Self talk: Using positivity to trump fear

My column in the November issue of The Wingfoot Express, Greater Boston Track Club's regular newsletter, featured an article this month on the effective use of self talk in performances. Read on...

Self talk: Using positivity to trump fear

With Cross Country Nationals and the beginning of indoor track season upon us, GBTC athletes have a lot on our minds. For the cross country folks, months of training and racing will culminate in one final performance. For the track folks, the pulsating pressure of the indoor season awaits us. While we take measures to ensure we are constantly improving our physical fitness, we have a tendency to neglect the role of mental fitness in our performances. Today, we address this role.

We have all experienced the sense of dread that accompanies excitement prior to a race. The knowledge that we will be in severe pain and fatigue for the near future can be paralyzing; however, we have ways to counter these negative thoughts. Self- talk, an essential component of cognitive control, can either enhance or inhibit performance. Positive self talk can raise athletes’ self-esteem and encourage us to remain in the present rather than focus on past negative thoughts, feelings, or performances. Negative self-talk can cause us to engage in behavior that reaffirms our negative thoughts, thereby suggesting to us that our original negative thoughts are correct. While research suggests that peak performance usually occurs when athletes are not thinking about their performance, rather we are acting automatically, athletes often do think when we are performing and therefore require tools to change our negative thinking to positive thinking.

Running, a solitary and rather painful activity, provides many opportunities for athletes to engage in negative self-talk. Statements such as “I can’t do this,” “I’m tired,” “I just want to stop” run rampant through runners’ minds during performances. How do we change these thoughts?
By recognizing our negative thoughts and coupling those thoughts with thought stoppage techniques and positive thoughts, we can redirect our attention and, therefore, our behavior to enhance our performance. Negative thoughts can lead to negative feelings that can lead to negative behavior that can lead to poor performances. This pattern suggests the importance of eliminating negative thoughts by consistently using a thought stoppage trigger. We should use a trigger word that works for us. If you are having trouble coming up with a word, try the word “stop”.

As a negative thought enters your mind in training or racing, such as the inevitable common thought during the second mile of a cross country race, “I can’t do this - its too hard - I want to stop,” say out loud “stop.” After you tell yourself to stop, give yourself a short true positive statement to repeat to yourself. For example, after saying “stop,” say to yourself, “hang,” meaning that you know you can hang onto the runner in front of you, you’ve done it in the past, and you can use this knowledge to push through your negative thoughts. Make sure you have selected your thought stoppage trigger word and your short positive statement prior to training or competition, so you don’t have to think while you’re in distress, you can just act automatically.

Let me give you a personal example. In a cross country race two years ago, three minutes into the race, negative self-talk crept into my mind. I told myself “Stop. You always feel better after the first mile. Just make it to the first mile.” Once I crossed the 1-mile mark, I told myself to stay within 2 yards of the woman ahead who was wearing green. When my mind told me I was tired, I reminded myself “2 green, 2 green, 2 green.” This caused me to focus less on my negative thoughts and more on my competition. I pulled myself up to the woman in green and focused my energies on her while chanting the constructive phrase “2 green.” I then beat her by over a minute. As someone who tends to underperform in cross country races, if I can use thought stoppage and positive reframing to enhance my performance, so can all of you.

Coaches Clinic Presentation

Thank you to those supporters who attended my presentation today on the effectiveness of a youth development model with a Boston Public School. If you missed today's presentation, you are a coach, or you are just looking to develop your sport psychology knowledge base, consider coming to Ramsey Rehab's first coaches clinic this Saturday in Leominster. I will be presenting on how coaches can use communication to motivate their athletes in a healthy and effective way. Other professionals in the medical and athletic community will be discussing a variety of topics, including concussion management, proper nutrition, dynamic pre-game warm up programs, and basic strength training for adolescents.

WIP Presentation

I will present my up-to-date research findings on how physical activity can foster the socio-emotional development of urban youth on Wednesday, October 14th from 12:30-2 pm at Boston University's School of Education. If you are a member of the BU SED community, check out the presentation. You're in for a treat!

BDO Junior World Cup

I spent the last month in a flurry of excitement, serving as the ambassador to Germany for the BDO Junior World Cup Field Hockey Tournament, housed at Boston University, Harvard University, and Boston College. The tournament featured the best Junior Field Hockey teams from around the world in a remarkable display of athleticism, sports-person-ship, and competition. While watching the tournament, I couldn’t help but wonder how challenging it would be to compete in a foreign country for 2 weeks, especially if the language spoken differed from athletes’ native languages. Not only must athletes compete against strong opponents, they must navigate a new city, be aware of cultural differences, and adjust their training, sleeping, and eating schedules to fit with their competition schedules in a different country. While many teams traveled with sport psychologists, some teams were left to cope with mental stressors in the confines of their own heads or the dorm rooms they shared with their teammates.

Typically, the more significant the event, the more pronounced mental stress is for athletes. Often, the symptoms of such stress rear their ugly heads when athletes perceive situational demands to exceed their personal resources at any given time. Such stress can be managed through setting realistic expectations, visualization or imagery, positive self talk, and a variety of other techniques provided generously by the field of sport psychology.

WEBSITE LAUNCHED

For information on individual or team services, check out Hayden Performance Consulting. Please contact Laura Hayden via the CONTACT page with any comments or questions. I look forward to helping many of you strive for performance excellence in your chosen sport!

Special thanks and recognition go to Kyle MacQueen for website design and development, Emily Raymond for website pictures (swimming and soccer pictures), Theresa Redmond for logo design, Jen Lee & Mark Tuttle for website consultation, Debi Roder for business consultation, and Brad Kozel for infinite patience.

The Mental Side of Overreaching

We all know what overtraining means. Even the most intelligent athletes can fall victim to this sexy and alluring concept. You know who you are – perhaps you’ve earned the nickname “Workout Queen”, you’ve frequently run 100 mile weeks just because you want to hit the triple digits, or you’ve hit the pool 4 times a day just because you have some extra free time. 

Well, overreaching might be a tempting concept to you “enthusiastic” athletes. While there are a variety of definitions for overreaching in endurance sports, the one I like is from Matt Fitzgerald, a contributor to the magazine Triathlete. In the March 2009 issue, in his article titled “When Too Much Is Just Enough”, Fitzgerald defines overreaching as “when you are training hard enough so that, after seven to 10 days, your performance begins to decline due to accumulating fatigue. But the art of overreaching lies in cutting back your training as soon as you reach that threshold of performance decline in order to give your body a chance to adapt to all of that hard work.”

As I read this article, I began thinking about the physical and mental art of overreaching. Physically, if you know your body reasonable well (as most athletes do), you can find that delicate balance between reason and insanity and ride it pretty well until its time to cut back your training. Mentally, however, you face a different monster. You’re asking yourself to make peace with an unbelievable amount of physical exhaustion, perhaps entering into a training chaos mentality, and then expecting yourself to adjust immediately, without hesitation, as soon as you think you’ve reached that nasty threshold.

How do you make that transition from chaos to calm?

Keep in mind your ultimate performance goal. Allow that goal to guide your reasoning. When it is time to cut back from an intense training load, be aware that your body will likely respond favorably, but your mind might have tasted the cruel and delicious taste of fatigue and want more. We endurance athletes know this taste and often hunger for it. By keeping in mind your ultimate performance goal, you’re more likely to enjoy your slightly more relaxed training schedule and appreciate the physical and mental benefits of shifting your training. Remember, while we certainly want to enjoy or athletic journey, we still want to perform to our potential in competition. Try to avoid sabotaging that goal by becoming so addicted to the “training hard” component of your training that you fail to enjoy the easier and more relaxed side.

Get SMART

The official Greater Boston Track Club newsletter, the Wingfoot Express, highlights club members' performances, provides nutritional and training advice, and updates club members of upcoming events. The Wingfoot Express features a regular column by HPC's Laura Hayden, called The Other 90%, focused on sport psychology, mental preparation and peak performance. Below is this issue's article.

We all know that old adage ―sport performance is 10% physical, 90% mental, but have we really thought about the implications of such a statement? I don’t know the actual ratio of physical to mental preparation for peak performance. I’m sure the ratio is different depending on your sport, genetics, disposition, and style of competition. What I do know is the power the mind has over performance, regardless of who you are and what you do.

You’ve covered hundreds of miles, clocked repeated intervals, and spent many early mornings in the weight room. Your feet are blistered, quads are stacked, and time is drawing near. Whether you’re training for the next Grand Prix event, the upcoming cross country season, or Indoor Track, chances are you’re experiencing a bundle of feelings: excitement, nervousness, anxiety. Regardless of your event, you all know that feeling when you think about performing – palms begin to sweat and heart rate accelerates like my husband’s did when Kara Goucher flew past at mile 24 of the Boston Marathon.

If we know we’re prepared, why are we so nervous? We spend so much time physically training for an event and so little time mentally training for an event that the realization we might underperform hits us as we anticipate performing to the standard we set for ourselves. This realization is scary – we haven’t prepared for such a thought. Here, you’ll find one very simple way to minimize these thoughts and set yourself up for success.

The concept of goal setting is familiar to us as competitors. But this simple act, when done deliberately, can radically alter both our control over our performances and how we feel about our performances.

One approach to goal setting is setting SMART goals - clearly, we hope we are always setting goals that are smart, but this definition is not what I mean. I mean goals that are specific, measurable, adjustable, realistic, and time sensitive.

Rather than hold yourself to lofty, uninformed standards, set 2 types of SMART goals that realistically represent your current fitness and ability level:

1. Process Goals. Used to identify what part of your performance you’d like to focus on during practice or competition and what steps you must take to focus on your identified goal.

One non-SMART process goal might be, "I’m going to focus on lifting my knees when racing." As a SMART process goal, that statement will look a little different: "I’m going to focus on lifting my knees for the last 100 yards of the 400 at Club Nationals but, if I’m tired, I’ll drop down to 75 yards of high knees. I know this is possible because I tried it in practice." You’ll notice the goal is specific, measurable (last 100 yards), adjustable (allows for modification if tired), realistic (you’ve practiced high knees), and time sensitive (at Club Nationals).

2. Outcome Goals. Used to identify an end goal. We athletes are quick to choose outcome goals.

One non-SMART outcome goal might be "I’m going to break 5 minutes in the mile." While this goal is better than "I’m going to run really fast today", its not good enough to produce tangible results that accurately reflect our ability levels and allow for game-day circumstances to rear their ugly heads. As a SMART outcome goal, the above goal might look like this: "Since I’ve run 5:04, I’m going to try to break 5 minutes in the mile at Club Nationals if all the conditions come together for me but I’m going to reassess during the race and allow myself to speed up or slow down by 2-5 second at the 1k mark if I feel particularly good or bad." You’ll notice the goal is specific, measurable (5 minutes), adjustable (builds in 2-5 seconds of variation), realistic (you’ve run close to this time in the past), and time sensitive (at Club Nationals).

Why set SMART goals? By setting SMART process goals, you’ll find yourself focusing on process throughout your competition, which is often an overlooked part of competing. Runners often try to zone out to pass the time when racing, hoping that the race will unfold without too much drama until the last 50 meters. Focusing on process centers your mind on the task at hand, the present goal, and allows you to make adjustments to your technique during performance. Setting SMART outcome goals allows you to feel you have control over your performance. By setting goals that are specific to you, you place less emphasis on your competitors’ performances and more emphasis on your own abilities. You build into your
performance the possibility of needing to readjust your expectations and, therefore, reduce the disappointment you experience if your race doesn’t unfold according to plan (which is often the case).

This very simple step can help you jump to success, hurl into the winner’s circle, get on the right track, or perhaps, expedite the road to recovery. Allow your mental strength to guide your physical strength as you reach toward peak performance. In the words of Victor Hugo, "People do not lack strength, they lack will."