Posted: June 6, 2005

Sports Psychology: What's the talk all about?

By Michelle Cleere, Sports Psychology Consultant

One of the female triathlete's I was working with for a period of time was dealing with several challenging issues, but the most difficult issue for this athlete, as is true for many athletes, was her "negative self talk". Negative self talk is concerned with all the negative things we say to ourselves, the thoughts we have about ourselves and what we say to others about our performance.

Back to my athlete: after becoming aware that a negative thought process was an issue for this athlete, we decided it might be a good idea for her to keep a journal of her thoughts so she could become more aware, more conscious of how she was talking to herself about her training and how her body responded to that.

The following week she brought her journal in and we went through it together. There were numerous negative thoughts going on for this athlete that she was not at all aware of and was actually a bit surprised by. As we continued to talk I asked her to do an exercise with me. How about instead of saying [for example], running is hard and I hate it (because she was going to run regardless), how about saying something more positive like, a) running can make me healthy and I feel better as a healthy person b) running allows me to have time for myself and I need time to myself c) running is freeing or d) running is fun if…

So, I asked her to make a list of some of the negative things in her journal and we worked together to come up with a complimentary list of positive thoughts that make sense and are personal to her. She came up with some very good thoughts, but as we talked about the exercise and replacing negative thoughts with positive thoughts, she wasn't sure she could actually do it.

This is common in today's society. I find athletes (people) many times do not have a conscious differentiation between negative thoughts and positive thoughts. But, what's worse is, many times even after becoming aware and realizing that much of their mental focus is negative people are unable to figure out how to talk to themselves positively and this was a definite problem for my female triathlete. With all the negative information we are fed by people around us and the media, negative information/thoughts are sadly becoming imbedded in us to a point of familiarity that is scary.

Does this sound like you: I feel I am working really hard, but I am not improving? Why? Like my female triathlete, maybe you are dealing with a negative thought process telling yourself and/or others: a) you can not do it or b) you are horrible at it.

Have you heard about self fulfilling prophecy? Self fulfilling prophecy means that what we think, say and feel about ourselves will actually to some extent come true. Now I don't know if you believe in self fulfilling prophecy but it's true. Let's take my female triathlete as an example: she was saying to herself [and others] running is hard and I hate it. Perhaps next time you are on a run say this phrase to yourself a few times and see how your body responds. Just off the top of my head without getting too psychologically sophisticated I can envision someone [you] who now has muscle tension, increased heart rate & more rapid breathing all of which occurs from negative thinking and all of which slows you down and makes it difficult to act or move. From that perspective alone it seems like something anyone [athlete] might want to combat and quickly at that. On your next run, begin saying positive, supporting things to yourself and see if your body responds differently.

Negative thinking is not something that you can change overnight. It takes time and practice just like everything in your life. Remember when you were a beginner at whatever you are now doing in your life? Remember how difficult is was initially but how much better and easier it became with practice? Mental preparation is similar.

And although journaling might not be for you. Let me suggest an alternative exercise for you to try. For one full day, take a handful of paperclips and put them in your left pocket. Every time you say something negative you are going to take a paperclip from your left pocket and place it in your right pocket. At the end of the day count the paperclips in your right pocket. Why? First, you are going to be aware of the paperclips throughout the day which will make you more conscious of your thoughts. Second, this exercise will help you to become aware of how much negative thinking you are using. Third, thinking about how many paperclips were transferred from left to right will give you a rare opportunity for growth and reflection.

Make sense?

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.