Editor’s note: This week the local paper did an expose about a local high school wresting coach who was arrested and charged with sexual assault on a minor by a person in a position of trust.  Turns out this coach has a stellar won-loss record, steered his team to a State Championship and was overwhelmingly chosen “Coach of the Year” by his brethren. Hooh boy:-(  I may be wrong, but I don’t believe that this kind of behavior just showed up one day and this guy turned abusive.  I tend to believe that there were probably a bunch of signs that his character was in question – but then nobody knew – or – nobody said anything?  Only those involved really know – but the fact remains there are a good many sports lovers out there who are coaching who have no business being in a position to influence kids…in any capacity, much less a captive audience whose got so much of their self-esteem, effort and guts on the line.

Yeah.  Sports administrators should be more attuned to these character issues…but more often than not the pressure to “win” has more weight than the development of character.  Can you imagine for one moment a Tom Landry, or John Wooden engaging in the kinds of examples Alan Goldberg writes about below?  These men are the role models we need to look up to and expect coaches to aspire to.  The Bob Stoops of the world are too few and far between and the requirements for achieving credentials to coach the vulnerable ones don’t even exist in some systems.  Hence, we’re left to police ourselves.  So if your coaching – take a gander at Dr. Goldberg’s list of examples – and maybe rethink your approach.  The career you save just might be your own.

One of Podium Sports Journal’s most valued articles was contributed by Dr. Scott Martin on Effective Coaching Behaviors.  It provides a definitive and positive model every coach at any level can benefit from.  Check it out.

Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you’re in control, they’re in control.  – Tom Landry

by Alan Goldberg, Ph.D.

 

Alan Goldberg, PhD, was the sport psychology consultant to the 1999 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Champion University of Connecticut Huskies, and the 2000 men’s soccer NCAA champions. He is the former Sports Psychology Consultant for the University of Connecticut Athletic Department. As a nationally-known expert in the field of applied sport psychology, Dr. Goldberg works with athletes and teams across all sports at every level, from professional and Olympic caliber right down to junior competitors. Dr. Goldberg specializes in helping athletes overcome fears & blocks, snap out of slumps, and perform to their potential. His book, Sports Slump Busting (LLumina Press), is based on his extensive experience getting teams and individual athletes unstuck and back on track. Outside of sports, Dr. Goldberg works with performing artists, sales and business people, test takers, and public speakers.

For Podium Sports Journal by Stephen Walker, PhD, CC-AASP and Alec Baker, PsyD

What happens when you combine the speed of five great athletes in helmets and pads sprinting on ice skates straight at you? Oh yeah, they’re also bearing weapons. A simple collision, of which there are many, often sends metal blades and long sticks every which way. Their real target is you—the one thing keeping them from their objective—the one guarding the net. You are a goalie—and you must learn to thrive on stress.

The goalie has one of the most mentally demanding positions in any sport. When you combine the speed and mental skills required of a goalie with the danger of the sport, ice hockey is tops. Each goaltender has different strengths and triggers for both optimum and lackluster performance. Here are six mental conditioning skills that distinguish big time goalies….

Coaches can really help or hinder a goalie and there is no substitute for a coach knowing the right buttons to push. The problem is that many coaches rarely interact with their goalies because they don’t know how to coach them. Few coaches have actually played the position. With the emphasis on scoring and offensive play, some coaches minimize drills that emphasize defensive support. Goaltending is a solitary enterprise. When the team’s success is measured against your performance between the pipes, the stakes are undeniably high.

Many factors contribute to a goalie’s abilities and competence. Physical conditioning, preparation, nutrition and fueling, stretching, warm-ups, skating ability, shooting, passing, stick handling, rebound control, net location sequences, etc., are all important to the making of a great goalie. Every goalie at every level has great days and off days, but consistency is the hallmark of greatness in this endeavor.

Here are six mental conditioning skills that distinguish big time goalies. They are studied, practiced, and rehearsed on and off the ice, and instinctively integrated into the arsenal and mindsets that define greatness in goaltending.

Tip #1: Goaltenders must learn to be mentally alert, yet physically relaxed to enhance their speed, quickness, focus, accuracy and rebound control.

Arousal control is the key to developing optimal physical relaxation and mental alertness. This type of stress control involves the use of controlled breathing patterns that self-regulate the autonomic nervous system (see this article on controlling arousal and use of the centering breath). Neuromuscular bracing responses to stress often contribute to poor performance because they contribute to chronically tense muscles, fatigue, slow reaction time, lost precision and an inability to focus.

The centering breath, specifically, and breath control in general, is highly underrated. These skills are not easily mastered. Multiple practice sessions on a daily basis contribute to enhanced breath control in a variety of situations both on and off the ice.

Many mind/body practitioners are familiar with biofeedback and various monitoring systems for physiological functioning. Sometimes biofeedback can be used to improve the goalie’s awareness of both subtle physical sensations and different levels of arousal. Techniques like progressive muscular relaxation (PMR), threshold relaxation, autogenic training, yoga, tai chi movement, somatics and other disciplines can help an athlete relax and acquire expert arousal and motor control.

Speed and quickness can also be developed through certain neuromuscular mental preparation techniques designed to maximize fast-twitch motor unit recruitment. These mental skills are practiced and rehearsed daily if they are to be performed instinctively. (See: Ross, C, Journal of Sports Medicine 2001;31(15):1063- 82).

Tip #2: Goaltenders must learn, practice and employ routines for
pre-game preparation, net location sequences, focusing drills, and refocusing progressions that enhance consistency in performance.

Spatial ability and multitasking are crucial to the goalie’s performance. The ability to focus on and integrate several factors simultaneously separates the great goalies from the good ones. Positioning and efficiency are key at all times. Goalies must systematically develop the ability to keep track of where the men are off-the-puck. They must integrate how well their teammates are reacting to the attacks and positioning of the opposing team. Goalies are ultimately responsible for managing the efficiency of defensive play. Threat awareness is but one part of the many factors processed and accounted for by a competent goalie.

No one questions the role of a quarterback in directing play for a football team, but people often misunderstand the importance of a goalie directing traffic in and around the crease. Coaches with varying experience regarding goalie play can either facilitate or impair how each goalie prepares and practices the drills, routines and communication patterns that help establish their team’s cohesiveness and overall success.

Goalies, like athletes in many other sports, can create successful mindsets and pre-game routines. Sometimes these routines are regarded as superstitious. Certain routines that they believe contributed to a great game one time might become incorporated into that athlete’s standard operating system for game preparation. High performing goalies seeking consistency tend to employ refresher drills—on and off the ice. They do them to boost eye-hand-stick coordination, visual tracking exercises, spatial relations and efficient movements centering on the net. Some of these pre-game routines are physically practiced while others employ imagery, written reminders or sound files recorded on MP3 players. These may include:

* Pre-Game study—relaxing the “butterflies,” review of confidence boosters.
* Know Your Net Drills —Ritually performed net location sequence for every rink.
* Focusing Drills—Visual focusing, threat awareness, movement senses
* “Now” Practice —Analyze a mistake—Integrate (correction)—Forget
* Read —Read—React—Recover—Reposition
(From McDonnell’s Technogoaltending Vol. 1 “Cobra in the Crease.”

All athletes experience jitters before a game. Some may characterize this sensation as anxiety and find it unnerving. Some might say they are excited and happy to get on with the game. How an athlete defines that experience may dictate the proper structure of their pre-game preparation. Even if an athlete is jittery, don’t assume that he is mentally alert. Nutrition, blood sugar metabolism, emotional maturity, life balance, the ability to keep things in perspective, and the ability to manage distractions are key factors for readiness to play. Drills, routines, and rituals can be developed to enhance these factors. There is no substitute for daily practice of these mental skills!

Sean McCann, sport psychologist for the USOC states boldly, “Thoughts impact behavior…and consistency of thinking results in consistency of behavior.” If one seeks to perform reliably between the pipes, then his preparation should guide his thinking and game behavior accordingly.

Tip #3: Goaltenders must learn the art of letting go of mistakes. Perfection and shut outs are what we strive for, but they are never expected.

Perfectionism can be a good friend or your worst enemy, depending on how it is used. Any goaltender who expects to win by shutting out the opponent may be remarkably confident or just plain naïve. Shots ricochet off of traffic in the zone, teammates misplay a clear, power plays create position dilemmas, poor defensive support can leave you without backup, rebounds can bounce in any direction. All of these things and a dozen more happen to a goalie in the course of a game. In order to be effective, goalies must learn from their mistakes and disengage from the emotional angst that accompanies failing to protect the goal. A proper sequence for letting go of mistakes and implementing corrective measures will keep the goalie focused in the NOW—which is essential to success.

Coaches and teammates play an important role here, as well. Coaches often simply demand that the goalie keep the puck out of the net. This speaks to how little most coaches know about the position itself. It also illustrates that goals are frequently attributed to the goalie alone. In ice hockey, the goalie is often treated as a scapegoat.

When a head coach approaches goalies in this way, the goalie will have a much harder time shaking goals off. The goalie may be thinking about whether or not he will be pulled after letting in some goals; he will end up playing tentatively. This preoccupation can only impair his performance and increase the likelihood that he will let in goals.

A goalie’s response to giving up a goal reveals a lot about him as an individual and about the team as a whole. What lesson will they take away from the situation? Will it shake the team’s confidence? Will a teammate’s mistake erode the unit’s cohesion? How long will the mistake eat at the goalie, distracting him from his task? Robin Vealey proposed the use of “P3 Thinking” to keep the athlete focused on his purpose, productively engaged and striving for the possibility of success. A goalie schooled in this routine will be able to disengage from a mistake and reorient to competition quickly. Other tools for letting go might include the Thought Pattern Interrupt (see: http://www.podiumsportsjournal.com/2007/02/04/the-thought-pattern-interrupt-tpi/) or Target Thinking where an individual systematically reviews his intention, focus, and chosen attitude (optimistic vs. negative) following a mistake.

Tip #4: Goaltenders must learn how to keep their self-talk productive and positive—and exercise the discipline to keep their internal conversations centered on their performance, confidence and team focus.

Goaltenders have more than their share of surges and flats depending on how efficient their team may be offensively and defensively. Self-talk is a constant for almost every athlete. When productively engaged in the task at hand, and strictly focused in the moment, self-talk is characterized as a key component in the peak performance zone and is routinely helpful.

Problems occur when goalies engage in “could-a, should-a, would-a” self-talk berating themselves on a mistake made in the past. Athletes whose self-talk is focused unproductively in the future, as in “What if this happens?” or “What’s going to happen next?” put themselves at a disadvantage and can actually cause themselves to panic by anticipating the future. Some athletes think too much and engage in self-talk that reviews a thousand and one details on all the things to remember. Athletes who tend toward this type of internal dialogue put themselves at a disadvantage by analysis paralysis.

Overt criticism from teammates and coaches can often undermine positive self-talk. Even well-meaning coaches who don’t understand the role of goalie as quarterback directing defensive traffic in the zone may lose an opportunity to enhance team cohesiveness by ignoring suggestions and input from their goalie when developing defensive schemes.

Tip #5: Less is more: efficiency and positioning are key. Goaltenders must incorporate spatial integration, focus and anticipation in their mental preparation and execution.

Goalies are responsible for filling in the holes in their team’s defensive scheme. This is almost instinctual in goalies that compete at the highest levels. They always seem to be in the right place at the right time. These athletes appear to have a supernatural ability to anticipate the flow of the game. While they are rarely considered to be flashy or acrobatic in net, their success commands respect. Think for a moment about your favorite goalie. What do you notice about his efficiency and positioning? Spatial abilities combined with an ability to control, divide, and prioritize their focus is what sets these individuals apart and makes them masters of anticipation.

Efficient use of practice time is the best way for a goalie to improve in this area. Goalies must use the repetitive nature of practice drills to their advantage. This means observing the tendencies of the other players (e.g. how subtle differences in shooting angle and position of defenders influences an attacker’s decision making) and experimenting with different strategies for reacting to them effectively. It is imperative for coaches to help their goalies work on this skill. This means designing drills that incorporate three main elements. These are:

1) a variety of shot locations and pre-shot puck movement patterns
2) the recreation of a variety of game situations that involve different numbers of skaters
3) progressively increasing drill difficulty.

These elements speak to the power of exposing goalies to as many different and challenging situations as possible. Over time this exposure will help them learn to recognize and focus on what information is most important to their decision making—and use it efficiently to become masters of anticipation.

Tip #6: Develop teammate and coach communication skills: goaltenders must learn how to be a vocal team leader.

Great goalies recognize their role as quarterback in the defensive zone. They have to let defensemen know if they have men on them when they come back to get the puck, tell them to clear a screen in front of the net, and remind everyone when a power-play ends among other things.

Coaches need to encourage these behaviors and also tell their goalies how they want them to do things like handle the puck during breakouts or manage the clock and tempo of the game by covering the puck. Goalies should expect this type of instruction and solicit it if they are unclear about what their coach expects of them. It is also a good idea for coaches to make a habit of checking in with goalies about these things during period breaks and practices so that the goalie can continue to focus on them.

Coaches should look to their goalies to be leaders on the ice and initiate communication with their teammates. Goalies are the only players who have the opportunity to experience every minute of a game from the ice. This gives them a unique perspective on what is happening throughout the course of the game and puts them in the best position to make strategic adjustments on the fly. For goalies, maintaining this sort of communication requires solid knowledge of the team’s strategy and the confidence to be a vocal team leader.

About the authors:

Dr. Stephen Walker is a therapist, coach, athletic and personal performance consultant who has consulted with world record holders, national champion and All-American collegiate athletes, Olympians and professionals in IAAF, USATF track and field, USA Cycling, USATriathlon, UTI triathlon, USA hockey, PGA golf and other team sports. He has done considerable consulting with Mark Sample of GDI Hockey and continues to enjoy the special challenges goalies face. For more information visit his website: www.drstephenwalker.com

Alec Baker, PsyD is a recent graduate of the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology. In 2005 he earned a B.A. in psychology from the Pennsylvania State University. Since that time he has worked as a goalie coach in the Philadelphia and Denver areas. This work has been with goalies of all youth ages and skill levels from Mite to Midget AA. As a goalie Alec spent 4 years with the Philadelphia Junior Flyers and was a member of the USA Hockey National Championship Tournament quarterfinalist team in 2000. He was also a two time member of the USA Hockey NTDP Select Festival team from the Atlantic/Southeast Region (1998–1999). This team was awarded the bronze medal in the Select Festival in 1999.

by Ryan Rivera

 After a Major Injury

Athletes take a lot of physical abuse on their way to achieving greatness. They deal with nicks, cuts, aches and pains every day, and in general it’s easy to overcome those bumps and bruises and keep active.

But when you suffer from a major injury, it can drastically change the way you look at your sport. For a while you felt invincible, but major injuries throw the rhythm and safety you felt out of whack. Many athletes start to feel anxious again when they play the sport, and as most athletes know, the sport has to feel natural – if you’re thinking too much about what you’re doing, it becomes harder and harder to play the sport with the skill and confidence you had previously.

Anxiety with Athletes After Injuries

Feeling anxious after an injury is surprisingly common. This anxiety may be fueled by a whole host of different reasons, including:

• Fear – It’s not uncommon for those that suffer from a major sports injury to start experiencing greater levels of fear when they participate in the sport. Injuries are painful, and once you know that you can be injured it’s easy to worry that you may get injured again in the future. This fear can also be exacerbated by the natural anxiety you have any time you participate in a competitive or daring sport (because of the natural adrenaline rush), which is why fear is often the most common cause of anxiety after an injury.
• Long Term Health – Many athletes are worried that they can’t get to where they once were before the injury. For example, if a runner breaks their leg on a fall, that runner may worry that their leg isn’t going to heal correctly or that they will be unable to get the same speed out of their legs that they used to manage.
• Embarrassment – For a lot of athletes, their abilities in the sport (including avoiding injury) are a source of pride. So when an injury occurs, these same athletes start to feel embarrassed or worried in public, anxious over their own abilities and how they’re viewed by others. Even in non-competitive sports (like jogging) there is a feeling that others around you are judging your ability, and that feeling is amplified when you are concerned about your injury and future abilities.

Anxiety can be caused by a host of different issues, which is why it is such a common experience when someone suffers from an injury from the sport they love. Reducing your anxiety is important if you want to get back into the game.

How to Cope with Sports Anxiety After an Injury

The most important thing is to not rush back. If you’re feeling anxiety about getting into your sport again, wait to make sure that your injury is completely healed. The last thing you need is to re-injure yourself and cause the anxiety, and your injury, to get worse. Make sure you’re completely healed and ready for any physical activities again. You should also:

• Start in Parts

Don’t get right back to your sport right away. Give yourself time to get used to every aspect of the sport again. If you’re a competitive freestyle skier, for example, just gently ski in a park instead of performing tricks and getting right back onto a course. If you play soccer, kick the ball around a while by yourself but stay out of the game. Then go for a jog, but stay away from the soccer ball. The “all or nothing” approach that some athletes take is very risky, and could easily fuel your anxiety further.

• See a Sports Psychologist

Sports psychologists are trained to help athletes overcome their fears. If you feel you have anxiety or score highly on a test we use to assess anxiety (take the test), a sport psychologist can teach you how to change your behaviors and overcome your fears, so that you can get back into your chosen sport and worry less about getting injured or your abilities.

• Regain Your Instinct

Often the reason that you were able to avoid injury in the past is because you were instinctively able to avoid it. Baseball players are used to ducking from stray pitches. Basketball players are confident they know how to land while taking a charge.  After an injury, however, concern over those same events could cause fear. Baseball players start to fear that any ball coming inside is going to injure them again. Basketball players become afraid to take a hit much less take a charge.

You need to stare fear in the eye.  Using the right protection and safe procedures, perform the same behaviors you used to perform to avoid injury. For example, a basketball player might take a special training so they practice being pushed over learning to fall again safely.  Consider a special training for yourself with an instructor in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  By specifically learning how to roll through the fall, protecting your body during the charge – and exercising multiple repetitions so that the process becomes routine – anxiety no longer factors into the mix.  While you need to make sure you stay safe during these activities, over time you get used to them again, and avoiding injury once again becomes instinctive for you.

Regaining Your Confidence

Athletes thrive on confidence. It keeps them playing their sport and enjoying the process focusing on what they need to do to succeed. After an injury, it’s possible that your confidence and rhythm have been challenged. The above tips can help you regain that confidence again, and manage the anxiety holding you back.  For additional information: Check out this article by Dr. Eddie O’Connor on how to assess and understand injury properly – and – Rebecca Symes review of how ‘athletic identity’ factors into an elevated risk of injury.  Finally, it may be useful to understand those factors that enter into suffering in sport – this research by Phil Moore of the UK on cyclist’s experience of suffering is very informative.

About the Author: Ryan Rivera

Meet Calm Clinic Editors

RYAN RIVERA
Publisher & Founder of the Calm Clinic:

Ryan Rivera has spent 7 years of his life suffering from, as he calls it, the “whole package” – panic attacks, severe anxiety, agoraphobia, social anxiety, unbearable physical symptoms, headaches, neck pains, constant tension, diarrhea, palpitations, pounding heart.  After trying numerous different treatments for his anxiety (including various medication) a tipping-point in his life made him overcome his emotional problems.  As an athlete and person his personal experience provides some valuable insights toward overcoming the anxiety associated with injury and useful tips for recovery.

From the Editor (10.1.2011)  Some of you may begin hearing about Dave Scott and Mark Allen’s concerns over the upcoming release of Matt Fitzgerald’s depiction of  (“IronWar”, VeloPress, 2011).  They feel strongly enough about the piece to sue the author and VeloPress for defamation of character and state flat out that there are erroneous stories and misrepresentations galore in the text.  They both reaffirm their non-participation in the project, and state that Fitzgerald’s sensationalism takes stylistic license and is fiction, at best.  Long before this story, Podium recorded this Podcast with Dave Scott back in 2007.  Its worth a replay on its own merit, but in light of these revelations regarding Fitzgerald’s depiction its worth listening to again.  How cool would it be to hear the story from Mark Allen’s point of view.  Maybe Mark would like to contribute his interview to make this a matched set?  Mark………?

The beauty of this interview is the incredible depth of  knowledge and experience Dave Scott provides in discussing all manner of mental toughness.  That he and Mark Allen had such an epic race is testament to grit, skill, training, mental focus throughout the 9 hours of the most rigorous physical challenge one can imagine.  This interview is a must read for any IronMan competitor or for that matter ANY endurance athlete wanting to know about the techniques they used, the focus they were able to muster, the attitudes by which they raced, as well as the respect and appreciation for being able to compete at such a level.

Thanks Dave – Come on, Mark….we’d love to hear from you as well. 

Check out their Websites:  Dave Scott, Inc.com and Mark Allen Online.com

Scroll down to read the text or Click Here to listen to the PODCAST OF: 

THE DAVE SCOTT INTERVIEW PART 1

THE DAVE SCOTT INTERVIEW PART 2

THE DAVE SCOTT INTERVIEW PART 3e

Stay tuned after the printing of the interview to see the Ben Van James Channel’s YouTube Video of the entire race, complete with all the side stories and amazing features of arguably the most interesting endurance event in the world.

Who is Dave Scott?

Dave Scott is the most recognized athlete and coach in the sport of triathlon. He is a six-time Ironman World Champion and the first inductee into the Ironman Hall of Fame.
Dave’s career in triathlon began with the inception of the sport in 1976. He won his first Hawaii Ironman in 1980 and went on to win again in 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986 and 1987. In 1993, he was honored for his accomplishments in the sport and became the first inductee into the Ironman Hall of Fame. To celebrate, Dave came out of retirement and at the age of forty, after a five year absence from competition, decided to race again. In a stunning and memorable performance, beating out an impressive field of professional athletes – many of whom were in their twenties – Dave placed second overall. This incredible physical and mental feat earned Dave a new nickname among the triathlon community and he has since been known as “The Man”.
In terms of a personal philosophy, Dave believes that coaching people is more about being a teacher than a coach. Dave combines years of wisdom, wit and creativity to his passion for helping others. After thirty years in the sport, he continues to maintain world-wide appeal as fitness and nutrition consultant, product marketing consultant and nationally recognized speaker. He also organizes or is the main keynote for many fitness camps, clinics and races held throughout the year, forging relationships with many people along the way. Dave is based in Boulder, Colorado and greatly enjoys spending time with his three children and maintaining a healthy and physically fit lifestyle.

Podium – How did you make the transition from being a major competitor to coaching?

Dave Scott – It wasn’t a transition in any definitive way. I always had a synergy between my competing, teaching and coaching and there was always an overlap even when I was racing in my prime. I started out as a coach.

I actually started coaching swimming before I was a triathlete. I coached all through that period both as an amateur and after I turned pro. There was a two or three year hiatus where I was just focusing on athletics, when I realized how much I really enjoyed teaching. That teaching element came back to me. Also, I was fearful I wasn’t going to last in a sport that wasn’t recognized in the top 3 or 4 of this country and I worried how I was going to make an income. My dad was from academia, was a professor, and I thought I should probably have something steady and a paycheck that comes in every month. My coaching work was driven first by passion. I really enjoyed teaching as much as I did racing, even though the thrill of working with athletes is different than the individual thrill of competing at a world class level.

Podium – Interesting point. In retrospect, when you consider your life as a coach, as an athlete, as a parent, in any venue….what has been your biggest thrill in sport?

Dave Scott – I always enjoyed the game of getting fit and getting prepared, not just the physical part of it but I liked the parallel and the harmony between your mind and body and getting ready. Knowing that when you’re going to step into a race, there wasn’t a question of “Oh, I hope I do well”…It wasn’t a degree of arrogance, either …but rather, it was always more a vote of confidence…I know I’m going to do well in this race, Ironman, I just don’t know how well I am going to do?” I had a certain standard at that baseline level, but I always had one or two steps slightly higher than that I tried to reach. Each race had its own nuances, the competition was different, the training was different, my life circumstances might have been different going into the preparation for that race. But I always felt that when I went into that race I could say, “Okay, I’m going to have a good race…here we go!”

Podium – You’re talking about the definition of your goals. Give us an example of 2 or 3 goals that would be characteristic of you in an event.

Dave Scott – People always think that you’ve got to have a goal and its such and such. I think there is a real definition in my mind between your objective and a goal. I look at an objective as more seasonal or longer term…and then I have separate goals that are pretty short term. Quite often they are only two or three weeks out – because they’re tangible.

With athletes I say, “Listen, its December, you’re out of shape, we’re just starting…where do we want to be in two weeks?” I do this because day one of a training period looks a lot different than day 14. Psychologically you feel a lot differently two weeks out. At first, you are thinking, “I don’t know if I can do this.” There is a lot of self-doubt…but you finally get through it…it’s painful. The second day you’re sore…you realize you’ve got muscles…the third day you feel a little bit better…the fourth day you feel a little like an athlete…and by the fifth day you’ve really turned the corner.

Getting closer to competition, I look at three goals that are all individually determined. They aren’t focused or involve my competition. I never focused my goals on Mark Allen or what I had to do in the swim or the bike compared to Mark Allen. Ultimately, the competition level sometimes dictated that. After many years of racing, in 1989, we had a very very close race. It seemed like we were bouncing off of one another. It was influenced by our competitive natures.

As an example, let’s look at the goals in that particular race. As it turned out, it was the Epic race in our particular sport, that being the Hawaii Ironman World Championships. He was able to win that race by 50 odd seconds…but we were essentially glued together the whole time.

My feeling on the swim in preparation for that race was such that I was swimming better than I ever had, even in college. I was 35 then. So my first goal was to get to a certain level in the swim right from the outset where it was extremely uncomfortable. I never thought of discomfort as pain. People say what’s the pain like? Pain is when you’re out of shape, just as what I described before, or you are injured. The barometer for discomfort is very finite. You can take it up and take it up and it can feel very very hard and then all of the sudden you ratchet it down just a little bit…and you think, “Okay this is manageable.”

It is the ratcheting up of that exertion level to the point where it hurts. I said I was going to go right to that point right from the start, because the second part of my goal was to see if I could drop anyone who wanted to try and stay with me.

I wasn’t the best swimmer. The better swimmers had already broken away from me. But the people I was most concerned with, including Mark Allen, were in the group right behind me. I wanted to tell those athletes that I was willing to go out extraordinarily hard. I was willing to work at a high level of discomfort. If they tried to stay with me I wanted them to know that this was going to be a very painful day for them. My first goal was really about myself, my conditioning and my intention to dictate.

I had much the same mindset on the bike. People asked me how I would pace myself going out on the bike. I would ride the first 20 miles as hard as I ever did an Olympic distance race (a 40k race). I would try to set the precedent. My breathing rate would be really high, and I knew my legs would feel heavy and loaded…I knew I would be producing pretty high levels of lactate. Physiologically I had trained to handle a pretty high load, but I knew after 20 miles I would ratchet it back a bit. I knew I didn’t want to suffer the consequences of being too overzealous in the beginning, 80 miles later.

My second level goal was targeted further out in the race, where I wanted to dictate pace. I wanted other people to be thinking about me, worried about when I was going to go hard. Psychologically, I wanted them to be reactionary to my pace. I wanted to get them out of their game plan. That is the way I always raced. I would identify periods where I felt solid or strong, or during a particularly difficult section of the course, I would decide to go very hard, right now.

As that particularly race developed, there was a shadow behind me pretty much the whole day. That shadow was Mark Allen. Two distinct times I put my goal into play, at 80 miles and then again at 96 miles. I was going to really make his legs hurt on the bike. I felt that even though I didn’t break him, I know it was uncomfortable for both of us.

Podium – These goals are still process oriented even though you are focused on the particulars of a race.

Dave Scott – You know, I look at it like pulses, in exercise. It’s not like a metronome. For example, when people train on the bike, they know the gearing, they know the terrain, they know the ups and downs of that course because they have repeated workouts on the same course so many times. They become comfortable because they know what to expect. But in a in a race all that goes out the window.

You have to be familiar with the course knowing elevation changes and where typically windy conditions may exist on the course. But the race dictates a whole plethora of different challenges. I always felt the easiest way to tackle a race is to break it up into pieces and do what you can do in the moment and not look ahead. I coach my athletes to train themselves physically in workouts to NOT always do what they like.

We all have a tendency to take the easier path. When we train with other people invariably someone will attempt to push the pace because your training is competitive. You have to respond in those situations. But if you can do that and practice that when training by yourself at periods where you feel discomfort, you can perform better in the race. But you must set those little goals to make them tangible.

Podium – How do you address athletes when they just don’t have it that day?

Dave Scott – Sometimes athletes that I coach will tell me “I felt really bad at the start of the bike…my legs were really heavy.” I’ll respond with a question which is usually, “What did you do right?” This takes them aback because they just told me a big negative. They don’t see where I’m going with it, because all they focused on was how bad they felt. So, I will elaborate. I ask them, “How did you correct that, what did your mind tell you to do right then.” I ask them about that to get a sense of their mental programming. Most of the time they will say, “I felt bad and I knew it was going to be a bad day.”

If your programming is like that in a race, a molehill becomes a mountain really fast. The magnitude of that molehill becomes psychologically overwhelming. So I give them a couple of strategies to work on.

I’ll ask them to take a physical inventory of their entire body the next time they get there. I’ll suggest that they stand up, do a physical inventory all the way up and down their body over a very short distance…maybe only a hundred yards from one pole to the next. And I’ll have them just relax, think about breathing, think about flowing, whatever those words are that they’ve used over and over….until they get back in control. It’s important that they do something different. Stretch their Achilles, move from side to side, change posture, tempo, cadence, position on the bike…these are all shifts that when combined with relaxing, breathing and focusing on their flow will restore their control.

Podium – What are the most essential mental conditioning skills you coach your athletes?

Dave Scott – The most important ones involve routines because routines breed confidence. The very first one is to be consistent. Consistency is huge. It helps build the second one which is mental tenacity. Those two go hand in hand. The third one involves dealing with adversity and/or how you turn adversity into a positive.

I go over every type of scenario that could possibly come up with the athletes I work with. I can talk about a 100 different things that could happen before the race that aren’t in their normal regimen of preparation. Things like their goggles break, they couldn’t pump up their bike, they had a flat tire, they walked out of the transition area and security wouldn’t let them back in, all those things that psychologically rattle people and that can set the tone for the race. I’ve seen it too many times that even though an athlete hasn’t even started the race…..they’ve already lost.

Handling adversity during the race can be even more important. During the race you can be too programmed for a certain time or work output. Physically they want to have their breathing a certain way, their stroke rate, tempo, shoulder rotation….but what if somebody bumps you and knocks you out of line and your goggles get skewed. How do you deal with that? You were in a great drafting position but now everyone’s gone and you’re by yourself, or maybe even pulling an entire train of people. That was not your plan, so handling adversity is probably the most difficult skill to instill. Contingency plans must be rehearsed for every imaginable circumstance.

Podium – Talk more about programming.

Dave Scott – It is important to have the highest degree of faith within yourself because that breeds the highest likelihood of success. Otherwise, there is self-doubt. Self-doubt allows all these other things we’ve been talking about to come into play. Because of this, it is pretty easy to know who has the ability to win the top races.

When I go out to Hawaii, I am asked all the time…”Who is going to win?” I usually say there are only 2 or 3 people who know how to win. It is the folks who know how to finish and are consistent in the big races over time that can win. Turning that corner is the key. That requires the highest faith in oneself. Everyone wants to win Ironman Hawaii. No one wins in Hawaii unless they have turned that corner.

Podium – How do you coach people to break through those barriers in their mind?

Dave Scott – We’re way too focused on controlling little things – the focus on splits, we constantly check on our heart rate, on our watch, our power meter, the gearing on our bike, how many ounces of electrolyte replacement drink we’ve taken in, etc. Going back through my entire career I never wore a watch in an Ironman.

I would only focus on what I thought I could do. Some thought that was arrogant, but I felt it was more of a realistic appraisal of what I thought I was capable of. I was focused on my ability and my training and conditioning going into the race. I thought I could do the swim in about 50 minutes while the really fast guys would finish in 48. I felt I could ride close to 25 mph, in roughly 4:35, and maybe run a 6 minute pace (2:37). This kind of thinking was never in relation to anyone else….I was only thinking in terms of what my capabilities were….in perfect conditions. How often do you get perfect conditions? There are never perfect conditions. But I felt those marks were realistic. People wondered how I could gloat like that? I never thought of it like that, I just thought about my capabilities…it was also true that I felt completely responsible for my actions during a race and what I could do. I never looked at it arrogantly…I thought of it as having confidence in my ability and preparation.

Podium – What about nutrition plans and the gut check an athlete needs to keep themselves properly focused?

Dave Scott – These things have changed over the years and the nutrition plan is very important. You can plan really well, but that is never a substitute for listening to your body. Hydration is more variable than caloric intake, but with everything considered we can plan to a high degree of accuracy what they are likely to need. That’s all part of confidence building….knowing they are prepared. Marking their water bottles, preparing gel packs, etc. is a real key for confidence.

The problem is that athletes often lose that intuitive feeling on hydration. What overrides the thirst mechanism is all the other stimuli you experience during the competition. If you actually listened to your body…am I loose?…am I focused?…is my energy level going well?…am I carrying the same gear?….am I maintaining the same running pace?…if I noticed I’ve fallen off a little bit…. I will need to drink some at the next aid station coming up. But many athletes lose track of that because their focus becomes too narrow.

When you feel that high level of discomfort inherent in the heat of the battle, you don’t try to run away from it. That discomfort is right there. Denying it is nonsense. Acknowledging it and focusing on what I’m going to do about it is the key. Too narrow a focus takes people away from that conscious awareness.

There are an infinite number of things we do to override the discomfort when we train, but, in a race a lot of times that awareness goes out the window. A finite nutrition plan is important to keeping your wits about you and helping you maintain that pace on your bike. But it needs to be good enough so that you can prolong that output on the run. In triathlon, it’s all about the run. The best athletes are remarkably in tune with themselves.

Podium – Do you do anything with mental imagery, visualization, or relaxation to control arousal level?

Dave Scott – Every athlete is different coming into a race. Most endurance athletes are better off keeping themselves calm and keeping that level of calmness. I ask my athletes to think back to their last really good work out and a time when they really felt in control. I have them make a list of those tangible things they recognized in their swim. I ask them how did you feel? Be really specific. How did your shoulders, arms or triceps feel? How did your lats feel? Describe that in 5 or 6 phrases. Do the same thing on the bike and on the run.

As athletes we’ve got very short retention and recall. If you have a very long or prolonged taper before a race, or if you’ve been sick or traveled, people often feel as if they’ve lost it. I will have them go back to the last few days, maybe the last Sunday…one where they had a strong training session and write down those tangible things they remember. Maybe it was that ride around Carter Lake, or on your home course, or your last race. What were the tangible things you remember from that? How did you feel on that? Remember that you felt powerful, and the snap you felt at the bottom of your stroke. These are the things to focus on. I have my athletes write them down.

When people see me when I run they wonder if I’m injured. I’m not injured, its just bad form. It looks dreadful. But in my mind I see myself being really light on my feet with my whole body really relaxed, my arms floating through space, and so quick that as soon as my feet make contact I imagine they are just floating on silky water. The imagery and connotation of easiness over smooth water is one that really felt right to me.

I see myself running like the best and most fluid Kenyans. In reality my form is horrific, but when I run I think that imagery helps my economy of effort because mentally I’m the most relaxed guy out there. I can run hard but remain relaxed. I remind myself of feeling lightness, with quick steps, fluid relaxed arms and torso…and I say those things in my mind over and over.

The number one thing is that I always remind my athletes to watch their breathing. I ask them, “What is your breath doing?” Over and over, focus on breathing, breathing, breathing, because that controls the physical side. Once you get to the point where you feel like your respiration rate gets up really high, then you’re likely to experience that feeling of panic….by then, you’re completely out of control.

I see that more often with the amateur swimmers who become disoriented because they don’t have the comfort of the lane line or the flags in the pool or pace clock. Their orientation is thrown all out of whack. I’ve always found that more skilled swimmers have a calmness or peacefulness in open water. It’s all just water to me. Even though the start is very fast and frenetic, there are feet and clamoring around. That part is all about breathing, breathing, breathing. I’ve watched lots of races where I see swimmers with their head down and they take 4-6 strokes and then take a breath and another 4-6 strokes. They’re hypoxic by the time they get a hundred meters out. Breathing properly is key.

Podium – The calm is huge to you isn’t it?

Dave Scott – I like to see an athlete that is calm, but ready. That hour before the race is when that element of self-doubt tends to creep in and permeate people. I always tell people to add some levity. Internally. I don’t recommend cajoling your competitors, I think that’s contrived. Also, I think it’s important to do again and again after the gun goes off. You have to have an appreciation of the joy in racing and the funny things that happen out there. I remember in the ’89 race with Mark Allen. The sirens are going off, everybody is yelling and screaming and I see this drunk guy at the end of the bike ride in cut offs and a big beer belly. It was a killer race, and we were running sub 6 minute pace and this drunk guy runs out on to the middle of the coarse with the cops chasing him and right before he’s dragged off… he yells…”Come on you guys, pick it up!” I still laugh about it.

Here is the entire race as courtesy of Ben Van James Channel – thanks Ben.

Ironman Hawaii 1989, Dave Scott v Mark Allen. Part 1

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ironman World Championships 1989, Dave Scott v Mark Allen. Part 2

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ironman World Championships 1989, Dave Scott v Mark Allen. Part 3

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ironman World Championships 1989, Dave Scott v Mark Allen. Part 4

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ironman World Championships 1989, Dave Scott v Mark Allen. Part 5

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ironman World Championships 1989, Dave Scott v Mark Allen. Part 6

Click here to view the embedded video.

Editor’s note:  In watching the US Open Tennis Championships these past few weeks I was simply amazed at the incredible speed of processing these athletes demonstrated in match after match.  The Roger Federer – Novak Djokovic match was the ultimate challenge for both players.  Taking nothing away from Rafael Nadal, (check out the first video) who advanced to the final, these giants moved with speed, grace and controlled power that was exemplary of athletes ‘playing in the zone’.  The “zone” is spoken of often in that it is characterized by a state of focus, concentration, and flow in that “nanosecond” that is the NOW.  This article attempts to provide another dimension to this definition – which comes perfectly in the game of tennis.  Scott Ford, a USPTA Pro has studied, developed and teaches a (cognitive-visual-perceptual-physical) “ZONE” to which tennis players can strive to achieve peak performance.  This article provides a more extensive look at the process of shifting focus and playing in the zone.

 by Simon Hartley, MSc, BASES and Stephen Walker, PhD, CC-AASP

Be World Class

A little while ago I asked a National Head Coach, ‘what separates genuinely world class tennis players from the rest’. His answer was very insightful. One of the keys, at the very highest level, appears to be the way world class players are able to control and switch their focus very quickly within the PDA cycle.  Consider Tennis at the highest level of play:

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you have not come across the term PDA cycle before, it stands for “Perception – Decision – Action”.  This is the mental process athletes involved in interactive sports go through when they perform. Firstly they perceive. They read what is going on around them. In tennis, if their opponent has just played a shot, they will assess the trajectory and power of the shot, the opponent’s position and their movement. All of this information (and more) will then inform their decision. What the player does is based on their perception. Where will they move? What shot will they look to play? These things factor into their decision and once they have made their decision, they will execute their move and play their shot.

Obviously, as a player moves through this cycle, their point of focus frequently changes. When they are in the ‘perception phase’, their focus needs to be wide and primarily external. They need to pull in information from the world around them. They must focus on what they see, hear and feel from their opponent and their environment. As they enter the ‘decision phase’, that focus must switch and become internal. A helpful guide to understanding this process is Nideffer’s Attentional Focus Model.

Once a player has decided upon the most effective move they need to be able to execute it well.  In order to execute skills and play high quality shots, a very specific and narrow point of focus may be required. In some cases that might be predominantly external (i.e. focusing on an external cue, such as the ball or your opponent’s movement on the court) and in some cases it is primarily internal (i.e. focusing on the feeling cues from our body which helps us to regulate the power and weight of our shot). Interestingly, many high level coaches talk about ‘shot responsibility’. They explain that at the moment when a player is executing a shot, they should be entirely “immersed” in the shot. That moment should be their ‘quiet time’ when everything else except the shot disappears into the background; it is a moment devoid of anything else (Hartley, 2010a).

The ability to control our focus throughout that cycle is an aspect that separates great players from the pack. Controlling focus and changing focus very quickly is a skill that requires lots of practice. High level coaches are also aware that the PDA cycle has more phases in expert performance. It is not simply a case of perceiving, then deciding and then executing. As players become more experienced they often have a secondary perception and decision phase before they execute their action. Essentially, they make another assessment before playing their shot. Is it still the right shot? Is the opponent in the same position that I expected them to be in? If they are, I may simply confirm my initial decision and go with it. If not, I may need to change tack and play a different shot.

Timing and the Speed of Processing -

In a match situation, we are not given more time to cater for the extra perception phase, the re-assessment and another decision. The ball doesn’t slow down to allow us to fit these extra processes in. Therefore, we must run the processes more efficiently and change our focus almost instantaneously. Neurologists and ophthalmologists sometimes refer to this as parallel mode processing.  Clearly it involves cognitive perceptual visual spatial activity in the brain.

If we fail to focus back onto the shot quickly enough, we deny ourselves that important ‘quiet time’ in which to execute the shot. This can lead to errors (Hartley, 2010b). Tactically, we can help ourselves by starting the whole process as early as possible. Physically we can ensure that we can move quickly and therefore give ourselves more time at ‘the sharp end’.

The ability to make late decisions separates players in a number of ‘open skill’ sports – where they are required to react to their opposition. When athletes are finely trained in shifting focus quickly & efficiently their opponents have less chance to respond.  Novices find that hard to do because they may not have the ability to switch their focus between perception, decision and action at lightning speed. Not only do they require longer in each phase of the cycle (i.e. it takes them longer to perceive and assess, and longer to make their decisions), it also takes them longer to pin their focus firmly on the execution of the shot.

One Method for Practicing the “Zone”

The ability to switch focus quickly and efficiently is often the missing link for players who are technically superior, but find it hard to fully realize their technical superiority in match situations.  Controlling and rapidly switching and honing focus is a skill. Therefore, like any other skill, it needs to be practiced!

But how?  And how do you know when you’re there?  One noted pro, Scott Ford, a USPTA Professional Tennis Instructor and author of Design B: How to Play Tennis in the Zone (1984), recommends one method touted to guarantee that a player is able to enter the “zone”.  He employs a model for timing and execution in Tennis that employs the “cognitive visual processing” functions in training advanced players. The method requires the athletes’ “PDA Skills” incorporate the practice of parallel mode processing.  Check out Ford describing in rudimentary terms the “zone” which equates to a cognitive-visual-spatial consideration in playing the game:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Training the Speed of Information Processing

The “zone” has been most widely connected with Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who has done a significant amount of research on levels of concentration and focus in many areas of human functioning. His seminal work: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Performance has been cited numerous times in this arena.  However, the incorporation of visual processing in this field has now taken on a lot more significance.  Consider this:

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the coming weeks Podium will feature a Podcast with David DaSilva, director of the vision training program for the IMG Academy in Florida.  IMG has gained notoriety in its affiliation with the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, and now develops individually designed personal training for athletes in many sports including those preparing for the NFL Scouting Combine.  DaSilva and his department use “Strobe Glasses” to help athletes increase their reaction time – so that they can effectively “slow the game down”.

Stay tuned for the Podcast coming up later this week, and in the meantime – consider the target zones (1-2-3) you need to keep in mind when practicing on the court.  The precise attention you give to the ‘hitting zone’ offers a whole new meaning to Tim Gallway’s Inner Game of Tennis.

References

Hartley, S.R. (2010a) ‘Athletic Focus & Sport Psychology: Key To Peak Performance’, Podium Sports Journal, December 2010. Available Online. HTTP. < http://www.podiumsportsjournal.com/2010/12/09/athletic-focus-sport-psychology-key-to-peak-performance/> (accessed 21^st December 2010).

Hartley, S.R. (2010b) ‘Momentum Shifts in Sport: Value the Psychology Behind Them’, Podium Sports Journal, December 2010. Available Online. HTTP. < http://www.podiumsportsjournal.com/2010/12/22/momentum-shifts-in-sports-value-the-psychology-behind-them/> (accessed 4^th April 2011)

To find out how to master your own motivation and create a high-performance, motivational environment, download ‘Master Motivation for Sport at http://www.be-world-class.com/webinars/sport-webinars/master-motivation-in-soccer-webinar.

Simon Hartley, MSc, BASES Accredited Sport & Exercise Psychologist.

Simon is a freelance sport psychologist & performance coach at Be World Class. In recent years he has worked as a consultant performance psychologist to the English Institute of Sport as well as working with a range of professional sports in the UK. Simon has worked with Premiership and Championship football clubs, international teams including England Squash and professional golfers.

Simon Hartley is an Olympic Sport Psychologist, Performance Coach and the author of Peak Performance Every Time (published by Routledge).

Photo Credit: Dominik Walker (2011)

Athletes in every sport will from time to time lose focus, become self-conscious, have self-doubts to contend with and worry about things. It happens especially in cycling, which can be grueling on the best of days. Emotions with strong physical components are the worst because they have what’s called an attractor field – an energy field that can be quite intense and can affect the senses such as sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. Often the result is a closed thought loop and corresponding mood that can be beyond upsetting, and the resulting anxiety, anger, disappointment, confusion and self-doubt can really hurt a racer’s performance.

“Train your weakness and race your strength.”
Chris Carmichael

These disruptive thought patterns may be transitional or long standing. Some represent concerns that pop-up unexpectedly, serving as an annoying distraction. Others may have assaulted your confidence for several years, and relate to a dreaded experience that got traction in your young mind many years ago. These troublesome cogitations may have nothing to do with racing but nevertheless, they do test your poise. Whether incidental or enduring, they can cause you to lose focus and make mistakes.

Imagine how potent a really disruptive pattern might be. You might say, “I never perform well when it’s windy” or “I always have trouble with this track.” This early in the season, it’s important to be thorough in working with your thought habits and take into account those triggers that have the potential to throw you out of your optimal performance zone.

Good habits in thinking are essential to building confidence, a positive self-expectation and focus. Cycling is extraordinarily challenging because performing well requires you to maintain concentration in the midst of both internal and external stress, as well as changing race conditions. Consider a thirty minute mental conditioning session, 4 times each week as a solid investment in your overall race preparation.

Thought Pattern Interrupt
The thought pattern interrupt (TPI) is a technique first developed by the renowned hypnotherapist, Dr. Milton Erickson, and has been used widely in cognitive-behavioral work and neurolinguistic programming (NLP). The TPI involves a four-step process that is designed to shift the flow and neutralize negative thinking. The four steps are:

1) Recognize and explore the thinking pattern getting in the way.

To do this properly, sit alone and think about your situations containing disruptive thought patterns and the associated feelings. Take enough time with this to examine them in detail, exploring the original experience if possible, but at least the most frequent and common situations that trigger the pattern. Journal this process and explore as much of the attractor field as you can, including all of the physical senses you encounter during the experience.

If you are not sure where to start, think about a competition you didn’t perform well in. We all have at least one in which we feel we psyched ourselves out. Consider what disruptive thought pattern or race condition you hold responsible for interfering with your focus. Anything that has the ability to take you out of a good mindset for performing is fair game. Windy conditions, heat, arriving late to the event, even an unwanted bib number can do it. The best racers perform well in all kinds of conditions. Their ability to neutralize a disruptive train of thought in favor of cool concentration on the task at hand can make a huge difference, not just in how much you enjoy the competition but in how well you perform.

2) After reviewing these situations, consider what you would like to have happen instead.

Talk with your coach about the situations you are most likely to experience again in upcoming competitions. Explore them until you are clear about how you want to deal with them. Discuss ideas for alternative responses you might want to employ.

There are some strategies for crafting these alternative responses. For example, Erickson suggested enlarging the possibilities. If riding in wind is a mental challenge, then enlarging the possibilities might include a clear focus on maintaining your form in race conditions that involve wind. Your focus goes to what is “possible” to accomplish, even in conditions you don’t favor.

Another strategy taught by Erickson concentrates on reframing your sensory focus. Once asked how he might confer with someone feeling guilty about a pattern of eating too much, he replied, “I hope you really enjoy lunch today. Enjoy it thoroughly and well. You know, it’s as easy to enjoy a small portion as it is a large portion. In fact, a small portion can be enjoyed even more than a large one. And you really will enjoy it more because you won’t have to feel guilty about that small portion.” In this case, Erickson reframed the thought pattern around food. You might be able to do this for yourself but it requires noteworthy concentration. You must purposely craft your internal dialogue the way you want it to go, and repeat the process until you’ve established an efficient neural pathway.

Don’t hurry. Think about how these alternatives might look and what replacement pattern you will employ for the results you want to achieve. Consider the attractor field and how the replacement will feel different. When you are crafting the script for the alternative, always give yourself a positive self-expectation and include a goal, an encouraging outcome, or perhaps a waking ‘dream’ to visualize your success. A practice session will naturally include the distraction, followed by your systematic and routine shift in focus to the desired concentration goal. Multiple practice sessions will be rewarded by good thinking habits and a positive self-expectation in a variety of conditions.

3) Occasionally, we get surprised by an intrusive thought pattern, one that we haven’t planned for.

In such a case, you can prepare a designed response for the moment the disruption occurs, with the intent to ‘change the channel’ of your thinking.

In these situations, the plan should involve a quick recognition of the problem, a physical gesture to snap you out of it, and a rapid shift in focus. One particular athlete who was accustomed to this experience wore a rubber band around his wrist. When he noticed the intrusion, he’d snap the rubber band on his wrist and repeat an inspiring quote he favored. Then he’d play a specific set of songs from his iPod. (Curiously enough, there’s an Aussie rock band named Pattern Interrupt who has some music that just might do the trick.)

I knew another athlete who would jump up and do a couple of jumping jacks and consciously take a deep breath to shift from an unwanted thought pattern. Of course, he freaked people out now and then but he wasn’t worried about that. He knew he couldn’t control their reactions. He just felt better being able to control his own.

4) For a TPI to be successful, it must be practiced and rehearsed repeatedly.

Consider the number of times you have practiced racing moves and tactics, done sprints, or picked the line going into a turn. You think nothing of practicing the same move repeatedly. Set aside practice sessions several times a week to practice your mental conditioning skills. These practice sessions will reinforce your ability to focus, control stress and maintain concentration when you need it most.

In conclusion, the TPI is but one method for proactively addressing those emotional glitches that can interfere with racing performance. More than that, it can help you enjoy the competition more, and feel better about your overall training program.

About the author:

Dr. Stephen Walker is a licensed healthcare professional who has served as a therapist, health psychologist, athletic & personal performance consultant for the past 31 years in the Rocky Mountain Region. His PhD in Counseling Psychology (1984) from the University of Colorado resulted in the publication of groundbreaking research that brought together the fields of psychology, integrative physiology, biofeedback and human performance in response to stress and recovery. Dr. Walker’s considerable experience in assessment, cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, health and sport psychology makes it possible for him to put forward lessons and skill sets likely to be of great benefit in almost any situation.

In the field of sport and performance psychology, Stephen Walker began his work at the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Colorado and for 19 years he worked to develop the use of mental conditioning skill sets with athletes from the CU Golf, Track & Field and Cross Country teams. He has interviewed many of the world’s finest athletes (both professional and Olympic) coaches and sport psychologists over several years culminating in his role as Editor-in-Chief of Podium Sports Journal: The Journal of Mental Conditioning for the Serious Athlete. Dr. Walker is the founder of Sport Performance Associates, a Longmont/Boulder interdisciplinary consulting group that provides counseling assistance, clinical support and performance driven personal coaching services, in addition to seminars and clinics to a wide range of individuals, teams, and business groups.

By Dr. Stephen Walker

by Will Murray & Stephen Walker

Pre-race jitters bother almost everybody.  For some athletes, the jitters are so bad that they withdraw from some races or decide to give up racing altogether.  For others, those nervous feelings impair their ability to perform.

One professional triathlete, an 11-time Ironman finisher, got so nervous before his races that he would throw up.  Vomiting before the race negatively impacted his fueling plan for the 10 hours of endurance that lay before him.  Maybe that’s an extreme example, but that awful, butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling plagues just about every athlete, and it’s not a pleasant sensation.

First, we are going to take apart the origins of that feeling, we’re calling it the jitters, and second, we will offer some specific techniques for managing the jitters.

What is the Value of Getting All Nervous Before a Race?

On the one hand, a slightly keyed-up feeling tells you that you are ready and focused on the right thing—the race.  If you didn’t feel a little antsy, you might wonder if you were really ready or paying attention to the right things.

On the other hand, ejecting your breakfast—the breakfast you need to fuel your race—isn’t really helping.  Neither is feeling so terrible before the race that you decide not to race at all.  So what causes these dreaded jitters?

Two major forces work away in your mind when you get nervous about your upcoming performance.  And the cause of your jitters is entirely in your head.  There is no physical pain or other discomfort going on to make you nervous.  The jitters are 100% in your mind.

Certainly, anticipation of pain is part of the jitters.  Also, fear of disappointment is part of the mix.  Those two mental processes, fear of pain and fear of disappointment, add up to the jitters.

On the one hand, a slightly keyed-up feeling tells you that you are ready and focused on the right thing—the race.  If you didn’t feel a little antsy, you might wonder if you were really ready or paying attention to the right things.

Anticipation of Pain – a Minor Factor

Everybody knows that racing endurance sports creates at least a little discomfort.  Muscle fatigue, air hunger, blisters, chafing, heat, cold, thirst, hunger, muscle cramps— these forms of pain are no stranger you to as an endurance athlete. You train with them and endure them in preparation for the races, which, by the way, you enter voluntarily.  You sign up for this cocktail of unpleasant sensations when you go out to run or ride or swim or ski.

Before a race, you might conjure up mental images of how much this race is going to hurt.  But a part of you already knows that it’s going to be uncomfortable.  It’s a race.  You are trying to stretch your abilities, test your limits and go hard.

Some philosophers differentiate between pain and suffering[i].  Pain is physical discomfort that you are feeling right now at the present time.  Pain is largely neurological.  Suffering is different.  It’s the memory of past pain, or the anticipation of pain to come or both.  Suffering is purely and 100% mental.  You can manage pain by focusing on other thoughts, changing your pace, “breathing into it” or taking analgesics.  You manage suffering by getting your mind in order.

Virtually every coach and athlete has an understanding of pain. Some, however, define pain solely as the result of an injury, while everything else is suffering.  In endurance sports this can be a concern, so knowing where the pain is coming from, assessing it and discerning the source can be important.  Pain that is injury-related might include overuse injuries, tendonitis, or a sprain or a strain affecting a joint.  Please take a short detour here and review Dr. Eddie O’Connor’s guidelines for determining the nature of your pain and how to address it (Podium April 2010).

Now that we have a better understanding of pain – we need to realize that suffering is completely in your mind.  Completely.  When you remember past pain, you can turn it to your advantage by recalling workouts that were truly harder than the race you are about to race.  Those harder-than-races workouts are entries into your mental database that let you—in all truth—tell yourself that you’ve been through worse and survived.  Applied to the anticipation of the pain to come, the memory of past pain isn’t so bad and helps place proper perspective and dimensions on the pain you anticipate.  If you’ve survived worse, the upcoming event just can’t be that bad.  As long as you aren’t risking injury, such as tendonopathy, heat stroke or stress fracture (a different kind of pain), you know what you are in for and can manage it.

And remember, you are doing this voluntarily.  You signed up for this race, trained for this race, and paid (maybe even a lot of money) to be in this race.  Refocus from the suffering toward the reason you signed up and the benefits you expected to get.  Run a short, color, panoramic video of the race you hope for and planned to have.

Fear of Disappointment – a Larger Factor

Everybody knows that the race is going to be hard physically.  Performing at the limits, going faster than you think you can, all that kind of thing you already understand.  Hidden underneath the fear of pain is the fear of proving to be a disappointment to somebody.

Think of your next race and ask yourself this question, then wait for a response as though a part of you could answer.  “If I don’t do well in this race, who will be disappointed?”

When you get the response, you may experience a mild shock of surprise.  For almost everybody, one of the people who will be disappointed is their own selves.  Of course.  You registered for this race fired with optimism and visions of wonderful achievement. You trained for it, felt pain for it, and maybe even set goals of the time or place in the results that you wanted.  If you don’t have your day or can’t hold the pace, or even if you cave in, you yourself will indeed be disappointed.

There may also be another person who you fear disappointing.  That person could be a spouse or a coach (present or even from the very deep, sepia-toned past) or a parent or another family member.  Almost always, this other person is someone who you know has your best interest at heart and sincerely wants you to perform well.  Who wouldn’t want to avoid disappointing that person?  Yet, fear of disappointing her leads to bad jitters which leads to bad racing.

Never fear.  Once you become aware that you fear disappointing someone you cares for you, you can manage that fear and knock down the jitters.

Start by asking yourself, “How would this person really feel if she knew how nervous I am about disappointing her?” Then wait for the response.  Most of the time, someone who really cares for you believes in you no matter what and doesn’t want you to suffer because you might disappoint her.  She’s on your side and she doesn’t want you to worry about disappointing her. She just wants you to go out and have a good time.

Next, close your eyes to see where in your visual field you see that person.  With your eyes still closed, call out to her so that she looks right at you, then point to where you see her face.  Open your eyes and notice the elevation of your arm with respect to the horizon.  For those we admire, we place them in our visual field above the level horizon.  We put people on a pedestal.  We look up to people.  We hold them up in high regard.  We do all this quite literally in our mind’s eye.

Alternatively, for those we don’t like, or trust, or whose values we don’t share, we see them in our mind’s eye below level.  We look down on them.  Literally.[ii]

To quell the disappointment jitters, close your eyes again, call out to the person you don’t want to disappoint, and then lower her image right down to level horizon.  Now open your eyes and notice how you can focus on her real feelings for you.  She wants you to have a good time, above all, and she is with you all the way.  Now that you’ve brought her to your level, taken her off the pedestal, you can focus on your race.

After the race, you can always put her back up where you had her if you like.

 Dispense with the Jitters – Here’s How……….

Now that you have addressed your anticipation of pain and also removed the fear of disappointment, you can use these simple techniques to feel all the readiness without the nasty jangling jitters.

See yourself succeed.  Take charge of your mental state by finding a quiet place and visualizing yourself running the race as planned. Imagine your start and how you want to feel at important landmarks. Many athletes listen to music while “visualizing success”.  This strategy can really help in big races.  Notice the music you like to listen to, pick out those that inspire you, pump you up, relax you, or give you the kind of message you crave.  Kristen Fryburg-Zaitz, qualifier for the USA Olympic Marathon trials, likes to listen to “It’s Your Song” by Garth Brooks. “I’ve listened to it since high school and it makes me think back to my coach telling me how much he believes in me,” she said.

Center yourself.  A go-to nerve soother of pros is the “Centering Breath.”(Podium 4/2007)  First, relax your muscles. Let go of tension in your face, unclench your teeth and release your shoulders so they’re loose — not tensed up to your earlobes. Shake out your muscles a little and you can literally shake the tension out of your body.  Inhale a long, slow, deep breath and then exhale it in a long sigh. Tune in to the sensation of the breath cascading down your torso and out. It should feel like a release of all tension. Take a moment and embrace the pause before the next inhale. Centering breaths trigger a parasympathetic calming response in the nervous system that can take the edge off your nerves.

Talk nice.  As you line up on the start line, monitor your self-talk. Remind yourself why you’re racing.  Focus on a positive expectation like ‘I’m here to have fun.’  If you find yourself fixating on negative thoughts, replace them with positive messages you’ve created ahead of time. These are called “proxy thoughts” and they can be worked on during rest periods, especially after a successful training session.  The key is to write them down so you will remember them.  It can be really helpful to have them on a wristband for race day. If you worry your legs might feel heavy or tense, give yourself a proxy thought like “I’m light and relaxed.” Keep your mind in the now and focus on the process — not the outcome.

Have confidence in what you did to get here now. Remind yourself of your preparations. You’re ready.  Now it’s time to put a smile on your face and favor that part of you who enjoys the challenge.  You can do it.

By Larry Lauer, PhD, CC-AASP

Michigan Youth Sports Institute
Named one of the NSAPE Top 100 coaching educators of 2007

For a number of years I have worked with athletes as a coach and mental performance consultant. Self-confidence is usually the reason why athletes first contact me. They have hit the bottom so to speak and are willing to try something “alternative” in their minds to find their games. With these I clients I have talked a lot about staying positive and thinking productively. Yet, I notice a phenomenon that many athletes struggle to overcome. And, that is self-handicapping.

Allow me to describe one case to make my point. I have consulted with an elite tennis player for several years. He is a very talented player but lacks the confidence to truly excel meaning he often leaves matches thinking he missed an opportunity or was unable to perform well. At first, he described this as being unable to focus at times on the court. He would think about random things, and become distracted on things he could not control such as line calls. Even worse, things he could control, such as his arousal or energy level during the warm up, he perceived to be out of his control. It was indicative of “waking up on the wrong side of the bed” and “it is not my day” thinking…..

At the time we worked on his ability to focus on stimuli that would enhance his focus and performance (e.g., the racket strings, his game plan). We also examined his thinking before and during matches. What was undermining his confidence? Off the court he is a very confident young man. What was eroding his confidence on the court? Then, he described to me how he compares himself to his opponent. He attempted to predict his chances of winning. This would occur hours before the tournament once the draw was announced or during the warm up once he began to see how his opponent was striking the ball (especially the serve).

Self-Talk is Key and Can be Good or Bad

This has been an ongoing battle for this player over the past few years that he manages well and not so well at times. And, the effects of self-handicapping are not limited to just playing very good opponents and doubting his chances to win and play well. To this day he will examine the draw and say “This guy is not that good, it should be easy.” Now, I don’t mind a player believing he or she can win, however, this overconfident comparison also sets him up to perform poorly. In fact this occurred in the last tournament I attended. In a first round match he expected to win he lost handily after leading by a break in the first set. He described his performance as “lazy” and “not being able to get the feel.” To me these were descriptors of not being at an optimal level of arousal due to his overconfident state and subsequent lack of preparation.

Self-handicapping is not confined to this one player or the sport of tennis. I have noticed the tendency for players to compare themselves prior to competition in soccer, football, ice hockey, figure skating, baseball, you name it and it occurs. That is why some football coaches will line their reserve players along the middle of the field; so the starters will not be looking at their opponent!

Know “How” Your Mind Races

It seems very hard for athletes to keep themselves from handicapping a competition. Several tennis players I’ve consulted talk about how they are negatively affected when family or just other players talking about the draw. For professional athletes reading the paper, listening to and watching sports shows would definitely tax one’s ability to avoid too much self-handicapping. Prior to the 2006 World Cup of soccer there were endless predictions about each of the pools and which teams would make it to the round of 16 matches. At this year’s Wimbledon injuries and upsets opened the draw for several players to make a deep run for the first time in a grand slam. You would think what a great opportunity! However, for some players this creates a great deal of pressure because their expectations rise and losing is more of a disappointment. Their mind races to what could be (the breakthrough of one’s career) and what they could lose (the opportunity of a lifetime). Certainly, these thoughts can overtake even the most mentally disciplined athlete.

Develop and Rehearse “Proxy Thoughts” to Keep it Real

How can athletes overcome their tendency to self-handicap and be their own worst enemy? First, they must develop awareness that they are self-handicapping and how it affects their mindset and preparation for competition. Going back to the case of the tennis player, he identified self-handicapping thoughts that occurred during the warm up such as “this will be easy.” Next, he attempted to stop these thoughts immediately. One technique previously presented in Podium is that of the “Thought Pattern Interrupt.”  Not only does this technique result in thought stopping, it can be used to reroute thinking.  For example, he replaced his self-handicapping thoughts with thoughts focused on how he was feeling – “powerful, strong, confident, loose”, etc. At the same time we did want him to learn about his opponent during the warm up. We talked about observing his opponent for tendencies and for strengths and weaknesses but to treat it like a coach. His goal was to understand his opponent’s game and not to judge his chances of winning. A tough thing to do, but nonetheless important!

Use Rhythm and Routines To Your Advantage

Finally, we spent a great deal of time working on routines and getting into a rhythm. By getting into a comfortable routine our hope was that he would get “his feel” and begin to flow into competition. This would allow him to focus on productive thoughts and minimize handicapping thoughts. Sometimes athletes need a trigger to able to go from evaluating to just reacting. In tennis players can use the strategy of thinking “bounce” when the ball bounced on their side of the court, and “hit” as they are striking the ball to find rhythm and feel.

Overcoming the tendency for athletes to self-handicap is not easy. It is difficult to avoid handicapping one’s chances because the brain has a natural propensity of comparing and judging. In addition, parents and other players often handicap and predict match-ups which lead the athlete back into a comparison thought process. In some ways you want to teach athletes to use self-handicapping sparingly and to their advantage. They should believe in their chances and yet not become overconfident. Great coaches have been manipulating self-handicapping for years. If a team is entering competition overconfident the coach will find ways to remind them that they must prepare and compete – “because on any given Sunday…” any team can win. And in the opposite case where a team is lacking belief, coaches will build them up and focus on their strengths and playing their game versus worrying so much about their opponent. In this way, athletes should think like shrewd coaches and manipulate their thoughts purposefully.

Ultimately, athletes must be aware of how their self-handicapping is affecting their preparation and performance. Then, they have an opportunity to implement strategies at appropriate times and minimize self-handicapping.

Dr. Larry Lauer, PhD, CC-AASP, USOC Registry – is a coaching education specialist at Michigan State University and a valued member of the Michigan Youth Sports Institute.  He was voted one of the top 100 coaching educators in the country and was winner of the prestigious “Dissertation Award” by the Association of Applied Sport Psychology for his work:  Playing Tough and Clean Hockey: Teaching Emotional Management Skills to Reduce Aggression in Youth Ice Hockey

Meditation helps reduce the negative impact of stress & tension on the body

By Dr. Stephen E. Walker, PhD, CC-AASP

Have you ever wondered how your thinking might influence your physical health, performance or well-being? In the second quarter issue of 2005, research was presented by Dr. Alan Rozanski in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology focused on developments in the field of Behavioral Cardiology. This article reviewed research on the origins, physiology and impact of emotional social chronic stress risk factors on the development and course of heart disease and stroke.1

Rozanski offers a strong review of the literature that illustrates how depression, anger, anxiety, marital discord, occupational stress, and Type D personality traits are associated with those emotional catalysts that hurry us along toward a heart attack. We all have some kind of a genetic set point for heart disease that comes from our family history. As for stress and the role that emotions play, it is clear that emotions are among the culprits that trigger chemical shifts in our blood so it becomes toxic to the endothelium that lines the arterial walls. But how?

Readers seeking clarification as to how much of this disease is attributable to our poor choices in diet can take heart. Dr. William Roberts, editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Cardiology, is more inclined to focus on our poor choices in diet. He states, “Of the 6.5 billion people on this planet, 5 billion will never have to worry about heart disease because their diets contain no meat, and it matters little whether they exercise.” As such, he is a champion of cholesterol lowering medications in the Western world and EBCT heart scans which provide a coronary calcium score…”to date, the best measure of coronary vascular disease (CVD) in people without symptoms.”2

Cardiac Psychology does focus on the modification of diet, smoking, obesity and maladaptive behaviors that increase our risk of heart disease. But, for those who try to limit their intake of meat, exercise regularly and otherwise try to maintain a healthy lifestyle…stress is the X factor, and one that implores us to manage our emotions more conscientiously, especially since we can not alter our genetic imprint. It is the stress hormones that accompany the booms and crashes in our disposition. When these are added to the by-products of the food choices we make, metabolic disease ensues damaging the endothelium of our arterial walls. In a huge percentage of people this process also triggers inflammatory agents that surge through our blood producing pockets of plaque throughout the system. The process quietly evolves over many years until Inflammation, “sticky” platelets and an unstable piece of plaque ruptures. Then the party begins in the form of a “cardiac event or stroke” usually in an unsuspecting victim. Every 4 minutes someone dies experiencing their very 1st cardiac symptom. The truth of the matter is that the disease takes a long time to develop, and if we were more attuned to prevention and early diagnosis in the United States, we’d probably have prevented a lot of heart attacks.

Our Self-talk reveals the Mind/Body connection.

Having practiced psychotherapy for several years it is clear to me that no one is immune to “negative emotions.” Virtually all of us have a “bad day now and then.” However, the problem becomes more pronounced when you realize that many of us have “never had a good day” as emotions are concerned. There is sparse relief in our diversions too, as the most popular television shows in every market are the local news….followed by CSI, CSI Miami, CSI NY, NCIS, etc. Want to relax tonight and watch some television? Let’s see…we can hear about murder and mayhem that have actually become the news in our neighborhoods, or we can see dramatizations of it on every network.

Psychologist Dr. Johan Denollet, from Tilburg University in the Netherlands, has developed a psychological test called the DS14 that helps measure the nature and influence of the chatter in our own minds. The term chatter refers to the way in which we talk to ourselves, our self-talk. This internal dialogue is significant in that it is ongoing and characteristic of our emotional experience and affect. It is sensible for us to examine the quality and distinguishing features of that inner dialogue.

Do you often make a fuss about unimportant things?
Do you often feel unhappy?
Are you often irritated?
Do you take a gloomy view of things?
Are you often in a bad mood?
Do you often find yourself worrying about something?
Are you often down in the dumps?

While reviewing these questions we likely recognize patterns in our own self-talk. If our chatter is comprised of self-talk that favors these descriptors; making a fuss, unhappy, irritated, gloomy, bad mood, worrying, down in the dumps…our negative affect and corresponding behavior could be contributing to the production of the stress hormones we talked about earlier. Furthermore, additional items in the DS14 examine the extent to which certain people become socially isolated and what that might mean to our overall health. Denollet explores social patterns such as the tendency to keep to ourselves, avoid social supports, difficulty making social contact and/or communicating with others.

Negative thinking is clearly a problem, but there is another corresponding concern that complicates the situation even more so. Many of those who characteristically think negatively are prone to have few friends and rarely engage socially with others. Perhaps the negative thinking has pushed others away, or maybe their irritability and agitation unduly effected their ability to network amongst coworkers neighbors or teammates. Whatever the case, if someone is deprived of exposure to others who think differently, or they are stuck within their own little pessimistic world…their incidence of heart disease is increased significantly. So ask yourself, “Do I shy away from developing social relationships? Do I tend to stick to myself and avoid communicating with others? If so, much of the literature indicates that a prevalent experience of negative emotions and the tendency toward social isolation intensifies your risk of a heart attack. Denollet’s research has identified negative affect and social isolation as noteworthy risk factors for CVD.³

So, What Can We do About it?

Pretty much all of us have been on a job interview. We tailor our resume and take the time to craft a good cover letter. Realizing the importance of a good first impression, we dress well, think positive thoughts, rehearse answering questions, focus on the positive attributes we can bring to the job…and we probably deemphasize those things that won’t help us much. We have to work at it but like any other life skill, practice helps us groove the thinking pattern. Remember when you first learned to drive a car and how uncoordinated it felt in the beginning? How much focused attention did it take? Now, it is likely that the basic driving skills are so well integrated by pattern and routine that they hardly require deliberate concentration. These things are guaranteed…if we emphasize a positive outlook and practice a good attitude, we are inclined to develop one. Our genetic predisposition may not make us an optimist, but the development of skill sets and consistent practices will engender in us a positive attitude and the ability to make conscious choices.

Dr. Karen Mathews was recently honored with the American Psychological Association’s award for distinguished scientific applications in the literature on this topic and offers us substantive data to suggest that “optimists are less likely than are pessimists to exhibit the common progression of this disease over time.”4 Other research linking patience, discipline, and close friendships…in addition to…emotional competence (the ability to regulate emotions across a range of situations) have been encouraging to say the least. Studies of professional, marital, interpersonal, and life enrichment activities that require effort but that also promote joy, engage people’s curiosity and provide meaning in life serve to enhance vitality and flexibility.5 The protective effects of these positive coping skills, impulse control, and strong social support are beginning to emerge in the literature of psychosomatic medicine, positive psychology and the writings of mainstream health advocates.6 Harvard psychologist, Daniel Gilbert, who is a leader in this field responds to those who question this kind of research with, “Why on earth would one want to study anything else?”7

Want to give it a try? Take an inventory of who you currently spend the most time with. Think about the nature of your exchanges and the degree to which you are able to think positively after each conversation. If they are important to you, share this article with them and see if they might be willing to “experiment” along with you. Put a chart together of those you consider the most positive and encouraging influences in your world and make it a point to get together more often. Notice people who are kind, loving, competent leaders, avid students of something, those who show persistence, creativity, are fair-minded, or likely to savor a beautiful scene or have a blessing to share. They are in your world for a reason so take the time to discover what good can come from their contribution to your life…and remember to practice, practice, practice.

The top 10 list of things you can do right now, to begin shifting the “emotional” momentum in your life:
1. Take the time to meditate for 20 minutes everyday on your life’s blessings and those things for which you are thankful.
2. Monitor carefully what you watch on TV and notice how you feel afterward.
3. Go to a comedy club, or a funny movie and laugh out loud.
4. Find a comic strip that you like to read, and follow it everyday.
5. Listen to music that is relaxing and yet inspiring (Chopin, Schubert, Springsteen)
6. Make a list of the most “important” things in your life.
7. Make a list of the most “important” people in your life…..tell them so.
8. Think about the last time you were so captivated while doing something, you lost your sense of time completely. Do it again.
9. Intentionally gravitate toward folks who are curious, have a zest for life, are thankful, hopeful, optimistic, & loving.
10. Practice modeling these same virtues for yourself, your coworkers, and your children.
Special bonus suggestion: Log on to Dr. Martin Seligman’s Positive Psychology website: www.authentichappiness.org and take 2-3 inventories that measure your signature strengths & current level of happiness.

References:

1) Rozanski, A, Blumenthal, J, Davidson, K, Saab P, Kubzansky L, “The Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, and Management of Psychosocial Risk Factors in Cardiac Practice”, J Am Coll Cardiol 2005;45:5:637-651.
2) Roberts, W, “Aggressive Testing for and Treatment of Heart Disease and Stroke”, Seminar Proceedings, Denver, Colorado, Nov.19, 2005.
3) Denollet, J, DS14: “Standard Assessment of Negative Affectivity, Social Inhibition, and Type D Personality”, Psychosom Med 2005; 67:89-97.
4) Mathews, K, “Psychological Perspectives on the Development of Coronary Heart Disease”, Am Psycholgst 2005; 60:8:783-796.
5) Bonanno, GA, Papa, A, O’Neil, K, Westphal, M, Coifman, K, “The Importance of Being Flexible; The Ability to Enhance and Suppress Emotional Expression Predicts Long-term Adjustment.” Psychol Sci 2004;15:482-7.
6) Gross JJ, “Antecedent and Response-focused Emotion Regulation: Divergent Consequences for Experience, Expression, and Physiology.” J Pers Social Psychol 1998; 74;224-3
7) Gilbert, D, Stumbling on Happiness, Knopf A, NY, 2005

Sometimes before and during races, you get a voice inside your head that wants to tell you things.  Welcome to Self-talk.  Actually, Self-talk is a major part of every athlete’s journey.  This voice is often your own; sometimes it’s the voice of someone else: a parent, a sibling, a coach, a teacher.  Often this voice tells you things that get in the way of your goals.  There are some important tools to keep in mind when racing endurance events and this article is about Self-talk, how to keep it productive and positive.

This is not a substitute for actually understanding how best to mentally prepare for grueling endurance events.  Recently, Podium published a valuable guide for mental training specifically addressing IronMan Triathlons.  Check it out: A Long Day Outdoors – Mental Conditioning for IronMan Triathlons. 

Self-talk is prevalent.  Sometimes helpful – sometimes negative and destructive.  Have you ever had this conversation with yourself?

“C’mon, you don’t really have to go this hard.  This race isn’t that important to you, and so what if you don’t lay it out on the run.  Your A Race is really next month anyway.  Let’s just back off a notch and call this a training day.  That’s it, no reason to suffer.  Nobody will notice anyway.”  And on and on.

That kind of chatter going on in your head before or during races or hard workouts can really interfere with your development. Here are five action steps you can take in managing that internal dialogue called Self-talk, to keep it productive and positive:

1. Agree with what the voice is saying, but charge ahead anyway.

“Yes,” you say, “I could back off a little.  You’re right, absolutely, no one will notice.  In the big scheme of things, this doesn’t really matter.  Hey, when the sun burns out we are all out of jobs anyway.  You’re right, you’re right.  No reason to go this hard.  Except, let’s just do it anyway!  What the heck, it’s just a race, and it really doesn’t matter that much, like you said, so let’s keep the pace—you know, just for fun.  Heck, let’s pick it up—even more fun.”  Then set your own pace and go back to work.

2. Send the voice to the other side of finish line. 

Tell the voice, “Hey, thanks for showing up.  You know, I’m kinda busy right now.  Tell you what—I’ll see you after I cross the finish line and we can talk then.”  Then see that voice launching off into space to a place just beyond the finish line timing mats and the volunteers and the water bottles and the chip collectors.  Once you finish, if the voice wants to continue, you can listen to it all you want, but the race is over.

3. Haggle with the voice. 

Strike a bargain with the voice.  “I agree, this is pretty hard.  How about we just keep this pace until the next aid station and reevaluate there?  If we need to walk for a few seconds, no problem, but if we still feel like we can hold this pace, we will.  Whaddya say, do we have a deal?”  If the voice doesn’t agree, ask it what kind of deal it proposes.  In the meantime keep the pace.

4. Consider alternative meanings.

Your lungs burn a little and your legs are beginning to feel like five-quart bags of lactic acid.  What does this mean?  It could mean that you are really cooked and about to fall apart.  It could just as likely mean that you are exactly where you want to be in this race, working at potential and trained enough to have plenty left.  Shakespeare wrote, “Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”  What you think it means becomes what it means.  So consider different meanings for what the voice is telling you.  “Man, those legs are getting heavy.  It must mean that you are about to crack,” says the voice.  Better slow down, or even walk, or even better…let’s go home.”  But you add to the conversation by thinking of a few different things that the feeling in your legs might mean.  “Hmmm, those legs are a little roasty, I agree.  It could mean that we are right on with the race plan.  Hey, it’s a race, right, not a nap.  It is after all reasonable to expect that after this much of the racecourse the legs will be feeling it.”  Explore a couple of other alternative meanings.  “Or, think of all the gains for my fitness.  Nothing like going hard to build a little more VO2 capacity and strength for next time.  And mental toughness, too.  If I can hold this pace, think of the next race.  I can recall this time and say, ‘Well last time I raced I didn’t quit, and I didn’t die then, so I can do it again.’”  I’ll bet right now you can think of two or three other meanings that could be true about race-pace sensations.

5. Embrace the voice.

Enlist the voice as an ally.  Welcome it.  When the voice pops up, urging you to back down, engage it.  “Hey, there you are.  I thought I might see you right about here.  Thanks for showing up.  I’m glad for the company.  You know, the only reason that I feel this suffering is because we are going really hard.  Great, huh?  I mean really, if we were treating this as a joke we wouldn’t feel this way at all.  But no joke, my friend, we are racing.  And the reason that you are here is because we are at race pace.  So I’m glad you are here.  We are on schedule.  Help me bring it in.”  Then listen to what the voice says.  Most likely it will soften its tone and try to get on board with you, to get on your side, maybe even to lead a little and get out in front.

So there are five little chats you can have when that voice tries to take you off your goals.  Remember this: in all cases, this voice has an underlying positive intention. Underneath it all, at the root, this voice wants what is best for you.  And when it seems to be pulling the rope in the wrong direction, remember that its strategy might be unhelpful, or the way it expresses itself could be better, but that it’s really on your side.  Use these five chats to help it get there.

For a more in-depth treatment of the topic of how not to cave in, check out A Long Day Outdoors: Mental Conditioning for Ironman Triathlons.

About Will Murray:

Will Murray is a three-time Ironman finisher, a certified NLP Practitioner and has coached more than 100 endurance athletes on mental training.  Will is also an experienced mountaineer, having climbed all 68 14,000 peaks in the continental United States in addition to having reached the summit of Island Peak (20,300’), Lobuche East (20,078’) and seven peaks 18,000 feet and above in Nepal, Citlaltapaltel (18,400’) in Mexico and Batian on Mt. Kenya (17,058).  His most recent project is as the author of Uncle! The Definitive Guide for Becoming the World’s Greatest Aunt or Uncle (Morgan James Publishing, 2011).

About Craig Howie – Colorado Triathlete Coach
Craig grew up in Wyoming where he competed as a wrestler. In 1995 after a devastating knee injury, he was introduced to the amazing world of endurance athletics, and by 1996 had run his first marathon. In 1998 while earning his secondary teaching degree, he began coaching endurance athletes in many different areas including triathlon, duathlon, running, cycling, cyclocross, and swimming. In 2001 Craig moved to Longmont and began working closely with the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. He became “a fly on the wall” and soaked up all of the knowledge of endurance sports coaching he could. These opportunities opened his eyes to amazing training methods and motivated him to become a professional multisport coach. In 2004, Craig left the teaching world and began the Howie Endurance Project. Craig and Jennifer met while in college at the University of Northern Colorado, were married in 2001 and have two young boys. Managing family, work and training has given Craig great insight into how to balance sports with the rest of life. In 2009, Craig qualified for his professional license in triathlon and is now racing as a pro.