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

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

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

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

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

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

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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 Stephen Walker, PhD, CC-AASP, USOC Registry of Sport Psychologists

My dentist has a sign in his office that reads, “Just floss the ones you want to keep.” Playing conscious golf involves the same principle. Mental conditioning for good tournament play is not a matter left to happenstance. In fact, many of the key factors that help people enjoy the game more require them to improve the way they manage their minds and hole-by-hole execution on the course.

I’ve known zillions of club players who defeat themselves before they reach the 1st tee, and it is no surprise that competent competitive golfers achieve that distinction for a reason. They understand and practice the precursors for playing conscious golf and their preparation before the round is both strategic and vital to sound play. Here are the pivotal steps for tournament preparation….

A proper warm up before play includes a good stretching routine, a process for relaxing the body, and bringing the mind into the “NOW” moment. Techniques are employed before one even picks up a club. Breathing in a deliberate manner is essential and at least a dozen different techniques exist to help calm or energize the body by choice. Focusing techniques follow with the really competent players starting with the short game employing techniques such as “soft” hands to enhance feel. “Quieting the mind” is a trained technique that requires disciplined self-talk between every shot practiced on the range. Conscious golf specifically employs routines to center oneself, to recover on demand, and effectively maintain the mental toughness to manage distractions, chatter, and our own mistakes….to play our best and enjoy the challenge completely. There is no better method than perfecting the pre-shot routine to maximize consistency and when properly constructed, this routine enables us to set ourselves up to score.

I call this approach “conscious golf” and have found that it is never more valuable than in competition. Competitive golf includes tournament play of all kinds. Match play or stroke play, alternate shot, one-on-one, four-ball, member-guest socials and even slug-fests qualify. Informal competition amongst friends and family where the stakes might be no larger than beers at the 19th hole may be more relaxed, but the one thing that does stand out is that we really want to perform well.

I like to tell the story of Billy Bob, who was practicing 4 footers, and had sunk 25 of them in a row. Just then his “buddy” showed up and bet him $50 bucks that he’d miss the next putt…..which he certainly did miss, costing him 50 clams. He was so upset that he broke his $200 putter. Competition comes in all forms and it’s important that we’re consciously ready for it when the challenge presents itself.

This article is dedicated to those who choose to put themselves on the line, purposely engaging in competition to hone their wits and their skills in performance. The tournament enthusiast may be professional or amateur, is committed to their game, loves to win and hates to lose. There are four aspects of conscious golf that this article is dedicated to, all designed to help you better prepare for tournament golf. They involve preparation (on and off the course), the 80/20 rule for scoring, and finally, course and game management.

Preparation On and Off the Course

Preparation begins when we sign up for a tournament. In almost all cases, we’ve got to pony up an entry fee so there’s more at stake than just pride. Every tournament is a little bit different. Some are city wide and involve play on consecutive days at multiple courses. Others may involve a summer long commitment in match play where a different opponent is faced each week until one is eliminated. The important thing is to understand the mechanics of the tournament, assess the competition as best you can before play begins, and to be familiar with the layout of the course by having scheduled a couple of practice rounds in the weeks preceding tournament. Sometimes tournaments involve teams, with best ball and alternate shot formats. Choosing your partner can be fundamental to the outcome. Make sure you think about the goodness of fit amongst personalities. My favorite choice of a partner involves someone who has a good sense of humor, is positive, has substance, keeps their cool and realizes that perspective is all important when keeping the stress levels manageable.

I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about fueling our bodies nutritionally the night before and prior to the beginning of the round. By keeping certain foods in our bag, we can keep our blood sugar and hydration needs met. Fueling ourselves optimally might involve a banana to keep our potassium up and a power bar to keep from bonking on the course. The first symptom of bonking on the golf course is a mind that spaces out, makes a mental mistake and fails us in managing our attitudes or committing to the shot (not second guessing our choice as we stand over the ball).

After a couple of practice rounds, it’s a good thing to have a course yardage book to go by. A good many courses now have GPS yardage and distance guides with graphics, distance marks to and from hazards and recommendations for optimal approaches to scoring. These books are likely to cost about $4-5 but are fabulous tools in preparing for tournament play. Since few of us are scratch golfers, and we’re not shooting for the million dollar prize money in a PGA tour event…..it is important that we take into consideration the best and worst of our game in planning our strategy for playing a tournament. Some holes should be played as a par 5, even though they may be listed as a par 4 for the scratch golfer. Choosing our shots before a round, so as to minimize trouble and maximize our course management is always a good strategy. Mistakes will happen. However, our ability to minimize lost shots and “blow-up” holes often makes the biggest difference in our ability to score. Preparation before the round should focus on the short game the most – putting and chipping – because 60% or more of our score will be comprised of these kinds of shots.

Dedication to P3 Thinking

P3 thinking is an applied sport psychology technique coined by Dr. Robin Vealey. It requires us to be disciplined in our mental preparation before, during and after the round. The first characteristic of P3 thinking is that our mental preparation is purposeful. We have a purpose and an intention as we approach the round, and each shot within the round.

The discipline is never more apparent than the self-control employed in thinking productively. There are two prerequisites to productive thinking: focusing in the “now” moment, and attuning oneself to the “task at hand.” Selective memory comes into play in this circumstance, with the qualifier remaining productive, constructive, useful, centered and focused on execution. Swing thoughts are kept simple. They employ a fixed point concentration on “how” we will execute “this” shot.

Possibility thinking characterizes the third characteristic of the disciplined mind in tournament play. Each shot is shaped in our mind. A clear target or landing area is not only recognized but planned for. This aspect of the game is managed with flexibility and resiliency, and, it depends on how we may be striking the ball that day, weather or course conditions. Possibility thinking, however, NEVER involves anticipating a score or even calculating numbers during the round. The possibilities are channeled into the execution of one shot at a time, period.

The 80/20 Rule for Scoring

The 80/20 Rule for scoring comes into play most often the closer we get to the hole. The first rule is to “do no harm”. Keep the ball in play. Out-of-bounds and lost balls do happen, and can destroy the best of rounds. By playing a par 4 as a personal par 5, we can choose shots that increase our likelihood of staying out of trouble and those that put us in position to score. A difficult tee shot might best be made with a 5 iron instead of driver. The distance may not matter nearly as much as the ability to play for position and even avoid trouble.

Most golfers in tournament play give away shots unwittingly around the putting green, chipping and putting. Target selection and club selection are paramount here. A chip shot over a sand trap, with a short landing area is not a good percentage shot, especially if we chunk it into the bunker. Choosing the play that puts us in position to score is first priority. Oftentimes, that means we avoid the trouble strategically and purposely. The terrain approach and pin position will dictate our shot selection. Having the ability to pitch and run a 5, 6 or 7 iron vs. lofting a wedge may teach us about the speed of the green and allow us to read the green better for the putt that follows. Watching our opponent’s ball (and not our opponent) can let us learn from both their successes and their mistakes and give us valuable information we can use later in the round.

Partner golf (best ball/alternate shot team play) is a particular challenge in both the ability to stay in synch with one another, but also in communicating effectively to maximize the partnership… thereby minimizing lost shots to mistakes. In best ball play, “ham and eggs” is a good thing and refers to how one partner scores optimally while the other is having a less than stellar hole. Teams that effectively communicate shot selection and strategy increase the effectiveness of the partnership. In alternate shot play, it is really important to consider each player’s strengths and weaknesses in course management and to agree on strategy before each hole.

Attitude adjustment is probably the single most important aspect of the 80/20 scoring rule. Choosing an attitude that has a short memory for poorly played shots, and a long memory for successes is hugely beneficial. Letting go of self-criticism, guilt over failing a partner and any thought that intrudes on our ability to “Be Here Now” and sustain the principles of P3 thinking is imperative to play your best.

Course and Game Management

Anyone who plays this game with any degree of consistency will tell you they are not sure who is going to show up on the 1st tee. We have our ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ games and we can’t always tell when we are going to see which. The ‘A’ game, of course, is the one we most want in tournament play. We are “on” and in the “zone”… hitting the ball crisply and putting in such a way that we see the hole like we’d see the Grand Canyon…big. Sometimes we have that ‘A’ game to keep us company in a tournament. However, sometimes we don’t. What then?

Course management goes to our advance preparation and our knowledge of the course itself. Club selection, shot selection, target zones and “personal par” strategy are the hallmark of course management. No matter what game, ‘A’ ‘B’ or ‘C’, on that day we can do our best if we properly manage ourselves and our choices during the round. Looking over the course layout the night before, it would be useful to plan contingencies for each hole….and keep our notes handy during the round itself.

Managing our game means managing our attitudes during play. Keeping our emotions in check, staying in the “Now”, and keeping our wits about us as we approach each hole and select each shot is the key to playing our best tournament golf. After each round, it may be valuable to review the round and chart fairways hit, greens in regulations, up and down opportunities, sand saves, and putts. This realistic assessment of strengths and weaknesses after the round channels our practice sessions and preparation for upcoming competitions. A purposeful, productive and possibility-focused game improvement strategy becomes the norm. Of course, there are many other strategies and tools for maximizing our performance on game day, but none are more important than those we discussed in this article. The methods for successful play in competition pale in comparison to the healthy attitude and joy of the game.

John Updike once said that, “Golf appeals to the idiot in us and the child. Just how childlike golfers become is proven by their frequent inability to count past five.”

Of course, if we don’t play well, the Irish had an answer for us. Did you ever wonder why there are 18 Holes, not 15 or 20? That would be because there are eighteen shots of whiskey in a bottle, and they figured a shot on the tee box of every hole would have them all playing their ‘A’ Game by the time they reached the clubhouse at the end of the day. It’s no wonder most amateur tournaments have no shortage of partying and revelry in between each day of golf.

Happy Scoring.

By Stephen Walker, Ph.D.

Sasha DiGiulian Win’s the 2011 SCS National Championships in Sport Climbing

Photos by Dominik Walker

Editors Note: Goal Setting is commonly referred to as an integral mental skill. However, in our experience there are few coaches and athletes that really know how to do it properly. It is a mental skill that will require months of diligent attention the first time through, but like all skill sets, it becomes more routine with practice. However, this mental skill is designed to be a very conscious one, to be well thought out, and thoroughly reviewed with those whose support is key.

Given the concerns and downside of overtraining/under-recovery and burnout, done properly, goals can help maximize the health and performance of every athlete. Dr. Julian Morrow offers us a well crafted, intelligently written, researched and tested program that is a must for every athlete and coach’s repertoire of skill sets. It addresses and takes into account the most common pitfalls and oversights, and enables one to plan and execute on an elite level, whatever the goal.  Thanks J, SEW

by Dr. Julian Morrow

Suppose that during a moment of earnest introspection, a teachable opportunity so to speak, you decided to create the perfect “you”; not just in terms of your sport but in regard to the big picture, the whole enchilada from the ground up. A sensible place to start might be to list the various roles that comprise your global sense of self, your identity (e.g. grad student, mom, electrical engineer). Next, order them in a hierarchy, placing those that are the most highly valued at the top. Disclaiming any extra-sensory pretense, I can still predict that being a competitive athlete would fall somewhere in the upper tier, otherwise you probably wouldn’t be reading this right now. Competitive athletes are continuously searching for that extra edge which will push them over the top and that is exactly what I believe this article offers.

Implicit within your role hierarchy are an assortment of contributing factors, a composite of your values, perceived competencies and lifestyle preferences. In other words, it portrays a pretty comprehensive snapshot of your existing self-image as well as a futuristic glimpse of how you intend to evolve.

Beginning with the Beginning

Based on my personal experience, I have yet to meet someone who has voluntarily committed themselves to pursue the rigors and demands of sport, on any level, who is satisfied to remain static. I have found that the one pervasive and common feature among this stouthearted group is their eagerness to accept the challenge of striving to improve themselves. Quite often, this is attempted by sifting through the multitude of self-improvement tips floating around and then locking on to those they intuitively believe will help accomplish their mission; those with the potential to nudge them ever-closer to that ephemeral, ever-shifting, concept, the ideal “me”.

Why bother with Self-efficacy?

Ultimately, positive change involves the dialectic of “pushing the envelope” beyond the comfort zone. This, however, can be a dicey undertaking, given that all changes involve a degree of risk. And unless faith and confidence are at hand to neutralize the risk, nothing happens. So, worthy of note, and this is important, if and when you ultimately decide to make the push towards change, indeed push, but gently. Exuberance and eagerness must be continually fortified with little successes and positive feedback. This consideration is especially worth noting early on, that pivotal time when you’re most vulnerable to self-doubts, the nasty flip-side of self-confidence, a.k.a. “self-efficacy”, a more precise but somewhat “jargony” term. Self-efficacy refers specifically to your personal sense of competency in one or more of these areas we are about to explore.

Unattainable aspirations as well as unrealistic self-assessments typically lead to negative self-talk which stirs up feelings of anguish and apathy. Inevitably, these feelings will morph into diminished energy and a “why even try?” attitude. This is why it is wise to incorporate “keepin’ it real” as your omnipresent mantra. It will serve you well as you as you proceed on your journey.

Motor Skills & Techniques
Adaptive vs. Destructive Lifestyle Features
Fitness Level
Mental Toughness

You can begin to chart your course by using the following four interrelated domains as your self-evaluative framework: 1)motor skills and techniques (including the sophistication and breadth of your racing strategies and your ability to read your competition); 2) lifestyle features (nutrition, sleep, drug and alcohol consumption); 3) fitness level (training); and 4)mental toughness (giving special consideration to your ability to access your “game face” and regroup after setbacks). What the consideration of these four domains provides is a totally comprehensive set of the features that must be addressed in order to ultimately make a genuine difference. Take note, your initial evaluations should start out broad and general. As you work the process, continuously attempt to deconstruct each issue into its most fundamental elements. The more specific you are, the better this procedure will work.

Don’t hesitate to ask for assistance here because your coach or personal trainer can help.  The Bottom line: the numbers in your workouts don’t lie – so consider a base-line fitness for competing and work up from there.  In most racing events (triathlon & running) an athlete who is able to perform in competition at a level commensurate with the numbers they put up in training – has had a great outing.

That point behind us, and assuming you’re amenable to accepting suggestions from a highly qualified stranger, we’ll continue. Eschewing any iota of false modesty or equivocation, I implore you to keep paramount in your mind that this is a carefully crafted, road-tested (sorry about the pun) strategy. TRUST IT! Begin by grabbing a plain sheet of paper and pencil. Let’s kick start your pursuit towards excellence.

Determining What Condition is your Condition in?

First, construct four horizontal parallel lines of equal length. Whoosh! These lines have now been magically transformed into continuous scales, each one representing your strengths and weaknesses in terms of the four aforementioned domains. The left end of each line designates your lowest self-evaluations as they relate to the construct while the right end signifies the highest. Now place two dots, A and B on each line. “A” represents your perceived current state of affairs (competence or skill level) and “B” marks the spot where you ultimately believe, given optimal circumstances, you can go.

Beginner                           A                                                                               B             Master

Motor Skills & Techniques

Don”t neglect to consider some realistic parameters such as age, inbred limitations, and competing demands from the other roles in your life. Word up, this is neither the time to be humble nor full of yourself. Now prepare yourself to break down each domain into functional components. Do this by replicating the same procedure of drawing lines and noting where to place your “A’s” and “C’s”.

Using only the “fitness domain” as an example, what you should now have,  is one overall general fitness scale, followed by a series of subscales that you determine to be the most critical elements of the whole. In this instance let’s say, you identify and label three subscales: aerobic fitness, flexibility and upper body strength. Then, complying with your assignment, you fill in the dots.

Poor                              A                                                                                          B   Excellent

Aerobic Fitness

The next step is to observe and examine the gaps between the A’s and B’s individually on each global domain scale as well each subscale. Your underlying concern is directed at creating a workable set of strategies that will ultimately minimize the distance of each distinct gap. In order to accomplish this, try to establish as many insights as possible. These are to be transposed and written down as self-affirming statements. No shortcuts please! Now, to the best of your ability, define and pinpoint specifically, in terms of measurable objectives, what course of action, in terms of specific steps, those behavioral and cognitive changes (automatic, involuntary, random thoughts and self-talk), it will take to satisfy your intentions.

The substance of the message I’m trying to convey is, in order to promote positive movement, more attention should be devoted to your long-neglected weaknesses. Restated, it’s time to stop relying on your strengths to pull you through. “Same-old-same old” is just not the savvy way to initiate growth. Sure, it’s the safe and cozy path but it leads nowhere.

Chris Carmichael (Lance Armstrong’s Coach) said it best:”Train Your Weakness Race Your Strengths”

And oh yeah, if you’re one of the fortunate souls who have coaches or training partners, get them into the mix. Probe their minds for additional ideas and feedback-all the while remembering to interpret their comments and critiques as constructive suggestions rather than “put-downs”.

This is a forewarning, we’re about to enter a slightly rougher stretch of road (again pun, again sorry). What typically makes the conversion from plan to execution difficult is that once you get started, initial improvements are generally negligible to the naked eye. In fact, what sometimes occurs is that, as you shift your emphasis towards the weaker aspects of your repertoire, performance may even take a slight dip. Be prepared for this and remember it’s only temporary. Consequently I offer this little caveat, restrict your modifications to open periods in your racing schedule. Never initiate a novel “tweak” during competition – they just flat out won’t work effectively under high arousal situations like road-races.

Hold off unwrapping these nuggets until they’ve been adequately hammered into the old noggin. Avoid the potential pitfall, the voice of the devil so to speak that might whisper, “noticeable changes aren’t happening, not working, jump ship…woe is me.” Meaningful change, to the level that it feels automatic and natural takes time. I cannot stress this enough. Be patient – ask any coach in any sport, proficiency takes reps, reps, and more reps. For a more thorough explanation of this point, check out Hull’s Drive Theory in almost any reputable intro psych text.

That said, what sorts of tools do I offer to provide the necessary juice to guide us, no, urge us, to sustain a “keep on keepin’ on” mind set? The-plain-and- simple answer is (drum roll please) – goals.

Goals & Goal Setting

Remember Pac Man from back in the day of first generation computer arcade games? There were those little power pills that, when consumed by our pie-shaped little hero, boosted his energy and enabled him to continue scurrying around consuming the dreaded “ghosties”, which in turn, propelled the player to an ever higher score. Goals are like power pills but, in addition, they also serve an additional function, that of a road map. A schema that clearly represents, “you are here” and “here’s where you want to go”. Goals provide direction. They are the AAA of the soul. What’s more is that when you adequately satisfy a goal, you experience a boost in vitality. The notion that goal attainment which is achieved through self-regulatory procedures possesses this powerful quality has been substantiated by reams of scientific research results. Word up, there’s nothing like achieving smaller goals to strengthen your resolve to “keep on keeping on” towards long objectives. Without goals to guide and sustain you, energy soon gets depleted from purposeless floundering.

Researched and Tested – Guidelines for Goal Setting

There is, however, an interesting paradox here which, if ignored, has the potential to trip you up. Whereas the concept of goal setting is so simple, it may lull you into a false state of complacency. Proper execution and mastery involve some basic principles that novices often overlook. Many of these principles have already been alluded to within different contexts, so I offer this primarily as a check list and review.

* Long term Goals are comprised of a series of short term Goals.
Long term goals as well as major domain goals should be arranged into a series of short term goals on a daily basis. I enjoy reserving some time to kick back each day and contemplate tomorrow’s challenges. As I jot down my delineated course of action, I’m aware that my strivings should become progressively riskier along the self-efficacy versus task difficulty matrix. What helps is that I have learned to conceptualize this as a chain of pit stops that provide refreshment and confidence even as the distance between stops gets progressively longer.

* Goals should be written down. Repeat. Goals should be written down.
The act of writing changes the dynamics, “the medium is the message”. Why? First because your attempt to fashion a workable hard copy allows for a slowed down pace and hence, detailed specificity. Second, the permanence of the written word creates a sense of commitment. It’s a lot harder to run and hide from a document saved in your computer than a fleeting thought. Studies conducted in the area of motivation strongly suggest that people who take the time to write down their self-improvement agendas are significantly less likely to blow them off when the going gets tough. Instead, what they’re more likely to do is remain mindful of the next rule.

* Goals should be flexible. Ahem. Goals should be flexible.
Knowing exactly where to dangle the carrot is an art form. Placed too close to your nose and the only feelings you’re likely to express upon attainment are a blase yawn, coupled with a sarcastic finger swirl. Inversely, pie-in-the-sky goals set too far down the pike which, upon further consideration, are considered to be way too ambitious, elicit an equally ineffective consequence. The bottom line – no movement at all. Use the feedback you receive from each attempt and each reevaluation to make appropriate adjustments. Knowing how high to set the bar takes some trial and error based on your objective self-appraisals. This is one instance where either modesty or false bravado will serve you well. Keep fine-tuning until you ultimately hit that sweet spot where the challenges only slightly exceed your sense of competence. This is especially true during the early stages. Once you get into the rhythm of the dance and your self-efficacy becomes more pervasive, you can attempt to stretch out the challenges without risking a drop off in confidence from pulling up a tad short.

* Goal satisfaction should begin easy and get more difficult.
In keeping with that same train of thought and what bears repeating is, goal satisfaction should start easy and get progressively more difficult. A wise rule of thumb is that self-efficacy, your belief that the goal can be met without much strain, should begin with a resounding “slam-dunk”. Once this consideration is assured, you can start attempting the lower percentage shots, the “three pointers”. Go ahead, survey your buddies about the most difficult aspect of any activity, be it a term paper or work-out, and the unanimous consensus will point directly to getting started. Once you prime the pump, your energy surges and things just seem to get easier. Try this little experiment on a day when you feel too lethargic or out-of-sorts to train. Establish a very modest goal, say, simply changing into your sweats and plopping your lazy butt onto your bicycle seat. No joke. What typically happens then is, that goal achieved, you effortlessly slip into convincing yourself to proceed with a quick and easy “ride in the park”. What you’ve done is minimize the negativity of fretting and ruminating that usually accompanies your concerns stemming from bailing prematurely from your objectives and, “not getting the job done”. By utilizing this super-minimal effort strategy, you can reframe your inner dialogue, “props to me, since I’ve already surpassed what I set out to do”. Feeling lighter and unburdened, you can now continue to boogy down the road. Before you know it, you’re stepping into a well-deserved shower. This phenomenon is not hard to explain. It’s a result of the way our nervous systems are hard-wired. As a rock proceeds to roll down a hill, its energy is exclusively provided by its own momentum.

* Goals are specific and measurable.
Goals must be specific and measurable. Suppose you decide to improve on a counterproductive aspect of your lifestyle by cutting out simple carbs right before you go to bed. A pattern you’ve established from reviewing the daily entries in your training journal (a previous goal which you’ve selected) is that you typically get uncontrollable sweet tooth yearnings and eventually succumb to a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia at around ten in the evening while you watch the nightly news. Seeking creative solutions to this nutritional dalliance, you attempt a plan of distraction. Having carefully reviewed this article a number of times and following its suggestions to the letter, you correctly formulate a blueprint which translates into immersing yourself in woodworking projects, your fave-rave pastime, from ten to ten forty p.m., in your brand spanking new workshop. By first removing yourself from the place and time where your cravings usually occur (for the uninitiated, some review of involuntary classical conditioning will provide the theoretical rationale of this particular situation), you’ve made a heads up choice. What’s more, if this particular prescription falls short, you can implement plan B, either by modifying the time duration or by attempting another activity altogether (like sex for example, which has a greater capacity to distract) all the while maintaining the understanding that reprogramming your conditioned responses to external stimuli, like time of day, will ultimately spell the difference. Don’t for one second think that I couldn’t continue this discussion ad infinitum by deftly switching my focus to the elimination of negative self-talk or the creation of effective pre-competition routines as my objectives. This should serve as a warning-don’t get me started.

* Goals are process rather than outcome oriented.
And finally, goals should be process rather than outcome oriented. This includes the acknowledgement that goal achievement should be within your control. You have no control over your competition, your coaches, or weather conditions, just yourself. As an example, consider the variability of your competition. The effort and preparation that may pay off with a high standing in one race may not produce bupkus on another day. Same effort. Same prep work. Different competition and surrounding circumstances. For many, this is a sea change in their approach to cycling. Trust in yourself to the extent that when your technique, lifestyle, fitness level and mental preparations have been adequately attended to, the outcome will take care of itself. It’s really the only way to fly.

Photos by Dominik Walker

About the author:

Dr. Julian Morrow, who by the way prefers to be referred to as J (please no Dr. J jokes either) graduated “quite a few years ago” from the University of Wisconsin where he was a member of the wrestling team. “Several years later”, after exploring an unsatisfying succession of totally unrelated careers (while half-heartedly attending graduate school in psychology) an insightful moment occurred that cleared his vision. Committed and focused, he completed his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from New York University despite the disappointment of having to “end run” one last obstacle. He explains this final hurdle by narrating the story of being unable to recruit even one faculty member to join his dissertation committee, “rejections were, one hundred percent in agreement,” his proposal topic was deemed “interesting but frivolous”. He continues, “this event occurred before sport psychology was considered ‘legit’ in the eyes of academia, and my topic of choice had to do with self-concept and athletic performance”. So, being a pragmatist, he “somewhat reluctantly” gave up the ghost, that is, until several years later, when a critical mass of interest and support, “even academia hopped on the bandwagon”, allowed him to return to sport psychology and pursue a variety of “different research objectives and roles” that now encompass this burgeoning specialization. He’s taught (full and part time at various universities), authored (research papers, text chapters, popular magazines), consulted (professional athletes and teams, NCAA, USOC), and continues to enjoy his albeit scaled back, semi-retired, career. What has been J’s most satisfying experience as a sport psychologist? “Thus far, I would say mentoring a wonderful high school student for three years. The relationship culminated with Matt being rewarded for his research efforts by being selected as a finalist in the highly competitive and respected Intel Science Competition”. By the way, the topic that the two explored together – Goal setting, expert feedback and verbal leaping ability.

Dr. J Morrow is a long-time friend of Podium Sports Journal and a member of the Podium Advisory Board – to learn more about Dr. Morrow check out his professional bio.

by Carrie Cheadle, MA, CC-AASP

You’ve been on the fence for a couple years now. Every once in a while, the thought travels through your mind, “Maybe I should do a triathlon…” and then it travels right back out again. You keep thinking about wanting to do your first triathlon, but you still haven’t pulled the trigger. What does it take to move a person from thinking to doing? What holds people back from going after something they want? If you are getting tired of the same old dialogue running through your head, here are some things to keep in mind to help you move forward.

What’s Your Motivation?

First things first; what is your motivation? Is this something you really want to do? Why do you want to participate in a triathlon? Think back to the last time the thought of doing a triathlon entered your mind. Did you feel excited? Apprehensive? A sense of dread? It’s important to make sure that your motives are your own. If while contemplating your triathlon motivation your thoughts include statements like, “I should just do a triathlon”, or “All of my friends are doing triathlons”, then it’s time to assess why YOU want to do one.

Your motivation to participate in sport can come from several different sources. Intrinsic motivation is when you want to do something because of your own desire to feel good about yourself and be accomplished at something. When you are intrinsically motivated, you race triathlons because you love the sport and enjoy seeing yourself improve. Extrinsic motivation is when you want to do something because of external factors; people will think you’re cool if you’ve done a triathlon or they’ll finally stop bugging you to do one!  If you are intrinsically motivated to train and race then you’re taking ownership over your choice to participate. If your only source of motivation is coming from the fact that “everyone else is doing it, maybe I should do it too” then you probably won’t have the motivation it takes to commit to the training to prepare for the race. If you force yourself to do it anyway, you will feel like you aren’t in control of your choice and won’t enjoy the process. You have to figure out what excites you about triathlon and if you find that you don’t have the intrinsic motivation for a triathlon, what are you excited about? Maybe you’re really inspired by adventure racing or cyclocross, or maybe you want to start with a 5K or duathlon to build your confidence. Having this internal drive and desire will help you feel more excited to take on the challenges of training and increase the effort you put forth towards accomplishing your goals.  But its important to “keep it real”, not everyone can expect to become a Dave Scott…but become a better swimmer, cyclist or runner? Most definitely.

Podium Sports Journal has featured some very inspirational stories on how people have found the motivation to succeed.  The Story of Brian Boyle is one of them. Mental toughness is a term that’s makes it seen that only the baddest dude in town can do it – but that’s far from the case.  Really all mental toughness is – is paying attention to the things that matter, that you control, for as long as you need to pay attention to them.  An outcome goal may be “complete a triathlon” – but its your focus on the process that will guarantee your success.  Research on what mental skills others used to complete triathlons might help.

Break It Down

Speaking of goals, once you have figured out what you are motivated to do, you need to figure out how you are going to do it. What can appear to be a lack of motivation is oftentimes a lack of confidence. You start thinking about doing a triathlon and then become overwhelmed when you can’t figure out where to start. From there you begin to doubt your ability to even do one. Questions and thoughts about doing a triathlon start rolling around in your head:

How would I train?  Do I have the time?  What if I can’t do the swim?

I don’t know if I have the right bike.  I don’t know how to change a flat tire.

What if I join a group and I don’t like it?

What if I come in last???

Where to Start?

Thinking about a triathlon in its entirety becomes overwhelming and can keep you stuck just thinking about signing up and never actually following through. You can’t get through the end until you get through the beginning; what are all of the steps you need to take in order to accomplish your goal? When you’re mapping out your plan to do a triathlon, start with the end and move backwards from there. Keep moving backwards until you get to the very first step and start there. That first step might be choosing which triathlon to sign up for and putting your money down, figuring out what kind of bike to buy, finding a training buddy, or finding a training program that will fit your needs. Here’s an example of what a list might begin to look like:

5.  Complete a Sprint Triathlon

4.  Swim, Bike, Run training – do I want to do it on my own or with a group?

3.  Figure out when I can train

2.  Get bike tuned up

1.  Buy running shoes

Setting a goal is just like going on a road trip, you need to know what your destination is and then you need to figure out how you are going to get there. If you’re going on a road trip from California to New York you probably wouldn’t drive straight through; you would break it down into day trips and figure out where you would stop along the way. Breaking down your goal into smaller steps helps it feel less overwhelming and more manageable. Right now all you have to worry about is buying shoes. Once you figure out the first step give yourself a deadline for accomplishing it. Once you’ve accomplished it, move on to the next step. With each step that you complete you will build confidence in your ability to move towards the next step.

Overcoming Inertia

If the idea of doing a triathlon is exciting and you even have a rough idea of what steps you would take, but you still haven’t moved forward… it’s time to assess the “L factor”. The laws of physics tell us that in order to have a change in motion you need to apply force. The same is true for overcoming your own inertia. The Latin root for the word inertia means “lazy” and sometimes that’s what it boils down to. The “L factor” doesn’t mean you’re actually lazy, it just means that you are in motion with the other aspects of your life, and not in motion when it comes to triathlon. An object not in motion will remain unmoving until something forces it to move, and in this case that force is you. The good news is that once you’re in motion, you’re more likely to keep moving!

Ways to overcome inertia:

Ÿ  Tell your family, friends, and co-workers that you are signing up for your first event

Ÿ  Invite a friend to join you and do your first triathlon together

Ÿ  Join a training group and get support from coaches and peers

Ÿ  Start with a 5K and let the momentum move you towards your next event

Ÿ  Be afraid and do it anyway!

You’re standing on the edge of the diving board, what will it take to get you to jump? You have to be willing to push yourself past the walls of your comfort zone that hold you safely in place. Sometimes you just have to force yourself to get moving in the direction you want to go. Push through your doubts and fears. Believe in yourself. Find out what you love, figure out how to do it, and go for it!

From the editor:  Thanks Carrie.  We sometimes forget the importance of breaking things down into bite-sized pieces – and – there is no better guideline for learning how to achieve the big things in our life than focusing on the small things, one-at-a-time until we’ve felt the confidence in readily completing enough of them to actually believe we can do it.  To learn more about process goals and how to set them, check out this short piece inspired by President Teddy Roosevelt and Dr. J. Morrow’s comprehensive & detailed article called Researched & Tested Guidelines for Goal Setting – guaranteed to help.

Carrie Cheadle, M.A., CC-AASP is a mental skills coach and provides mental skills clinics and team workshops across the country. Carrie works with athletes of all levels from competitive recreational to elite and professional athletes competing at national and international levels. Want more on mental skills training?  Follow her blog and join her on Facebook!

by Dr. Stephen Walker, CC-AASP

Robin Vealey is one of sport psychology’s best. Her book Coaching for the Inner Edge (2005) is one the field’s most comprehensive works. In it she offers guidance in the use of applied methods and instruction on some of the most valuable techniques available. I give it my highest endorsement and believe it should be part of every coach’s library, regardless of the sport they teach. Whether your focus is on team chemistry or mental conditioning for peak performance, there is depth and substance to please even the most discriminating of practitioners.

One small chapter in this remarkable text involves a skill called P3 thinking. P3 Thinking is a mental training tool that focuses on the uniqueness of our self-talk, internal dialogue or cognitive awareness. It can either be purposeful, productive and positive (P3), or not. The not is likely to be characterized by more random thoughts, reactive in nature and restrictive in both range and usefulness.

It is a fact that successful athletes think differently.

They have belief systems that support their success and they actively work to manage their thought patterns. Every athlete who has conditioned themselves mentally will have readily practiced methods or strategies that support P3 thinking. This article reviews Vealey’s concepts and recommends some exercises she uses to develop your skill at P3 thinking.

Thinking Purposefully

Athletes and coaches who excel know what athletes should be thinking about and when they should be thinking it. Optimal performance does not come when athletes over think their execution. There is a distinct difference between purposeful thinking and random or reactive thoughts.

The flow state (optimal performance zone) is impaired when an athlete is encumbered by random or reactive judgments. There is no guarantee that an athlete will be able to engage the flow state on demand, but the likelihood is greatly enhanced when purposeful thinking patterns are developed and routinely engaged. Nike says “Just do it,” but do you ever wonder why some athletes can’t even describe the optimal performance zone, much less call for it on demand?

Athletes who don’t engage in purposeful thinking are far more likely to let events in the environment dictate how they think and feel. This happens largely because they don’t know what to think about.

Purposeful thinking is disciplined and focuses on such things as skill development, execution, strategy and getting us charged up or psyched for the extreme effort. It often may be designed to relax us, calm us down, focus our concentration, or remind us of our strengths to boost confidence.

The key to purposeful thinking is to clearly identify the focal points for your thinking – the goal, process of execution, the solution to the problem. Done properly and practiced regularly, this type of focus reduces the chance your thinking will gravitate toward what you don’t want.

Thinking Productively

Vealey suggests that the goals of sport psychology are to help athletes and coaches: 1) Achieve optimal performance. 2) Develop to your full potential. 3) Realize the most rewarding experiences in sport.

No one is immune to negative thoughts. The greatest athletes in the world have them. But what makes them different? They realize that they have a choice to make. They can gravitate toward them, or, they can respond in a different manner, and favor more productive thinking.

Thinking productively can only happen when the individual is focused in the “now” moment. Future thinking often contributes to anxiety. Thought patterns focused in the past tend to trigger should’ve, would’ve, could’ve self-talk and can often lead to discouragement. By definition, judgments and feelings that take us away from the “now” moment interfere with our own personal control. Productive thinking is always in the present.

Productive thinking is also task related. The point of concentration is on what we are “doing”, or the job at hand. Personal significance is important too since productive thinking must address things that are important to each individual athlete or team. Consider two athletes warming up. One of them is thinking about their rate of turnover, the “feel” of the optimal stride and the objective of improving upon their previous PR. Are they more likely to succeed than the athlete next to them who is worrying about how good the athlete looks in lane 5 …or maybe the athlete unhappy with their seeding in the event?

Consider this. The difference between the gold medal and fifteenth place in the Olympic 5,000 meters was just 10 seconds. How much of that margin can be attributed to discrete differences in physical or mental conditioning?

Thinking Possibilities

I once attended a workshop conducted by Dr. Jerry Lynch where he asked everyone in the room to stand and stretch with their fingers touching the sky, as best they could. Everyone was stretching, some losing balance, some standing casually with their arms outstretched. Then he asked us to give him just 2 more inches. “Really stretch” he said, and low and behold people found two more inches to give. This is the key to possibility thinking.

Roger Bannister, like many other runners, had to contend with the barrier of the four minute mile. To break that, he probably needed only 2-3 seconds from his previous PR. When weighing the stretch of improving 2-3 seconds vs. breaking the 4 minute mile barrier…which seems more possible?

Possibility thinking begs us to deliberately become more optimistic. Vealey states that, “Optimism is characterized by believing that defeat is a temporary setback, leads people to try harder, work through obstacles, and look for solutions.” Athletes should set possibility goals. They are purposely a stretch but compel us to work toward them.

P3 Thinking Exercises

1) Think carefully about the thoughts and feelings you associate with poor performances that you have had. Do these thoughts relate to the amount of stress you feel, lack of confidence you have? How was your focus in that event? How is it now as you think about it again? (Think Random, Reactive, Restrictive)

2) Now think about a good performance. How were your thoughts and feelings in that situation? Which thought routines do you practice that prepare you to perform well? Which keep you focused and confident? (Think Purposeful, Productive, Possibility)

Antidote: Consider an event or a situation you might anticipate that has the potential to send you into a negative thinking spiral. Write down the specifics of that event and how it might hurt your performance. Do you have an actual memory of such an event?

Replacement Thoughts: In the above situation or using another trigger event, identify the specific event and what replacement thoughts (P3 Thinking) you can employ to take control of that situation. How will this enhance your specific performance in this situation? Do you have an actual memory of doing this? How did it work out?

Robin Vealey has provided an excellent tool to help you develop your mental conditioning program. Consider this anytime you find intrusive thoughts interfering with your performance and use the model to plan ahead, so you have a problem solving remedy at the ready. Remember: These skills become second nature when practiced frequently and employed regularly. Just as in your fitness training, there is no substitute for repetition and practice in developing mental toughness. It could make a difference in your next competition.

Vealey, R.S., Coaching for the Inner Edge

By Dr Stephen Walker PhD

by Dr. Haley Perlus with Stephen Walker, PhD

How nervous do you get on race day? How do you feel in the start area when you see your fellow competitors warming up, the coaches preparing skis and the parents collecting jackets and wishing their kids good luck?

When you’re standing in line for your run, do you feel the butterflies in your stomach? What do you say to yourself to calm your nerves? Do you try to convince yourself that it’s just another ski course and you should treat it like a regular training run? Do you say to yourself don’t think about the results and hope that calms your nerves?

Every athlete experiences a little nervousness on race day. The butterflies, sweaty palms and rapid heart rate mean you care about your sport and want to perform well.  Here are Five Tips that will help you race as well as you train.

1)  If you let them, your nerves can help you race faster.

They release certain chemicals and hormones in your body that help you to explode out of the starting gate, move forward at every turn and push through to the finish line.  Your nerves are not the enemy – so don’t treat them as such.  To do your best, you must feel “some” excitement.

2)  Let your butterflies work for you.

The next time you feel the butterflies in your stomach, close your eyes and imagine the butterflies aligning themselves to help you conquer the course. Remind yourself that they are there to help you gain a competitive edge on your competition.   Use your breathing to help move them into alignment.  A “centering breath” is your ally in bringing your nerves into alignment.

3) Train your weakness Race your strengths

Training Tip: Another way to manage your nerves comes with specific focus in practice – the race simulation. Instead of trying to treat your race like a training run, attack the first run in every training course and pretend it’s a race.

In a race, you only have one chance to conquer the course. The best way to race as well as you train is to use the first training run to simulate race day.

Each time you have a new training course, take the time to inspect the course as you would a race course. Spend several minutes at the start to prepare your body for your run. Imagine how you’re going to race the course. Use the PETTLEP imagery method to keep your visualization practice focused and precise.

4)  You’ve got tools, use them in training.

Training Tip: Get yourself energized to compete by listening to your race playlist. Radio your coaches for a course report. Strip down to your full speed suit. Ask your coaches or teammates to sporadically throw in a delay (as you could experience in a race). Then, perform your best start and race as fast as you can all the way to the finish.

5)  Building confidence requires training too – Here’s how to train for confidence.

At the end of your training day:  Write down 1 or 2 things in your “confidence book” that you DID REALLY WELL that day.  Be precise: answer who, what, where, when, how?  Write enough details in so that you can review your book before key competitions – and – KNOW you did the proper preparation so you are ready.  Confidence comes easier when you acknowledge exactly what you accomplished in your preparation.

Race simulation is the best way to bridge the gap between training and racing. Not only will you’re racing improve, but you will find that you are able to exert more effort in training. You’ll be more confident and ready to stand on top of the podium.

With a Ph.D. in Sport and Exercise Psychology, Dr. Haley Perlus is an adjunct professor, seminar leader, consultant to national team and Division I athletes, published author of The Ultimate Achievement Journal, The Inside Drive and The Guidebook to Gold Series, as well as appointed an Industry Leader by IHRSA. A former elite athlete, coach and fitness professional, Dr. Haley is an expert at empowering individuals to achieve peak results.  Dr. Haley is available for individual and group mental toughness consultations. To find out more about these programs you can visit her website: DrHaleyPerlus.com.

Dr. Stephen Walker is a licensed healthcare practitioner specializing in health and sport psychology and lives in Boulder, Colorado.   He is certified by the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, National Board of Certified Counselors, and is a member of the United States Olympic Committee’s Registry of Sport Psychologists and the American Psychological Association.   He is the director of Health & Sport Performance Associates, and serves as editor-in-chief of Podium Sports Journal, an on-line publication.

by Noah Gentner, PhD, CC-AASP

Over the last month much of the content on this site has dealt with the Olympics.  One of the most interesting things about the Olympics is that they give us a glimpse at how athletes deal with highly pressurized situations.  Most Olympic athletes spend a lifetime preparing for one event in one Olympics.  There is no second chance for most of these athletes.  In many ways the Olympics represent the most difficult challenge in all of sports.  Given one opportunity can an athlete perform at her best on the biggest stage in the world?

While no other athletic event can match the pressure of the Olympics one may come close:  The NFL Combine.  Taking place each February, the combine provides an opportunity for each NFL team to medically, physically, and psychologically examine and evaluate potential draft picks.  The players are put through a series of strength, agility, and skills tests in addition to medical exams, psychological tests, and 15 minute interviews with each team.  The results of these tests can often mean the difference between millions of dollars in salary for the players.  In fact, the NFL works on a “slotting system” where rookie salaries are based on their draft position.  So, if a player drops from a top 10 pick to a late first round pick he will most certainly lose millions of dollars.  For example, in 2005 Aaron Rodgers was being considered for the first overall pick by the 49ers.  Partially based on the results of the Combine, the 49ers chose Alex Smith instead of Rodgers.  This caused Rodgers to fall all the way to the Packers at number 24.  What did that cost Rodgers?  Well, Alex Smith signed a 6-year $49.5 million deal with $24 million guaranteed while Rodgers got 5-years and $7.7 million with $4.13 million guaranteed.  That’s a BIG difference; one that helps us realize the importance of draft position.  Based on all of this it’s easy to see why the Combine is an extremely stressful experience which requires a tremendous amount of mental toughness.

As a Sport Psychology Consultant I am fascinated by events like the Combine.  Where else do athletes have one chance to secure millions of dollars?  Where else can one mistake cost you more money than I’ll ever see in a lifetime?  I’ve always wondered how athletes deal with that experience.  I believe we can learn a tremendous amount about achieving peak performance by watching how athletes handle situations like the Combine.  By identifying the challenges these athletes face and the strategies they use to overcome them we can gather information about how to help other athletes, or ourselves, deal with difficult situations.  So, to find out more about the Combine I decided to talk to someone who was there.  Mike Rosenthal is a 1999 graduate of Notre Dame where he was a four year starter on the offensive line.  After the 1998 season he was voted First-team All-American by the Walter Camp Foundation and was subsequently invited to the 1999 NFL Combine.  He was chosen in the 5^th round by the Giants and had a successful 9 year NFL career.  I asked Mike about the Combine because I believe we can draw upon his experiences to understand more about how to deal with difficult situations.  Over a series of blogs I will be discussing his answers and how they can be used to improve performance in a variety of situations.  However, before I discuss the strategies he used to enhance his Combine performance it is important to identify the challenges he faced.  Therefore, the rest of this blog will deal with the unique challenges of the Combine while subsequent entries will discuss strategies to deal with those challenges.

One of the major challenges presented at the Combine is dealing with the knowledge that you are constantly being scrutinized.  As Mike said, “I think the biggest mental challenge was the stress of knowing that everyone was watching every step I took.”  This is a sentiment echoed by many athletes at many different levels of compeition.  In highly pressurized situations athletes often feel “on stage” or that they are constantly being evaluated.  This leads to anxiety and a focus on others’ thoughts and feelings.  This is something that all athletes have experienced and often leads to poor performances.  Of course the question is how can we deal with those challenges?  The most successful athletes are those who are able to perform well in these situations.  In future posts I will examine how Mike dealt with the anxiety of being evaluated and how you can use that information to improve your performance.

While they are being evaluated at the Combine the athletes are also pushed to the limits both physically and mentally.  “It was mentally draining because at the combine they try and stress you to the limit physically and mentally.  They keep you up late at night for interviews and have you up early in the morning.  They want to see how you perform with little sleep and in uncomfortable surroundings.”  This is interesting because one thing we know about elite athletes is they are able to perform well even in less than ideal circumstances.  We are all good on our best days but the great athletes are good even on their worst days.  This is exactly what the Combine is designed to test.  Which athletes can still excel under difficult conditions?  In future blogs I will examine this issue and Mike’s suggestions for handling challenging situations.

There is no doubt that you or your athletes have experienced stressful situations.  We have all been nervous in important competitions and we have all dealt with the challenges of performing in difficult circumstances.  Over the next few weeks I will examine how you can deal with those challenges and achieve your goals.  Please check back to hear more about how Mike dealt with the challenges of the Combine and how you can improve your ability to deal with difficult situations.

Noah Gentner, Ph.D., CC-AASP is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Sport Psychology graduate program at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, GA.  He received his Ph.D. in Sport Psychology from the University of Tennessee in 2004.  He has published his research in several journals and has given presentations on Sport Psychology at worldwide and regional Sport Psychology, Coaching, and Athletic Training Conferences.

Dr. Gentner and Dr. Vanessa Shannon (coaching education specialist at West Virginia University) contributed one of Podium Sport Journal’s most popular Podcasts – “The Gold Medal Secret Sauce – Whats in it?”  Check it out:

Click here to view the embedded video.

aasp-oct07-gentner-shannon-gold-medal-secret-sauce

by Dr. Stephen Walker, PhD, CC-AASP, USOC Registry of Sport Psychogists

What do you get when you employ a positive mental attitude, strong self-motivation, well managed goal-setting, effective self-talk, a disciplined visualization of your upcoming performance, competent stress control, determined focus and concentration, and an ongoing dedication to establishing and maintaining productive relationships with both your teammates and your coaches?

You get success.  And when you combine those ingredients with physical skills and a well trained athlete – you get medals….lots of them.  Successful athletes at this years Olympics in Vancouver demonstrated skill and tenacity that was both physical and mental….
….. – and for most – their success was the culmination of years of practice, dedication, and conditioning.

Bode Miller will leave the Olympic Games having accomplished what no other American alpine skier had done.  After a disastrous games in Torino, Italy – Miller refocused himself on his goals, shook a bad attitude, settled down and dedicated himself to perform his best.  His self-talk was relentlessly positive and drew his focus to concentrating only on those factors under his control.

Joannie Rochette, the Canadian figure skater, and Chad Hedrick both overcame personal losses, managed what were clearly strong emotions, and channeled the added inspiration to motivate themselves beyond expectations – achieving medal winning performances.  Julia Mancuso was reminded of her friend, CR Johnson‘s, “love of skiing” to overcome a disappointing GS and comeback strong.  Although she didn’t medal in the event she was the defending Champion in – she was able to let go of a zillion distractions and love skiing just as CR did.  Overall, she performed beautifully – winning two silver medals in the games – and staked her claim as one of America’s premier alpine skiers.

Every athlete sets goals, but sometimes they are focused on outcomes…rather than dedicating themselves to attend to the “process” of the performance.  No one country was more guilty of this than the Russian Hockey team – anticipating Gold from their world cup successes – but not attuning to the fundamentals in play that got them there.  The Soviets underperformed and finished 2-2 as they were eliminated in the preliminary rounds.  Their results as contrasted with the upstart USA and juggernaut Canadian Hockey teams was noteworthy.  Both the USA and Canadian teams have emphasized playing “one period at a time”, maximizing their strengths and training their weaknesses as they finished 1-2 in the medal count.  The Gold Medal game was arguably the best Olympic hockey game of all-time as Canada took the gold with a 3-2 win in overtime.

Positive self-talk coaxed many of these athletes to success even when the odds were against them.  Johnny Spillane and Billy Demong illustrated this better than most as they experienced success both individually and as a team in an event Americans had rarely been close enough to sniff at a medal.  They supported themselves admirably by constantly offering up reminders of their strengths and focusing on “how” they could make up for time differentials lost in ski jumping on the nordic track.  They talked to themselves and each other throughout the competitions, and created a positive momentum that launched them onto the podium.

Visualization techniques were evident in more events than any other as athletes like Lindsey Vonn appeared to be ‘dancing’ with her eyes closed in the que leading up to the starting gate.   But no athlete did a better job than Jeret “Speedy” Peterson as he not only wrote out his goals on paper – but – he incorporated a very focused form of visualization (PETTLEP) in preparing for and landing the “Hurricane” – a here-to-fore never performed aerial in Olympic competition.  Peterson landed the most difficult aerial in the event to claim a Silver Medal.  His focus and concentration proved to be stellar as he took a calculated risk, planned for it consciously, and succeeded.

Controlling stress was at a premium throughout the entire Olympics as speed skaters fell at the start, half-pipe artists “forgot” their routines, and gifted athletes succumbed to the pressure in every venue.  The best conditioned athlete proved to not always be the most successful – as time and time again – emotional and mental control proved to be an essential ingredient in determining who made the Podium.  Congratulations to them all.  Thanks for reminding us of the importance of training the “WHOLE” person.

]]> http://www.podiumsportsjournal.com/2010/02/28/mental-training-pays-off-vancouver-olympics-2010/feed/ 0 http://www.podiumsportsjournal.com/2010/02/16/%e2%80%9cminding-for-gold-%e2%80%93-mental-techniques-and-preparation-strategies-used-by-olympic-gold-medalists-2004-olympics/ http://www.podiumsportsjournal.com/2010/02/16/%e2%80%9cminding-for-gold-%e2%80%93-mental-techniques-and-preparation-strategies-used-by-olympic-gold-medalists-2004-olympics/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:00:05 +0000 Stephen Walker, PhD http://www.podiumsportsjournal.com/?p=589

Podium Sports Journal’s Podcast of the Week – An interview with Drs. Noah Gentner and Vanessa Shannon

by Dr. Stephen Walker, CC-AASP

This podcast was the first of a two part podcast with Drs. Noah Gentner and Vanessa Shannon on qualitative research they conducted with Olympic Gold medalists from the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.  The interview was given at the Association for Applied Sport Psychology annual conference in Louisville, Kentucky October 2007.

This study evolved over a number of years in a series of interviews focused on identifying and describing the mental techniques and preparation strategies used by world champions.  The key exploration focused on how these premier athletes differed from those less successful athletes in their preparation and mental conditioning.  A total of nine male and female athletes from six different sports comprised the sample for this qualitative research effort.

Some of the techniques employed included self-talk, attention cues, process focused physical moves, smart “techniques”, short-term and long-term goals.  Stay tuned tomorrow for part 2 of this interview.

Dr. Noah Gentner is a sport psychologist consultant and Assistant Professor of Sport Sciences from Georgia Southern University.  Dr. Vanessa Shannon is a coaching education specialist and Assistant Professor at West Virginia University.  Both were students of Dr. Craig Wrisberg  and Leslie Fisher Gould at the University of Tennessee.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click Here to Listen to the Podcast: aasp-oct07-minding-for-gold-gentner-shannon3