12 years aGO TRIathlon England member and Londoner, Josie Perry went to a “Tri-a-Triathlon” day put on by a Wimbledon club, (Wimbledon Windmilers?). This proved to be a life changing experience in so many ways. On that day Josie learnt, amongst many other things, that the chain ring on the bike was not called the round spiky thing and she met a very tall Aussie guy who has now been her husband for the last ten years. It also marked the start of a journey that began with a slight triathlon addiction and has now enabled a complete career change. 

 

The addiction started to develop slowly with sprint triathlons then to standard distance. There have been some duathlons and some long distance (Ironman) triathlons before Josie has developed a love for middle distance triathlons. 

 

During this time Josie has travelled all over the world, won a Duathlon Age Group World medal, meet some amazing people and became completely fascinated with not just how the body works, but how the mind makes the body perform. 

 

After ten years in triathlon she took the leap and went back into full time education to study psychology and then specifically sports psychology. She has extensively studied how personality impacts on the way athletes train and perform and how different people respond to different stressors and situations.

 

Josie says: “the most interesting thing has been discovering that, once you become aware of how you personally respond to different things before and within a race, there are loads of tricks and strategies you can learn to make things easier for yourself and to be able to perform better. And it has been amazing to learn how much psychology can help when you are injured too – something that can be so frustrating when you’ve spent so long trying to build fitness and speed.”

 

Josie worked with hundreds of London based triathletes to do her research on mental toughness for her MSc dissertation. 

 

As a thank you she has set up some free “Sports Psychology Workshops” for London triathlon clubs. The workshops are about an hour and can be tailored to the requirements of the members of club but three of the most popular are:

 

• Picking your goal and achieving it – covering strategic goal setting and tactical planning to give you the best possible chance to achieve your objective.

 

• Developing a positive race mindset – covering how to build the most effective mindset before and during races, using visualisation and self-talk.

 

• Stamping on the butterflies – to help athletes who get very nervous in the build up to races learn strategies to help them relax and reduce pre-race anxiety.

 

If you would like one of these workshops for your club details can be found HERE  or email josephineperry@gmail.com 

 

When you’re out running or riding keep an eye out for Josie, you may well see her training for her next triathlon on the tow paths of the Thames or in Richmond Park.