Posted: January 3, 2006

Sports Psychology: Mental Training- “New Years Resolutions”

By Michelle Cleere, Sports Psychology Consultant

Happy 2006!

If you are like me the phrase “New Years Resolutions” conjures up not so positive thoughts and feelings. It sounds kind of old school particularly if you are an endurance athlete because we are ALWAYS resolving to do more or do better. Since there are numerous definitions of EVERYTHING how about we change the way we think about “New Years Resolutions”(NYR’s). Let’s think outside the box. What if this year your NYR’s were 1 or 2 things that you always seem to procrastinate on (out of fear) and they were structured in a way that made sense? For example one thing people procrastinate on is utilizing mental strategies alongside their physical training! One of the best ways to structure what to do with setting up utilization of mental strategies is through goal setting. Goal setting is something we probably utilize in much of our everyday life but perhaps not as efficiently as we could. I am going to talk about how to use goal setting more efficiently.

You are probably thinking what other things do I procrastinate on in my training? There probably is a LOT of things if you sit and think about them. I am challenging you this year to think about what those things are and work on 1 or 2 of them this year. I gave you one example that would really help improve your performance, work with a sports psychologist or at least work on mental strategies. Another might be joining a master’s swim team. I was scared for years to join a master’s swim team because I knew swimming was a challenge for me. My perception was that all the other swimmers in the pool were going to be excellent swimmers and I was never going to be able to keep up. The fact of the matter was when I joined a masters swim team for the first time I wasn’t as bad as I thought and I became a much better swimmer by being there and letting go of my fears.

How do we get over the fear? One way is by doing it and seeing that generally our worst fears NEVER come true (how many times have your worst fears ever come true?). Another way is to focus not on what everyone else is doing in the pool but by focusing on what you need to do in the pool. A good way to keep yourself motivated and focused is through goal setting. Goal setting benefits: improve performance, improve the quality of practice, clarify expectations, and relieve boredom, pride, satisfaction and self confidence. Step one: think about your training in general. What do you want from your training and how are you going to get there. Those might be your goals for the year. Step two: working on those goals weekly, monthly, in 6 months, etc.

Goal setting doesn’t have to be complex. I am going to show you how to use the acronym SMART to help you establish the specifics of your goals.

1) Specific versus general. If your goal is that you want to become a better swimmer but never actually write down HOW you are getting to become a better swimmer chances are you won’t do anything about it. It’s like a cake recipe. If you don’t know what the ingredients are or how much of those ingredients you need you probably aren’t going to have a cake that comes out as you wanted or a cake at all.

M-measurable. You won’t know if you are improving if your goals aren’t measurable. For example one week your goal might be to swim freestyle for 1200 yds. non-stop and next week your goal might be 1250. Or if you just go out and swim but your goal should be something other than that because you are doing an Iron man in a month then you might find yourself in a challenging situation.

A-attainable; challenging versus easy. Many times people set goals that are so challenging there is no possible way for them to be reached. We set ourselves up for failure a LOT (a topic for another article). Don’t plan to run a 5 minute mile if the best you’ve ever done is a 9 minute mile.

R-realistic versus unrealistic. Realistic and attainable go hand in hand however there is one distinguishing difference, set goals that seem realistic for YOU. A common flaw in goal setting is setting goals so we look good to others or to satisfy our ego. That might work 2% of the time but rarely works beyond that.

T-time based. People who struggle with procrastination will always struggle unless they figure out some structure. For example if you decide one of your goals is to improve your hill running, what do you need to do to improve your hill running and within what amount of time. You might do small hill work the first two months and the next two month medium hills followed by steeper, longer hills for two months so within 6 months you’ve gained more muscle strength and increased your hill climbing ability.

In setting goals there are some important things to remember. If you are setting a goal that utilizes “time” use a range. I want to complete that race in 1:30-1:45. Goals aren’t static. Suppose you write a yearly goal that includes cutting your negative thoughts by 10% but you’ve done that by February. In March you probably want to be flexible and change that goal so you have something else to work toward like another 10%?! Lastly do NOT punish yourself or feel bad for not following through on a goal because there is generally a reason you did not follow through. One way to assess what might have happened is to go back through SMART. Was the goal specific enough? Was it measurable enough? Was it attainable? Was it realistic? Was it time based? If in all honesty you set up the goal for success then there might be other obstacles with that goal beyond the goal itself. This brings us back to procrastination and fear. Always try to remember how many goals and things you DO accomplish in life. Most endurance athletes are obsessive, type A people who accomplish a lot. Goals are only a guideline and there is a lot to be learned from goals met or unmet.

Michelle 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 check out her web site at MentalStrength.com.