Performing At Your Best: Your Activation and Emotional Control

To perform at your peak you need to be in control of your emotions and activation levels. Continuing the theme of our recent articles, we look at how to gain this control.

Activation control is the degree your physical self is ready to perform. The term emotional control is used to define the specific feelings you have, which influence your activation control.

The basic concept of activation level control derives itself from the Inverted “U” Theory which suggests that if you are too highly activated (nervous or angry) you will perform poorly and, alternatively, if you are under activated (bored or sleepy) you will also under perform. Essentially you want to be psyched up enough to be ready to race or train but you don’t want to over do or under do this state. Often athletes in multi sport disciplines think of activation control as the same as their energy levels – however this has little to do with emotional influences on activation.

I heard a great story today about an ex 400m runner who decided to get into marathons. After training appropriately, he asked his sport psych / mental coach about 'the wall” the night before his first marathon race, as he’d been quizzed by other marathon runners about his ability to get through the wall. This mental coach’s response was "What wall?"
"The wall they say I will hit at about 20k," he replied.
"Do you want to borrow someone’s wall? Who's wall would you like to have? Why would you build a wall when you never had one?"
"Oh, I see. So - if I never had one before and I have done the distance, why would I have one now? That’s a point," he said.
The mental coach finished off, "So, you see, if you'd never known what Christmas was, had never seen it never heard of it, then you wouldn’t expect it".
Managing your energy levels can have a lot to do with your expectations as well!

As well as managing expectations, having emotional control also requires taming your nerves, anger and frustration. When performing at your best you may experience some nerves or what some athletes may call “good nerves”. It means that they are up for the race (activation is high enough) and it’s important (they want to do well). After a period of time, if athletes perform well experiencing “good nerves” they don’t want to race without it.

But, you can also experience nerves that are out of control – where your stomach feels like the butterflies have started World War 3! You may experience the shakes (in the arms or legs or both), sweaty palms, rapid breathing etc. Most of your thoughts in this situation will be concerning the future. You’ll be thinking about the possibilities in the race – what if that happens? You might be fearing the worst, and scared it might actually happen!

In this case, your mission is to get your nerves under control. You can employ breathing and relaxation techniques – like centring. However, typically I find that, if athletes control their thoughts, the physical symptoms change as a result. But, if you wish to be thorough, you can try both!

Instead of thinking that you are nervous or anxious or scared or worried, which are all negative forms of high arousal, you want to label your emotions positively – perhaps you’re actually excited and can’t wait to race? When you re-label it from anxious to excited it puts your thoughts back into the present – which allows you to gain control of the situation again. You’re not killing all the butterflies in your stomach rather you are getting them to fly in formation! You're putting yourself in a situation to experience the “good nerves”.

Similarly, if you fall off your bike, fumble your transition or trip over in your run, getting angry or frustrated with yourself or the situation isn’t going to help your performance. Essentially you’re putting energy you could put into your legs into something that doesn’t need it; a situation in the past which you have no control over. While feeling nervous focuses your attention into the future, anger and frustration puts your focus into the past! By forgetting it and re-labeling your increased activation level as determination (as opposed to anger) you put your focus back into what you’re doing now. Furthermore, if your eyes are on the terrain or what’s ahead of you then you’re more likely to avoid further accidents. Plus, the determination gets your energy focused on running, cycling, paddling or swimming harder. The best way to make up lost time.

Controlling your thoughts about your emotions, whether they are anxiety or frustration, puts you in a better position to perform to the best of your ability on a regular basis.