Sports Psychology, Visualisation and Preparing to Win

Visualisation, also known as mental rehearsal or imagery, is perhaps one of the most recognised forms of mental skill training. It’s widely used by top class athletes across a broad spectrum of sports and those who reach the top of their game often attribute their medal success to their ‘psychological edge’ over fellow competitors on the day.

“The man who has no imagination has no wings” – Muhammad Ali

In Vancouver, brand new, purpose-built bobsled, luge, and skeleton venues have been constructed specially for the 2010 winter Olympics. This effectively makes the courses uncharted territory so even the competitors with past winter Olympic experience will have no past experience of the venues to draw on. At top level, the difference between winning a gold medal or a wooden spoon can be a tiny fraction of a second – the same time difference that competitors might expect between a known course and an unknown course.

With medals at stake, athletes realise that they need to make the most of every opportunity to get to know every bump and bend on the new courses. Mental skill training will allow athletes to gain maximum benefit from every second spent on training runs. Capturing the sights, sounds, smells, and ‘feel’ of every run provides the opportunity to then continue training through the use of visualisation.

Research has proven that the thinking process used in mental rehearsal actually stimulates the brain to send electrical impulses to the muscles involved in the movements – without recruiting them to actually move. This means that a precise sequence of moves can be committed to muscle memory without repeatedly physically performing them.

Anyone who ever saw the Disney version of the first Jamaican bobsled team story, Cool Runnings, will remember the comical scenes of inexperienced team members getting to grips with the physical practicalities of the sport utilising everything from bathtubs to go-karts. As fitness and physical skill improved, the focus turned to mental skill.

The team were depending on their driver’s ability to commit every centimetre of the course to memory. He knew every lump, bump and bend; he knew the exact speed they needed to negotiate every stage; and, most importantly, he knew how it needed to ‘feel’ to get it right. It made great Disney entertainment to view him sitting in the bath pretending to be going down the course but in fact, we were watching skilled visualisation in practice.

Any athlete who is truly prepared: physically prepared and mentally prepared for competition is prepared for any eventuality – not just what they have previously experienced. Mental skill training provides the tools to cope with ‘the unexpected’ and to remain focussed on what can be controlled rather than what can’t. In the true spirit of Olympic games, athletes from the 92 competing nations are pooling information and sharing their experiences of the new courses. The difference between winning gold or the wooden spoon in Vancouver may well come down to who has the best mental skill – who has what it takes to truly visualise their success.

To learn more about using visulization in sport to achieve winning results check out the *NEW* updated Coaching Edge Mental Skills for sport course coming  soon! To register interest e-mail support@zonedinperformance.com

Bodies on Fire, Heads in the Fridge

In the 1994 Lillehammer winter Olympics, the Japanese 120 metre ski jump team had a convincing lead in the final event with only one jump remaining. That jump belonged to Masahiko Harada, affectionately known as ‘Happy Harada’ due to his infectious grin. In his previous jump, Harada had cleared 122 metres and needed a jump of only 110 metres to secure the gold medal for Japan. He cleared 97.5 metres – the worst jump of the entire event – and Germany won gold.

“In the past, a well-raised Japanese would have to commit hari-kari after such a mistake. Today nobody expects that of us” – Masahiko Harada

So what happened? Did the wind change at a crucial moment; was it just a bad jump; or did the pressure get to him? Did he choke?

Many top class athletes with proven ability and countless winning performances behind them have choked when it really mattered – at the Olympics. Perhaps it’s the sheer scale of the event that creates unbearable pressure; the weight of expectation; the knowledge that an entire nation of supporters are counting on them to bring home a medal.

Whatever the catalyst, choking describes the moment that self-doubt kicks in. Negative thoughts creep into your head and take over. The voice in your head says, “You can’t do this, you’re not ready” – and you believe it. Everything positive that should be brought to the forefront of your mind vanishes into thin air. The fact that you are ready and you can do it gets railroaded into oblivion by the power of negative thinking and the negative thoughts manifest themselves into negative actions – a poor performance.

Four years later, Harada was back on the Olympic stage in the 1998 winter games in Nagano. Since his disappointing performance in 1994, he’d gone on to win numerous world cup events and a world championship so there was no doubt he was a class act. The Japanese team were already in the lead as Harada prepared to take his first jump. He managed a pitiful 79.5 metres and the team dropped from first to fifth place. Was it just a cruel coincidence? Did the wind turn against him at the wrong moment yet again? Or did he just buckle under pressure? Did he choke?

Now take a moment to consider how Harada must have felt as he prepared to take his second jump. Was history about to repeat itself? The team’s chances of winning a medal depended on his next jump – could he do it? Ask yourself: could you do it?

He sped down the ramp and landed a massive 137 metre jump putting the team into a virtually unbeatable lead.

“I did it! I did it!” – Masahiko ‘Happy’ Harada

Team mate Kazuyoshi Funaki took the final jump and cleared 125 metres to secure the gold medal for the Japanese team. What was it that allowed Funaki to hold his nerve when the pressure was on? What was it that prevented Harada from choking once more under increasing pressure? The answers lie in MENTAL SKILLS TRAINING and the power of positive self-talk – or did the wind just go their way?

To learn more about mental skills training in sport to achieve winning results check out the *NEW* updated Coaching Edge Mental Skills for sport course coming  soon! To register interest e-mail support@zonedinperformance.com

Sports Psychology, Role Modeling and Success

When good athletes become great athletes, people always want to know who inspired them. Most successful people model themselves on inspirational characters and sport is no exception. In the 2002 Salt Lake City winter Olympics, Jim Shea of the USA won gold in the skeleton. In the 1964 Innsbruck games, his father Jim Shea Sr. was a member of the US ski team and his grandfather, Jack Shea, won two speed skating gold medals in the Lake Placid games in1932. It would seem that Jim Shea Jr. only had to look to his family for inspiration.

So who inspired Jack Shea to become a double-gold medal winner in 1932? Perhaps it was fellow American Charles Jewtraw who won the first speed skating event in the first ever winter Olympics held at Chamonix in 1924. Jewtraw’s win caused an upset in a sport normally dominated by Scandinavians so where did his inspiration come from? Perhaps Shea’s inspiration came from Finnish speed skater Clas Thunberg who won three golds in 1932. Of course, he may not have been inspired by anyone or anything to do with his sport but he would no doubt still be aware of influential characters in his life who helped him to achieve his dream.

Many young athletes are both influenced and inspired by their coaches. Figure skating champion Sonja Henie of Norway was only fifteen years of age when she won her first Olympic gold medal in 1928. She went on to win a further two golds, matching the record set by her coach Gillis Grafstrom of Sweden who won his third consecutive gold medal at St. Moritz in 1928.

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a study of what makes great people great. It’s a study of what great people say, what they think, what they feel, and what they do. To become successful ourselves, we must study the ‘habits’ of successful people. Henie no doubt observed the habits of her coach and Shea Jr. no doubt picked up the habits of his father and grandfather. Studying the habits of successful people you admire or inspirational people in your life can open your mind to the potential for achieving more.

Using a sporting hero as a role model can encourage you to observe and follow their training and competition habits. Watching that person in action; following the same training regime; eating the same diet; and taking note of everything they do to execute a winning performance will all have a positive impact on your own performance but to really understand what makes them great requires a deep understanding of what’s going on inside their head.

What allows a Super G competitor to hold their ‘nerve’ and remain focussed when they know that the tiniest wobble could cost them a medal?

What gave Russian figure skater Yevgeny Plushenko the confidence to become the first skater in history to land a quad-triple-triple jump combination in competition at the 2006 winter Olympics?

What allows a ski cross competitor to focus and concentrate on his chosen line when three other athletes are attempting to get on the same line – at the same time?

The difference between being good and being great can be down to mental skill training.

To learn more about using mental skills training in sport to achieve winning results check out the *NEW* updated Coaching Edge Mental Skills for sport course coming  soon! To register interest e-mail support@zonedinperformance.com

Mindset

If something has never been done before, do you believe it’s because it can’t be done or do you prefer to believe it just hasn’t been done yet? In the 1968 Grenoble winter Olympics, Jean-Claude Killy of France won the gold medal in all three Alpine skiing events. This was something that had only ever been done once before, in the 1956 winter games, and it’s an achievement that has not been repeated since.

“Doctors and scientists said that breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the track after collapsing at the finish-line, I figured I was dead” – Sir Roger Bannister

Roger Bannister certainly preferred to believe it just hadn’t been done yet and Jean-Claude Killy obviously wasn’t deterred by the fact that the odds were against him. You could say that Bannister and Killy are examples of glass half-full thinkers as opposed to glass half-empty: very definitely positive thinkers with effective self-belief.

Carol Dweck, a world-renowned psychologist, believes that an individual’s mindset – how they view themselves and their general attitude to life – holds the key to realising full potential in any area of life, including sports performance. The findings of her research into achievement and success show that a person will possess either a fixed or a growth mindset..

Fixed mindset:
In a fixed mindset, an individual believes that things are just the way they are and for good or for bad, they’re stuck with their lot. In sport, an athlete with a fixed mindset is prone to judging themselves harshly when faced with failure or defeat. A poor performance can lead to exaggerated feelings of depression or anxiety.

Growth mindset:
In a growth mindset, an individual believes that change is always possible and that who they are or where they are in their life is not set in stone. In sport, an athlete with a growth mindset will use failure as an opportunity to learn and will always be open to making changes as they pursue their goals.

Now imagine you are about to compete in the same three events that gave Killy his gold medals. The first event goes badly and you fail to make the podium. With a fixed mindset, this may be viewed as ‘the end of the world’ and could have a negative effect on your performance in the remaining two events. But, with a growth mindset, failure to win gold will not be viewed as failure. The performance can be analysed, positive aspects can be identified, and changes can be made. The remaining two events are still yours for the taking.

To achieve, to be successful, and to reach full potential requires a growth mindset. Understanding your own mindset is therefore of great importance as it could be holding you back. The good news is that mindset can be changed. Steps can be taken to develop a more positive, growth mindset and they include:

• Learning to hear the fixed mindset voice in your head, the one that says, “It’s not possible; you can’t do it”
• Recognising that you always have a choice and that you don’t have to pay attention to any negative voices in your head
• Learning how to use positive self-talk to answer back, “It is possible; I can do it”
• Accepting that making the change from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset is a process that will take time and practice; how you deal with setbacks is ultimately your choice

“Think about your intelligence, talents, and personality. Are they just fixed or can you develop them?” – Carol Dweck

To learn more about using “mindset” in sport to achieve winning results check out the *NEW* updated Coaching Edge Mental Skills for sport course coming soon! To register interest, e-mail support@zonedinperformance.com

The Herminator – He came back!

Sports Psychology, Mental Toughness and Performance Mastery

What is it that keeps an athlete coming back for more when the odds are stacked against them? What is it that drives an athlete tipped as the favourite to win to keep going when the gold medal is no longer within their grasp?  What motivates great Olympians like downhill skier Hermann Maier to pick themselves up and carry on after a horrific spill on the slopes that left the viewing public convinced he must be dead?

Inner strength comes from a desire to succeed; an ambition to achieve goals. Those goals are as individual as the athletes who set them but research into how competitive athletes define success has shown that there are three main types of goal:

Mastery
Mastery goals, also known as task goals, are those associated with self-improvement. Achieving technically excellent form or achieving any sort of personal best performance constitutes success. Athletes motivated by mastery-oriented goals strive to continually improve their performance, irrespective of whether they win or not.

Ego
Ego goals, also known as ability goals, are those associated with demonstrating high ability. Athletes motivated by ego-oriented goals constantly strive to prove their ability by performing better than everyone else – winning is everything. How they win is secondary. The majority of athletes who make it into the Olympic arena do so because of ego-oriented goals: a need to win.

Social approval
This type of goal is more common in junior athletes who strive to please others with each performance.

At Olympic level, athletes are going for gold. They are motivated by the ego goal of winning a gold medal and in doing so, proving to the world that they are the best in their event. However, there’s no guarantee that gold will be their’s on the day so a mix of both ego and mastery oriented goals is a healthier and more balanced way to approach top level competition. If winning is your only goal, what happens to motivation should you fail to make the podium? If achieving perfection in a particular aspect of your event or achieving some form of personal best are also goals, a performance can still be successful without a win.

At the Nagano winter Olympics in 1998, Hermann ‘Herminator’ Maier was considered to be the best downhill skier in the world and touted as favourite to win every event he competed in. On his downhill run, travelling in excess of 70 mph, he attempted to turn left on an icy bend. His skis didn’t catch the snow and he flew, literally, off the course. High winds had already forced an alteration to the course and they now picked him up and hurled him through the air before dropping him onto the course to begin a 50 yard tumble into some safety netting. The crowd held their breath – he must be dead. In fact, he stood up and walked off the course!

“I was very fast and there was a lot of wind from the back side…I went up in the air and was looking at the sky. I looked down at the snow and waited for the crash” – Hermann Maier

The Herminator suffered injuries to his shoulder and knee but over the next few days he demonstrated his own brand of inner strength by not only returning to the slopes, but dominating them by winning gold in both the super G and giant slalom.

The question is, considering his injuries, what motivated him to get back onto his skis? Did he still have gold in his mind or did other goals motivate him to continue? Perhaps his self-belief was such that he knew he could still ski the pants off his rivals even if he had both legs in plaster!

To learn more about ‘Mental toughness” in sport to achieve winning results check out the *NEW* updated Coaching Edge Mental Skills for sport course coming  soon! To register interest e-mail support@zonedinperformance.com

“Shut the **** Up”…Dealing with the Inner Critic

American figure skater Dorothy Hamill wasn’t considered to be the favourite to win gold at the 1976 winter Olympics in Innsbruck, but she was still a favourite with the public nonetheless. Every time she performed on the ice, she was showered with applause.

This sort of positive, external feedback must have been powerfully motivating – she won gold!

Hamill’s performances were loved by the public for her extraordinary grace on the ice. She was also admired for her creativity and she even invented her own trademark move, the ‘Hamill Camel.’ She clearly put a lot of emotion into every performance so her own internal feedback must have been of vital importance in both training and in competition.

Positive feedback, whether internal or external, is a powerful motivator. But, on the flip side, negative feedback is just as powerful as a de-motivator. At the 1974 world championships in Munich, Hamill skated out onto the ice to be hit by a roar of ‘boos’ from the German crowd. She was distraught, and skated off the ice in floods of tears.

In fact, the boos were not meant for her but for the judges. The scores awarded to the German skater who had just performed were not to the liking of the home crowd! When the misunderstanding was explained to Hamill, she returned to the ice – and to the loudest cheers of the whole event. Her performance won her a silver medal. Could she have secured gold had there been no emotional upset?

“Emotion always has its roots in the unconscious and manifests itself in the body”
- Irene Claremont de Castillejo

Negative feedback from external sources can clearly have a negative effect on an athlete’s performance but the same can be said of negative feedback from internal sources. Negative self-talk can be every bit as devastating as a booing crowd. If the voices in your head begin to question your abilities, the end result will be questionable abilities!

When the pressure is on and the stakes are high, confidence must also be at an all time high if competition nerves are to be prevented. Self-doubt can be returned to self-belief with simple self-talk. Positive words and phrases can be all it takes to banish negative thoughts and to trigger positive actions. The choice of words or phrases to use in positive self-talk is unique to each individual. “Come on! You can do this” or “Go for it! Today is your day” are good examples.

Preparation is key. Self-doubt generally occurs through a lack of preparation. If an athlete finds themselves standing on the start-line feeling unprepared, self-doubt kicks in, negative self-talk takes over, focus is lost and the result will be a poor performance.

The power of the mind should never be underestimated. An athlete may well be in the shape of their life and totally prepared physically but if they’re unprepared mentally, the negative self-talk can convince them they’re not. No amount of physical skill training can make an athlete feel better prepared, mental skill training is the only way to silence negative self-talk and to restore self-belief.

“Those that say it can’t be done should not interrupt the person doing it”
- Chinese proverb

Sports Psychology and Self-Belief

Any sportsperson who makes it to the top of their game will have endured many hours, many months, and many years of dedicated training. There is no such thing as an ‘overnight success’ although, to the viewing public, it sometimes appears that way.

Many sacrifices will no doubt have been made along the way and not many athletes will survive the rigours of competing at the highest level without suffering periods of enforced rest – often lengthy – through injury. So what keeps an athlete going? What gives them the strength to pick up the pieces and try again after disappointing setbacks?

“If you aren’t crashing, you aren’t skiing” – author unknown

A big part of the answer has to be self-belief. A belief that, no matter what, they have the ability to achieve their dreams. Research into the psychology of sporting success has shown that an athlete’s potential level of performance can be traced through something known as the success cycle.

An athlete must have self-belief to begin the success cycle:

• Self-belief creates a positive self-image – you feel good about yourself
• Positive self-image creates a positive attitude – you feel confident about your ability
• Self-confidence creates a winning attitude – you believe you can produce a winning performance
• This belief creates focus – you give yourself every opportunity to perform at your best by eating well, sleeping well, and training well
• This focus creates a winning result!

So how do athletes maintain self-belief when things aren’t going their way? A lack of self-belief usually has its roots in a fear of some sort and in sport its often a fear of the unknown. When things aren’t working out; when goals aren’t be achieved, self-doubt can creep in. The fear becomes: “what if I’m not as good as I thought I was; what if I can’t actually do this?” Self-belief and confidence must be restored through taking steps to conquer the ‘fear.’

“All things are possible, except for skiing through a revolving door” – author unknown

Dealing with ‘what ifs’:

Step one - take a look at your current training and competition performances in relation to the pillars of performance. Have you developed equal skill in all four pillars?

technical – tactical – physical – psychological

If greater strength has been developed in the physical skill area, psychological skill may have been overlooked. Maintaining self-belief and confidence requires psychological skill. Confidence is a state of mind, it’s all about how you’re thinking.

Step two - take a moment to consider what it is you value. What matters most in your sporting career? If winning has become everything, learning to adjust your focus to process goals rather than outcome goals will make it possible to remain positive – even without a win.

Having confidence in who you are and what you’re all about makes it much more difficult for negative ‘what ifs’ to interrupt your positive thoughts.

Step three – consider your current capabilities; identify where your current strengths and weaknesses lie. Create a balance by developing weaker areas to match your strengths.

Confidence will grow through the experience of making positive progress but, more importantly, experiencing the potential to make changes will encourage you to believe that change is always possible. This is key to maintaining your self-belief.

“Gotta use your brain, it’s the most important part of your equipment”
- Kevin Andrews and Warren Miller (extreme skiing)

Sports Psychology and Positive Mental Attitude

In the 1976 Innsbruck winter Olympics, Austrian downhill skier Franz Klammer was odds-on favourite to win gold. Having won numerous races on the World Cup circuit, three of them in that year, he was a huge star and enormously popular with the home crowd in Innsbruck. On the day of the race, 60 000 screaming spectators lined the course to cheer on their hero. It transpired that Klammer would ski 15th out of a 15-man seeding: the crowd were audibly disappointed – surely his chance of gold was all but lost; surely the course would be a vertical skating rink by then.

If Klammer had chosen to adopt the attitude of the crowd that day, there would have been little point in competing at all. If negative thoughts had entered his head then yes, he would already have lost his chance of winning gold. Negative thoughts create negative actions. In competition, that can only result in a poor performance. So, if 60 000 people already believe you have no chance, surely it becomes impossible to remain positive? How would you react?

Defending Olympic downhill champion Bernhard Russi of Switzerland was the third skier on the course and he went into an early lead with a time of 1:46:06. Eleven more skiers followed Russi, polishing the snow off the course as they went, unable to beat his time. Then it was Klammer. The crowd watched him crouch in the starting gate. He stared straight ahead, focusing on the icy course in front of him. What thoughts were in his head? What would you be thinking? The crowd collectively thought: it’s too dangerous, he’ll break his neck.

Klammer, known as ‘The Klammer Express,’ shot out the gate and threw himself down the mountain. His split time at 1000 metres was slower than Russi but he gamely carried on – he seemed fearless. 60 000 gasps could be heard with every risk he took but as he neared the finish-line, the deafening noise of the 60 000 cheering spectators was probably heard on the moon. He crossed the line in 1:45:73, beating Russi by .33 to take the gold medal.

“I thought I was going to crash all the way. I gave myself terrible frights”
- Franz Klammer

So he wasn’t fearless after all! What gave him the inner strength to give it his all: what allowed him to remain positive in a situation full of potential negatives?

He knew he had the physical skill to win gold. When he was crouching in the starting gate, concentrating on what he physically needed to do, he also had the mental skill to allow himself to do it – and to the best of his ability. From where he was, nothing had actually changed. All of the potential negatives were out with his control; 15th skier to go – no point fretting about it, it just is; treacherously icy conditions – no point fretting about it, it just is. None of these things had actually changed who he was or changed his ability. He wasted no energy focusing on negative external factors, instead he concentrated totally on the internal factors he could control – his attitude.

When it really mattered, his mental skills matched his physical skills. That’s why he’s an Olympic champion.

Focus and Concentration and Soaring Like an Eagle

We’ve all heard the saying, ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way’ but one athlete competing at the 2010 Vancouver winter Olympics will be testing the strength of the expression to its limits. Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong of Ghana will take part in the slalom as his country’s only qualifying athlete and the only black African skier.

Already known as the ‘Snow Leopard’ due to his trademark leopard-print ski kit, he’s going to be highly visible in Vancouver – even without the media frenzy that will no doubt surround him. In interviews, he’s made it quite clear that he doesn’t want to just ski down the mountain, he wants to be taken seriously as a competitor. With so much attention already focused on him and the eyes of the world preparing to watch his every move, how can he possibly maintain his own focus and concentration?

Who remembers Eddie the Eagle? In 1988, he soared like a brick in the Calgary winter Olympics to become infamous as a startlingly inept ski jumper. Eddie Edwards was able to arrive in Calgary as an unknown, but also uninteresting competitor. He was able to prepare for his event relatively undisturbed. Other than the fact he was British, there was nothing particularly unusual about him so he didn’t attract any media interest. It was only after he jumped – so spectacularly badly – that the media circus began.

Sadly, the Snow Leopard of Ghana will not share the luxury of being left in peace to prepare for his event when he arrives in Vancouver. He’s not there for the experience of taking part, he’s there to compete but until he gets the opportunity to get out on to the slopes and show the world what he can do, he will have to put up with reporters thrusting microphones in his face and asking: “who designs your ski togs: how are you coping with the climate; what’s your favourite colour?”

It could be argued that this sort of irritating attention will spur him on to achieving his ambition of being taken seriously as a skier but it could also be argued that the constant pressure of being in the media spotlight might prove to be so distracting that it prevents him from realising his full potential.

To be able to maintain his focus and concentration on the day will take considerable mental skill. He has qualified to compete so he has prepared physically but has he prepared mentally?

Without a positive mental attitude, self-belief, a well practiced self-talk script, and finely tuned visualisation skills, he may not get the opportunity to demonstrate his abilities.

He will be competing in an environment that is a million miles from his normal training environment. Even without the press attention, this will be the case for a great number of Olympic hopefuls. The key to success lies in preparation – mental and emotional preparation as well as physical preparation. There should be no surprises on the day.

How would you cope? Where would your head be? What’s worse – knowing that the world is waiting to see if you’re going to be another Eddie the Eagle, or actually being Eddie the Eagle and knowing that the world is waiting to be entertained by you as you once again take to the skies – briefly!

The Olympian Edge

Many aspiring athletes consider qualifying for Olympic team selection to be the stuff of dreams. Those who dedicate themselves to achieving that dream have set their sights on a much bigger target – Olympic gold.

To begin developing the competitive edge, achieving team selection must be seen as only part of a process; a stepping-stone goal towards achieving the ultimate goal. Then, with a powerful competitive edge developed, achieving Olympic gold becomes a stepping-stone in itself on a continuing journey towards realising full potential. So how can an athlete develop their own ‘edge’ in a highly competitive environment?

“The Olympics remain the most compelling search for excellence that exists in sport, and maybe in life itself” – Dawn Fraser (3 x Olympic gold medal winner)

The Pillars of Performance:

All noteworthy sports performances are built on four supporting pillars:

• technical
• tactical
• physical
• psychological

The pillars are the core areas of performance that require dedicated training to be successful in competitive sport. Just like structural pillars supporting a building, the pillars of performance must be able to support their load evenly if they are to be effective.

Failure to develop skill levels evenly across all four areas will result in an unstable load – in effect, an unstable performance. Neglecting just one area can upset the balance enough to bring a performance crashing down but building strength in all four can elevate a sports performance from merely noteworthy to totally outstanding.

Take a moment to consider how balanced your current training schedule is in relation to the pillars of performance. Technical and tactical demands vary enormously depending on your sport; the degree of physical fitness required also varies from sport to sport but competitors at top level all train their bodies to reach peak physical condition for when it really matters; so what about psychological training?

Does your training schedule and Olympic preparation plan contain dedicated time for mind training? Giving yourself the ‘edge’ over competitors when it really matters may depend on it.

“You have no control over what the other guy does. You only have control over what you do” – A.J Kitt (Alpine ski racer)

Benefits of Mental Skills Training:

Mental Skills training – or sports psychology – covers a large area. In its widest sense, it covers all areas of exercise, fitness, and leisure, not just competitive sport but sports psychology is widely recognised as an important cog in the wheel of improving sports performance.

Contenders for Olympic medals have all put in years of physical training; they’ve all followed carefully planned diet and training regimes; and they all have many hours of world-class competition experience behind them.

So, when all else is equal in terms of proven ability, what is it that makes the difference between finishing on the podium or off? What is it that makes the difference between securing a gold instead of a silver medal? These questions can often be answered by learning well established mind training techniques including:

Understanding motivation

What drives you? What got you into the Olympic team? Understanding what motivates you is the best way to stay motivated – even when the going gets tougher than tough

Visualisation

Also known as mental rehearsal, learning how to visualise a positive outcome under any set of circumstances is key in preparing for the stresses of competition. By nature, we’re all creatures of habit.

We like familiar routines and we like to feel in control – and, let’s be honest,  sportspeople are known to have some slightly obsessive rituals they like to maintain! Arriving in the Olympic village in a foreign country immediately takes an athlete way out of their comfort zone.

It’s an unfamiliar environment; an unfamiliar bed; an unfamiliar drawer to keep your lucky socks in – everything is unknown. Visualisation techniques allow you to maintain your focus, concentration, and confidence in a world of new distractions. With dedicated practice, visualisation can provide both psychological and physical benefits by enhancing mind and muscle memory.

Self-talk

Never underestimate the power of the voices in your head. Even top class athletes with proven track records can suffer moments of doubt on the start-line. Over 5000 athletes will descend upon Vancouver for the 2010 winter Olympics – all of them going for gold. This is going to create a very special but also very intense atmosphere.

The enormity of the Olympic stage has, in the past, caused even seasoned competitors to suffer the equivalent of stage-fright and ‘choke’. Positive self-talk is an effective tool that helps you to rise to the occasion. When the voice in your head asks, “Can I do this?” you need to be able to answer with a positive, “Yes” otherwise you probably can’t!

Mindset

Your mindset can be described as how you view yourself and your abilities. This will have a big impact on how you cope with setbacks or disappointing results and it can also affect your ability to reach your true potential. A growth mindset is vital in training and crucial in the final preparation phase for competition. Your ability to cope and remain positive under extreme stress depends on your mindset. Your mindset can be changed so it becomes important to ensure yours is not holding you back.

Positive mental attitude

Positive thoughts lead to positive actions being taken. Negative thoughts generate only negative actions – or lead to no action being taken at all. A positive attitude is a winning attitude; if you don’t believe you can win, you’ve already lost.

“Donald has helped me to become mentally stronger and more balanced and consistent in my mental preparation, even in high stress situations. He has taught me to avoid negative thoughts and to form positive images, taking positive lessons from all situations” – Ben Kilner (World Cup snowboarder)