three main themes: 1 – Clearing the path for success. 2 – Working in our challenge zone. 3 – Feedback, both internal and external.
Clearing the path for success
Mental skills for dressage involve managing interference’s both internal and external. How successful we are depends on how we manage these. Charlie quoted Tim Gallwey’s equation “Performance = Potential – Interference”. So we must understand what causes interference in our own performance. This will be different for different people.
Interference is what is inside our own heads. It can manifest itself in anxiety/tension/ confusion/fear of failing and losing opportunities. It is important to recognise what is cognitive anxiety, worrying about worrying. You have to accept that you cannot control everything that happens but you should control those aspects that you can, by being prepared. Anxiety is best controlled through consistency and routine which creates predictability and control.
Anna Ross agreed that ‘preparation was key’ and you need to ‘be confident and consistent.’ Her way of describing a practical application was very interesting and something I will definitely work on more when I get the opportunity. For example because in a test, you have to to movements at a particular point, you should do that at home. So if you decide to halt at X, then halt at X, do not wait for right moment to create it. If it’s a bad halt then why was it bad, did you not prepare properly? It is unfair to expect a horse to halt perfectly at a given marker at a competition if you never practice that at home. This was a very good point.
Overall you need to be explicit as to what you want to achieve and how you can do that.
Being comfortable in your challenge zone
As dressage is a very subjective sport, it is important to be clear on what you want to achieve and not just go through the motions. Challenging yourself by making small goals, ride other horses or practice movements from a higher level than the one you are competing at are useful tools in improving your mental skills for dressage.
In addition, Charlie discussed ‘stress inoculation’ – doing little things that make you uncomfortable each day/session. This could be videoing yourself or putting a strict time schedule down so you become used to being under pressure.
At this point Anna Ross made a very important point that this should not be stressing out your horse. You need to practice being stressed so that it does not manifest itself. It is your responsibility to be as calm and relaxed as possible so your horse can be calm and relaxed. Breathing is key in this aim – it has a profound effect on us, we are not able to do anything efficiently or effectively without deep breathing.
From the point of view of riding a dressage test, it should be treated as an experience. There should be at least one clear aim – accuracy, clarity of aids etc. It is important to recognise why this is important to you so that you concentrate on it.
Definition of success
This led on to the definition of success – what motivates you as a rider, is that winning or the score? Anna Ross made a point that professional riders do not beat themselves up over a bad test, instead they ask themselves what could be better. This helps you to build on your strengths rather than focusing on the bad.
This brought up ethics and welfare, which surprised me but I agree is hugely important. Anna Ross said ‘it is your responsibility to ride well for your horse’s ethical well being’. We must move to take stress away from the horse. Challenging ourselves does not require endless physical repetition of movements in training.
Before a test, good preparation should include concentrating on breathing, relaxation and visualisation. I am a massive fan of visualisation as Charlie Unwin said ‘we cannot do something externally if we cannot do it internally’.
Confidence
Confidence can be created by trying to do everything right the first time. Before you attempt a movement, take the time in your head to prepare before starting to ride it. This leads to less trial and error. It is also important to make sure that your challenges are appropriate to you – i.e. not trying to do a line of tempis when you can’t even ride one clean change.
Stress cannot be eliminated altogether but learning to deal with it with clarity at a competition will help it not to become a problem. It is also important to recognised that stress and nerves are two different things. Nerves can be good as they create energy, they do need to be managed with the deep breathing and relaxation techniques to harness their effects for good.
Feedback
Finally feedback, this is essential for learning, it is important to evaluate the quality of the feedback. This comes in two main forms; External in the forms of mirrors, coach, video or Internal via visualisation. Improving your reaction to feedback is part of the essential mental skills for dressage.
External
Anna Ross discussed the use of video. This is tool that is very useful, particularly if you are working on your own. She uses a Pivo, which I have since ordered for use when I get another horse to train/compete. Watch out for the review of that on my reviews page when it arrives! They both discussed how to get over the initial cringe phase of watching yourself on video. It was agreed the best way was to watch it the first time to ‘get over yourself’, then watch a 2nd or 3rd time to start seeing the reality of it.
I apply this to reading dressage sheets too, my trainer recommended not to try too hard to evaluate the comments on the day of the competition but to return to it the next day or week. This removes the emotional attachment to the performance.
Another good tool to feedback is to watch on a split screen a video of yourself doing a movement alongside a top rider doing it well. Be careful to use objective comparison therefore look at the body position not the person. Our brain learns by watching what other people do so we should use this to improve our learning. Obviously being careful to watch the right people, doing it well!
Internal
Internal feedback is a little more tricky to explain, is is an essential mental skill in dressage. The use of reverse visualisation was discussed as a good tool. That is when we do something well, we should stop, go over what why it went well and visualise it to remember it. This creates a confidence it made a difference.
The next tool discussed was the Right Hand/Left Hand technique. Simply explained if you draw a line down a page and write down on the left side what you want to do, simple goals like riding an accurate test, staying relaxed and what you can control. Then afterwards, opposite each item on the right hand side, ask if you did it and score out of 10.
Conclusion
The Mental Skills for Dressage seminar was very good and gave me a lot to think about to apply to my riding. Charlie Unwin directed us towards the Centre10 programme which provides mental training for Equestrian sport.
Anna Ross had a very good parting comment – “if you can affect something so negatively then you can also affect it positively”