Sports Psychology, NLP and the Tour De France
Ever heard of Bill Burl? What about Charlie Holland? No? How about Chris Hoy then? Yes, I expect Sir Chris Hoy rings a few more bells! In fact, they’re all British cyclists. So, in terms of NLP sports models, how many other names are overlooked due to the relative obscurity of road cycle sport in Britain?
British cyclists dominated track cycling in the 2008 Olympics and Sir Chris Hoy’s triple gold medal winning performance inspired an entire nation.
“The World Class performance programme of British Cycling has demonstrated how effectively a winning combination of coaching, facilities, and teamwork can realise ultimate success” - Scottish Cycling
Burl and Holland were part of a ‘British’ team entry in the 1937 Tour de France, perhaps the most famous road cycling race in the world. But, if asked to name a famous road cyclist, who would you name? Any British names spring to mind? It’s quite possible that unless you’re a road cycling fan, no names spring to mind at all. However, undoubtedly the most famous name in the history of the Tour de France is Lance Armstrong, a record-breaking seven times winner, and an American.
In this year’s Tour de France, there are an unprecedented number of British riders and a British-based team, the first team entry since 1987. Team Sky is managed by British Cycling performance director Dave Brailsford CBE. He’s the man who led Britain’s Olympic team to fourteen medals, including eight golds, in the Beijing Olympics, so in terms of NLP sports models , he’s the man!
“Team Sky will bring to a professional road team the principles that have worked so well with the current GB teams; commitment, meticulous planning, the aggregation of marginal gains and a rider-centred philosophy…This will be an epic story; building a British team to take on the best in professional cycling, and win” - Dave Brailsford
In simple terms, NLP can be described as a study of what makes successful people successful. Dave Brailsford is a hugely successful performance director, making him a worthy NLP sports model of excellence but, what makes him a particularly interesting study is that he himself is using the hugely successful GB Olympic cycling team as a model of excellence for the newly formed professional road cycling team.
Road cycling is a very different sport to track cycling. The Tour de France covers 3,642 kilometres over three weeks and Sir Chris Hoy won his three gold medals in races that are timed in seconds – not weeks! This highlights the very important point that NLP sports modelling is not about trying to become a clone of any one person, it’s about studying the successful habits and routines of successful people; the routine actions and thought processes of those people, and identifying ways to incorporate them into your own personal circumstances so that you too can develop the same winning ways.
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