Posted: May 5, 2005

Sports Psychology: Mental Approach - What's missing from your training?

By Michelle Cleere, Sports Psychology Consultant

I was a head triathlon coach for the Presidio YMCA Triathlon Team for many years. On my team was a woman, Tish, who has been a part of the team since the inception of the program. She, like many of the other people who came into the program, were either a) struggling with their exercise motivation and thought training for a triathlon might be good motivation or b) needing a challenge. Either way a lot of these people were new to one, two or three of the sports involved with triathlons and therefore were challenged in learning and participating in certain of these aspects so each year to help with those challenges I would do a sports psychology clinic. I would talk about motivation, anxiety, positive affirmations, self talk, etc. and about how the mental aspect of sport is many times overlooked but can be more important than the physical aspects.

One year I was discussing becoming aware of your thought process and then continued on talking about how to change negative thinking into positive thinking by using positive affirmations (2-3 motivational words) or key words (1 motivational word). I continued talking about how many times we get to a big hill in a run and we start thinking all sorts of crazy thoughts: that hill is way too long; I can't make it to the top or; I hate hills.

These negative thoughts make a person more anxious, tighten muscles for restricted movement, and actually become a self fulfilling prophecy; which means you will struggle getting to the top. When what we really should be thinking is something more positive: I will make it to the top; relax; fast; strong; light as a feather; etc. Tish, being very new to running was having a difficult time with it and in particular struggling with hills. So she decided that instead of concentrating so hard on telling herself that "she can't" that she would come up with her own positive affirmation. She is now using "wings of a bird" to guide her up hills and now whenever I do a clinic for the team she reminds people of how difficult running hills can be but how thinking positively has helped her make it to the top more times than not.

Have you ever really trained for something, but when it came time to test that training you didn't do as well as you thought you should have? Many times the problem is not with your physical training but your lack of mental training. Research has shown that mental training could actually be more important than physical training.

For instance, say you have invited a group of your best friends over for dinner. How do you prepare? Do you physically go into the kitchen and begin chopping whatever you find in the refrigerator? No. The physical aspects of preparing dinner are important (blanching, boiling, sauteing) but they are not the only elements. Mental preparation is also important. Why?

1) You need to know how many people are coming for dinner.

2) You need to figure out what food you are going to prepare.

3) You probably need to go to the grocery store and get whatever ingredients you need.

4) You need to know what the steps are and plan how long it’s going to take to prepare dinner.

5) And you want to create a good ambiance.

If you prepare well enough, the results are that dinner is fun, social and something you and your friends are going to enjoy and continue to do together.

The example above reinforces that even the simplest tasks we do in our every-day lives require mental preparation — work, home, school, etc. Although sport and exercise deserves the same mental attention, people go out into the world just expecting to be fulfilled without doing the necessary mental preparation.

Have you wondered what sports psychology, or mental preparation, is and how it affects you? In the simplest of terms, sports psychology deals with empowering people with the knowledge of mental preparation for sport and exercise. It's about understanding the presence of mental challenges (motivation, focus, concentration, anxiety, etc.) in many realms of every-day life and finding ways of dealing with them.

Here is my challenge to you: Think about your training: What mental preparation do you do? Do you set goals? Do you think about how to deal with motivation issues? How do you deal with anxiety? How do you sharpen your focus?

Begin to pay attention to the thoughts that go on in and around your athletic endeavors.

For example, if you are struggling with swimming, your thoughts may sound something like this: "I cannot seem to figure out what is happening. I am at the pool everyday. I train as hard as I can. I work with a coach. But now after thinking about it I've realized I sabotage myself by saying that "I am not a good swimmer" or "I can't improve my stroke" or "I am not as fast as other people in the pool" or "I just can't do it."

If you are comfortable, become aware of what is going on in your thought process and begin to write those thoughts down. All of our thoughts have meaning and many times the meaning for our sport and exercise endeavors is not complimentary. Over time, I will help show you the connection between those thoughts and problems with your performance.

Michelle works is owner of Sports Minded, a Sports Psychology Consulting practice. She works with individuals and groups on performance enhancement. Michelle is an NASM-certified personal trainer and a USAT-certified triathlon coach. E-mail questions and comments to her at SportsMindedMC@aol.com or WomenWhoTri@aol.com.