Performance Psychology

Working specifically on the mental part of their performance isn't usually the first thing multisport or endurance atheltes think of, yet it is an integral part of performing well.

In simplistic terms, sport and exercise performance psychology is about thinking better to perform better. If you’re in control of your thoughts and emotions and have them working to your advantage then you’re going to be in a better position to perform to the best of your ability.

As a multisporter why would you bother to work on sport psych?

The first answer to that question has to be that sport psych is one of the four critical aspects that go into performance. You have the Technical – maintaining good body position when running, for example; Tactical - knowing when to pace yourself and when to go for it; Physical - building up your aerobic fitness to be able to comfortably manage the distance; and Psychological - ability to keep focused and determined. If you could score a maximum of 10 points in each of these four aspects (10x10x10x10) you have a total possible performance factor of 10,000. If you worked on all the other aspects of your performance but neglected the psychological aspect, the performance equation becomes 10 x 10 x 10 x 0. You would have a total performance factor of zero! So you need to include every one of these factors to perform to the best of your ability.

The second answer is that in this sport you want to get every possible advantage over your competitors. So why wouldn’t you employ your brain cells to get that edge? Succeeding in multisport often requires being able to push yourself towards the upper limits of your physical capacity. Having the mental stamina to get to this level and maintain it will help give you an advantage over other competitors.

Thirdly, sport psychology can offer you tools to help you enjoy your sport and performance more. And when they are enjoying themselves, most athletes tend to perform better! It’s like when you have a good training session and you come back buzzing! It’s like being in the zone or ‘in flow’ every time you compete!

But sport psychology is a long hauler – it is not something that works overnight. It is like any other of the performance aspects you work on - such as your fitness – the more time and effort you put into it the better you get at it. Every athlete I’ve worked has made significant improvements from working on the psychology side of their performance long term.

As a sport psych I was pleased to read an article posted on the Femme Fitness website entitled ‘Conscious Training’. This is exactly one of the outcomes we like athletes to get out of their sport psych work – that is, getting athletes to have a greater self awareness of what they do when they perform well! The author talks about habits and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. But sometimes we are not capable of doing this if we aren’t consciously aware of what we are doing when we are performing. The author uses the example of hill climbing. Do you switch off and slip into habit mode? Or do you switch on mentally and push yourself that little bit extra? And then the author looked at the excuses around why you don’t push yourself!

Not being self aware is a little like walking around an obstacle course with a blindfold on – you can do it – but you’d be a lot quicker and more effective if you took the blindfold off! It’s not until you actually start working on your mental approach that you start to realise how often you’ve been wearing that blindfold. The beauty of self awareness is that it gives you the power to change things. Until you are aware that you’ve been ‘classifying yourself as a poor hill climber’, and therefore tend to switch off and fall back, are you able to do anything about it! Being aware of the situation or of what surrounded your poor training session or your ‘bombing out’ in a race gives you the power to do something about it!

Sport psychology is not about magic tricks: it’s all logical stuff! And for most people, working on some of the sport psychology tools allows them to see things from a different perspective and to turn on that proverbial light switch! This then in turn allows them to turn up the performance and maximise their potential. As everyone has different strengths between and within each sport, knowing yours will allow you to maximise your strengths and build on your weaknesses.

So next time you go out to train or compete I challenge you to think about your performance. When do you push yourself? And when do you take your foot off the gas? Are there any habits or patterns that you are in? Do these habits or patterns help you perform to the best of your ability or do they hinder you? Becoming self aware is the first step to change!