How to get over this mental fear ughhh

55 year old dude here. Take your time. Keep the intensity up where your comfy.  It will come back.

50 yo Vet Int and I’m coming off a broken left scaphoid that required surgery to match my right one, I also had decent concussion from a pretty lame little wreck on a mild double back in September at LACR. I haven’t ridden yet but the itch is there finally and I have my motorcycle all ready to go and looking for a new helmet. I plan to just take it easy and cruise it for awhile, I am nervous about it too but think that with some saddle time and knocking the rust off it will come back soon enough, you will know when it’s time! 

Spend some time meditating on it. Observe what comes up. Flashbacks, feelings in the body, thoughts, etc. Breathwork, yoga, and functional training would be beneficial as well.

Trauma is trapped in the body. Shining the light of awareness on it gets that energy flowing.

My guess is you have dysfunctional breathing habits (we all do) from the ribs which will keep you in a chronic fight or flight state. 

It helps also to find gratitude for the previous crash. Something good has come from the past 15 months of pain. Shifting the mental perspective around it all will rewire some neurons and change how the subconscious reacts to similar incoming stimulus.

Float tanks are a powerful tool to tune in and let go. 

If you can, find someone with good timing with jumps and follow them, it’s crazy that once you follow someone once it’s like you unlock it and you don’t need to think about it again.

it was cool to hear on pulp recently that even RV used to follow people like brayton on the bigger jumps.

It just takes time. Some people can block out the big ones like they never happened and some have to remind themselves they know what their doing and what happened was a freak accident. The confidence will come back sooner then later no rush. 

Seat time helps hitting it again and then you say to your self OK why did that take so long?

happens to me every time I take time off the bike.

^^ What he said. Just keep riding, one day it will click. In the meantime learn how to novice scrub.  Approach the obstacle with enough speed to over jump into the next county. At the very last possible second slam on both brakes and skid up the face of the jump, if you time it right you should get no more than 10 to 12 inches of air. During the 5/8 second of airtime shift up one gear and twist the throttle wide open. You should hit the rev limiter a split second before your rear tire hits the ground, this will rocket you forward. Accelerate out of the gap and jump past the traditional landing zone. If the track photographer is worth his salt he'll time the shot so it looks like you slightly over jumped the gap. 

Kidding aside you're brain is in protective mode now, it doesn't want your body to get broken again. I don't have any secrets on how to bypass that mode except keep riding until you "Feel it" again.  Good luck it'll happen ! 

I had it sneak up on me it was a lot worse than a bike wreck of getting shot at. Illegal maniacs in trucks almost killing me. During blm I got run off the rd everyday that was nothing compared to this level of dangerous.  We run 7 days a week  18-39 hrs straight. So I didn’t hv time to go for a walk & find a way through it. It lasted for weeks it was tough to get through.  I had a lot of pals get killed & kinda knew my time was up. I hv extreme level of confidence but this was out of my control.  4th on a 450 & u came up short. I don’t think you’re doing that jump on a 250f. I would look at it like a freak crash. Tell yourself you’re the best jumper ever. Then jump something a 250f can do.  I didn’t ride for 13 yrs bike stolen. 1st ride I didn’t even walk the track and jumped everything the 1st lap. Not real clean but 2nd lap it was. I know that’s stupid but I said to myself   Your the fastest 04 cr125 rider in the world Lol, So get ready. It felt soo good  inside and mentally.  B4 I rode I said , No fear allowed.  Take fear out of riding and there’s no reason to ever stop pushing the level. 

if your jumps you come up on don’t have consequence for going deep , over shoot’um  and vice versa.. or can you jump off to the side of the landing to gauge?  serious question,  do you ever stand next to jumps, take off /landings  and do the math in your head…. height of lip, angle, length of jump .. etc.. not literally math, but just comparing it to other jumps you have done.  sounds nerdy but it saves my butt more often than not.   i have to guinea pig a large, un safe step up in the next few days,  being a nervous nancy is normal for us ol vets !!   

I’d say it’s more important to stay healthy than it is to clear whatever jump is giving you the shakes.

youre probably going good enough to still beat plenty of people, have a good time, and in control enough to do it again next week.

find your risk/reward balance, and have fun there.

If you just stick to jumping folks backs on Vital like the rest of these clowns you won't have any problems.

They only way to get them loafers off the ground is to be shot out of a cannon.

I race at a series that has traditional tracks, doubles and triples are a no-no. We need to race safely, not be getting hurt because we can only jump 78ft and not 80ft. 

If we had tracks like that I might consider racing again . 

This. At 67 I dont even sweat the big jumps anymore. 

56 year old Vet/SrA rider… I have dealt with this my whole riding career. I grew up riding in sand pits and rough natural terrain Mx tracks, not many big jumps. It’s not all jumps but certain big jumps where you have a long run at them, I overthink what could go wrong, too much time to think I guess. As the years progressed and the tracks added more jumps, I had no choice to overcome my fears if I wanted to continue to ride Mx. Sometimes I still struggle with big jumps, I try to visualize myself doing the jump and watch some of the younger guys hit the jump. If I am really struggling, I will ask one of my buddies to come over & watch me try it, that seems to give me some assurance for some reason. One thing I know is, when you do go for it again, it’s better to over jump than come up short! I don’t like rolling a jump lap after lap due to fear, to me, it makes that jump seem bigger every lap you don’t jump it. Sometimes I leave the track feeling like a hero because I overcame my fear and did the big jump….sometimes I don’t pull the trigger, but it will be on my mind on the drive home. It used to really eat me up but sometimes it’s best to live to fight another day. Keep riding, get the feeling back over the easier jumps and your confidence will come back. I have crashed on some big jumps, it takes a while for confidence to come back……. I”m injured right now from a big jump crash…I will be dealing with this scenario again soon. 

Click 4th and hold it. What is the worst that could happen

Man...you do know that you're different than most sane folks...right?  If others lived life like you do...they'd be dead.

Your guardian Angel is WAY over worked.

Haha. I was going to say, "Buy a ported KX500 and ride it WFO. If you survive, you'll never be afraid of a 450 ever again." 

OP, don't do that. I say go playriding for a while. Practice jumps, wheelies, off-camber stuff, feet-up brake slides... you get the point. Just get back that feeling of oneness with the bike. The rest will come. 

"keep sending him up"     

-Viper

We gotta be similar in age.. sounds like you may be a bit faster than me, but i always used to jump anything, anywhere. (The leap included). Now, if im not comfortable, i aint doin it. Idgaf what anyone thinks of me, idc what place i get, and i don't care if some goon with big balls beats me because I'm not hitting something.. this sport aint paying my bills, so id rather only hit the safe bit stuff and let the sketchy stuff be left to those better'n me.. 

Work on changing the mentality before you go convincing yourself you have to hit some monster quad or something super sketch. If its sketch, it may even be more consistent to not jump it..

Or, if you wrre looking for a different answer.... Quit being a pussy and catch a tow over it from a faster rider.. This is still the route i take in some cases because my brain makes me. Instincts make me do stupid stuff sometimes lol

If your brain is telling you to pause, pause. When you are comfortable enough and don't have to think about it then it will happen.

Most races are won in the corners anyways. 

And folks wonder why the guy is a nervous wreck.

Baseball players who are out with injury go to AA or AAA ball before coming back to the majors because it takes time to re-learn what they did without thinking before injury.

go find smaller jumps on the vet and beginner track for a few weeks until your brain re wires itself and your self confidence comes back.

this shit happens to everyone who rides and then has to stop for awhile…

I know a little about the world he "lives" in and he's about par in that bizzaro business.  Just a good ole boy...never meanin' no harm.

This ^*^ 

Go easy on yourself.  That’s a lot of ribs. 
Just getting back out there is huge. I’ve seen this play out before.  Trust in the process it will all come back with time. What’s the hurry.  Oh,  and buy the RXR airbag chest protector and next time maybe it will only be a few ribs.  I love mine. 

So, you are an expert rider with 40 years experience? Your clearly not a fearful guy, but you are experiencing fear?

My take: Listen to the fear.  It means you are not ready.

Kudos for getting back out and riding the track.  Keep doing it.  Work on the other things that are important.  Dial the speed back a bit and have fun. Single or double the jumps.

Show your ego who's boss.  Once you are riding enough, and the fear has subsided (or you are sick of slowing down for the jumps), you will pull the trigger.

When you do, it will be effortless, with no anxiety, and no thought.  Otherwise, you are forcing it, and bad things happen when you are not fully committed.

Hard to turn your brain off!

I remember talking to my friend Kevin Foley about how the top guys seem to be fearless. He said that wasn't totally true, but they are confident. He said if you knew for sure you could do a jump without issues, you wouldn't think twice about hitting it. I also remember reading an interview with Jeff Ward and he said you just have to "unlock" your brain whether you are jumping the SX triple, or not lifting in an Indy car going 200 mph into a corner. The limitation is often in our head and not in our abilities.