SO what is a mental block?
men·tal block
/ˌmen(t)l ˈbläk/
A mental block is a person’s inability to recall mental information or perform a mental action. It has NOTHING to do with a person’s physical learned behaviors or skills.
Does your high-performing cheer, dance, acro, or other athlete suffer from performance anxiety?
two examples of everyday mental blocks
Lethologica
Threshold Syndrome
“Tip of the Tongue Syndrome”
Otherwise known as “The Doorway Effect”
Lethologica is when you’re in the middle of a conversation and suddenly forget a particular word or name. It’s cousin, lethonomia, is when you forget the name of a person, place, or thing. These are not to be confused with aphasia and anomia, which are products of brain deterioration.
Threshold Syndrome occurs when you walk from one room in your house to another and “suddenly” forget why you are there. This is believed to be an evolutionary function from the days of early man, meant to help us increase our awareness. When we enter a different space, no matter how familiar, our short term memory is wiped clean to be able to take in as much information as possible.
thanks to our
implicit long term memory,
you can..........forget how
to do a physical learned behavior!
Never
so why the confusion amongst athletes, coaches, & parents?
In a word, discomfort. The human brain hates discomfort and works very hard to always keep you in a place of safety, complacency, and comfort. Using a term like “mental block” is easy for most to accept because it requires no vulnerability. It serves as a blanket term that covers all of the associated anxieties, doubts, fears, and traumas the user is experiencing without them having to provide any specificity to their situation. And that goes for the understanding of not just athletes, but coaches and parents as well.
Another explanation is due to the extremely intricate & elaborate processes that happen simultaneously when one is experiencing distress. The fact that our mental, emotional, and physical systems are all inextricably, intricately intertwined is a main reason for this confusion.
For instance, if the brain’s core function is to keep us alive, then the assignment taking up most of its computing power is assessing threats to our survival, both real and perceived. When the brain perceives that you’re either overwhelmed with too many stimuli at the same time or in distress or danger for too long, it has the ability to activate responses that will shut down your body (again, to ensure your survival by conserving energy).
The Vagus Nerve is the longest nerve of the autonomic nervous system in the human body (which controls involuntary bodily functions) and comprises both sensory and motor fibers. It connects body & brain and is a major part of our parasympathetic nervous system. The Vagus Nerve has the ability to shut down bodily functions in the event that the brain is sensing that we are in too much distress and/or danger.
This happens during the third phase of a process called The Trauma Response. The dorsal vagus nerve is responsible for communicating the Trauma Response to the body. During a phase referred to as “Thwarted Movement”, the vagus nerve shuts down essential bodily functions in an effort to conserve energy to ensure our survival. In a split second, the body goes from the message of “Go go go” which is being communicated through the release of cortisol and adrenaline during the Active Response phase, to the dorsal Vagal communication of “shut everything down” - i.e. breathing, digestion, heart rate, etc. This shut down of our sympathetic nervous system is activated in an attempt to balance out or responses by activating our parasympathetic nervous system to return us back to a state of calm. This is called the “Freeze Response” and is the 4th phase.
Yes, you guessed it, the sympathetic nervous system is system is responsible for the body's fight-or-flight response, which prepares the body for danger by increasing heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, and pupil size. Meanwhile, the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for the body's relaxation response, also known as the "rest and digest" state. When the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) is activated, it slows our heart and breathing rates, lowers blood pressure and promotes digestion. Our body enters a state of relaxation, and this relaxation breeds recovery. The more time we spend in a PSNS state, the healthier we are.
This is just ONE EXAMPLE of the myriad of processes happening autonomously in our bodies
IN AN INSTANT!
But this is a main reason why using the term “mental block” is so much easier for athletes, coaches, and parents to adopt and settle on. Firstly, having to learn, understand, and then process all of the information necessary to truly understand what’s going on between the body and brain in an instant is too much. Remembering all of this information alone is enough to trigger a dorsal vagal shutdown!
And going back to the idea of discomfort, being uncomfortable itself can be mistaken as a perceived threat by the brain. When one is uncomfortable or experiencing discomfort, they become distressed. This too can trigger our Trauma Response, which begins with the release of cortisol (our stress hormone) to help us assess a potential threat to our safety (or comfort). But here’s the thing about cortisol - it’s only meant to be in our systems for an instant. Any longer than that, and the brain’s neuroreceptors begin triggering warning lights saying, “Hey, you’ve been alerted & stressed a little too long, you must be in actual danger.” The brain then activates our acute stress responses and as we discussed earlier, if we experience too many stimuli in a short amount of time, overwhelming us, or we experience too little active response for too long, and our acute stress responses get fatigued, we shut down.
So it’s SO MUCH EASIER for someone to say, “She has a mental block” or “I have a mental block” than it is to (1) accept the discomfort of a newer, better understanding of the truth, and (2) practice the vulnerability of revisiting or admitting your traumas, both to yourself and someone else trying to help you.
is your athlete suffering?
COACH Lain HELPS!
Every single day, I talk to parents about their “mentally blocked” athletes who are struggling to perform physical skills they’ve spent years perfecting, only to have them suddenly “lose” their ability to perform the skills on command.
A few things I let them know immediately:
1) Their high-performing student-athlete hasn’t “lost” their skill. That’s impossible. But they have lost their confidence around performing it.
2) Though the issue seemed to come out of nowhere, it always comes from somewhere, and it’s rarely “sudden”. Instead, it’s an accumulation that’s been adding up for years!
3) And finally, THEY’RE NOT ALONE! It sounds harsh, but the truth of the matter is that there’s nothing special about their suffering, though each individual athlete is experiencing their struggle in their own unique way.
let’s get your high-performing student-athlete performing
again! book a call today!
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who is coach Lain?
Coach Lain Lee is a world-renowned tumbling technique coach, dynamic speaker, self-published author, podcast host, and devout specialist in performance psychology hailing from Northern California.
His passion lies in mental performance and art of fear management, establishing him as the preeminent authority in the cheerleading and tumbling industry for his expertise in outperforming anxieties, discomforts, doubts, and what many mistakingly label as "mental blocks". With a rich coaching experience spanning two decades, Coach Lain possesses a unique voice and skill set in deconstructing barriers, identifying failure points, and empowering high-performing individuals to navigate and outperform their greatest insecurities confidently, competently, and consistently.
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