It’s easy for people to fixate on the physical aspects of sport. Athletes are fast, strong and dexterous, and they train hard to maximize their impressive natural talents. They often project (or have projected onto them) an air of courage and confidence, even of invincibility. They are our heroes and we admire them for it. Oftentimes, we wish to be like them.
All the talent and training in the world matters not, however, if the mind is under siege.
When tennis star Naomi Osaka withdrew from the 2021 French Open due to concerns about her mental health, she helped kick-start a vital dialogue that continues to build steam today. As dismissive observers criticized her for what they labelled an act of weakness, fellow sporting icons like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps and Serena Williams made their support known. The following year, outstanding gymnast Simone Biles declined to partake in several events at the Tokyo Summer Olympics for similar reasons.
The conversation about mental health in sport is arguably more prevalent than ever, and mountain biking is no exception. That’s why Jake Johnstone and Tori Wood launched The Mind Mountain, a new bike-coaching company in Squamish that focuses on developing clients’ mental and physical abilities in equal measure.
Self-exploration
Johnstone and Wood met earlier this year, on the former’s “Grit with Wisdom” podcast. They come from differing backgrounds: Johnstone is an Australian national who gave up his former career as an electrician once he moved to New Zealand (and eventually to British Columbia) while discovering his passion for mountain biking. Wood is also from Australia, but has lived in B.C. for more than a dozen years and biked for five of them.
The two Sea to Sky locals discovered common ground regarding the intersection of sport and mental health. Before long, they realized they would make a good team, with Johnstone’s qualifications as a PMBIA-certified coach complementing Wood’s master’s degree in counselling psychology.
A few months later, The Mind Mountain was born.
Johnstone’s dedication to the mental side of biking began years ago, with a former client who was haunted by a past accident involving broken bones. As he recalls, this woman found herself unable to translate her physical skills from a controlled environment to the trail. Her body was fit, her heart willing, but her mind was not on board.
Much like Maverick, Tom Cruise’s character in the 1986 blockbuster film Top Gun, she could not get back in the saddle—and Johnstone didn’t know how to help.
“That led me on a journey of self-exploration,” he revealed. “I’ve worked with a couple of coaches within that time, mental trainers specific to mountain biking and sports psychologists as well, with the goal of trying to figure out: OK, which mental tools are available, which ones are applicable to mountain biking, and then how do we actually apply that in the physical?”
Wood can empathize. As someone who has been riding professionally for a couple of years, she knows competition and lofty benchmarks (as rewarding as they can be) do not always leave room for compassion towards oneself. Knowing that optimum personal growth can only take place with a balance of drive and self-care, she leaped at the opportunity to partner with Johnstone.
A changing narrative
Mountain biking, like any sport, can bring a lifetime of achievement, physical health, personal growth and fellowship with others. And like any sport, it can also detract from one’s well-being by way of injuries, performance anxiety or the development of a warped self-image. Bikers have not always been ones to discuss their mental health, immersed as they are in a subculture that promotes resilience, risk-taking, and at times a devil-may-care attitude.
Fortunately, change is afoot.
“I feel like I’m still relatively new to mountain-biking culture, having only picked it up five years ago, but even in that time, through conversations with different people, I’ve noticed a shift … people understanding that their mental health does have a direct impact on their sport,” Wood said. “And not only that, but people are talking about how mountain biking is being used as a tool to enhance mental health.”
“Especially in the local Sea to Sky biking community, I think we are seeing a shift, and it’s a shift I’ve seen within the last five or so years, particularly the 20-to-30-year-old male demographic that maybe wasn’t so open before,” added Johnstone. “A lot of the guys I ride with are now acknowledging that: maybe we do want to pay attention to our intuition and gut feeling a little bit more, so that’s really cool to see.
“I think it almost makes everyone feel more welcomed in the sport when there’s less of that stigma [against mental health] floating around on group rides.”
The question is, how does one translate counselling to the realm of mountain biking? As a sport, it differs from many others like golf, tennis or swimming in that the consequences to failing an objective can be much more physical. Miss a tee shot or a serve and you’ll feel it on the scorecards—miss a steep drop on the trail and you could end up in a hospital bed.
Johnstone’s coaching method revolves around his clients’ inclination to set certain goals. “Is it because they feel like they should be able to do it?” he said as an example. “Is it because they’ve seen it on Instagram? Is it because they feel like they should be on this constant treadmill of progression and never stop getting better?
“A lot of the work I do is about reframing their motivation, perhaps to be a little more task-focused rather than outcome-focused. If they want to do this double-black-diamond drop, that’s cool, but if they’re still riding stuff way below that, I say: let’s put 20 small steps in between now and then.”
Wood has already experienced success in her own counselling career, helping bikers, skiers and mountain guides at all levels overcome a variety of mental blocks—from self-doubt to the fear of missing out. She too believes that having healthy intrinsic motivations is key to success, as is the ability to manage fear.
“The risk versus reward paradigm is really important, because fear is such a complex idea, right?” said Wood. “Fear is there to keep us safe, but if we push through it [in certain situations], it can be incredibly rewarding. Fear is all about finding a balance, I think, and then matching that with the correct skill set, which is where Jake comes in.”
The Mind Mountain is very much in its infancy, yet there has already been an outpouring of support on social media and within Johnstone and Wood’s personal circles. To find out more, visit themindmountain.com.
