What does it take to win? The missing piece…
What does it take to win? The missing piece…
With the British National Cycling Championships just around the corner and a string of second-place finishes throughout the season, including at the televised Tour Series, Jo Tindley from team Pro-Noctis – Red Chilli Bikes – Heidi Kjeldsen had the podium in her sights.
As title sponsors, we are undoubtedly the team’s biggest cheerleader, but we are also human performance specialists, this is our day-to-day, and we could see the strength in the team’s dynamics, the opportunity, and above all the potential for Jo and the team to seriously perform!
As the dust now settles on what has been a phenomenal first season, we caught up with Jo Tindley to ask how much she valued the support of Pro-Noctis in her preparation for the National Circuit Championships…
“I reached out to Phil Kelly at Pro-Noctis as I felt something was missing, I have a fantastic cycling coach and have worked with a nutritionist so felt that this was going well, having had a good season so far I still felt something was missing.
“I felt something needed to change with my mindset, I didn’t know how to prepare mentally in the lead up to big races, I knew I was doing the other things really well.”
Fulfilling potential through learning and development is part of our DNA, and it was important for us to be part of the development of the team, nurturing a group of individuals so that they can collectively and individually perform to the best of their abilities.
It’s about removing those barriers to performance.
“My first meeting with Phil five weeks before the nationals we chatted about how I wanted to change my mindset as I felt this was what was holding me back.
We sat down and spoke about my current process and all the things I had worked on and that we’re working, so coaching, nutrition, equipment, tactics etc, all the things that I could control.Self-belief was something I struggled with, so we knew we had to work on this, I had never realised just how important and powerful self-talk was and how damaging negative talk is. “
At Pro-Noctis we believe a positive mindset is one of the biggest performance enhancers you can have, gaining mental strength and clarity of mind and that drive to succeed is where success is born.
Jo continued:
“We also spoke about my motivations by looking at the 7 motivational value systems, which gave us a little more insight into how my mind works, how I make decisions and ultimately how I perform which meant we had more of an understanding of what to work on.”
The 7 motivational value system is a useful tool to help you understand your strengths via analysis of your key behavioural drivers. At Pro-Noctis we go further, and we look not only at your drivers but also the motive behind your behaviour and which ultimately affect your level of performance.
When we understand the values that motivate us, we are then able to achieve a clearer understanding of ourselves, and our role within a team.
“Visualisation was also an important key to my preparation, I had been through the first lap of the race so many times that when it came to it I knew exactly what to do and where to be, because of all this work I went into the Nationals feeling very calm and in control, this meant I felt like I had more clarity and time to make decisions in the race.”
There is a saying, “if you can dream it, you can achieve it”, fundamentally this is visualisation, it’s about rehearsing a performance in your mind’s eye to program your body for success.
You may not realise it, but as human beings, we often think in pictures, we may have images and memories in our mind of past missed opportunities, we rethink, we reimagine, it’s that what-if scenario, and it’s the if’s and but’s that can affect our confidence and hold back our performance.
However, visualisation is one tool that can be the key to success, and in the preparation for the National Championships, Jo visualised winning, she had proactively created that image in her mind. This, coupled with positive affirmations, something Jo had never done before, and a supportive environment put her in the best possible position to achieve her goal.
The result?
Jo executed her plan expertly, putting herself in the best shape, physically and mentally before the race to enhance her chances of success and my word did she deliver! 👊
Jo is the new National Circuit Race Champion🤩.
You do not have to be an elite athlete to benefit from our work, we are business trainers and consultants that are performance and results focussed. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you, your team and your organisation, get in touch to arrange a discovery call.
Photos courtesy of:
Bob McGregor @bob.mcgregor.31
Honor Elliott @honorelliott
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