Olympic Weightlifting A Sport Of Mind Power
Olympic Weightlifting a Sport of Mind Power
Mental Strength from Stimulation to Relaxation
Stimulation
Stimulation represents a state of arousal or motivation that may help enhance sports performance by optimizing neuromuscular functions. Stimulation techniques may benefit athletes in sports such as boxing and Olympic style weightlifting.
Mental Strength represents the ability of nervous system, particularly the conscious brain, to optimize energy production in the muscle and controlled muscle movements. As we have seen the nervous system not only the specific muscle but also how fast and how powerful they contract.
When we train properly the nervous system and the muscle begin to function more efficiently. We develop neuromuscular skills referred to as perceptual motor skills. Perceptual skills involve three basic components:
i) Perception by the peripheral nervous system of a stimulus which can be a stimulus from the muscle itself (such as a change in length) or stimulus by from the environment (such as visual input of a tennis ball).
ii) Interpretation of this stimulus by the CNS, primarily the brain.
iii) The motor response or activation of specific muscle in response to the stimulus.
We possess many perceptual motor skills and depending on the sport, some are more important than other. Although perceptual motor skills are controlled by specific areas in the in the brain and spinal cord, this control can be affected by parts of the brain that influence emotion, such as arousal and relaxation. These two are important mental processes affecting the sports performance.
Relaxation
Relaxation is state of tranquility or calmness. It may benefits athletes involved in sports such as archery in which excess arousal, anxiety or stress may disrupt performance. But relaxation state disrupts the performance in Olympic weightlifting.
Mental Strength Training
As noted the human energy systems and support systems that generate physical power during exercise utility and controlled by the brain and spinal cord collectively known as central nervous system. Most of the neural control or motor control that enables your human energy systems to produce movement functions at subconscious level. When you begin to jog for example hundreds of different muscles contract in rhythm but you do not have to think about contracting each one at a specific time. Your nervous system calls each muscle into play at the appropriate energy system. The support systems for the energy production are precisely regulated by the automatic nervous system a branch of the central nervous system. The rate and force of your heart contractions as well as other body functions adjust automatically to meet the demands of the exercise task. An example of this auto system is world’s fastest event Snatch and Clean & Jerk.
On the other hand there are many times in sports when you have to be conscious of what you are doing such as when you are at bat awaiting a pitch. In such situation the motor control of your brain must be functioning at an optimal level. It has to receive information, interpret it rapidly and make a quick decision. There are three aspects to this process:
i) How effectively your senses receive the appropriate information or input.
ii) How rapidly the analytical parts of your brain interpret this information.
iii) How accurately the motor control portion of your brain activates the proper muscle with the appropriate amount of force for optimal output.
Any defect in the input or interpretation phase of this motor control process would lead to less than the optimal output.
Brain Can Control Effectively
Your brain controls virtually every physiological activity in your body. Although you rarely exercise its full potential, you can train it to an extraordinary degree. You can learn to control parts of your brain (including the autonomic nervous system) to extent that you can lower your heart rate, decrease your blood pressure, increase blood flow to an area of your body or change your skin temperature just by thinking about such developments. You can also train the motor control center in your brain to exert precise regulation of your muscular system. You can learn to make an individual muscle contract, enabling you for instance to wiggle your ears or move your middle toe only. Furthermore many of the maneuvers in sports such as those in rhythmic gymnastic, attest to the ability of the brain to control extremely complex muscular movement patterns.
Function of Motor Control
The function of motor control area may be influenced by a part of brain that you have not trained or by neural feedback from other parts of the body. Your thoughts, your emotions are your perceptions of bodily sensations experienced during sport competition can enhance or impair your performance. Although the mind controls the body the motor functions of the brain are susceptible to control by emotional part of the brain.
Mental strength training like physical power training takes time to develop before and athlete receive any benefits. Since many of these mental techniques have not been applied extensively to sport.
Mental Training Methods
The most effective ways to improve athletic performance is to improve physical power through proper physical training. A variety of training options are available depending on the sports. For example proper and balanced loading in training program, well managed repetition methodology, maximum weight experience, courage to face the failure during attempts, technical perfection in Snatch and Clean & Jerk, and others.
A review of sports psychology literature reveals a variety of mental training approaches of techniques. Just as physical training is designed to maximize the positive aspects and minimize the negative aspects of physiological energy production, so doe’s mental training attempt to maximize positive psychological energy and minimize negative psychological energy. Mental imagery or rehearsing sports skills in your mind is one of form of mental training.
Although physical training can raise your psychological limits, it is theorized that psychological sports ergogenic might augment them even more. Psychotherapeutic techniques are designed to optimize mind functions (mental strength) during sports competition in the way that physical training techniques are designed to optimize energy productions (Physical Power).
Mental Strength and Fatigue
Fatigue may occur because of various reasons the muscle is unable to generate physical power. Fatigue also may be caused by insufficient mental strength because various sites in the central or peripheral nervous system are not functioning optimally. Some possible fatigue sites in the human body are as under:
One possible fatigue site is the motor nerve cells in the brain. The activity of these nerve cells is governed by various chemical neurotransmitters. Mental tiredness, lack of proper nutrition and inhibition or inadequate stimulation from other parts of the brain may affect these neurotransmitters, limiting the ability to activate these motor neurons to train optimal. Conversely, over excitability of motor neurons due to excess anxiety or stress might disrupt perceptual motor skills, particularly fine motor control.
The motor nerve cell in the spinal cord leads to the muscle. This nerve cell may be inhibited by nerve centers in the brain by various forms of feed back from the muscles and by poor nutrition, thus leading to decreased work out put.
The junction of nerve ending with the muscle cell can be a fatigue site if inadequate amount of chemical neurotransmitters are secured by the nerve ending or if the receptor on the muscle cell does not work properly. In such situation, an electrical impulse to initiate the contraction process would not be generated in the muscle cell.
In Olympic style weightlifting a strong mind power is required to become a high ranked lifter. The lifter should be well focused before going to platform to lift the weight. A quality of visualization is also an asset of a successful lifter. How he is performing, how is lifting the weight, he should be able to visualize. Visualization is a powerful tool of powerful people.
By:-
Khizer Hayat Raja
Sr. Lecturer in Physical Education & Sports
International Weightlifting Coach & Expert
E. mail: wlexpert@yahoo.com
Khizar Hayat - About the Author:
Affiliated with Olympic style weightlifting since 1989. First as player and from 1998 as a coach. Author of a book and keen in research work.
Presently serving as Sr. Lecturer in Physical Education and Sports at a College. Coaching and training many Juniors & Seniors in Olympic style weightlifting. Produced many National and International weightlifters within and out side the country.
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