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
