The
saying of “Mind over Matter” is one that has been tossed around in my house
ever since I can remember. I have grown up in a family of athletes. Most of my
childhood I participated in three different sports year round along
with my two brothers. Both of my parents were division 1 athletes and my dad is
a strength and conditioning coach. Currently the most important thing in my
life outside of school is Speedskating. I have been skating for almost half of
my life. I train year round and compete at an international level. Skating is
not a sport that you can be good at simply by having more talent than everyone
else, you have to be willing to work harder and be tougher than everyone else.
My dad,
who is one of my coaches, has always reminded me of the power of our brains.
Our brains are what keep an average level speedskater for being one of the
best in the world. The brain is what tells you to stop in the middle of a
workout using lactic acid by setting fire to you legs or tells you not to
get out of bed in the morning to go to an ice workout because you are hurting
from the two workouts you did the day before. If you are strong enough
mentally, you can use you brain to your advantage as well. Professional cyclist
Yens Voigt says it perfectly in this video:
If you
can use your mind to push through pain you can do incredible things and get to
that next level as an athlete. To me that is what is meant by "Mind over
Matter". Pushing through the pain and discomfort and coming out on
top a winner in the sense that you gave everything you had and a little big
extra on top of that
This is a good start, but a stronger response would be far more developed in terms of other areas of your life, your interests, what's important to you, etc.
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I think that mind/matter is a saying that has different meanings to everyone. I personally love the saying, but it has nothing to do with athletics to me. I like how you and your dad use this in training. I enjoyed reading this blog post!
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