Popular Articles

Dr. Taylor has written hundreds of articles that have been published in national and regional magazines and newspapers, including Outside, Shape, Tennis, Ski Racing, Ski, Triathlete, Inside Triathlon, Her Sports, The Denver Post, and many others. This webpage offers you many of these articles, sorted by category, on the psychology of sport and dance.

SPORTS ARTICLES

Slumpbusting: Overcoming Performance Slumps in Competitive Sports

Performance slumps are one of the most common, yet mysterious, phenomena in sports. Typically viewed as unexplained drops in performances, slumps are a source of concern for athletes and coaches. Despite its visible place in the collective psyche of the athletic community, little is known about the causes or cures for performance slumps. As a consequence, this article will look at how athletes and coaches may prevent, identify, and overcome slumps.

What is a Slump?

Slumps are used to describe a wide variety of performance declines. As a result, there has been no clear definition of what a slump really is. For example, Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (Merriam-Webster, 1974) defines a slump as "a period of poor or losing play by a team or individual" (p. 1095). However, this definition lacks precision. Several factors must be considered in defining slumps. First, ability is important. That is, if the team is always lousy, their poor play would not be a slump. As such, current performance must always be compared to a previous level of play. Second, the length of the decline is relevant. For example, a baseball hitter who goes 0 for 4 may not be in a slump, but if he goes 0 for 25, he probably is. Third, a common aspect of a slump is that there seems to be no apparent explanation for the decline. If there is an obvious reason for the drop in performance, such as an injury, then it would not be a slump. Finally, a slump is subjective, i.e., a slump for one person may not be a slump for another.

In defining a slump, these factors must be taken into consideration. As a result, a slump is presently defined as: An unexplained drop in performance that extends longer than would be expected from normal ups and downs of competition (Taylor, 1988).

Identifying a Slump

An inherent part of sports participation is that performance will vary naturally during the course of a season. In other words, it is rare for athletes to maintain a consistently high level of performance. As a result, most performance declines are simply a typical part of the ups and downs of competition. So, the question is whether a decline is a slump or just a natural drop in the performance cycle?

The first step in determining whether a decline is a slump is to evaluate an athlete's average level of performance. That is, how does the athlete usually perform? For statistically-oriented sports like baseball and basketball, this can be measured by plotting performance to date on a graph. Then, normal variation can be determined by seeing the ups and downs that commonly occur during the season. Next, recent performance can be compared to the normal variation. If the current decrease is unusually low, it may be a slump. Finally, a superficial look at the causes of the decline should be done. If there is no obvious cause of the drop in performance, it is safe to say that the athlete is in a slump.

Causes of Slumps

The causes of performance slumps can be grouped into four general categories. First, perhaps the most common cause of slumps is a physical problem. These difficulties include fatigue, minor injuries, and lingering illness. Second, slumps may be due to subtle changes in technique that occur during the course of a season. These changes may be in the execution of the skill or in the timing of the movement. Third, slumps may begin with changes in an athlete's equipment, e.g., loosening of string tension on a tennis racquet or a different weight of a new baseball bat. Particularly in those sports that require elaborate equipment, there is a precise balance between equipment and technique. As a result, a slight change in equipment may alter technique, thereby hurting performance. Fourth, slumps can be caused by psychological factors. Furthermore, the mental contributors may be related to or independent of the athletic involvement. For example, a particularly poor performance may reduce confidence and increase anxiety, which could lead to a prolonged drop in performance. In contract, issues away from competition such as family difficulties, financial problems, and school struggles may distract concentration, increase stress, and decrease motivation, thus resulting in a performance decline.

Recommendations for Preventing Slumps

The best way to deal with slumps is to prevent them from happening. Slumps can be prevented by paying careful attention to the causes of slumps and taking steps to avoid those causes.

Physical. As discussed above, many slumps begin with physical difficulties. More specifically, slumps are often caused by the normal physical wear-and-tear of the competitive season. As a result, performance slumps may be prevented by paying attention to various factors that influence an athlete's physical state.

One important area that can be addressed is physical condition. Quite simply, athletes who are well-conditioned will be less susceptible to fatigue, injury, and illness. Consequently, a rigorous off-season physical training program and a competitive season physical maintenance program will help minimize slumps due to physical breakdown. Second, a significant part of slump prevention is rest. In other words, physical deterioration can be lessened by actively incorporating rest into athletes' training and competitive regimens. Adequate rest can be assured in several ways. Days off can be built into the weekly training schedule. For example, in sports with weekend competitions, having mandatory Mondays off is a good way to ensure that athletes are able to recover from the prior week's training and the stresses of the previous days' competition.

Third, athletes can reduce the quantity and increase the quality of training as the season progresses. This approach will allow athletes to maintain a high level of health and energy right through the end of the season. This is especially important in sports that have lengthy season such as baseball, tennis, and golf.

Fourth, planning a responsible competition schedule can also prevent slumps. Perhaps the most demanding aspect of sports involvement is the actual competition. Competing in too many events is both physically and mentally draining and may be counterproductive for the athlete. As a result, athletes and coaches need to select the competitions that are most important for the athletes and to avoid scheduling events that serve no specified purpose in the athlete's seasonal competitive plan.

Fifth, scheduling time off about three weeks before an important competition, particularly when it is towards the end of the season, can help to ensure a high level of performance. This strategy allows athletes to recover from previous competitions, overcome nagging injuries and illness, focus attention on the upcoming competition, and prepare for the final push toward that competition.

Most fundamentally, the best way to reduce the likelihood of a slump due to physical causes is for athletes to listen to their bodies. They need to acknowledge fatigue, injury, and illness and when any are evident, they should be dealt with immediately. Simply put, athletes must learn to work hard and rest hard.

Technical. Slumps that are caused by technical changes can also be prevented by taking steps to maintain sound technique which results in strong performance. First, technique is best developed during the off-season when the primary focus is on technical improvement and there is adequate time to fully acquire the skills. As a result, technically-induced performance slumps may be prevented by minimizing technical work done during the competitive season. Working on technique may not only disturb the technique that is producing good performance, it may also hurt performance by reducing confidence and distracting concentration. In addition, maintaining a video library of good technique and performances can be used by athletes and coaches to remind them of proper technique and to compare current with past technique.

Technological. The best way to prevent technologically-related performance slumps is to maintain equipment at its high performance level. For example, tennis racquets should be restrung before their tension changes or if a favorite baseball bat is broken, it should be replaced by another of identical weight and balance.

Psychological. Performance slumps that are caused by psychological factors can be addressed at two levels. First, for those difficulties that arise directly from competition, it is important to have athletes engaged in a regular mental training program. This approach will develop athletes' mental skills in areas such as self-confidence, anxiety, concentration, and motivation, thereby making them more resilient to the negative psychological effects of periodic poor performance. In addition, following poor performance, it is necessary for athletes to actively combat these negative psychological effects by employing these mental skills. This will prevent them from getting caught in a self-perpetuating vicious cycle of low self-confidence and poor performance.

Second, for those difficulties that occur away from the sport, it is necessary for athletes to work them out quickly and effectively. In addition, the previously-learned mental skills can used to leave these difficulties off the field, so that, at least during competition, athletes are able to maintain their proper focus and intensity, thus preventing a drop in performance.

SlumpBusting Plan

It is essential that slumps be addressed in an organized and systematic way. Athletes and coaches must look at each cause and determine to best way to alleviate it. In addition, the attitude that athletes and coaches have about getting out of the slump will also be a factor. Typically, athletes and coaches believe that athletes can just jump out of their slump. However, the fact is that it takes time to get into a slump and it takes time to get out of one. As a result, athletes and coaches must be prepared to put in the necessary time and effort for the athletes to return to their previous level of performance.

Time-Out

The first thing that athletes need to do in the SlumpBusting process is take some time away from training and competition that provides a change of scenery and people. This time-out offers several benefits. First, slumps produce strong negative thinking and emotions in athletes, which helps to maintain the slump. The time-out enables athletes to let go of the negative attitudes and feelings and regain a positive attitude for upcoming preparation and competition. In other words, the time-out acts like an emotional vacation and provides them with much-needed perspective with which to look ahead toward better performances.

Second, slumps can be draining physically and emotionally. Consequently, time-out allows athletes to recover and to "recharge their batteries." This restoration will further assist in the return to competitive form.

Third, the time-out gives athletes the opportunity to devise an organized plan to overcome the slump. The time away from the sport will enhance athletes' ability to view their slump objectively. They can then use this information to alleviate the slump in the shortest possible time.

Goal-Setting

A critical part of the SlumpBusting Plan is to develop an organized program aimed at alleviating the slump. This program is based on setting a series of specified goals. As with all goals that are set, these should be specific, realistic, and measurable.

Return-to-form goal. This goal defines the ultimate purpose of the SlumpBusting program. In particular, the return-to-form goal indicates the level of performance to which the athlete wants to return. For example, a baseball hitter in a slump might set his return-to-form goal at his pre-slump batting average.

Causal goals. These goals focus on the level of performance associated with the particular causes of the slump. If there is more than one cause of a slump, it important that a goal be set for each cause. For example, if a slump is caused by an injury and maintained by a loss of self-confidence, then separate goals should be set for rehabilitating the injury and for rebuilding self-confidence.

Daily training goals. Once the causal goals have been established, daily goals must be set in order to achieve the causal goals. The daily training goals specify what athletes must do in their regular training to relieve the causes, thereby alleviating the slump. It is important in determining these goals to understand what is required to overcome the causes of the slump. For example, if a cause involves a technical problem, it is up to the athlete and coach to decide the best way to resolve the technical flaw and, more specifically, what to do in training to work toward the causal goal. Additionally, these goals should ensure that the athletes progress toward their causal and return-to-form goals in an incremental and constructive way.

Daily performance goals. Frequently, athletes are unable to take time off to work on their slump due to their competitive schedule. As a result, it is often necessary to keep performing while trying to relieve the slump. This situation is difficult because it forces athletes to keep performing at a sub-par level. Daily performance goals provide a level of performance to work toward that, though below the return-to-form level, is above the current slump level. These goals act to motivate the athlete and reinforce rather than discourage effort by furnishing realistic levels toward which to aim. They also provide a positive orientation that will help the athlete in resolving the slump.

Counseling

It is also recommended that, along with the SlumpBusting plan, athletes in severe slumps have individual and group counseling available to them. As mentioned earlier, a significant component of a performance slump is the negative emotional chain that develops. Individual counseling enables athletes to air their thoughts and feelings to an objective observer and allows the counselor to provide effective coping skills that will help the athlete better deal with the anxiety and concerns of being in a slump. Group counseling enables athletes to share their experiences about slumps. These sessions have several functions. First, they provide a structured system of social support for the slumping athletes, thereby relieving the feelings of loneliness and isolation that are often present. Second, these sessions show athletes that their feelings are not unique and are, in fact, natural and expected. Third, they allow athletes to share their ideas about how to get out of a slump.

Conclusion

By following these recommendations, it will be possible for athletes to minimize the number of slumps they fall into during the competitive season. In addition, for those slumps that do arise, coaches and athletes will have the knowledge and skills to get out them in the shortest, most effective way.

Taylor, J. (1991, January/February). Slumpbusting: Overcoming performance slumps in competitive sports. Sport Psychology Training Bulletin, 2, 1-6.

THE MENTAL EDGE FOR SPORTS

Column Published in the Aspen Daily News (1997-98)

SET GOALS FOR SUMMER SPORTS

Aspen is full of highly motivated athletes who participate in many summer sports, particularly endurance sports such as cycling and running. These athletes have a variety of aspirations that may range from running in Boogie=s five-miler on July 4th to riding in the Leadville 100. But being motivated is not enough if you want to be successful this summer. You also need to set goals that will enable you to work toward performing your best. Motivation without goals is like knowing where you want to go without knowing how to get there. So goals can be thought of as a road map to your desired destination.

Goal setting can have value to you in your training and competitive performances. It increases your commitment and motivation to train and compete. Goal setting provides deliberate steps toward your athletic aspirations. It also helps you plan your training so you know what you need to do to perform your best in competition.

Types of Goals

There are five types of goals that you should established to ensure that you maximize your performances. First, you need to set long-term goals, that is, what you want to ultimately accomplish in your sport. For example, your long-term goal might be to complete the Ride the Rockies next year or run a sub-four hour marathon. Second, seasonal goals should be set, that is, what you want achieve this summer. These could include a certain time in a running race or to complete a mountain bike route. Third, competitive goals specify how you want to perform in specific events this summer, for instance, in the weekly Aspen Cycling Club races. Fourth, training goals tell you what you need to do in your training to reach your competitive, short-term, and long-term goals. Finally, lifestyle goals indicate what you need to do in your general lifestyle to reach the above goals. For example, getting adequate rest and eating a healthy diet are important lifestyle goals. Note that each later goal should lead to earlier goals, culminating in attainment of your long-term goals.

Goal Guidelines

The effectiveness of the goals you set depends on certain criteria you follow in your goal setting program. Goals should be challenging, but realistic and attainable. In other words, set goals you can reach with hard work. Goals that are too low will not help you because they will be reached with little effort. Goals that are too high will hurt your motivation because you will not be able to achieve them no matter how hard you try.

Goals should be specific and concrete. Simply saying, "I am going to go faster" is not an effective goal. Goals should be measurable, for example, in terms of time or distance. They should also be time-limited, that is, goals should be set to be accomplished within a certain time frame. For instance, "I want to improve my per-mile time by 15 seconds by the Basalt Half-Marathon in eight weeks" is an ideal goal.

You should focus on the degree rather than absolute attainment of a goal. There is no certain way to set goals. Not all goals will be reached, but there will always be improvement toward a goal. If you are only concerned with reaching a goal, you may see yourself as a failure if you do not attain that goal. However, if you emphasize improvement toward a goal and do not reach a goal, but improve 50% over your previous level, you are more likely to see yourself as a success. Remember, the effort involved in striving for a goal and improvement toward a goal is as important as reaching it.

Making goals explicit seems to improve motivation and performance. It can be helpful to write the goals down so you can see them on a regular basis. Sharing your goals with your family and friends also appears to be a benefit.

One of the true joys in life is setting goals and achieving them. To that end, getting feedback showing progress toward your goals is very helpful. This can be accomplished in several ways. Maintaining a training log that keeps track of distance, time, heart rate, and other performance-related parameters can assist you seeing tangible evidence of your progress. You can also get goal-related feedback from training partners, coaches, and competitors. All of this information reinforces your efforts and motivates you to keep working hard.

Finally, goal setting is a dynamic process that never really ends. Because it is rarely possible to set perfectly accurate goals, you will have to regularly review and adjust your goals as your summer progresses. Some of your goals may turn out to be too difficult, in which case you will need to reduce them to a more realistic level or give yourself more time to reach them. Goals that are more easily reached than expected should immediately be reset to a higher level.

Goal setting offers you benefits throughout the upcoming outdoor season. It will systematically lead you to your athletic objectives. Goal setting will help you follow a safe and healthy path to your best performances. Finally, at the end of the summer, you will be able to look back with great satisfaction at the progress you have made and the outstanding performances you have achieved.

DO YOU HAVE THE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EDGE?

A difficulty with dealing with mental preparation is that it is not tangible or easily measured. Unlike assessing your physical strength with weight lifting or your speed with a stopwatch, mental skills can not be directly assessed. Mental Edge Profiling helps you identify your psychological attributes to assist you in achieving your best performances.

Think of Mental Edge Profiling as physical testing for the mind. This approach has several benefits. Mental Edge Profiling offers you self-understanding. Without this awareness, you will not know what you need to work on to improve mentally. Mental Edge Profiling also leads to efficient change. Becoming the best athlete you can is a complicated process. You have to plan and organize all of your sports participation, school, work, and social life. It is difficult to find time to do everything. Without self-understanding, your sports participation will have little direction, will be trial-and-error, and will not be very efficient. And your training efforts will not lead to your goals quickly or easily. Mental Edge Profiling shows you what you need to work on so you can be efficient and focused in your sports training and participation.

Athletes need to be able to recognize their strengths and weaknesses in their sports. Clearly identifying your strengths will give you added confidence and show what you should rely on when participating. Unfortunately, athletes often avoid their less developed areas because they don't like to think that they have weaknesses. This perspective limits your improvement because you never look at and work on your weaknesses. Improvement comes fastest when working on your weaknesses as well as your strengths as a part of your training.

Mental Edge Profiling involves rating yourself on 10 psychological factors that impact sports performance. These factors are: (1) confidence: how much you believe in your ability to perform your best (1-very low; 10-very high); (2) motivation: how committed you are to training and competition (1-very low; 10-very high); (3) intensity: how well you are able reach and maintain your ideal level of intensity during competition (1-not at all; 10-very well); (4) focus: how well you are able to stay focused and avoid distractions (1-not at all; 10-very well); (5) training: the quality of training you typically put in (1-poor quality; 10-high quality); (6) preparation: how mentally and physically prepared you are before competitions (1-not at all prepared; 10-very prepared); (7) emotions: how negative or positive your feelings are before and during competitions (1-very negative; 10-very positive); (8) pressure: how well you are able to handle competitive pressure (1-poorly; 10-well); (9) competitor: how well you perform in competition as compared to training (1-much worse; 10-much better); and (10) mental skills: how much you include mental skills such as positive thinking, relaxation, and mental imagery into your training and competitive preparation (1-not at all; 10-a great deal).

A similar approach can be taken using a Physical Edge profile to identify your physical strengths and weaknesses. In collaboration with Bill Fabrocini, director of The Aspen Club Sports Performance Center, I came up with 12 physical factors that significantly impact athletic performance: (1) strength: amount of force you generate for a specific muscle group (1-low; 10-high); (2) power: ability to combine strength and speed (1-low; 10-high); (3) endurance: ability of muscles to keeping working for a long period of time (1-low; 10-high); (4)cardiovascular: ability to heart and lungs to keep working for a long period of time (1-poor; 10-excellent); (5) flexibility: ability of muscles to lengthen (1-poor; 10-excellent); (6) agility: ability to change direction with quickness and power (1-poor; 10-excellent); (7) balance: ability to maintain center of gravity and equilibrium during an activity (1-poor; 10-excellent); (8) pain tolerance: ability to endure pain and discomfort during training and competition (1-poor; 10-excellent); (9) recovery: ability to recover from intense training periods (1-poor; 10-excellent); (10) health: degree of injury, illness, or fatigue you now have (1-poor; 10-excellent); (11) sleep: how well you are sleeping (1-poor; 10-excellent); (12) diet: how well you eat to get sufficient nutrition (1-poor; 10-excellent).

To complete your Mental and Physical Edge profiles, list the 10 psychological and 12 physical factors on a sheet of paper. Next to each factor, rate yourself on a 1-to-10 scale in terms of how you typically see yourself. For example, if you view yourself as moderately confident, but sometimes experience some negative thinking, you might give yourself a 5 or 6. If you have a generally poor diet, you might rate yourself a 2 or 3.

Having completed your Mental and Physical Edge profiles, you now have a numerical representation of what you perceive to be your mental and physical strengths and areas in need of improvement. It can be helpful to have a coach or training partner who knows you well also complete the profiles for you in order to determine the accuracy of your self-perceptions. If there is consistency in the two profiles, then it is likely that your beliefs about yourself are accurate. If not, you should examine where the differences lie and explore why your perceptions differ so greatly. This comparative process can increase your self-understanding even more. Typically, if you score below a 7 on a factor, it is probably an area you need to work on because it is interfering with your performances.

You can then compare the mental and physical areas you have identified as in need of improvement with your current training. Are you addressing those needs? You should specify those areas that should receive immediate attention, set goals to guide you in developing them, and then incorporate changes into your training to strengthen those areas. You can then complete the Mental and Physical Edge profiles periodically to track your progress in the areas you are working to improve.

STRIVE FOR PRIME NOT PEAK PERFORMANCE

Peak performance is a phrase that is used widely by athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists to describe the level of performance to which athletes should aspire. It is considered to be the best performance an athlete can achieve. When I came out of graduate school that is the goal to which I wanted my athletes to work toward. Yet, as I became more experienced as a psychologist and writer, I began to appreciate the power of words and came to believe that it is important that the words we use must be highly descriptive of what we are trying to communicate.

As time went by, I decided that Peak performance was not, in fact, highly descriptive of what I want the athletes with whom I work to achieve. Consider the word, peak. What it suggests is only a small point at which athletes can perform their best. Also, it is not possible to go any higher once that peak is reached. Lastly, the only way to go from the peak is down and the decline is quite steep.

For several years, I struggled with finding a phrase that I thought was truly descriptive of the level of performance I wanted athletes to reach. Finally, one day was in a supermarket meat section and noticed a piece of beef stamped with Prime Cut. A bell went off in my head! Prime is the best kind of beef you can buy. I thought I was on to something. I returned to my office and looked prime up in the dictionary. It was defined as, "of the highest quality or value." At that moment, I knew I had it, Prime Performance was highly descriptive of what I wanted athletes to achieve.

I define Prime Performance as being able to perform at a consistently high level under challenging conditions. There are two key words in this definition. First, consistency. I am not interested in athletes having one great performance and a lot of poor ones. I want them to be able to perform at a consistently high level day in and day out. Second, challenging. I don't care if athletes can perform well under ideal conditions. What makes great athletes great is their ability to perform their best under the worst possible conditions. So Prime Performance means performing well with minimal peaks and valleys, in pressure situations, and when it really counts.

Beating the Winter Blues:

How to Stay Motivated During the Holiday Crunch

Her Sports
November/December, 2004, p. 20-22

It’s late October and you’re heading into the holiday season with feelings of dread rather than cheer. You may have been pretty good about eating healthily and working out regularly, but you know that November and December are different. You’ll be busy with holiday parties which means eating more. To make matters worse, it’ll be cold and dark when you usually work out, so it’s much harder to get out and exercise. You’re afraid that your efforts to stay fit all year will go for naught. When January 1 comes, you’ll feel like a total blob and be wracked with guilt for allowing yourself to once again fall into the “holiday health blues.” You also know that you’ll be making lame New Year’s resolutions and starting from scratch trying regain your healthy lifestyle.

But don’t despair! This gloomy scenario doesn’t have to happen this year—or ever again. There are steps you can take to avoid this yearly winter trap and enter the new year having enjoyed the holiday season and still remain in fine shape.

Choose Fun Fitness

It’s easy to stay fit during most of the year; it’s sunny, warm, and with long days. You can be outside and enjoy the mountains, beaches, or other natural beauty. Life changes during the winter though. It’s dark when you get up in the morning and it’s dark when you get home at the end of the day. It’s also cold which means you either have to bundle up for outdoor exercise or schlep to the gym from an indoor workout. To make matters worse, the people who you usually work out with may also fall into the winter blahs, so you have no extra incentive to get out there.

Perhaps the biggest problem with winter exercise is that it can be a chore rather than a joy. Without the inherent motivators present to get you to exercise, you have to create your own. The best motivator is to find activities that you enjoy. Weightlifting in a crowded gym or running on slushy sidewalks probably doesn’t bring you joy, so find something that does. Take up cross-country skiing, join an indoor volleyball league, learn to play tennis, squash, or racquetball, take dance lessons or aerobics classes, or join a yoga class. There are many activities that aren’t considered typical exercise, but that offer great cardiovascular, strength, and flexibility benefits and, more importantly, they’re fun!

Find a Training Buddy

It’s 6 am, dark, and cold outside. Your alarm just went off. The night before, you told yourself that you were going to wake up early and run, but your cozy bed in your warm house won’t allow you to get up. So you hit the snooze button and go back to sleep. Or you get home from work or school at the end of the day and you’re tired and hungry. You just can’t get yourself to change and go for a workout.

It’s tough to go it alone, especially when the elements are against you. You need a really good reason to get yourself to exercise and one of the best reasons is other people. Find a training partner to work out with. For many people, the social aspects of exercise are very motivating. Being around other motivated people, having good conversation, and, at the very least, commiserating about how cold and dark it is, can make winter exercise not only tolerable, but often enjoyable.

The commitment you make to a training buddy can also motivate you to get out of bed or off your sofa. When you agree to train with someone, you’re establishing an informal contract that brings with it responsibilities. When you schedule a workout with your training partner, you’re creating an obligation to be there. When you don’t show up for a planned workout, you’re letting your partner down and violating your agreement. You’re no longer just hurting yourself when you don’t exercise, you’re also hurting your training buddy.

Set a Goal

Another great motivator is to have a goal that you want to achieve. You need a darned good reason to work out during the winter and “general health and fitness” is perhaps too nebulous to get you going. But a specific goal may offer you the push that you need. Goals can include gains in strength, weight loss, learning a new sport, improving at an old sport, or preparation for an upcoming competitive event, such as a running race or triathlon. Whatever goals you set, be sure they’re specific and measurable, attainable with effort, and you can chart your progress.

The Hardest Part is Thinking About Exercise

The hardest part about working out is not starting, doing, or finishing the exercise, but rather just thinking about it. Exercise seems more difficult and unpleasant before you begin your workouts. You think about the sweat, fatigue, and pain. But once you begin, it’s rarely that bad. In fact, you’ll probably enjoy being active and vigorous. The really good feelings come at the end. When you finish your work out, you usually feel great; energized and affirmed for the effort you expended.

Schedule Your Workouts

Don’t expect to stay committed to an exercise program if you try to fit it in around the rest of your life. You’ll be too busy, too tired, or too stressed, and you’ll always find an excuse not to work out. Rather than fitting exercise into your life, make it a part of your life by scheduling your workouts. By setting aside time throughout your week to exercise, you ensure that there won’t be time conflicts and you’ll develop the mindset that working out is just another part of your day, like eating and bathing.

In scheduling your winter-exercise program, don’t bite off more than you can chew by creating a workout plan that’s too much for you. A program that requires too much time doing activities that aren’t enjoyable will make it easy for you not to exercise. Be realistic about what you can and won’t do as part of your training program. It’s better to do less consistently, than try to do more sporadically or not at all.

Your exercise program should also be convenient. If your gym is a 30-minute drive from home, you’re probably not going to motivate yourself to go when it’s dark and cold. Make working out easy by doing activities that are readily accessible. For example, schedule your workouts on the way to and from somewhere, so it’s easy to stop by and have a workout. And, no matter what happens, go directly to a workout at the end of the day. If you stop at home, you will probably stay at home.

Commit to Moderation

What makes the holiday period so difficult is that socializing and eating are done in excess and exercise is often jettisoned completely. You can enjoy the holidays and still maintain your fitness and not gain much weight if you make a commitment to moderation in your holiday activities. Moderation means either cutting back on your holiday parties so you aren’t too tired to exercise the next day or leaving at a reasonable hour so you can get a good night’s sleep. It also means demonstrating some restraint when faced with open bars, plates of hors d’oeuvres, buffets, and dessert tables. Don’t fall into the more-is-better mentality when it comes to food and drink. You don’t need to try everything (or, at the very least, try smaller amounts of everything). Moderation allows you to enjoy your holidays, but relieves you of the guilt and regret you feel the morning after having eaten to excess.

Accept Little Failures

One of the biggest deterrents to staying committed to an exercise program is falling off the wagon and not getting right back on. When you decide to sleep in rather than getting up to work out, you feel like such a failure and figure that there’s no point in exercising at all if you keep giving up. But one slip doesn’t make you a failure.

You don’t have to be perfect to stay in good shape, just consistent. Accept that you’ll miss some workouts for any number of reasons and that doesn’t make you weak or a bad person, it just makes you human. When you skip a workout, cut yourself some slack, tell yourself that it’s okay, and recommit to working out tomorrow.

When it comes to your diet, don’t beat yourself up if you do indulge yourself and overeat a bit. It’s not the end of the world. Just be sure to get back on the wagon at your next party and show some restraint. You will always feel better after the fact having done a little less than a little more.

Exercise Before and After You Indulge

Perhaps the best strategy for the holidays is to commit to exercise before and after you indulge. By exercising before holiday events, you’ll have earned the right to enjoy yourself. You can eat guilt-free because you’ve already burned off the calories. Knowing that you’ll exercise the next day ensures that you’ll work off your indulgences of the previous evening and relieves you of any guilt you may feel. By working out before and after your holiday events you balance the scales and the whole thing is a wash.

Live a Little

Finally, live a little. The holidays are meant to be enjoyed. As the holiday season approaches, make peace with eating a bit more and exercising a bit less than usual. If you remain committed to consistent exercise and food in moderation, you won’t lose much fitness or gain much weight. Not only will the holidays not hurt you physically or reek emotional havoc on you, but they will actually bring you cheer.

Sidebar:

Singing the Winter Blues?

Feeling the winter blues is as common as seeing snow in the mountains in December. Many people experience the winter blues as the clock changes in October and the days become shorter, darker, and colder. The winter blues, in its extreme form, even has a psychiatric designation: Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). SAD affect about 500,000 people each year of which 70% to 80% are women. The syndrome can be debilitating, but most often it is mild and simply uncomfortable. Typical symptoms include sleepiness, lethargy, irritability, weight gain, feelings of melancholy, and cravings for sugary and starchy foods (comfort food). Not surprisingly, the winter blues are more common in the northern latitudes.

Here are a few things you can easily do if you have the winter blues:

1. Spend an hour outside every day (even if it’s overcast).

2. Exercise regularly.

3. Get plenty of rest.

4. Eat a healthy diet (and allow yourself to indulge periodically).

5. Seek out activities that you enjoy.

6. Socialize with upbeat, energetic people.

If the symptoms persist or they significantly affect your daily functioning, seek out professional help for treatment. Thankfully, the winter blues fade away with the early signs of spring and don’t return until the next winter. To learn more about the winter blues and SAD, visit sada.org.uk.

GET PSYCHED!
How Mentally Strong are You?

Her Sports
March/April, 2004, p. 30-33

Whenever I ask athletes how important mental preparation is, compared to physical and technical preparation, to achieving their competitive goals, everyone says either as or more important. But when I ask them how much time they devote to their mental preparation, they say, “little or not time.” Athletes in all sports spend many hours each week getting into their best physical condition and perfecting their competitive skills. Yet, despite its importance, the mental side of sports is often neglected, despite the fact that mental training doesn’t take much time and, in fact, much of it can be incorporated directly into your regular training regimen.

One of the biggest obstacles for you is simply not knowing how the mind affects sports performance and what techniques you can use to strengthen your “mental muscles.” To help you better understand, I offer the Prime Performance Pyramid. Prime performance is defined as performing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions. The Prime Performance Pyramid is comprised of six essential mental factors that influence athletic performance: motivation, confidence, intensity, focus, emotions, and pain.

Motivation

Motivation is at the bottom of the pyramid because without the desire to train and compete, all of the other factors would be unnecessary. The challenge is to find the determination to keep working hard in the face of frustration, pain, boredom, and the desire to do other things.

Set goals. There are few things more rewarding and motivating than setting a goal, putting effort toward the goal, and achieving the goal. The sense of accomplishment and validation of the effort motivates you to strive higher. You should set clear goals of what you want to accomplish in your sport and how you will achieve those goals.

Focus on your long-term goals. To be your best, you have to put a lot of time and effort into your sport. But training often goes well beyond the point that it is enjoyable. During those times, focus on your long-term goals. Remind yourself why you’re working so hard. Imagine exactly what you want to accomplish and tell yourself that the only way you’ll be able to reach your goals is to go through the Grind.

Have a training partner. It’s difficult to be highly motivated all of the time on your own. There are going to be some days when you don’t feel like getting out there. A training partner is someone who can push you through those motivational lows. The chances are that, on any given day, one of you will be motivated. Even if you’re not very psyched to train on a particular day, you’ll still put in the time and effort because your partner is counting on you.

Daily questions. Every day, you should ask yourself two questions. When you get up in the morning, ask, “What can I do today to become the best athlete I can be?” and before you go to sleep, ask, “Did I do everything possible today to become the best athlete I can be?”

The heart of motivation. Motivation is not something that can be given to you. Motivation must ultimately come from within. You must simply want to train and compete. There are two things that should motivate you to compete. You should compete because you have a great passion for it. You should compete because you just love to get out there and do it.

Confidence

Confidence may be the single most important mental factor because you may have all of the ability to be successful, but if you don’t believe you have that ability, you won’t use it to perform your best. Confidence is about believing you can be successful when it gets tough, perform your best when it counts, and achieve your competitive goals.

Preparation breeds confidence. Preparation is the foundation of confidence. If you believe that you have done everything you can to perform your best, you will have confidence in your ability to achieve your goals. This preparation includes the physical, technical, tactical, and mental parts of your sport.

Adversity ingrains confidence. Your biggest challenge is to maintain your belief in yourself when you’re faced with adversity. To more deeply ingrain confidence, you should expose yourself to all experiences that take you out of your comfort zone, for example, bad weather and poor training conditions.

Success validates confidence. When most athletes think of success, they think about having great results and reaching their competitive goals. But every day you train, you’re scoring little victories. With each of these small “wins,” your confidence steadily increases until you have the confidence to achieve a big “win.” After every training session, be sure to acknowledge the small victory—give yourself a pat on the back for your effort and remind yourself of the goal you are working toward—and allow them to accumulate.

All of the previous steps in building confidence would go for naught if you did not then experience competitive success. Success validates the confidence you have developed in your ability. It demonstrates that your belief in your ability is well-founded. Success further strengthens your confidence, making it more resilient in the face of adversity and poor performances. Success also rewards your efforts to build confidence, encouraging you to continue to work hard and continue in your sport.

Positive self-talk. Perhaps the most powerful mental tool for building confidence is positive self-talk. The first step is to become aware of how positive or negative your self-talk is. Often, athletes say things like, “I stink” or “There’s no way I can do this” without even realizing it. The problem is that your negativity will become ingrained and will come out in competition. Positive self-talk is a skill that develops with practice. Identify the negative things you often say to yourself and figure out something positive you can say in its place. Then, be aware of when you’re negative and immediately replace it with something positive.

Intensity

When you’re in a big competition, it’s natural for your intensity to go up and for you to feel nervous. You have to take active steps to get your intensity back to a level that allows your body to perform its best. There are several simple techniques you can use to help you get your intensity under control.

Deep breathing. The most basic way to lower their intensity is to take control of their breathing by focusing on slow, deep breaths. Deep breathing ensures that you get enough oxygen so your body can function well; you will relax, feel better, and have a greater sense of control. This increased comfort will increase your confidence, calm you, and improve your focus. Deep breathing should be a big part of your pre-competitive preparations. If you take a few deep breaths, you ensure that your body is relaxed and comfortable, and you’re focused on something that will help your perform your best.

Slow pace of pre-competitive preparation. A common side effect of overintensity is that you tend to do everything faster. You can rush before the start of the competition as if you want to get the race over with as soon as possible. So, to lower your intensity, give yourself more time before your start and slow your pace as you get ready.

Music. Music is one of the most common tools athletes use to control their intensity before competitions. We all know that music has a profound physical and emotional impact on us. Music has the ability to make us happy, sad, inspired, and motivated. Music can also excite or relax us. Many world-class racers can be seen listening to music before they compete. Calming music relaxes you and makes you feel good physically and mentally.

Smile. The last technique is one of the strangest and most effective I’ve ever come across: Smile! As we grow up, we become conditioned to the positive effects of smiling. In other words, we learn that when we smile, it means we’re happy and life is good. Second, brain research has found is that when we smile, it releases brain chemicals called endorphins which have an actual physiologically relaxing effect. When you begin to feel nervous, simply smile and I promise you will feel more relaxed immediately.

Focus

The ability to stay focused is essential for you to perform your best consistently. Keywords in training and competitions can help keep you focused and avoid distractions. Come up with one or two key words that you need to focus on to perform well. For example, key words can remind you of proper technique (e.g., reach, straight body), staying relaxed (calm, breathe), good tactics (e.g., attack, patience), or staying motivated (e.g., be tough, hang in there). Key words are particularly useful when a competition gets difficult because they give you something you can grab onto and say to yourself, enabling you to remain focused when it really counts. Mental imagery—closing your eyes and seeing and feeling yourself performing the way you want—is another powerful focusing tool. You can use mental imagery before training sessions or competitions to block out distractions, focus on key aspects of your performance, and imagine yourself being successful.

Emotions

The emotions that you experience before competitions often determine how you perform. If you’re excited and happy, you will likely do well. If you’re fearful, frustrated, or feeling despair, you will probably not achieve your goals. There are no specific mental training techniques to improve emotions, but you can develop emotional mastery by learning to recognize what emotions you are feeling, what is causing the emotions, and then look for solutions to resolve the cause of the emotions. You should use opportunities in which you’re feeling bad to figure out how to change your emotions so they can feel good and perform better.

Pain

Perhaps the greatest obstacle you will face in achieving your athletic goals is the pain you experience in training and competition, particularly if you compete in endurance sports. Pain is your body’s message telling your mind that it is threatened and wants to stop. Pain has such a powerful influence because, not only does it hold your body back, but it also affects how you think and the emotions you experience. Unless the pain indicates an injury, if your mind listens to your body, you will ease up and you will not perform your best.

Research has shown that when you connect performance pain with negative thoughts (e.g., “I hate hurting this much!”) or negative emotions (e.g., frustration, anger, despair), you actually feel more pain. There are several mental techniques you can use to limit the pain you feel.

First, accept that pain is a normal part of sports training and competition—“no pain, no gain,” as the saying goes. The reality is that if sports weren’t difficult, they wouldn’t be very satisfying and you probably wouldn’t do them. Second, stay emotionally detached from the pain and use it as information to help you perform your best, for example, adjust your technique, pace, or body position. Third, realize that everyone else is probably hurting too, so if you’re the one who handles the pain best, you’re more likely to be successful.

Fourth, when you feel pain, your body braces to protect itself. Unfortunately, this actually causes more pain. You can counteract this tension by actively relaxing muscle groups and using deep breathing. Fifth, by connecting positive self-talk (e.g., “The pain means I’m working hard to reach my goals”) and emotions (e.g., pride, inspiration, excitement) with your pain, you’ll increase your motivation and confidence and trigger pain-killing endorphins so you’ll feel less pain. Finally, perhaps the greatest lesson I have learned as both a sport psychologist and an athlete is this: The physical pain you feel in training and competition in no way compares to the emotional pain you will feel if you don’t achieve your goals because you let the pain beat you.

Sidebar: How Strong is Your Mental Muscle?

One of the most difficult things about dealing with the mental side of sports is that its not tangible. Unlike physical testing which allows you to measure precisely your strength, speed, or endurance, your mental muscles aren’t as easy to assess. The following test will help you determine how strong you are mentally. By having a better understanding of yourself mentally, you can focus on the areas that need the most work. I have identified 12 mental and competitive factors that are important to athletic success. Rate yourself on a 1-to-5 scale based on how you usually feel before and during an important competition. Then follow the instructions at the end to determine how mentally strong you are and what you need to do. Rate yourself

__________________________________________________________

Motivation - How determined you are to achieve your competitive goals: not motivated 1 2 3 4 5 very motivated

Confidence - How positive or negative your self-talk is in competition:

very negative 1 2 3 4 5 very positive

Intensity - Whether your physical intensity helps (relaxed and energized) or hurts (get too nervous) your competitive performances:

hurts/nervous 1 2 3 4 5 helps/relaxed

Focus - How well you’re able to stay focused on performing your best and avoid distractions:

distracted 1 2 3 4 5 focused

Emotions – How well you’re able to control your emotions in competition:

lose control 1 2 3 4 5 maintain control

Pain - How well you’re able to handle pain in competition:

not well 1 2 3 4 5 well

Consistency - How well you’re able to maintain a high level of performance in competition and throughout the season:

very inconsistent 1 2 3 4 5 very consistent

Routines - How much you use routines in your competitive preparations:

never 1 2 3 4 5 always

Adversity - How you respond to difficulties you’re faced with in competition, for example, bad weather or tough conditions:

poorly 1 2 3 4 5 well

Pressure - How you perform in important competitions when it really counts:

poorly 1 2 3 4 5 well

Ally - Whether you’re your best ally or your worst enemy in competition:

enemy 1 2 3 4 5 ally

Prime Performance - How often you achieve and maintain your highest level of performance:

never 1 2 3 4 5 often

Scoring: Add up your scores for the 12 factors above. Use the evaluations below to determine how strong your mental muscles are:

45-60: Mentally tough as hell! Your mind helps you perform at your best consistently. Use the techniques in this article to maintain your mental strength.

30-44: Mentally solid, but vulnerable. Your mind generally helps you perform well, but you may break down in important competitions or when things get difficult. Pick a few techniques and work hard to strengthen your weakest mental muscles.

15-29: You never know who’s going to show up. You may have your good moments in competition, but mostly your mind lets you down and keeps you from achieving your goals. You should develop an organized mental training program using the techniques above to systematically improve your overall mental strength.

0-14: Call the sport shrink!: Your mind is your worst enemy in competition. It fails you at the worst possible times and you’re often frustrated because your head is such a mess. Find a good sport psychologist to work with.

ENDURANCE SPORT ARTICLES

Planning and Preparation are the Keys to Endurance Sport Success

The foundation of any type of endurance training is planning and preparation of an effective and comprehensive training program. The time put into this process will often dictate the quality of performances during the competitive season. So this article will look at several ways to help you become optimally prepared for you to perform your very best.

Goal Setting

One of the most widely used techniques to increase motivation and preparedness among endurance athletes is goal setting. Establishing goals at different levels of training and competition will improve commitment and intensity, and provide progressive steps toward realizing your competitive dreams. In order to ensure the value of goal setting, there are several components that must be included in a well-organized goal setting program.

Macro-Goals

Long term goals specify what you ultimately want to achieve in your sports participation. Examples of long term goals include competing in a marathon or attaining a new personal record in a triathlon. These goals should be kept in the back of your mind, but not focused on often.

Seasonal goals indicate what you want to accomplish in the coming season, such as achieving a certain time in a running race or reaching a new level of competition. These goals are important because they will dictate all subsequent goals that you set.

Competitive goals designate how you want to perform in particular events during the season. Competitive goals might include a certain placing to qualify for the next race series or being named to a team. These goals are critical because attaining these goals should lead to reaching your seasonal goals.

Training goals specify what you need to do in your training that will enable your to reach your competitive goals. Training goals might involve increasing leg strength by 10%, working on technique, or learning to control anxiety.

Lifestyle goals indicate what you need to do in your general lifestyle to reach the above goals, for example, develop better sleeping habits or eating better.

As can be seen, these goals are incremental and progressive from the bottom to the top. In other words, the lower goals lead step-by-step to the higher goals.

Goal Guidelines

In setting goals, it is important for you to follow several guidelines to maximize their value. First, goals should be challenging, but realistic and attainable. That is, they should be reachable, but only with hard work.

Second, goals should be specific, measurable, and time-limited. For example, an ineffective goal is "I want to get stronger", whereas a useful goal is "I want to increase my leg press 20% in the next three months."

Third, you should focus on the degree, rather than absolute attainment, of your goals. Inevitably, you will not reach all of your goals, but there will always be improvement toward a goal. By emphasizing measurable improvement, changes in performance can be followed and progress can be rewarded.

Finally, your goals should be examined and updated regularly. Some goals may turn out to be too easy and must be made more difficult. Other goals may have been too hard and must be adjusted downward. Also, goal setting is a process, there really is no end. When one goal is reached, a new higher goal should be established.

Micro-Goals

You can improve your motivation and the quality of your training on a daily basis by setting micro-goals. These goals specify exactly what you want to accomplish every time you train. You should ask yourself, "what am I working today?", before each training session. Micro-goals are an excellent way of helping you put 100% focus and intensity into your training, thus increasing the quality and decreasing the quantity of training.

Importance of Rest

Rest is perhaps the most under-rated training tool at an endurance athlete's disposal. It is an absolutely critical part of any effective training program, yet it is often over-looked. A common mentality that has emerged from the "nose to the grind" attitude is that more is better, for example, if four miles of running is good, six will be better.

Endurance athletes are conditioned to believe that not training is a sign of weakness. Typical fears about rest held by athletes include "I will get out of shape" and "I am lazy if I don't train". Yet, as exercise physiologists have demonstrated, rest following a period of training is the time when the actual physical gains are made. This is when the body, which has been broken down from training, can repair and build itself beyond its previous level. There four clear warning signs of the need for rest: (1) fatigue, (2) loss of enjoyment, interest, and motivation to train, and (3) lingering illness and injury.

Rest as Part of Training and Competition

Rest is as important to competitive preparation as physical and mental training. Rest influences every aspect of your performance: (1) physical condition, (2) mental state, (3) enjoyment in training and competition; and (4) competitive performance.

In addition to the wear-and-tear of training, the pressure of a regular competition schedule and daily stressors unrelated to sports will also wear you down. Regular rest guards against the accumulated long-term effects of the grind of training and the competitive season. Even if you do not feel tired does not mean you do not need rest!

Incorporate Rest into Training

You should make rest a regular part of your training regimen. This can be accomplished in several ways. Mandatory rest days can be scheduled once a week. The Monday after a weekend competition is common. The intensity of training should also be varied depending upon the time of season, the upcoming competition schedule, and how you are feeling. This process, called periodization, is the new wave in training technology.

You should also take extra days off following a stressful period of training or competing. For example, following a series of three competitions in three weeks, you should take off from training for at least three days. Finally, you should plan time off about three weeks before a major series or end of the season competitions. This will ensure that you are fresh and fired up for these competitions.

Finally, one of the most important lessons you must learn is to listen to your body. Our bodies are very good at telling us when we need to back off. The most difficult thing is to be aware of these signals and to act on them.

Responsible Competition Selection

An important part of developing an effective training and competition program is to decide what events you want to compete in during the upcoming season. This decision should be based on a realistic assessment of your training program, what your competitive goals are, and how you may best achieve them.

Why Responsible Competition Selection?

Responsible competition selection is critical because the competitive season is often long and physically demanding. Competing too much can cause fatigue, illness, injury, and burnout. This is especially important because most important competitions are at the end of the season. It is all too common for athletes to say "I can't wait for these competitions to be over with" or "I am so happy the season is almost over". This is not a good attitude to have entering key events. Rather, you need to maintain your attitude, motivation, and health in order to perform well to the very end of the season.

When to Compete

Athletes should only compete when a competition meets certain criteria. As a general rule, competitions should serve a specific purpose in fulfilling your seasonal goals. More specifically, first, you should compete when you need more competition experience. Second, you should compete when you need an event for qualification purposes. Third, when you have the opportunity to compete against your peers or to gauge your progress. Finally, keep in mind that competitions should provide positive learning experiences for you that benefit rather hinder your development.

When Not to Compete

You should never compete to build your confidence. Confidence does not come from competing, it comes from sound preparation. Typically then, you will come out of a "confidence-building" competition with less confidence than you had before.

You should never enter a competition because you know you will win. This is, in fact, a no-win situation. If you win, little is gained because you are expected to. If you lose, it can be a severe blow to your confidence.

You should never compete unless you are totally prepared to perform your best. If you are not totally prepared, either physically or mentally, you will not do well and the experience will hurt you.

You should never enter a competition to break out of a slump. If you are in a slump, competing is not the way to get out of it. The pressure you place on yourself to break out of the slump will almost ensure that you will not perform well. Rather, you get out of slumps by relieving yourself of the pressure, understanding why you are in the slump, and, through proper training, progressively raising your level of performance.

Finally, you should never compete for no reason, just for the sake of competing. Invariably, motivation will be low and a poor result will be inevitable.

In sum, you should, in planning your competitive schedule, consider these criteria and carefully select competitions that will facilitate your long-term development. Ultimately, you should follow one basic rule: you should only compete when you have more to gain than lose.

Taylor, J. (1995, June). Planning and preparation - The keys to endurance sports performance. Rocky Mountain Sports, 36-39.

PRE-RACE MANAGEMENT

On race day, the time you spend before your race is the most crucial period of race preparation. All of the hours of training you spend on the roads, trails, in the water or gym may go for naught if you do not use your pre-race time wisely. What you think, feel, and do before a race will dictate how well you perform in the race. This pre-race period should ensure that you are physically and mentally ready to performance your best consistently. All of your energy must be effectively directed toward achieving Prime Performance.

Prime Performance is a concept I developed in reaction to my dislike of the phrase, peak performance. I see two things inherently wrong with peak performance. First, a peak is by nature very narrow, meaning that a high level of performance can not last long. Second, an inevitable part of a peak is the accompanying valley. So peak performance may mean one or two great performances, but also more average or poor performances.

In contrast, Prime Performance denotes a consistently high level of performance across a season. Prime Performance then should be your goal. To achieve Prime Performance, you must do three things before a race: (1) Prepare your equipment; (2) Warm up your body completely and move toward prime intensity; and (3) Have prime confidence and focus. You can ensure this total preparation by actively taking control of your time and space before a race.

Key Pre-Race Factors

Start Area Space. Where you do your pre-race preparation can have an significant impact on your race readiness, particularly in how it affects your race focus. Some athletes are easily distracted by all of the activity in and around the start area. The competitors, officials, and support people can draw your focus away from your preparation and putting on your "race face," resulting in inadequate readiness and poor race performance. If this describes you, it is important for you to get away from this hub of activity and move off by yourself. By doing so, you can focus on what you need to in order to get ready.

Other athletes are focused too inwardly, too aware of their thoughts, emotions, and how their body feels. This self-absorption usually results in negative thinking, increased anxiety, poor race focus, and subpar performance. If this describes you, it is best for you to stay around the start area activity. This draws your narrow focus outside yourself and, at the same time, allows you to focus sufficiently on your pre-race preparation.

Who to Interact With? Another critical influence on your pre-race readiness is who you interact with prior to the start. You should only be around people who will assist you in your preparation including support staff, coaches, and teammates/competitors who help you become totally ready. You should actively avoid anyone who interferes with this process including chatty competitors, officials giving unwanted race information, and media.

In sum, specify what you need to do to be totally prepared to perform your best, decide where you can best accomplish your preparation, and identify who can assist and who will interfere with your preparation. With this information, you can develop an effective pre-race routine to ensure total preparation and Prime Performance.

Pre-Race Routines

Why Pre-Race Routines? Routines have many benefits to your pre-race preparation. They guarantee completion of every important aspect of race preparation. Routines build physical, mental, and emotional consistency. They enhance familiarity of competitive situations and decrease the likelihood of unexpected things occurring. Routines increase feelings of control, thereby raising confidence and reducing anxiety. Regardless of the importance of race, by using a well-practiced routine, you will condition your mind and body into feeling that this is just another race.

Routines vs. Rituals. The goal of routines is to totally prepare you for your race. Everything done in a routine serves a specific function in preparing yourself. Routines are flexible; adjustments can be made to adapt to the situation, for example, a delay at the start. So you control routines. In contrast, rituals control you. Rituals involve anything that does not have a specific purpose in race preparation. Rituals are inflexible and superstitious. Rituals must be done or you will not believe that you can perform well. Seek out routines and avoid rituals!

Prime Performance Funnel. A pre-race routine acts as a funnel, which involves a narrowing of effort, energy, and focus as you approach the start of the race. Each step closer to the race should lead you to that unique state of readiness in which you are physically, mentally, and emotionally primed to perform your best. What will emerge from this funnel is Prime Performance.

Components of a Pre-Race Routine. Your pre-race routine should comprise everything that you need to do to be totally prepared for your race. This includes meals (e.g., carbo loading), course inspection (e.g., race tactics), equipment (e.g., bike properly tuned), physical warm-up (e.g., run, stretch, adjust intensity), and mental preparation (e.g., mental imagery, positive thinking, race focus).

Developing a Pre-Race Routine. Though the above factors are common to most if not all pre-race routines, there is no one ideal routine that works for everyone. In other words, routines are very personal. They should reflect your own individual personality and style.

In order to develop an effective personalized pre-race routine, you can use the following guidelines. First, write down what you need to do before a race to be totally prepared. Second, using your knowledge of pre-race activities and start area space, order your needs chronologically leading up to the start of the race and specify where each step of your routine can be best accomplished. Third, experiment with your routine at subsequent events. You will probably have to fine tune it until you find a routine that you are completely comfortable with. Finally, routines only have value if used consistently. If you ask top athletes about their routines, most will describe one that they have been using for years. So make a routine a part of your race preparation and it will assist you in achieving your own Prime Performance.

Taylor, J. (1995, November). Pre-race management: Assuring total preparation. Rocky Mountain Sports, 36-37.

MASTERING PAIN IN ENDURANCE SPORT
TRAINING AND COMPETITION

Mariel is a 27-year-old world-class triathlete. Though consistently in the top ten of major competitions, she has not been able to break through to a top-three finish. In addition to being an outstanding physical specimen seemingly made for triathlon competition, she is a hard worker. However, over the past year, in attempting to make the leap into the highest echelon of competition, she has come to realize that the one thing that is holding her back the most is the extreme pain she feels during training and competition, and her inability to overcome it.

Pain is, without a doubt, the most pervasive obstacle to achieving the greatest gains in training and the best competitive performance possible in endurance sports. Pain has profound physical, psychological, and emotional effects on endurance athletes. Yet, despite this importance, athletes spend little time educating themselves about pain, how it impacts them, and how they can best manage it. There is, in fact, considerable scientific evidence that some simple psychological techniques can significantly increase athletes' pain tolerance.

Differentiating Pain

The first step in mastering pain is for endurance athletes to differentiate between performance pain and warning pain. Performance pain is typically perceived as dull, more generalized, does not last long after exertion in training or competition, there is an absence of localized swelling or tenderness, and there is no long-lasting soreness. In contrast, warning pain is felt as sharp, localized to a specific area, experienced during and after exertion, and there is swelling, tenderness, and prolonged soreness.

The experiences of the two types of pain during training and competition can lead to different perceptions and responses. Endurance athletes usually view performance pain as positive, short in duration, produced voluntarily, and can be reduced at will. The reaction to performance pain can involve feelings of satisfaction and inspiration, positive emotions, and can facilitate performance and enhance athletes' overall sense of well-being. Conversely, endurance athletes perceive warning pain as negative, chronic, uncontrollable, and signally danger to their physical health. These perceptions can cause a loss of confidence and motivation to train and compete, and increased anxiety about the cause of the pain.

Pain as Information

Typically, pain is viewed as an unpleasant experience meant to be avoided. However, pain serves a valuable purpose as information that endurance athletes can use in their training and competitive performances. By understanding the pain they experience, athletes can then act appropriately to manage their pain effectively. Pain provides athletes with information about their training schedules (e.g., overtraining), their training intensity (too high), the amount of rest they have (e.g., not enough), and the presence of injuries (e.g., serious and chronic).

With a clear understanding of the type of pain they are experiencing, endurance athletes can use a variety of pain mastery techniques to control pain in training and competition. Pain mastery techniques can be classified into two general categories: pain reduction and pain focusing.

Pain Reduction Techniques

Pain reduction techniques act directly on the physiological aspects of the pain, decreasing the actual amount of pain that is present. Specifically, they work to reduce sympathetic nervous system activity such as norepinephrine release, shallow breathing and muscle tension, that increases the experience of pain. This is accomplished by inducing greater states of relaxation.

Pain reduction techniques that are commonly used during and following training and competition include deep breathing, muscle relaxation, and therapeutic massage.

Deep breathing. Perhaps the simplest, most essential, yet most neglected technique to reduce pain is deep breathing. Pain inhibits breathing, lessens blood flow, and causes muscle tension and bracing, which worsens pain. Deep breathing diminishes pain by transporting sufficient oxygen throughout the body, relaxing muscles, and decreasing generalized sympathetic nervous system activity. Deep breathing also acts as a distraction. If patients are focused on their breathing, they will be paying less attention to their pain.

Deep breathing can be incorporated into many aspects of training and competition. Focusing on deep breathing during intensive training sessions or difficult parts of a competition such as the 20-mile mark of a marathon can ensure that athletes reduce the pain they are experiencing, thereby improving performance.

Muscle relaxation. Muscle tension and bracing in response to pain is common among endurance athletes. It is often seen in tight neck and shoulders muscles of cyclists, or a clenching of the fists and arms of distance runners. Two types of muscle relaxation techniques, passive and active relaxation, can be used during training and competition to relieve muscle tension that further exacerbates pain. Passive relaxation involves simply focusing on the tense muscles and, with a series of deep breath, feeling the tension drain out of the muscles and becoming increasingly more relaxed.

Active relaxation, seemingly counterintuitive, consists of tensing the muscles even more than they currently are, then relaxing them. The muscles' responses to this tensing and relaxing pattern is to rebound past its previous level of tension to a more relaxed state. Active relaxation is a technique that I have used with marathoners with whom I have worked. I encourage them to make active relaxation a regimented part of their training and competitive routines. Specifically, in training, at each mile marker, they practice active relaxation to prevent muscle tension due to pain. When they get to a race, this procedure has become habit, so they do it automatically to reduce muscle tension and ease pain.

Muscle relaxation training is also a comforting tool following training and competition when pain is high and resources to manage the pain are low. By using the muscle relaxation exercises at the end of training and races, pain will be decreased and a general sense of physical comfort and well-being will be returned.

Therapeutic massage. Therapeutic massage is another useful strategy for relieving post-training and race pain. Therapeutic massage breaks the pain-spasm-pain cycle through manipulation and relaxation of the involved muscles. Therapeutic massage is commonly used by world-class athletes and received considerable attention during Michael Johnson's quest for double gold medals in Atlanta.

Pain Focusing Techniques

Pain focusing techniques involve directing attention onto (association) or away from (dissociation) the pain as a means of reducing or altering the awareness of pain. Thus, they do not have a direct physiological effect on the pain, but rather decrease the perception of pain. Pain focusing strategies are comprised of external focus, rhythmic cognitive activity, dramatic coping, and situational assessment.

External focus. External focus involves directing attention externally away from the experience of pain. Examples of external focus include looking at the scenery during a training ride or focusing on runners ahead in a 10k race. It is believed that if athletes are not paying attention to their pain, they will perceive the pain as less discomforting.

Rhythmic cognitive activity. This technique involves focusing on a repetitious or structured task. Rhythmic cognitive activity is commonly used by runners and cyclists in the form of counting breaths, strides, or pedal revolutions. By becoming absorbed in the repetition of these tasks, athletes are less aware of the pain they are experiencing.

Dramatic coping. Dramatic coping consists of putting the pain in a different context, in this case, seeing training and competitive pain as part of a grand challenge. Putting pain in a heroic context can be real or imagined. For example, a marathoner training for the Olympics is, indeed, challenging the pain in pursuit of an Olympic berth. Similarly, a weekend cyclist can imagine during a training ride that he is competing in the Tour de France, thus making the pain he is experiencing seem a worthy sacrifice. Dramatic coping can be further facilitated with the use of emotionally powerful music, such as the scene in the movie, "Rocky," in which the fighter runs through the city to the steps of the Museum of Fine Art with the inspirational music playing in the background.

Situational assessment. This technique involves evaluating the causes of pain and using that information to make adjustments to relieve the pain. Situational assessment is an essential tool for endurance athletes in their training and competitive performances. Used extensively by long distance runners, situational assessment allows athletes to recognize the presence of pain and identify its source. Potential sources of pain in endurance sports can include too fast a swimming stroke turnover, too quick a pedaling cadence, inadequate pace adjustment on an uphill running section, or the occurrence of an injury such as a pulled calf muscle. Active steps can then be taken to control the pain in several ways depending upon whether it is performance or warning pain. First, in response to performance pain, an adjustment can be made related to the cause. For example, pace or cadence can be modified to reduce the pain. Alternatively, the pain mastery techniques described above can be used to reduce the performance pain. Second, to address warning pain, performance intensity can be lessened, or training or competition can be halted to prevent aggravation of an injury.

Increased understanding of the presence of pain can be an invaluable tool to maxmize performances. Through a process of awareness and control, endurance athletes can learn to acknowledge pain, identify its type, and directly reduce the experience and perception of pain in training and competition.

Taylor, J. (1997, August). Mastering pain in endurance sport training and competition. Rocky Mountain Sports, 22,24.

BUILDING CONFIDENCE FOR THE LONG HAUL

Confidence is perhaps the most important mental factor in sports. Athletes may have the phsyical ability to run a marathon, cycle a 100k race, or complete the Ironman, but if they do not believe they have that ability, they will not use it to achieve their goals. In its simplest form, confidence is how strongly you believe you can perform at a certain level or under difficult conditions, maintain a pace, compete against particular opponents, or win.

Confidence is so essential because not only does it impact performance directly, but it also affects every other mental factor related to performance. Consider times when you have not had much confidence. People without confidence are typically very negative. They say things like, "I can't do this," or "I know I'm going to lose." These athletes are their own worst enemies. This negativity leads to a vicious cycle of low confidence and performance in which the low confidence leads to poor performance which reinforces the low confidence which results in even poorer performance, etc.

Athletes without confidence also experience excessive anxiety. If you know you are good at something, there is no reason to be nervous. But if you don't believe you will perform well, then there is a good reason to be anxious. Negative emotions are also common in athletes with little confidence. Depression, anger, and frustration are just a few of the detrimental emotions that you have probably felt and that interfere with good performance.

Low confidence typically results in poor focus, in which you are so focused on the negatives that you can not focus on what you need to in order to perform well. All of this negativity leads to low motivation and lack of enjoyment. If you are thinking negatively, caught in the vicious cycle, very nervous, feeling depressed, angry, and frustrated, and can not focus, you are probably not having much fun out there. With all this negativity, you will not have confidence for the long haul.

If you don't have much confidence, don't despair. A misconception that many athletes have is that confidence is inborn; you have it or you don't and, if not, you can never get it. But confidence is a skill, much like physical skills, that can be learned. The reason you may have little confidence and are very negative is not because you were born that way. Rather, you are so negative because you have practiced negative thinking and have become very skilled at it. To develop confidence and positive thinking skills, you must become aware of how you think, control your thinking by being more positive, and practice confidence and positive thinking until the skills becomes ingrained and automatic.

Prime Confidence

Your goal in building your confidence is to develop prime confidence. Prime confidence is a deep, lasting, and resilient belief in your ability to achieve your goals. Prime confidence keeps you positive, motivated, intense, and focused at all times. It enables you to perform your best consistently. Prime confidence also allows you to view pressure situations as challenges not threats, and encourages you to seek out and master them. Prime confidence will last you for the long haul.

Confidence Challenge

It's easy to stay confident when you're performing well. But an inevitable part of sports is that you will have ups and down. What separates the best from the rest is what you do when you are in a down period. This is the Confidence Challenge.

Most athletes, when they are not performing well, lose confidence and get caught in the vicious cycle of low confidence and poor performance described earlier. But the most confident athletes may go through the same down period, but they maintain their confidence, keep motivated, and seek ways to return to a high level of performance. The Confidence Challenge is not getting dragged down even further. The Confidence Challenge is maintaining your confidence and turning it into an upward spiral in which confidence and performance rise back to a high level.

Building Prime Confidence

Building confidence is a process that takes time and effort, much like the process you go through to improve your technical skills and develop your physical conditioning. You can build your confidence for the long haul by making three things a part of your training and competition: sound preparation, Mental Edge skills, and competitive success.

Sound Preparation. It is impossible to just go out and win to build your confidence. Rather, in order to win, you must be well-prepared. If you have done everything possible to prepare yourself to perform your best, you will have laid the foundation for prime confidence.

This illustrates the importance of a comprehensive and effective training program. Your physical training regimen must be rigorous enough so that when you enter an event, you truly believe you are as well-conditioned as you can be. You must also be as technically skilled and tactically ready for your upcoming event. Concern about technical deficiencies and tactical worries will only reduce your confidence. Finally, you must be mentally prepared to compete. You have to be highly motivated, relaxed, and focused, as well as confident, to ensure that you perform up to your ability. Mental preparation should also be a regular part of your training program.

Two additional tools to build your confidence in training are choosing winning role models and training for adversity. Choose athletes who you admire and emulate things they do to give themselves confidence, e.g., attitude toward training and competition, work ethic, intensity, etc. You should also constantly expose yourself to adverse conditions. Much like the Confidence Challenge, by subjecting yourself to difficult conditions, you are training yourself to learn to respond positively to common obstacles. So when you experience adversity in competition, whether rain, wind, or cold water, you will know how to master the challenge.

Mental Edge skills. The way you think and how you respond to competitive situations, whether positively or negatively, is a skill that develops with practice. To ensure that you react positively, you must train your mind and practice thinking positively. Negative thinking is perhaps the greatest barrier to success in sports. So it is important to retrain your thinking in a more positive direction so you will have confidence for the long haul.

The first technique you can master is Talk the Talk, which involves saying positive things about yourself and your performances. When athletes are asked how they will perform in an upcoming event, many will say things like, "I may do okay," "I don't know how I will do," or even worse, "I'm going to do really lousy today." With that attitude, you are sure to fail. You must learn to give a positive response to this question: "I will do my best today," "I'm going to try my hardest,", or I'm going to have a lot of fun today." Saying these positive things will boost your confidence, generate positive emotions,and enable you to relax, all of which will improve your performance.

Another way to retrain negative thinking is with thought-stopping. This technique involves becoming aware of when you say something negative and immediately replacing it with something positive. For example, you start to say, "I'm not feeling good today", right away say "STOP" or "POSITIVE," and replace it with "I will do the best I can with what I have today." To facilitate the use of thought-stopping make a list of negative things you commonly say to yourself and the situations in which you say them. Then next to each negative statement, write a positive one that you can replace it with. This process will increase your awareness of your thinking and give you the means to retrain your thinking in a positive direction.

The last technique for retraining the way you think and building confidence is the Athlete's Litany (see below). The litany is a group of positive statements aimed at training positive thinking. By saying the Athlete's Litany regularly, you learn and ingrain a new way to think. So when you get into tough situations, your well-trained and automatic response will be to think positively. Repeat the litany when you get up in the morning, before training and competition, and when you get into bed at night. When saying your litany, you must say it like you mean it. Even if you don't believe it at first, if you say it convincingly, in time you will begin to believe it, especially if you combine it with sound preparation and the final way to build confidence for the long haul.

ATHLETE'S LITANY

I LOVE TO COMPETE.

I AM A GREAT ATHLETE.

I ALWAYS THINK AND TALK POSITIVELY.

I ALWAYS PUT 100% FOCUS AND INTENSITY INTO MY TRAINING AND COMPETITION.

I EXPECT TO BE CHALLENGED AND THAT'S OKAY,

BECAUSE I KNOW HOW TO HANDLE IT.

I AM CONFIDENT, RELAXED, AND FOCUSED WHEN I COMPETE.

IF I GIVE MY BEST EFFORT, I AM A WINNER.

Competitive Success. The best and most direct way to build confidence is through successful competitive success. This approach to developing confidence is the final piece of the confidence "puzzle." By having engaged in sound preparation and practiced the Mental Edge skills, you are more likely to have success in competition, which will reinforce and expand on the confidence you had built to that point. So be sure, in planning your competitive schedule and setting your race goals, that you give yourself ample opportunity to succeed.

What will result from this understanding of how confidence impacts your performance and how you can develop it is an upward spiral in which your training, positive thinking, and competitive successes feed on each other to create ever-increasing confidence and performance. So when you go out to run, cycle, or swim, you will have built confidence for the long haul.

Taylor, J. (1997). Building confidence for the long haul. Rocky Mountain Sports.

[top]

TRIATHLON ARTICLES

Positive Self-talk: Your Best Ally

Inside Triathlon

April, 2005, p. 58

The most powerful psychological tool you have at your disposal to achieve your triathlon goals is positive self-talk. What you say to yourself when you’re in the pool, on your bike, or in your running shoes affects what you think, how you feel, and how you perform. It also will often determine the quality of your workouts and your results in your races. Whatever you think more of—whether positive or negative—will determine the road you go down.

Yet negativity is rampant in the triathlon world. You hear it during swims, rides, and runs. And it sucks the life and love out training and races. You may be a victim of negative self-talk too. If your talk is negative, your thoughts and feelings will be negative. Negative self-talk involves thinking or saying anything that reflects a lack of confidence and a defeatist attitude, for example, “I’m going to do lousy terribly today,” “I stink,” and “I can’t deal with these conditions.” If you say these things, you’re convincing yourself that you have little chance. With that attitude, you really have no chance because not only is the rest of the field and the course against you, but you are against you too. You’ve become your own worst enemy. Your motivation will disappear, you’ll get nervous, lose focus, feel frustration, anger, and despair, and experience much more pain. You will definitely not be having fun out there.

If your talk is positive, your thoughts and feelings will be positive. Sounds like a good thing to me (and I know it is from first-hand experience!). Don’t say, “I don’t have a chance today.” Say, “I’m going to try my hardest today. I’m going to perform the best I can.” That will get you positive and fired up. By using positive self-talk, you’ll be your own best ally. You show yourself that, despite the fact that the rest of the field may be against you and the course is trying to break you, you’re on your own side.

Positive self-talk helps you in many ways. It increases your motivation to work hard because you believe that your efforts will be rewarded. You’re relaxed and focused because you know you can handle anything that is thrown at you by the course and the weather. Your emotions reflect your positive self-talk with feelings of excitement and joy. Positive self-talk can counter feelings of fatigue. And, as they say, “You will feel no pain” (or at least a lot less).

Most importantly, positive self-talk helps keep your mind strong and your body going, especially when your body starts to weaken. As your body wears down late in workouts and races, it will communicate to your mind that it has had enough—“I get the point! We can stop now.” If your mind listens to your body and responds with negative self-talk—“my body is so tired I can’t go on,” “this hurts too much to continue”—your body will take over your mind, your body and your mind will give up, and you will fail to achieve your goals. Positive self-talk can help your mind assert itself over your body, so when your body is yelling at you to stop, your mind can say, “NO! Keep going. That’s an order!” And your body will almost always keep going.

Positive self-talk is especially valuable when you think your tank is empty. Unless you’re having a Julie Moss moment (recalling her unforgettable 1982 Ironman Hawaii experience where her body simply gave out and only a supreme and inspiring effort enabled her to crawl the last 100 yards and cross the finish), there is always something left. Positive self-talk is the only thing that can take you from where you think there is nothing left to where there is nothing left. It is your greatest tool against fatigue and pain. Positive self-talk will allow you to tap into that final reserve at the end of a race that will allow you to perform your very best. If you can say, “Keep at it. This is what I’ve worked so hard for. I will not give up,” then your body will listen—however reluctantly—and you will cross the finish not only having succeeded against the course and the clock, but also having claimed victory over your greatest challenge—YOU—and there is no greater joy than that!

Training positive self-talk. Positive self-talk is a simple, but not easy, strategy. It’s simple because all you have to do is replace your negative self-talk with positive statements. It’s not easy because you may have developed some poor self-talk habits that are difficult to change. You begin retraining your self-talk by looking at the situations in which you tend to become negative, for example, when you have to do a cold open-water swim, at 60 miles of a bike ride, or in the fifth of ten 800-meter intervals (See Know Your Talk form).

Next, figure out exactly why you become negative in these situations. Common reasons we have found include fatigue, boredom, pain, frustration, and despair. All triathletes have “hot button” issues that trigger negativity. Finding out what yours are is essential to changing your self-talk. Then, monitor what you say to yourself. I’ve found that triathletes tend to rely on favorite negative self-talk when their buttons get pushed, for example, “Gosh, I suck,” “You’re such a loser,” and “What’s the point of even trying.” Realizing what you say and how bad it is for you is an important step in changing your self-talk. For most of the triathletes I’ve worked with there is a consistent pattern of the situations in which negative self-talk arises, the causes of the negativity, and the specific self-talk they express.

Before you go out and face those hot-button situations again, choose some positive self-talk with which you can replace your usual negative self-talk. The positive self-talk should be encouraging, but it must also be realistic. If you say things like, “I love being out here” when you really don’t or “I ‘m feeling so strong” even when you don’t, there’s no way you’ll buy what you’re saying. Acknowledging the hot button, but putting a positive and realistic spin on it will make it more likely you’ll believe what you’re saying, such as “If I keep working hard, good things will happen” and “This really hurts, but its money in the bank for my race.” By putting this new tool in your toolbox before your buttons get pushed, you’ll have more ready access to it and have a better chance of responding more positively.

At this point, training yourself to use positive self-talk depends on your ongoing commitment to it and focus on it. Because negative self-talk may be so ingrained, you’ll have to constantly remind yourself to be positive. Realizing when the hot-button situations are approaching will prepare you for your buttons gets to pushed and help you focus on what you say when it happens. At first, you will probably “fall off the wagon” and slip back to your old, negative ways, but just accept it as part of the process and return to being positive when you realize it. With time and persistence, you’ll see a gradual shift away from negativity and toward positive self-talk until you realize that you just went through one of those hot-button situations and you stayed psyched.

Balance the scales. When I work with triathletes, I have them chart the number of positive and negative things they say during training and races. In most cases, the negatives far outnumber the positives. In an ideal world, I would love to eliminate all negatives and have triathletes only express positives. But this is the real world and any triathlete who cares about the sport is going to think negatively sometimes.

In dealing with this reality, you should try to balance the scales. If you’re going to be negative when you make mistakes and perform poorly, you should also be positive when you perform well. The immediate goal is to increase the positives. This means rewarding yourself when you perform well. If you beat yourself up over an error, why shouldn’t you pat yourself on the back when you get it right. Unfortunately, too many triathletes are very tough on themselves and beat themselves up when they fail to live up to their extremely high expectations, but don’t congratulate themselves when they do. Tell yourself “ nice effort” when you gave a nice effort. Give yourself a “job well done” when you have done the job well. You worked hard and you deserve a reward.

Once you’ve balanced the scales by increasing your positives, your next goal is to tip the scales in the positive direction by reducing the negatives. Ask why you’re so hard on yourself when you perform poorly. The best triathletes in the world don’t always perform their best. Why shouldn’t it be okay for you to have down periods in your performances?

This step of tipping the scales toward positives is so important because of some recent research that found that negative experiences such as negative self-talk, negative body language, and negative emotions carry more weight than positive experiences. In fact, it takes 12 positive experiences to equal one negative experience. What this means is that for every negative express you make about yourself, whether saying something negative or screaming in frustration, you must express yourself positively 12 times to counteract that one negative expression.

Ultimately, you want to tip the scale heavily in the positive direction. Sure, you’re going to say some negative things periodically. That’s just part of being human and being a triathlete (no, you can’t be one or the other). You get tired, sick, and injured. You get frustrated, angry, depressed. The conditions get the better of you. So you get down on yourself once in a while. But you generally respond well to the situations that used to push your buttons and the preponderance of what say is positive.

Using negative thinking positively. As I mentioned earlier, even though I very much emphasize being positive at all times, the fact is, you can’t always be positive. You don’t always perform as well as you want and there is going to be some negative thinking. This awareness was brought home to me USAT national team training camp at which I worked not long ago. During the training camp, I was constantly emphasizing to the athletes about being positive and not being negative. One night at dinner, several of the triathletes came up to me and said that sometimes things do just stink and you can’t be positive. I realized that negative thinking is normal when you don’t perform well and some negative thinking is healthy. It means you care about performing poorly and want to perform better. Negative thinking can be motivating as well because it’s no fun to perform poorly and lose. I got to thinking about how triathletes could use negative thinking in a positive way. I came up with an important distinction that will determine whether negative thinking helps or hurts your triathlon efforts.

There are two types of negative thinking: give-up negative thinking and fire-up negative thinking. Give-up negative thinking involves feelings of loss and despair and helplessness, for example, “It’s over. I can’t finish.” You dwell on past mistakes and failures. It hurts your motivation and confidence, and it takes your focus away from continuing to give your best effort. Your intensity also drops because, basically, you’re surrendering and accepting defeat. There is never a place in triathlon for give-up negative thinking.

In contrast, fire-up negative thinking involves feelings of anger and energy, of being psyched up, for example, “I’m doing so badly. I hate performing this way” (said with anger and intensity). You look to doing better in the future because you hate performing poorly. Fire-up negative thinking increases your motivation to fight and turn things around. Your intensity goes up and you’re bursting with energy. Your focus is on continuing to work hard and not let the training or race beat you.

Fire-up negative thinking can be a positive way to turn your performance around. If you’re going to be negative, make sure you use fire-up negative thinking. Don’t use it too much though. Negative thinking and negative emotions require a lot of energy and that energy should be put in a more positive direction for your training and races. Also, it doesn’t feel very good to be angry all of the time.

CHILL OUT:

Keep Cool and Race Your Best

Inside Triathlon

May, 2004, p. 56

Like all endurance sports, triathlon success involves preserving and apportioning out your energy evenly during a race. Burn too much gas early in a race and you’re finished before T2. Run out of gas late in the race and you have no fuel for a strong finish. In either case, you’re in for one horrendous sufferfest that keeps you from achieving your triathlon goals and sucks the fun out of racing triathlons. One of the best tools you have in your tri-toolbox for saving your energy is learning to staying relaxed before and during a triathlon. There are four places during a triathlon in which staying relaxed is especially important: before the start, early in the swim and bike, and late in the race.

Pre-race

The greatest threat to staying relaxed and preserving your energy before your start is anxiety. The swim alone is anxiety provoking for most triathletes. You’re about to face a big physical and mental challenge. Most of the triathletes around you are nervous. Your heart is pounding, your adrenaline is pumping, you’re sweating, you’re worrying about the race, and you’re burning fuel that you can’t afford to lose.

Some triathletes make this anxiety worse by worrying about it (“Oh my gosh, I’m nervous. Maybe I’m not ready for this. What am I doing here?”) until they work themselves up into a full-blown panic attack. The first thing you want to do is realize that some pre-race anxiety is normal; everyone feels it to some degree. In psychology jargon, we call it “anticipatory arousal,” which means that your body is getting ready for a challenge. You want to make sure your pre-race anxiety doesn’t get out of hand and drain your fuel tank. You also want to take steps to relax yourself so you minimize your energy burn rate.

The most basic, yet most powerful, thing you can do to reduce your anxiety is breath. When you get nervous, your breathing system becomes constricted, your breaths become shorter and you get less oxygen into your system. As oxygen is essential for endurance sports, this is obviously not a good thing! As you go through your pre-race preparation, be aware of your breathing and consciously take slow, deep breaths on a regular basis. Also, keep your body moving. If you allow yourself to sit or stand still for too long, your muscles will tighten up. Walk around, stretch, shake out your arms and legs, anything to keep your blood flowing and your muscles relaxed. Another underappreciated tool for staying relaxed is to talk to people. By talking to your fellow competitors, you take your mind off the race and can share support and encouragement with each other.

The Swim

The next place staying relaxed is important is in the early stages of the swim. Just before the start of the swim, everybody’s anxiety increases, adrenaline is flowing, and there can be a tendency to go out too fast. That’s why it’s so common to see triathletes sprinting the first 200 yards of the swim and then having to slow down considerably to catch their breath. To keep from “cooking” yourself early in the race, just before the start take a few more deep breaths, then, when the horn goes off, focus on starting off with a smooth, relaxed, and consistent stroke at a pace that you want to maintain throughout the swim. You will still go out a bit faster than your normal pace, but you’ll settle in more quickly and you won’t burn too much fuel before the pack separates.

The Bike

Going out too fast and building up lactic acid early in the race can also happen right out of T1 on the bike. Because you’re probably thrilled to have gotten out of the water alive, your adrenaline is probably pumping again and, because it’s early in the race, you still have tons of energy. Just like the swim, there’s a tendency to put the hammer down and go out of T1 too hard. Of course, the problem is that you’ll burn tons of fuel in the process. As soon as you get on your bike, take a few deep breaths, settle your body down, focus on establishing a steady cadence and, most importantly, ignore the riders who may be flying by you (either they’re just faster than you or you’ll see them later in the race after they run out of gas).

The Run

The end of the race is where staying relax is most important. Once you’re well into the run, your two greatest enemies, fatigue and pain, show their ugly faces. At this point in the race, your body’s feeling threatened and it takes steps to protect itself by tensing up (think of a muscle cramp as a really loud plea from your body to stop!). Unfortunately, this tension actually increases fatigue, burns more fuel, and causes more pain. You can slow your energy drain and lessen the pain you feel by actively relaxing your body. Focusing on taking slow, deep breaths ensures that you get enough oxygen into your system and helps your muscles to relax. Checking your running posture, stride, and pace will help you be sure you’re running as efficiently and relaxed as possible. As your body braces itself, your shoulders and arms will tense, which not only increases fatigue and pain, but also raises your center of gravity and shortens your stride. To counter this reaction, you can shake out your arms and hands, and settle your shoulders. Finally, one of the most effective, and oddest, ways to relax in the face of fatigue and pain is to smile. Smiling releases endorphins which have a real relaxing effect on you. It also generates some positive thoughts and emotions which take your mind off the fatigue and pain you feel as you approach the finish.

All of these strategies will enable you to conserve your fuel throughout your race so you’ll have energy to burn at the end. While other triathletes are out of gas and slogging their way to the end, in the last few miles, you have the fuel to now put the hammer down and cross the finish line strong in a burst of energy.

THINK TWICE:
Are you Sure You Want to Do an Ironman?

Inside Triathlon

November, 2003, p. 50-51

Ironman is the ultimate in triathlon competition. It’s the standard by which triathlon is known to the world at large. When I began doing triathlons, almost every non-tri person I met would ask if I had done an Ironman (that’s all they knew), as if that is the only badge of honor in our sport. Within our sport, Ironman competitors are accorded a certain reverence. Because of its status, the pull of doing an Ironman is strong for any triathlete who takes his or her participation seriously. Putting in the training time, going the distance, crossing the line as an Ironman finisher (even qualifying for Kona!) are all heady stuff that can act as a siren’s call for triathletes.

But should you do an Ironman? Though training for and finishing an Ironman can be a positive, life-enriching experience, it can also be a source of personal, work, and social stress, a cause of injuries, and a less than satisfying experience in which the costs outweigh the benefits. As a two-time Ironman finisher and a sport psychologist who works with triathletes, I encourage you to give careful thought to this question to make sure that, if you choose to do an Ironman, you do it for reasons that are healthy and beneficial.

“Wrong” Reasons

We live in a ‘more is better’ society. Triathletes can get in the trap of “If I feel good doing an Olympic, I’ll feel even better doing a half-Ironman, and if I feel that good doing a half, I’ll feel even better doing an Ironman.” But we often forget that, like most things, triathlon can have a point of diminishing returns; longer distances won’t necessarily give you greater benefits in terms of enjoyment or fitness. Gosh, is Ironman even enough? Now there is Xterra, double Ironman races, Eco-Challenge, Mt. Everest! There is always a greater challenge; harder courses, tougher conditions, faster competitors, more demanding events. When is enough enough?

We also live in a society in which many people are looking for that elusive something called happiness, self-esteem, or inner peace. We meditate, practice yoga, and, yes, race triathlons. If you are looking for answers to your life’s questions in these experiences, you will probably end up frustrated and unsatisfied because those answers will, in all likelihood, not be found in an Ironman. Ironman will not stop you from running (and biking and swimming) away from your problems. Ironman won’t bring you contentment. It won’t make you a better person. You won’t love yourself more. You won’t be respected more by others. If you are doing an Ironman for the wrong reasons, it is simply not the answer to the questions that you are probably asking yourself.

“Right” Reasons

There are many good reasons for doing an Ironman. Ironman can offer you physical and mental challenges that can free you to test yourself in other areas of your life. It can inspire you, give you confidence, improve your focus, show you how to deal with emotions, and help you learn to overcome pain. Ironman can teach you lessons about patience, perseverance, persistence, and adversity that can benefit you in your work, relationships, and other activities. And you can get great joy (the tri-high!) out of your Ironman experience.

Though the above benefits are important, they are not what Ironman triathletes talk about most when I ask them why they race Ironman distance. With almost complete unanimity, they talk about the people: the camaraderie and the bond that they feel with other Ironman triathletes. Ironman training is very social: master’s swims, long rides and runs, track workouts. Ironman races are noted for their social activities: the pre- and post-race banquets, meals out, the athlete village, the race itself (misery loves company!). Of course, the same sort of social benefits can be found in shorter triathlon training and races, though the bond and the shared experience may be less strong because the investment and suffering is not as great.

The Price of Ironman

Ironman does have its costs as well. It is hugely time consuming; expect that, for 6-9 months, your life will revolve around Ironman. You will make sacrifices in your work and other activities in which you might have been actively involved. Your relationships with family and friends will be tested. You may very well alienate loved ones and lose touch with friends who are not involved in the sport (I know a triathlete who is getting divorced because of his Ironman involvement).

Ironman is also physically demanding. You will be tired and hungry most of the time. Because of the volume and intensity of training, your immune system will be vulnerable and you will likely get sick more easily and more often. Injuries are a common part of the Ironman lifestyle because of the sheer quantity of training and the unhealthy demands you place on your body. Are there physical benefits to Ironman training? Perhaps, but is a 100-mile ride that much better for you than a 50-mile ride? It’s a question of diminishing returns that you must answer for yourself. Ironman is also emotionally taxing. The physical ups and downs of Ironman training often produce stress and emotional highs and lows that you may have never felt before.

The Race

The race itself produces varied reactions from people. Some competitors describe the race as a nonstop joyfest in which they revel in every moment. Others describe it as 140.6 miles of hell: the apprehension and fear of the swim, the persistent discomfort and boredom of the bike, the painful and seemingly never-ending miles of the marathon (with most competitors walking much of it). I must admit that I didn’t enjoy either of my Ironman races. Spending that much time physically uncomfortable was just not my idea of fun. I found the ride particularly unpleasant; six-plus hours on a bike is way too much time in a saddle—and you still have to run a marathon!

The finish is the climactic—and perhaps the most interesting—part of an Ironman. I love seeing finishers jumping with joy, high fiving spectators, carrying their children across the finish line. The purity of their elation is inspiring. Unfortunately, I didn’t have that kind of reaction. The best emotion I could muster in both of my Ironman races was relief that it was over. I also sobbed uncontrollably after finishing both of my Ironman races (tears of joy, sadness, or just release, I don’t know). In speaking with other Ironman finishers, my reaction was not unusual.

In the weeks and months after their races, many Ironman finishers I have spoken with told me how the Ironman had changed their lives. They felt that they were different people who responded to world in new and better ways. These Ironman triathletes felt inspired, more capable, and ready to tackle their life’s challenges head on. Their appreciation of Ironman was heartfelt and many spoke about doing another. Others said they were depressed, listless, and felt rudderless and unmotivated. These Ironman triathletes questioned the value of the race and were uncertain whether they would continue with triathlon at any distance. My Ironman races weren’t life altering for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I did them. I conquered a great challenge, I met and became friends with some wonderful people, and I will always be an Ironman. But, having done two Ironman races, I have decided that, given my overall life, the costs overshadow the benefits and I have decided not to do another Ironman for a long time if ever (never say never).

I don’t mean to sound like a downer trying to discourage you from doing an Ironman. Rather, I am trying to show you there are two sides to doing an Ironman and you don’t often hear about the “darker” side. Only you can decide whether an Ironman is worth it to you. By asking you to think twice before you step up to an Ironman, I want you to ask yourself two questions. First, do you want to do an Ironman for the right reasons? Second, within your overall life picture, will an Ironman be worth it?

THE BEST LAID PLANS:

Never Say, "If All Goes Well..."

Inside Triathlon

June, 2003, p. 52

The most common question I was asked before my first Ironman was, “What time are you shooting for?” In my naiveté, I always responded, “Well, if all goes well, under X hours” (I will keep you in suspense until the end of the article before I tell you how I did). If you answer this question as I did, you are creating two often unrealistic expectations. First is the expectation that you can achieve a certain race time that you have set for yourself. Given the vagaries of triathlon, becoming too fixated on a specific finish time can cause great disappointment.

Second is the expectation that all will go well. One of the great lessons I learned about Ironman’s in particular and triathlon in general is: All never goes well! Because there are so many things that can go wrong in a triathlon—equipment, physical, logistics, weather—by simple odds, something will go wrong. It’s Murphy’s Law 140.6 fold for an Ironman and a similar exponential effect for shorter triathlons.

If you are incredibly well prepared—and lucky—only one or two things will go wrong and you can only hope that the problems don’t end your day and you can still cross the finish line, pick up your medal, and revel in your race. I was fortunate in my first Ironman; only one major thing went wrong. I had stomach distress (that’s a euphemism for what I really had!) during the first half of the marathon and I stopped nine—you heard me—nine times (I counted because I didn’t want it sound like I was telling a fish story and I wanted it on the record). I was lucky that I got it out of my system at the end of the first half and it didn’t bother me the rest of the race.

The best way to increase the likelihood that at least most goes well is to take preventive measures. Figure out everything that can go wrong and take steps to keep those things from happening. Make sure you have your nutritional needs tested in training and dialed in for your race. Inspect all of your equipment—twice! Check the weather and have the proper gear. Have a checklist to ensure that you don’t forget anything. And have a plan for each phase of the race including the layout and process of your transitions.

Then, live by the adage, “The best laid plans of mice and men…” The reality of triathlon is that no matter what you do to prepare yourself and try prevent problems from arising, S#*& happens. What will determine whether the bad thing ruins your race or is just bump in the road is your attitude. You can get upset, not solve the problem, and have it end your race. Or you can accept it, find a solution, and get back to the fun of racing triathlons.

When you say “If all goes well,” you are setting yourself up for failure because you may not have control over your finish time and you certainly don’t have control over everything that can go wrong. My recommendation is to avoid creating expectations over which you have no control.

Expectations can develop in a number of ways. They can arise when you compare yourself to others with whom you train—“If I can keep up with him/her in training, I know I can do it in a race.” You can also develop unrealistic expectations as you gain fitness and speed in your training. As your confidence in your conditioning builds, so can your expectations. A particularly dangerous way expectations can arise is when you try to extrapolate your training and early races times to your upcoming big race—“If I did a two-hour Olympic distance and a 6:30 half-Ironman, that means I can go under 13 hours for my Ironman.”

In our result-driven triathlon culture, many triathletes can feel tremendous pressure to not only finish—which is a big enough accomplishment—but to finish a race in a certain time. This is especially prevalent in Ironman events. But if you focus too much on the time you want to achieve, it will slowly grow into an “outcome expectation” that you MUST achieve it or you will have failed. This expectation will become a burden to you, cause you to feel great pressure to achieve the expectation, and make you really nervous. Paradoxically, emphasizing your outcome expectation will actually interfere with you meeting that expectation, make you anxious, interfere with your enjoyment of the race, and quite possibly keep you from achieving your goal.

I learned this lesson first hand at the 2002 Ironman USA. Having come from running, I never felt the slightest bit of anxiety before my eight previous marathons. But in the days leading up to Lake Placid, I was really nervous. I felt awful, was definitely not enjoying my Ironman experience, and was not looking forward to the race. At the heart of my angst was pressure I felt to achieve my time expectation and a persistent fear that I would go out too hard, bonk early, and have many hours of self-induced suffering. Two days before the race, I called my coach, Duane Franks, and told him how I felt. Duane said that my feelings were natural because I had chosen to undertake a monumental challenge and that the best way to let go of the anxiety was to let go of my outcome expectations. He told me to focus on three things: enjoying myself, maintaining a comfortable pace, and finishing strong.

As soon as he suggested this, I immediately felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. In the last 48 hours, I had fun and felt excited about the race. Before the race, I decided to take his advice to the extreme. I didn’t start my stopwatch at the beginning of the race. I also taped over my bike computer so I wouldn’t see my time, miles per hour, or the miles I was covering. In fact, I didn’t think about my race time at all until mile 19 of the marathon when I happened to notice the time of day.

By freeing myself of my time expectation, I relieved myself of the pressure to achieve it when just finishing an Ironman was sufficiently daunting and accomplishment enough. Instead, I focused on what I needed to do to have a good race. In the swim, I concentrated on not getting pummeled at the start, staying relaxed, maintaining good form, and conserving my energy. On the bike, I paid attention to my pace; riding conservatively and making sure I stayed in my aerobic zone. During the run, I felt so good I actually had to hold myself back. At mile 19, I decided to let myself go. I attacked the last seven miles and finished in a rush and on a high. And, guess what? I achieved my time goal—under 12 hours—to boot!

I have learned my lesson. From now on, when I am asked “What time are you shooting for?,” I smile knowingly and say, “I’ll give my best effort, I will have fun, and I will finish.” In triathlon, unless you’re a pro or a top age-grouper, everything else is just icing on the cake.

RAISING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BAR

Inside Triathlon

April, 2003, p. 25

So you’ve done a few triathlons. You’ve had a lot of fun and have enjoyed pushing yourself to heights that you never thought were possible. Your mail goal so far has been to just finish, but now you’re thinking that you can go faster. You know you need to adjust your training, but you may not have realized that you first need to adjust your attitude.

Many triathletes don’t realize there is a big difference between simply participating in triathlons and racing them. Being a “competitive” triathlete means placing considerably greater physical, psychological, and emotional demands on yourself. Of course, because of this added effort, the rewards can be that much greater as well. Making this shift to being a triathlete who cares about how fast you go and where you finish in the field starts with developing a different mindset that sets the stage for your newly intensified training and competitive efforts.

The first step in this transformation is for you to set a goal to shoot for. No longer is “just finish” something that you aim for. This objective can be a time goal, for example, doing an Olympic distance race in under 2:45 hours, or an age-group goal, such as finishing in the top ten. This goal provides you with a clear destination to your journey and helps you focus your mind on what you want to accomplish. In choosing a realistic and challenging goal, you should reality test your perceptions of your ability. The key question is: “Can I actually achieve this goal with hard work?” You may want to enlist the feedback of a tri-coach or an experienced triathlete to help you determine what is possible for you.

The next step in raising the bar involves marshaling your desire and determination to achieve your new goal. You must now make a commitment to a path that is going to be more difficult, more time consuming, and more painful than when just finishing was the goal. To overcome these new challenges in training and races, you need to remind yourself why you are “stepping up.” Focusing on the long-term benefits of your efforts will help mitigate the immediate PTA (pain, torture, and agony!) that you will experience during training. And remember this when you are really hurting: the physical pain you feel in training and during the race in no way compares to the emotional pain you will feel if you don’t achieve your goals because you didn’t push yourself enough.

Perhaps your greatest challenge in developing into a competitive triathlete is gaining the confidence that you can actually race a triathlon. With this new emphasis, it’s easy to lose confidence as you fail to show the gains—however unrealistic they are—you were expecting. Training is different now. Whereas before your main focus was on just building the necessary endurance to go the distance, now you must also add speed and strength dimensions to your training. This very different type of fitness takes time to develop. Be patient as you build your fitness, speed, and strength. If you expect too much too fast, you will only get frustrated and discouraged, and you will lose your confidence before you have had a chance to realistically gain it.

A key to building confidence to race triathlons is in trusting your preparation. You must first believe thoroughly in your training program, knowing that if you follow it, your program will enable you to achieve your goals. Then, you need to acknowledge your little victories in training every day—every time you get out of the pool, walk off the track, or get off your bike at the end of a workout, you win! As time passes and your race approaches, these small successes will accumulate, you will see and feel your new-found fitness, and that preparation will give you confidence that you can have a big success when you get to the line of your race.

With the desire for speed in triathlons comes a potential shift in your focus which may actually hurt your efforts to achieve your new goals. Becoming a competitive triathlete can cause you to place increased expectations on yourself that can morph into unpleasant pressure. Remember, you are no longer training and competing for the pure joy of triathlon. Now you are investing yourself in the results. If you allow yourself to become preoccupied with your results, you will not only not enjoy training and racing as much, but you will probably not have the results you want.

The best attitude to have to get faster is to set a competitive goal for yourself and then only think about it occasionally. In your training and races, rather than thinking about the results, focus on why you do triathlons in the first place, for example, overcoming physical challenges, the camaraderie, the “tri-high,” and then simply do what you have done in the past, just more of it with greater intensity. With this “process” attitude, you not only continue to have a great time rather than getting burdened with these new expectations, but you also gain the necessary fitness, perform your best, and achieve the results you originally set for yourself.

NEWBIE LESSON #1:

IRONMAN WILL CONSUME YOUR LIFE.

Triathlete Special bonus issue
The Road to Kona, 2003, p. 16

Doing an Ironman is not a part-time endeavor. The race will be, for the 6-9 months that you train for it, the guiding force in your life. You will spend many hours each week training for Ironman. You will spend even more hours each week thinking, dreaming, talking, reading, and surfing the Internet about Ironman. Ironman will consume you!

Your life will revolve around training (up to 20 hours a week), sleeping (going to bed by 9 pm and getting up before dairy farmers and West Coast stock brokers), food (you can and want to eat everything in sight), and drink (I have seven forms of liquid in my fridge). Your social life will involve 5 am master's swims, Saturday rides, and Sunday runs. If you are married, have children, or have friends who are not triathletes, Heaven help them!

Your conversations will revolve around your past triathlon experiences, your training program, your race goals, gathering training and race tips from experienced Ironman finishers and tri-mags, and figuring out which of the always-conflicting tips you should accept. You will be consumed by equipment and technology. You will ask essential life questions, such as "Will an aero seatpost make me faster?," "700's or 650's?," and "What is your favorite energy bar?"

You will obsess about the minutiae of triathlon. You will buy videos on swim technique. You will call the top pros by their nicknames-"Hey, Macca, Walto!" You will read the latest research on Ironman nutrition. You will look forward to going to your local tri-store hoping there is something you forgot to buy that you absolutely must have. You will make lists of what you will need in your Ironman, what you will put in each transition and special-needs bag, and what you will have to do the day before and the day of the race.

Your conversations will revolve around your past triathlon experiences, your training program, your race goals, gathering training and race tips from experienced Ironman finishers and tri-mags, and figuring out which of the always-conflicting tips you should accept. You will be consumed by equipment and technology. You will ask essential life questions, such as "Will an aero seatpost make me faster?," "700's or 650's?," and "What is your favorite energy bar?" You will live for your daily workouts. You will have trouble falling asleep because you can't wait to get up the next day and train. You will compulsively record every detail of your training program in your computer: distance, time, intensity, heart rate, splits, strokes per length, miles per hour, minutes per mile. You will track your progress. You will wonder how a person can enjoy swimming 100 laps in a 21.88-yard pool and riding a bike for over seven hours, and then you will understand how. You will revel in completing your first two-mile swim, 100-mile ride, and 20-mile run. You will add, "brick," to your vocabulary and use it proudly. You will extrapolate your training and shorter-distance race times to your Ironman (bad idea!). You will add up your weekly volume every Sunday and gush with pride as you approach 20 hours.

You will develop a deep and abiding hatred of water bottles. You will have at least 10 water bottles at some point in a never-ending cycle of Ironman life; on your bike, in the sink soaking with soapy water, in the dish rack drying, or taking up an entire counter in your kitchen poised, seemingly eagerly, to return to your bike.

You will arrive late to work, take long lunch breaks, and leave early. You will fall asleep at your desk. You will pray that you have a forgiving boss or be thankful you are your own boss. You will not get fired. Your body will look different—leaner, more muscular, harder.

You will walk differently: a new spring in your step, a bit of swagger in your gait. You will feel differently—energized, yet tired, relaxed, yet jazzed. You will think differently: more confident, determined, and focused. After never having experienced the runner's high, you will get the "tri-high" regularly. You will begin to think training is better than sex.

You will experience more emotional highs and lows in one day than you usually feel in a week. You will feel excitement, frustration, hope, anger, despair, doubt, awe, sadness, and inspiration. You will constantly question the meaning of your life and why you are doing an Ironman—and you will come up with different answers every time. You will dream of qualifying for Kona, even if the only chance you have is to win the lottery. You will smile with joy at the thought of being an Ironman and cringe in fear at the thought of not finishing.

After the race, you will feel like you are about to explode with pride. You won't want to take off your finisher's medal. You will look forward to wearing all of that over-priced, yet so worth it, Ironman clothing that you bought. You will savor that first workout when you wear the hat or shirt that announces to the world that you are an Ironman. You will feel special, like having joined an exclusive club. You can now say, "I am an Ironman."

Well, that is the way it was for me. You may be different.

OVERCOMING TAPER ANXIETY

AmericanTri
Fall, 2002, p. 50

For the last several months, you have been training your butt off getting ready for your big triathlon. You are doing everything you can to have a successful race. You have been committed to your training program, missing few if any workouts and putting in your best effort in all aspects of your training. You have devoted time in the pool, on your bike, and running on the road.

Then, with your race approaching, you look at your training schedule and it reads, “Begin taper.” You are faced with the pre-race taper, usually one week for an Olympic distance up to three weeks for an Ironman. You feel a tightness in your chest. You become short of breath. You start to get scared. You have crazy thoughts like, “I’m going to get out of shape. I’m going to get fat. If I back off now, there’s no way I can have a good race.” You are now experiencing “taper anxiety,” the fear of losing everything you have gained from your training and failing to achieve your race goals.

Everyone talks about the importance of the taper and deep down you know you should commit to it. But each day that you go shorter distances and with less intensity, you feel more and more like a lazy bum. Taper anxiety can drive you to do crazy things—like a hard track workout or a long run a few days before your race. I saw extreme examples of taper anxiety when I arrived at Ironman Lake Placid. One fellow I met rode the first loop of the bike—56 miles—three days before the race! A group of triathletes I know went for a hilly, two-hour ride two days before the race! These people have serious tapering issues.

You are now at a fork in the road that will determine whether you have a successful triathlon. If you give in to your urge to act on your taper anxiety and you maintain your training volume and intensity shortly before your race, you will almost guarantee to fail to achieve your triathlon goals. You will enter the race physically tired and mentally dull. You will lack strength, endurance, energy, motivation, confidence, and focus. You will feel frustrated, sad, and, ultimately, disappointed. After your race you will be angry at yourself for not following your program to the end—which meant DOING YOUR TAPER! If you begin to take this fork in the road, be sure to have someone nearby who hasn’t completely lost his or her mind and who can talk some sense back into you. Having someone you trust who can help you regain your perspective and get you back on the right road is essential. I find a good smack on the back of the head works pretty well (gentle prodding might not be enough).

It’s simple; tapering will make your race. If you do an triathlon without a taper, you will likely bonk along the way or, at the very least, not perform up to your ability. Your body needs the taper to fully prepare itself for your race. The taper allows your body to rest, repair all the damage you did to it, and maximize the benefits you gained from the long and hard months of training.

Because of its importance, you have to change your attitude toward the taper and relieve your taper anxiety. See it as an essential part of your training program that you must adhere to—would you skip workouts that are on your schedule? Enjoy this “chill” time before the race. See the taper as your reward for those last few weeks of high volume/high intensity training. Direct your energy into something else, such as spend more time with your family and friends—they deserve it after all of the time you have devoted to triathlon—get some more things done at work, take yoga or get a massage, anything that will either reduce your taper anxiety or at least distract you from it. Finally, tell yourself in no uncertain terms, “I must taper or I will not achieve my goals,” believing that you will be rewarded for your commitment to the taper with a great race.

A big part of this lesson for me was the evolution of how I felt during my taper for Ironman Lake Placid (this example applies for shorter distance races too). For the first ten days, I felt awful: tired, unmotivated, sluggish in my training efforts, questioning my readiness for the race, and just not psyched to do an Ironman. I was truly worried that I was overtrained and that I would experience a solid day—and night!—of joyless suffering. Then something amazing happened. I woke up on the 11th day, went for a hilly 40-mile ride and felt great—lots of energy and enthusiasm, power on the climbs, and I had fun for the first time in a while. I had turned a corner that I didn’t know was there. I had gotten my “mojo” back. The final days before the race I continued to feel strong and ready for the Ironman. And I had a great race!

Preparing for a triathlon involves putting together all of the pieces of a complex puzzle—fitness, technique, equipment, tactics, and finally, the taper. Committing to a sufficient taper will not only ensure that you have the best race of which you are capable and achieve your triathlon goals, but, more importantly, that you enjoy yourself every step of the way.

PAIN IS YOUR FRIEND:
Overcoming Triathlon’s Great Challenge

Inside Triathlon
November, 2002, p. 54-55

Pain is an essential part of triathlon training and competition, and at the same time, the greatest obstacle triathletes face as they pursue their goals. Pain plays an important role in providing you with information about your triathlon, including your level of effort and the intensity of your training program. But pain is also a persistent and powerful physical warning to your body, often screaming at you to stop! Whether you use pain as an ally to achieve your triathlon goals or as an enemy to keep you from realizing your dreams depends on your understanding of pain and whether you can gain mastery over it.

Perspective on Pain

Using pain to your advantage starts with gaining a realistic perspective on what pain really is. A few weeks ago, I was out for a long, hilly (about 6000 vertical) ride with some friends. At the end of the six-hour ride, one of the guys said, “That was a sufferfest!” Here is where some perspective on pain is needed. You need to understand the difference between suffering, pain, and physical discomfort.

Here is a simple fact: What we experience in our triathlon training and races is not suffering (I think we use such language because it makes us feel tough and heroic). I give talks to the Leukemia Society Team in Training groups and those talks have put training and competitive pain in perspective for me. People with cancer suffer because their pain is severe, long lasting, life threatening, and often uncontrollable. What we feel in training and races is not really even pain. Real pain comes from injuries. This pain is similar to suffering, but injury pain—though sometimes severe—is not life threatening, typically doesn’t last that long, and can be controlled much more easily.

What we really feel in training and races is discomfort. It hurts and it interferes with our training and competitive efforts, but we can ease the discomfort by slowing down or stopping. For simplicity’s sake, though, let’s continue to call what we experience pain because it is commonly used, it is only four letters, and it makes us feel a little bit heroic. But even though we’ll call it pain, we now know what it really is and that perspective is the first step to mastering pain.

Interpreting Pain

The next step to overcoming triathlon pain is to understand that pain isn’t just a physical experience that you have to tolerate in your training and races. Pain also has a major psychological component to it; how you think about it and the emotions you connect to it affect the pain you feel. How you interpret your pain either propels you to new and higher levels of performance or it hurts your motivation, reduces your confidence, increases your anxiety, and distracts you from your training or competitive focus. If you can interpret your pain in a positive way, your pain will feel, well, less painful.

Pain as Your Enemy

Pain is your enemy when you start with negative perceptions like, “Pain is bad,” “Pain means I am weak,” and “Pain means I will fail.” This attitude about pain puts you in defeatist mindset in which the first experience of pain in training or competition will set off a vicious cycle of negative thinking and negative emotions. When you are doing those 10x100’s in the pool, those hill repeats on your bike, or that 30-minute tempo run and you start thinking, “I hate this. What am I doing out here? Is this really worth it?,” this negative self-talk will actually increase the pain you feel, lessen your desire to fight through the pain, and limit the benefits you gain from training.

Some fascinating research has emerged recently that has found that the emotions that we connect with our pain have a significant impact on how much pain we feel. We’ve all had the experience late (or perhaps even early) in a race where we’re hurting. You begin to get frustrated that you won’t reach your goal time. You get angry at yourself for not training harder. You may even despair of your ability to finish. When you connect these negative emotions with your pain in training or a race, you will feel more pain. Between the pain you feel, your negative self-talk, and the negative emotions, you have little chance of giving your best effort in training or being successful in races.

Pain as Your Ally

Making pain your ally is a deliberate process that takes commitment, effort, and practice. It starts with accepting that pain is a normal and important part of training and competition—“no pain, no gain,” as the saying goes. The reality is that if triathlons weren’t difficult, they wouldn’t be very satisfying and you probably wouldn’t do them.

Staying emotionally detached from training and competitive pain can also reduce the pain you feel. This can be accomplished by using pain as information during your workouts and races. Pain tells you how hard you are working and whether what you are feeling is due to exertion or injury. With this information, you can adjust your pace, modify your technique, change your body position, or shift your tactics. Making these changes will help you reduce the pain and also maximize your performance.

Another useful way to respond to your pain is to realize that others around you are in pain too. It can be frustrating sometimes late in a race to be hurting pretty badly and look over at other triathletes who appear to be having no difficulty at all. Don’t be fooled by this. You can’t see inside of them and experience their discomfort. On the outside, you probably look cool, calm, and collected too, even though inside you may be in agony. If you’re in pain, the chances are those around you are too. Take comfort in knowing that. Remember, misery loves company.

You can also take active physical steps to reduce your pain. When your body begins to struggle, it tries to protect itself from the pain by tightening up. Your body doesn’t realize that this only makes it worse, so you need to tell it relax. Simple techniques during training and races, such as deep breathing, raising and lowering your shoulders every few miles, swinging your arms, shaking out your hands, and keeping your face relaxed, can make a huge difference in how your body responds to pain.

What you say to yourself about the pain you feel influences its intensity. Positive self-talk, such “I’m getting stronger with every step,” “This is making me tougher,” and “I’m working toward my goals,” not only reduces your pain, but it has other psychological benefits including increased motivation, greater confidence, better focus, and more positive emotions.

Much as negative emotions increase the experience of pain, positive emotions have the opposite effect. Connecting positive emotions such as excitement, joy, and fulfillment with the pain you feel in training and races reduces the pain and makes it more tolerable. Positive emotions create more positive self-talk and have other psychological advantages, such as greater motivation and confidence. Physiologically, positive emotions release endorphins (neurochemicals that act as our internal painkillers) which not only reduce the perception of pain, but actually lessen the physical pain.

Inspiration is my favorite positive emotion to experience when I’m training and racing. I view the pain I feel as part of an epic challenge to achieve my goals. My pain tells me I’m working hard and making progress toward my triathlon dreams and the satisfaction and joy that motivates me to be a triathlete in the first place. To that end, I have a two-pronged strategy that combines generating positive self-talk and positive emotions. When I’m in a lot of pain, for example, riding up the Seven Sisters in Marin County, I smile and say, “Money in the bank, baby, money in the bank” (you have to say “baby” or it won’t work). Smiling creates positive emotions and releases those pain-killing endorphins, and the self-talk tells me that I am making deposits on my fitness that I’ll be able to withdraw in races (unlike checking accounts, triathlons don’t have overdraft protection).

Finally, perhaps the greatest lesson I have learned as both a sport psychologist and an endurance athlete is this: The physical pain you feel in training and races in no way compares to the emotional pain you will feel if you don’t achieve your goals because you didn’t master the pain.

OUT OF THE BLUES:
Dealing with Post-race Depression

Inside Triathlon
October, 2002, p. 54-55

Anyone who has ever committed considerable time and energy to training and competing in a triathlon that is important to them knows the feelings. During training and the race, you are motivated, excited, and energized. As you cross the finish line, you are psyched, elated, and joyous at having accomplished your goal. Up to that point, triathlon is fun. Then, a day or two later, it hits you. You feel down, lethargic, even sad. After a week, that malaise is still there. You start to worry. You ask yourself, “Why am I so down?” You try to resist it by getting back to your training, but this just makes it worse. You wonder if it will ever go away. You have been struck by “post-race depression” (PRD)!

PRD is a common affliction that most triathletes (and, in fact, most endurance athletes) experience after big races. Such "post-big-race" down periods are natural and, despite triathletes’ best efforts, usually unavoidable. The fact is, triathletes shouldn’t try to avoid these feelings. PRD actually plays an essential role in the continued physical and mental health of triathletes. Yet PRD is a source of uncertainty, concern, and just plain discomfort for triathletes.

Races such as an Ironman or any race that means something to you require tremendous physical, psychological, and emotional investment. That investment causes you to put considerable time, energy, and effort into your training and to make substantial sacrifices in other parts of your life. In other words, your life becomes all about preparation for the big race; you become the race. It is this investment and the conclusion of your efforts that lead to PRD. These down feelings are especially likely if triathletes fail to achieve their competitive goals. This lack of “payoff” can create feelings of anger, frustration, and disappointment that can exacerbate the normal and healthy PRD that triathletes would otherwise experience and can make recovery from PRD longer and more difficult.

When the big race is over, PRD is occurs for several reasons. First, your body has been performing at a high level in training and then in the race for so long, it needs to take a break. Because it no longer needs to be up, your body shuts down. In fact, most of the "depression" (I don’t mean it in the “I need to be on anti-depressant medication” sense which is extremely rare) is physiologically based. The body, in a sense, decides to take a brief vacation so it can rest and rejuvenate. As our thoughts and emotions are fundamentally physiological, this physical downturn also expresses itself mentally in "down" thoughts and emotions.

This so-called depression also has a direct psychological and emotional component. For months of training and during the competition, your goals, thoughts, and focus have had a clearly defined objective and direction; your life had purpose. With the event concluded, that purpose is gone and along with it is a short-term loss of a significant part of your self-identity (the part that is, "I am a triathlete."). This lack of direction causes you to feel lost and rudderless. Questions such as, "Who am I?" and "What now?" are common. You may feel unmotivated, question your recent performance and your ability, and be uncertain about your future as a triathlete.

An emotional letdown is a powerful and uncomfortable part of PRD. After being on an emotional high--excitement, elation, joy--from the intense training and the event itself, the combination of the physiological decline and psychological loss of purpose inevitably leads to down emotions such as depression, sadness, listlessness, irritability, and a general malaise. These emotions can be mild or quite severe depending on your personality, your experience with endurance sports, your coping skills, and how you performed in the recent race. It is not uncommon for triathletes with PRD to lose interest in other aspects of their life, withdraw from previously enjoyable activities, feel sorry for themselves, and generally to do a lot of moping around, especially if they performed below expectations.

Given that some level of PRD is inevitable after big races, the key question is not how to avoid it, but rather how to deal with this uncomfortable post-event experience so that you can get through it as quickly as possible and use it help you prepare for your next big race.

The first step in working through PRD is to accept that it is a normal and necessary part of training and competition. Allowing PRD to run its course and using it to your benefit will help you minimize both its severity and duration. PRD, though clearly uncomfortable, plays a vital role in your recovery from big races, much like a rest day after an intense week of training is essential to increased fitness. A common feeling with triathletes suffering from PRD is that it will never go away. This perception alone causes you to feel even more down and makes PRD worse. A part of the acceptance process is acknowledging that the feelings are okay and that they will pass in time.

Because triathletes are such active, goal-directed people, it is common for them to attempt to resist PRD by setting a new goal and returning to intense training before they are physically or psychologically ready. If you try this strategy, you may prolong the PRD and you are more likely to get sick, because your immune system functioning is down as well. Or, you may get injured because neither your body nor your mind are prepared for the renewed physical demands.

Instead, allow yourself to experience and naturally pass through the PRD. Be good to yourself. Ensure that you get extra rest, eat healthily, have a regular massage, take yoga, and try not to tax yourself too much. Enjoy not having a goal or direction. Revel in doing things you couldn’t do when you were training—having weekends free, going to sleep after 9 pm, drinking normal liquids instead of that awful energy drink, or eating a big, fat, juicy burger, curly fries, and an Oreo shake (okay, that is not healthy eating, but it tastes so good and you have earned it!)—and not doing all the things that you started to hate before your race—getting up for those early morning masters' swims, washing so many god-forsaken water bottles, having your life revolve around your training. This "indulgence" will give your body the rest it craves and your spirit the lift it needs. It allows your mind and body to rejuvenate more quickly and enables you to return to your usual high-energy self sooner.

A difficult part of PRD is feeling like you have lost a part of yourself and that you feel “starved” for affirmation. But setting aside that big part of your self-identity periodically is healthy because it shows you that you are a person before you are a triathlete and that triathlon is a part of your life, not life itself. Because you are not "feeding" the physical part of your self-identity, turn your attention to other significant parts of your self that you find nourishing, perhaps social or creative activities. This alternative "nutrition" will provide you with other meaningful sources of validation that will help you to generate positive emotions that counteract your malaise and enable you to continue to feel good about yourself despite the absence of reinforcement from triathlon.

Lastly, do things that you enjoy simply for the experience—no goals, no purpose. Try being a "human being" for a while instead of a "human doing." This reconnection with who you are rather than what you do is an essential part of keeping triathlon in perspective, gaining the most joy out of your participation, and ensuring that you maintain some balance in your life despite your investment in triathlon. It also makes certain that, when you do return to training, you continue to participate for positive, healthy, and life-enriching reasons, and you are physically, psychologically, and emotionally ready to master the challenges of the new goals you have set for yourself.

Dr. Jim Taylor is an internationally recognized sport psychologist, sub-three-hour marathoner, and Ironman triathlete. Jim lives in San Francisco. To learn more, visit www.alpinetaylor.com.

BRING IT ON!

Triathlete
September, 2002, p. 78-80

What separates a Chris McCormack or Barb Lindquist from other less successful professionals? Do they have superior physical capabilities? Perhaps. But what is noticeably different about them and other top triathletes is their unwavering belief in their ability to succeed. In fact, confidence is the single most important mental contributor to triathlon success. Whether you are a pro, a committed age grouper, or a first-time triathlete, in addition to building the fitness to be successful, you want to develop a strong and resilient confidence in yourself to give your best effort, perform at your highest level consistently, and achieve your goals.

Confidence Either Hurts or Helps

Confidence is so important because it influences your training and competitive efforts in two ways. First, you may have the physical ability and fitness to, for example, break three hours in an Olympic distance race, but if you don’t have confidence in that ability, you won’t use your ability to its fullest extent. Second, confidence affects every other mental factor. If you lack confidence, you will have a lot of negative self-talk, saying things like, “My bike is so weak” or “I know I’m going to bonk on the run.” You will feel nervous before races because you won’t believe you can be successful. All of that anxiety hurts your confidence even more because you feel physically uncomfortable and there’s no way you can race well when you’re so uptight. The negative self-talk and anxiety cause negative emotions, such as frustration and despair, all of which hurt your confidence more and cause you to perform even worse.

The negative self-talk, anxiety, and emotions hurt your focus. You can’t help but focus on all of the negative things rather than on things that will enable you to do your best. All of this accumulated negativity then hurts your motivation. As bad as you feel, the last thing you want to do is train or race. The bottom line is that if you lack confidence, think negatively, feel nervous, frustrated, and can’t focus, you’re not going to have much fun and you’re not going to achieve your goals.

In contrast, high confidence positively influences all of the other mental factors. Your self-talk is positive: “I’m going to give my best effort” or “I’m going to have a great race today.” Instead of being your worst enemy, you are your best ally. Your confidence and the positive self-talk get you feeling relaxed and energized. You have a lot of positive emotions like joy and excitement. You focus on things you need to perform your best. All of the positive thoughts and feelings motivate you to work hard and achieve your goals. If you’re thinking positively, feeling relaxed and energized, experiencing joy and excitement, and are focused on doing your best, you’re going to have a lot of fun and you’re going to be successful.

The Chicken or the Egg?

A question I’m often asked is, “Do you become confident by succeeding or do you succeed from being confident?” I believe that triathlon success comes from confidence. You don’t just go from 0% confidence to 100% confidence in one big step. Rather, it’s a building process, just like your fitness, in which confidence leads to success which reinforces the confidence which, in turn, leads to more success. For example, you may only have, say, 40% confidence in his ability to complete a half-Ironman that is 12 weeks away. By training hard and working on your triathlon skills, you confidence goes up to 60%. With your confidence you’re going to have greater focus and intensity in your training, which results in improved fitness. Your hard work and progress raise your confidence to 80%. Your improved preparation and greater confidence results in better endurance and speed in your training. Your increasing stamina and speed lifts your confidence to near 100% as the race nears, enabling you to go to the start confident that you will achieve your goals.

Confidence-building Strategies

Confidence is a skill, much like physical skills, that can be learned. Just like with any type of skill, confidence is developed through practice and experience. If you don’t believe in yourself as a triathlete, you must take steps to build your confidence. The strategies described below will help you to steadily build your confidence as you approach a big race.

Preparation breeds confidence. Preparation is the foundation of confidence. If you believe that you have done everything you can to perform your best—put in the hours swimming, riding, and running—you will have confidence in your ability to achieve your goals. This preparation includes the physical, technical, tactical, and mental parts of triathlon. If you have developed these areas as fully as you can, when you get to the start line, you will have faith that you will be able to use your preparation to have your best race possible.

Mental skills reinforce confidence. Confidence is a skill that develops with practice. A meaningful way to strengthen your confidence is to use mental skills increase your belief in your ability to handle anything a triathlon can throw at you. These mental skills include goal setting to bolster motivation, intensity control to stay relaxed, keywords to maintain focus and avoid distractions, emotional control to stay calm when things aren’t going well, and pain control to combat discomfort at the end of a race.

Adversity ingrains confidence. One of the most demanding aspects of triathlon is the many types of adversity that you confront in races—cold water, surf, bumping against others in the swim, hills, headwinds, and flat tires on the bike, and sore legs, blisters, and fatigue on the run. Your biggest challenge is to maintain your confidence when you’re faced with adversity. To more deeply ingrain confidence in your ability, you should expose yourself to as much adversity as possible in training. Instead of avoiding swimming in cold water, riding when it’s windy, or running in the rain, you should seek out these opportunities, so when you get to the race and you have these conditions, you can say, “Been there, done that, no big deal.”

Support from others. Whether you belong to a triathlon club like the Golden Gate Triathlon Club, a formal training group, such as Team Sheeper, or you just train with friends, the social aspects of triathlon is one of its joys. It is also an important contributor to confidence. Training with triathletes who are positive and motivated is contagious. When other triathletes show confidence in you, you’re reminded of the progress you are making, it helps you through difficult times, and it reinforces your own growing confidence in yourself.

Success validates confidence. When most triathletes think about success, they think about having great races and reaching their competitive goals. But success starts in training. Every day you swim, ride, or run, you’re scoring little victories. With each of these small “wins,” your confidence steadily increases until you have the confidence to achieve a big “win.” After every training session, be sure to acknowledge the small victory—give yourself a pat on the back for your effort and remind yourself of the goal you are working toward—let them accumulate.

All of the previous steps in building confidence would go for naught if you did not then have a good race and achieve your triathlon goals. Success validates the confidence you’ve developed in your ability and fitness and shows that your belief is well-founded. These big “victories” further strengthen your confidence, making it more resilient to the frequent challenges you face in training and races. Finally, success rewards your efforts, encouraging you to continue to work hard and strive toward your triathlon goals.

Mind Over Body

All of your efforts to build your confidence are put to the test late in triathlons. At some point, your body begins to rebel, communicating to your mind, “I get the point! We can stop now.” You may think there is simply nothing left. Your mind and body will get into a battle over who’s in charge. If your body wins out, your mind will use negative self-talk as a weapon against your triathlon aspirations. If you say things like, “I can’t do this. It’s over,” your race is over; you will slow down or stop, and you will not achieve your goals.

But there is always something left (short of a Julie Moss experience)! The only chance you have to tap into that final reserve of energy is for your mind to win the battle over your body. Then you can use positive self-talk as a tool against fatigue and pain. If you can say, “Keep at it. This is what I’ve worked so hard for. I will not give up,” then your body will listen—however reluctantly—and you will cross the finish not only having succeeded against the course and the clock, but also having claimed victory over your greatest challenge—YOU—and there is no greater joy than that!

PRIME TRIATHLON: TRIUMPH OF THE TRI-MIND

Published in TeamSheeper Newsletter (2001-2002)

WHAT IS PRIME TRIATHLON?

I define Prime Triathlon, as “performing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions.” There are two essential words in this definition. The first key word is, “consistently.” I’m not interested if a triathlete can have a great swim leg, but poor riding and running legs or one outstanding race and a bunch of poor races. That is not enough to be truly successful. I want triathletes to be able to perform in training and races at a consistently high level day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out. Prime Triathlon means performing at a high level with only minimal ups and downs instead of the large swings in performance that are so common among triathletes. The second key word is, “challenging.” What makes the great triathletes successful is their ability to perform their best under the worst possible conditions against tough competition when they’re not performing their best. Rough, cold water on the swim and headwind and hills on the ride and run are some of the most familiar difficult conditions triathletes encounter.

Where does Prime Triathlon come from? Though I focus on its mental contributors, the mind is only one necessary part of Prime Triathlon. You must also be at a high level of physical health including being well-conditioned, well-rested, eating a balanced diet, and free from injury and illness. Prime Triathlon is also not possible if you’re not technically sound. Your technical skills must be well-learned and your tactics must be in place.

Let me describe some of the common experiences of Prime Triathlon. First, Prime Triathlon is effortless. Though no triathlon is easy, the overall experience of Prime Triathlon is surprisingly comfortable and natural. You don’t seem to have to try to do anything. Everything just flows. Prime Triathlon is also automatic. There’s little thought. The body does what it knows how to do and there’s no mental interference getting in the way. You also experience sharpened senses. You see, hear, and feel everything more acutely than normal. Prime Triathlon also has effortless focus. You’re totally absorbed in the experience and are focused entirely on the process. You have no distractions or unnecessary thoughts that interfere with performing your best. You have boundless energy and your “wall” seems to be much farther off than usual. Finally, you experience what I call prime integration. Everything is working together. The physical, technical, tactical, and mental aspects of triathlon are integrated into one path to Prime Triathlon.

TEN LAWS OF PRIME TRAINING

First Law: Prime Triathlon is not achieved on the day you compete, but rather in the days, weeks, and months before the competition. Many triathletes believe that if they’re ready to go on the day of the triathlon, then they are prepared to perform their best. But I have found that success is determined more by what you do in the days, weeks, and months leading up to the competition. If you’ve put in the time and effort to develop your physical, technical, tactical, and mental abilities, you will have the capabilities and the belief to perform your best on the day of the triathlon.

Second Law: Take responsibility for everything that impacts your triathlon performance. The only way that prime preparation can be achieved is if you know every area that influences your triathlon performance. These areas include all of the components of physical, technical, tactical, and mental preparation. If you address every one of these areas, you can be sure that when you get to the triathlon, you will be totally prepared to perform your best.

Third Law: Triathlon preparation is about the Grind. To be your best, you have to put a lot of time and effort into your training. I call this the Grind, which involves having to put hours upon hours of time into training, well beyond the point that it is fun and exciting. If you let these immediate negative aspects of your training override your long-term goals of working hard and putting in the time, your motivation is going to suffer and you’re not going to perform your best in the triathlon. You must love the grind!

Fourth Law: Prime Triathlon requires smart mileage. Training for a triathlon demands that you put in large amounts of mileage swimming, biking, and running. However, there can be a tendency among triathletes to believe that more is better. This attitude will cause overtraining, burnout, and injury. A well-planned triathlon training program will balance high mileage, quality mileage, and, most importantly, rest. The physical demands of an triathlon training program calls for smart training, not hard training.

Fifth Law: Patience and persistence are essential to achieving Prime Triathlon. Triathlon fitness takes time to develop and you will experience plateaus and down periods along the path to Prime Triathlon. You may become frustrated, impatient, and want to quit. If you let frustration and impatience overwhelm you, you will never achieve Prime Triathlon. If you understand that progress takes time and that there is no way to hurry the conditioning process, you will have the patience to achieve Prime Triathlon. Drawing on that patience, if you persist long enough in the face of setbacks and obstacles, the improvement will come and you will achieve Prime Triathlon.

Sixth Law: Prime preparation requires clear purpose, prime focus, and prime intensity. You must have a clear purpose that tells you what you’re doing in training every day. You must consistently maintain focus on your purpose during training. Your body must be physically capable of performing the purpose by being rested and healthy.

Seventh Law: Consistent training leads to consistent triathlon performance. Consistency is essential for Prime Triathlon and is one of the most important qualities that put the best triathletes above the rest. Consistency in an triathlon comes from consistency in training. Consistency relates to every aspects of triathlon training and life. In addition to the obvious areas such as conditioning, technique, and tactics, it also pertains to attitude, effort, focus, intensity, emotions, sleep, and diet. Any area that influences your performance must be consistent before you can be consistent in a competition.

Eighth Law: Failure is essential for Prime Triathlon. There can not be success without failure. Failure shows you what is not working. It means that you are moving out of your comfort zone. Failure means you are taking risks. Failure teaches you how to deal positively with adversity.

Ninth Law: Prime Triathlon comes from “one more thing, one more time.” You can assume that most of your competitors are working hard to become the best triathletes they can be. If you want to defeat them, you must ask yourself, “What can I do to get the edge over them?” Here is a simple rule I learned from an Olympic champion: “One more thing, one more time.” When you feel you have done enough, you should do one more lap, do one more set of weights, or do one more mile. By doing one more thing, one more time, you are doing that little bit extra that will separate you on the day of the competition. Note: This law needs to be balanced with the Fourth Law related to smart mileage.

Tenth Law: Prime preparation is devoted to readying yourself to perform your best under the most demanding conditions in the most important competition of your life. I’m not interested in you performing well in unimportant competitions, under ideal conditions, against a field that you know you can defeat. The ultimate goal of Prime Triathlon is for you perform your best when it really counts. Prime preparation will allow you to achieve Prime Triathlon in your equivalent of Ironman Hawaii.

PRIME PROFILING

One of the most difficult things about dealing with the mental side of triathlon is that its not tangible. Unlike physical conditioning where you can see yourself getting stronger by the amount of weight you=re lifting or technical training where you can see progress on video and on the clock, mental training can=t be directly seen or measured.

Prime Profiling helps you make your mental strengths and weaknesses more concrete. By having a better understanding of yourself mentally, you can more clearly specify the areas you need to work on. I have identified 12 mental and emotional factors that are important to triathlon success. To create your Prime Profile, rate yourself on a one to ten scale for each of the 12 factors listed below.

Motivation - How determined you are to train and race to achieve your competitive goals (1-not at all; 10-very). Confidence - How positive or negative is your self-talk in training and races (1-very negative; 10-very positive). Intensity - Whether your physical intensity helps (relaxed and energized) or hurts (get too nervous) your race performances (1-hurts, anxious; 10-helps, relaxed). Focus - How well you’re able to stay focused on performing your best and avoid distractions that hurt your performing (1-distracted; 10-focused). Emotions - Whether you lose control of your emotions and they hurt your races or you have control over your emotions and they help you perform well (1-lose control, hurt; 10-have control, help). Consistency - How well you’re able to maintain a high level of performance in races and throughout the season (1-very inconsistent; 10-very consistent). Routines - How much you use routines in your preparations including in training and before races (1-never; 10-often). Competitor - How you perform in races as compared to training (1-not as well; 10-better). Adversity - How you respond to difficulties you’re faced at races with such as bad weather or tough course conditions (1-poorly; 10-well). Pressure - How you perform in important races (1-poorly; 10-well). Ally - Whether you are your best ally or your worst enemy at races (1-enemy; 10-ally). Prime Triathlon - How often you achieve and maintain your highest level of race performance (1-never; 1- often).

Having completed the Prime Profile, you now have a clear description of your mental skills in triathlon. Scores below a 7 indicate areas that you need to work on. Write down the factors that you need to address, set goals related to improvement in those areas, and decide how you will develop the areas. Then consistently work on them until you have strengthened them.

Much like physical testing, take the Prime Profile every few months to see your progress. With time and effort, you can develop your mental strengths and alleviate your weaknesses so you can achieve Prime Triathlon.

PRIME TRIATHLON PERSPECTIVES ON COMPETITION

Triathlon is obviously important to you. You put a great deal of effort into your triathlon participation. Because of this, you put your ego on the line every time you get to the starting line. When you don’t perform well, you’re disappointed. This may not feel good, but it’s natural because it means you care about your triathlon.

There is, however, a point at which you can lose perspective and your feelings toward your racing can hurt your performances. The key warning signal of this overinvolvement is “too.” When you care too much, when it is too important to you, when you try too hard, when you press too much, then you have lost perspective.

In this “too” situation, triathletes’ investment in their training and racing is so great that it is no longer enjoyable. If you find yourself feeling this way, you should reevaluate what your triathlon participation means to you and how it impacts your life and your happiness. You will probably find that it plays too big a role in how you feel about yourself. When this happens, you not only perform poorly and have worse results, but you may find that triathlon is no longer fun.

To have fun and perform your best, you need to keep your triathlon participation in perspective. It may be important to you, but it should not be life or death. What is important is that you have a balanced view of triathlon. Remember why you participate; it’s fun, it feels great to push your limits, and, yes, you like to compete and achieve your goals. The Prime Triathlon view of competition means keeping your triathlon in perspective. If you have fun, work hard, enjoy the process of triathlon, and do not care too much about winning and losing, you will enjoy triathlon more, you will perform better, and you will have better results as well

DEVELOPING PRIME MOTIVATION

Motivation is the foundation of Prime Triathlon. Without your desire and determination to improve your triathlon performances, everything else is meaningless. To become the best triathlete you can be, you must be motivated to do what it takes to maximize your ability.

Focus on your long-term goals. To be your best, you have to put a lot of time and effort into your triathlon. But all of that time and effort is not always enjoyable. I call this the Grind, which involves having to put hours upon hours of time into training, well beyond the point that it is fun and exciting. During those times, focus on your long-term goals. Remind yourself why you’re working so hard. Imagine exactly what you want to accomplish and tell yourself that the only way you’ll be able to reach your goals is to go through the Grind. Remember that the physical pain you may feel in training doesn’t come close to the emotional pain you will feel when you don’t achieve your goals because you weren’t well prepared.

Have a training partner. It’s difficult to be highly motivated all of the time on your own. There are going to be some days when you don’t feel like getting out there. A training partner is someone who can push you through those motivational lows. The chances are that on any given day one of you will be motivated. Even if you’re not very psyched to train on a particular day, you will still put in the time and effort because your partner is counting on you.

Focus on greatest competitor. Another way to keep yourself motivated is to focus on your greatest competitor. I have triathletes identify who their biggest competition is and put his or her name or photo where they can see it every day. Ask yourself, “Am I working as hard as him/her?” Remember that only by working your hardest will you have a chance to overcome your greatest competitor.

Set goals. There are few things more rewarding and motivating than setting a goal, putting effort toward the goal, and achieving the goal. The sense of accomplishment and validation of the effort motivates you to strive higher. You should set clear goals of what you want to accomplish in your triathlon and how you will achieve those goals.

Daily questions. Every day, you should ask yourself two questions. When you get up in the morning, ask, “What can I do today to become the best triathlete I can be?” and before you go to sleep, ask, “Did I do everything possible today to become the best triathlete I can be?”

The heart of motivation. Motivation is not something that can be given to you. Motivation must ultimately come from within. You must simply want to train and compete. You should train because you love to challenge yourself and push your limits. You should compete because you have a great passion for triathlon. You should race because you just love to get out there and do it.

PROGRESSION OF PRIME CONFIDENCE

The ultimate goal of prime confidence is to develop a strong and resilient belief in your ability as a triathlete to give your best effort, perform at your highest level, and achieve your goals. I have identified four steps that are required to develop prime confidence.

Preparation breeds confidence. Preparation is the foundation of confidence. If you believe that you have done everything you can to perform your best, you will have confidence in your ability to perform well. This preparation includes the physical, technical, tactical, and mental parts of triathlon. If you have developed these areas as fully as you can, you will have faith that you will be able to use those abilities gained from preparation to have your best race possible.

Mental skills reinforce confidence. Confidence is a skill that develops with practice. A meaningful way to strengthen your confidence is to use mental skills that provide repetition of the confidence. These mental skills include goal setting to bolster motivation, positive self-talk to fortify confidence, intensity control to combat anxiety, keywords to maintain focus and avoid distractions, and emotional control to stay calm when things aren’t going well.

Adversity ingrains confidence. Your biggest challenge is to maintain your belief in yourself when you’re faced with adversity. To more deeply ingrain confidence in your ability, you should expose yourself to as much adversity as possible. Adversity can involve anything that makes you uncomfortable and takes you out of your comfort zone. Adversity can include bad weather, poor course conditions, or difficult terrain.

Success validates confidence. All of the previous steps in building prime confidence would go for naught if you did not then perform well and achieve your goals in triathlons. Success validates the confidence you have developed in your ability. It demonstrates that your belief in your ability is well-founded. Success further strengthens your confidence, making it more resilient in the face of adversity and poor races. Finally, success rewards your efforts to build confidence, encouraging you to continue to work hard and strive toward your triathlon goals.

VICIOUS CYCLE OR UPWARD SPIRAL

Confidence is the single most important mental factor in triathlon. Not only does confidence impact your triathlon directly (you may fully capable of achieving your triathlon goals, but if you don’t believe you have that ability, you won’t use that ability), it also affects every other mental factor. To help illustrate this influence of confidence, think back to a time when you didn’t have confidence in your triathlon. You probably got caught in a vicious cycle of low confidence and performance in which negative thinking led to poor performance, which led to more negative thinking and even poorer performance, until your confidence was so low that you don’t even want to race.

This vicious cycle usually starts with a bad leg of a triathlon or a few bad races. These can lead to negative thinking and self-talk. “I’m terrible. I can’t do this. I don’t have a chance. I can’t perform well today” You are becoming your own worst enemy.

You start to get nervous before a triathlon because you believe you will do poorly. All of that anxiety hurts your confidence even more because you feel physically bad and you can’t perform well when you’re so uptight. The negative self-talk and anxiety causes negative emotions. You feel frustrated, angry, depressed, and helpless, all of which hurt your confidence more and cause you to perform even worse.

The negative self-talk, anxiety, and emotions then hurt your focus. You focus on all of the negative things rather than on things that will enable you to have a good race. All of this accumulated negativity hurts your motivation. As bad as you feel, the last thing you want to do is race a triathlon. If you’re thinking negatively, caught in a vicious cycle, feeling nervous, depressed, and frustrated, and can’t focus, you’re not going to have much fun and you’re not going to have a good triathlon.

In contrast to those times when you have had low confidence, recall when you have been really confident. Your self-talk is positive. “I’m a good triathlete. I am feeling strong. I can have a good race today.” Instead of being your worst enemy, you’re your best ally.

With the positive self-talk, rather than being dragged down into the vicious cycle, you begin an upward spiral of high confidence and performance in which positive thinking leads to better performance, which leads to more positive thinking and even better performance.

All of the positive talk gets you feeling relaxed and energized before and during the race. You have a lot of positive emotions such as happiness, joy and excitement. You focus on things you need to perform your best. Racing is actually an enjoyable experience for you.

All of the positive thoughts and feelings motivate you to race. If you’re thinking positively, riding an upward spiral, feeling relaxed and energized, experiencing happiness and excitement, and are focused on performing your best, you’re going to have a lot of fun and you’re going to have a great triathlon.

MEET THE CONFIDENCE CHALLENGE

The real test of confidence is how you respond when things are not going your way. I call this the Confidence Challenge. It’s easy to stay confident when you’re healthy and well-rested, have been training well, and the conditions are ideal. But an inevitable part of triathlon is that you will get over-trained occasionally, be a little sick or injured, and be faced with difficult race conditions. What separates the best from the rest is that the best triathletes are able to maintain their confidence when everything is going against them. By staying confident, they continue to work hard rather than give up because they know that when they aren’t at their best, they can still be competitive and have a good race.

All triathletes will go through periods where they’re not at their best. Most triathletes when they don’t feel good before a race or start a race poorly lose their confidence and get caught in the vicious cycle of low confidence and poor performance. Once they slip into that downward spiral, they rarely can get out of it. In contrast, triathletes who meet the Confidence Challenge maintain their confidence and figure out a way to stay motivated and focused, and to have the best race they can.

The Confidence Challenge can be thought of as a Prime Triathlon skill that can be developed. Learning to respond positively to the Confidence Challenge comes from exposing yourself to demanding situations and difficult conditions in training and races and practicing positive responses.

There are several key aspects of mastering the Confidence Challenge. First, you need to develop the attitude that demanding situations are challenges to be sought out rather than threats to be avoided. When you’re faced with a Confidence Challenge you need to believe that experiencing challenges is a necessary part of becoming the best triathlete and an opportunity to take your triathlon to the next level. You have to realize that, at first, these challenges are going to be uncomfortable because they are difficult and unfamiliar. As you expose yourself to more challenges, they will become less threatening and more comfortable.

With this perspective, you should seek out every possible challenge in training and races. Be sure you’re well-prepared to meet the challenges. You can’t master the Confidence Challenge if you don’t have the preparation to do so. Stay positive and motivated in the face of the difficulties. Don’t allow yourself to be sucked into the vicious cycle. Then, focus on what you need to do to overcome the challenge rather than on how difficult it may be or how you may fail. Also, accept that you may not fully succeed when faced with a challenge for the first time. Don’t take this as a failure, but rather as an experience you can learn from to overcome the difficulties next time. Finally, and most importantly, never, ever give up!

RED FLAGS FOR BAD INTENSITY

Bad intensity—physical changes that hurt your triathlon—produces a wide variety of physical and mental “red flags” that can help you recognize when your intensity is too high or too low. By being aware of these signs, you can know when you’re not at prime intensity and can take steps to reach that ideal level.

Overintensity. Muscle tension and breathing difficulties are the most common signs of overintensity. Most triathletes indicate that when they’re too intense, they feel tension in their shoulders and legs, which happen to be the two most important physical areas for triathlon. For example, if a triathlete’s shoulders are tense, his swim stroke will be shortened, and less smooth and efficient.

Many triathletes also report that their breathing becomes short and choppy when they get nervous. This restriction in breathing means that they’re not getting enough oxygen into their system so they will tire quickly. I’ve also found that the smoothness of triathletes’ movements tends to mirror their breathing. If their breathing is long and smooth, their swimming stroke, pedal cadence, and running stride are fluid too. If their breathing is abrupt and choppy, their movements in the water, on the bike, and running are uneven too.

Triathletes who are overly intense often exhibit poor posture. Muscle tension causes their shoulders to rise and their body to close up. This change in posture is especially noticeable on the ride and run. Triathletes also often look rushed and frantic in the start and transition areas. They are moving so fast that they are actually slowing rather than accelerating their transitions.

Overintensity hurts triathletes mentally as well. Anxiety lowers confidence and causes doubts in ability. The physical and mental discomfort produces negative emotions such as frustration and despair. The anxiety, doubts, and negative emotions hurt focus by drawing triathletes’ attention away from performing their best and onto how badly they feel.

Underintensity. Though not as common, triathletes can also experience underintensity before races. Most often due to a lack of motivation to race, fatigue, or overconfidence, the most frequent symptoms of underintensity are low energy and lethargy. Triathletes lack the adrenaline they need to give their best effort. Though not as discomforting as overintensity, underintensity hurts as much because triathletes lack the physical requisites such as endurance and strength to meet the demands of a race.

Mentally, underintensity undermines motivation. Triathletes just don’t feel like being out there. The lack of interest caused by too low intensity also impairs their focus because they’re easily distracted and have difficulty staying focused on performing their best.

PSYCH-DOWN FOR PRIME TRIATHLON

When you’re in a triathlon, it’s natural for your intensity to go up and for you to feel nervous. If you want to perform your best, you have to take active steps to get your intensity back to its prime level. There are several simple techniques you can use to help you get your intensity back under control.

Deep breathing. The most basic way to lower your intensity is to take control of your breathing again by focusing on taking slow, deep breaths. Deep breathing ensures that you get enough oxygen so your body can function well. By getting more oxygen into your body, you will relax, feel better, and you will have a greater sense of control. This increased comfort will increase your confidence, calm you, and improve your focus. Deep breathing should be a big part of your pre-race routine and during the three legs of the triathlon. If you focus on taking deep breaths regularly throughout your race, you ensure that your body is relaxed and comfortable, and you’re focused on something that will help you have your best triathlon you can.

Muscle relaxation. The most common sign of overintensity is muscle tension. This is the most crippling physical symptom because if your muscles are tight and stiff, you won’t be able to swim, ride, or run your best. Similar to deep breathing, muscle relaxation is beneficial because it allows you to regain control of your body and to make you feel more comfortable physically. It also offers the same mental and emotional advantages as does deep breathing. There are two muscle relaxation techniques you can use to relax your muscles.

Passive relaxation involves focusing on tense muscles and allowing them to relax. Take a deep breath and feel your muscles relaxing as you exhale. Active relaxation is used when your body is very tense and you can’t relax your muscles with passive relaxation. Instead of trying to relax your muscles, tighten them more, then release them. Active relaxation typically involves tightening and relaxing different muscle groups. When you feel tension in a part of your body, tighten those muscles for five seconds, then relax them. Take a deep breath, then repeat. As you go through the active relaxation, focus on the differences between tension and relaxation and be aware of how you are able to induce a greater feeling of relaxation.

Process focus. One of the primary causes of overintensity is focusing on the outcome of the triathlon. If you’re worried about how you will perform, you’re bound to get nervous. To reduce the anxiety caused by an outcome focus, redirect your focus onto the process. Ask yourself, what do I need to do to have a good race? This process focus can include paying attention to pace, hydration, nutrition, or technique. Or it might involve focusing on mental skills such as positive thinking or the psych-down strategies I am currently describing. You can also shift your focus onto your breathing which will take your mind off of the outcome and will directly relax your body by providing more oxygen to your system.

Smile. The last technique for lowering intensity is one of the strangest and most effective I’ve ever come across: Smile! As we grow up, we become conditioned to the positive effects of smiling. In other words, we learn that when we smile, it means we’re happy and life is good. Second, brain research has found that when we smile, it releases brain chemicals called endorphines which have an actual physiologically relaxing effect. When you are feeling too intense, simply hold a smile on your face. In a short time, you will feel yourself relaxing and feeling better.

DEVELOPING PRIME FOCUS

Developing focus control is essential if you want to achieve Prime Triathlon. Being able to focus on things that will help you perform your best and avoid distractions that hurt your performances are critical to achieving your triathlon goals. There are several simple strategies you can use to ensure that you are focused on what you need to perform your best.

The eyes have it. We obtain most of our information about the world through our eyes. The most direct way to develop prime focus is to control our eyes. If you want to minimize the external distractions during training and before and during races, keep your eyes down and focused on your equipment, your pre-race preparations, and your race efforts. If you’re distracted by something, either look away or turn away from it. If you’re not looking at something, it can’t distract you.

If you find that you’re thinking too much or being negative or critical, raise your eyes and look around you. For example, watch the triathletes around you or talk to other triathletes with whom you are riding or running. By looking around, you’ll be distracted from your thoughts, you’ll be able to clear your mind, and then you can narrow your focus back to the race.

Outcome vs. process focus. Perhaps the greatest obstacle to prime focus is having an outcome focus before a race. Outcome focus involves focusing on the possible results of a race: winning, losing, rankings, or who you might defeat or lose to. Many triathletes believe that by focusing on the outcome they’re more likely to achieve that outcome. What most triathletes don’t realize is that having an outcome focus actually hurts performance and makes it less likely that they will perform well. With an outcome focus, triathletes are no longer focusing on things that will help them do their best. The way to achieve the desired outcome of a triathlon is to focus on the process of the race. Process focus means focusing on aspects of the race that will enable you to perform your best, for example, pace, technique, tactics, or intensity.

Focus on what you can control. A major focusing problem I see with many triathletes is that they focus on things over which they have no control. Triathletes worry about their competition, the weather, or the conditions, to name a few things outside of triathletes control. This focus has no value because they can’t change those things. This kind of focus hurts performance because it lowers confidence and causes worry and anxiety. It also distracts triathletes from what they need to focus on. The fact is, there’s only one thing that triathletes can control, and that is themselves, for example, their thoughts, intensity, technique, and tactics.

Three P’s. I have a general rule you can follow that will help you identify what kinds of things you should focus on in a triathlon. The first P is positive; focus on positive things that will help you race and avoid negative things that will hurt it. The second P is process; focus on what you need to do to perform your best. The third P is present; focus on what you need to do right now to perform well, not on the past or future.

DESIGNING A PRE-RACE ROUTINE

Routines develop consistency in all areas that impact triathlon. By consistently going through your routine, you train your mind and body to respond the same way regardless of the situation. At the same time, consistency does not mean rigidity. Routines are flexible. They can be adjusted to different situations that arise, for example, a delay in the start of a triathlon. Flexibility in routines means you won’t be surprised or stressed by changes that occur during your preparations. Flexibility means you will be better able to perform your best in a wider range of race situations and conditions. The goal of routines is to ensure that when you enter the water, you’re totally physically, technically, tactically, and mentally prepared to perform your best.

The first step in designing a pre-race routine is to make a list of everything you need to do before a triathlon to be prepared. Some of the common elements you should include are meals, transition area set-up, physical warm-up, equipment check, and mental preparation. Other more personal things that might go into a pre-race routine include going to the bathroom and using mental imagery.

Then, decide in what order you want to do the components of your list as you approach the start of the triathlon. In doing this, consider race activities that might need to be taken into account. For instance, how long it takes to register and the length of time it takes to set up your transition area can influence when you accomplish different parts of your pre-race routine.

Next, specify where each step of your routine can best be completed. You should use your knowledge of race sites at which you often perform to figure this part out. For example, if you like to be alone before a triathlon, is there a place near the start where you can get away from people?

Finally, establish a time frame and a schedule for completing your routine. In other words, how much time do you need to get totally prepared? Some triathletes like to get to the start only a short time before their start. Others like to arrive well advance. All of these decisions are personal. You need to find out what works best for you.

Once your pre-race routine is organized, try it out at triathlons. Some things may work and others may not. In time, you’ll fine-tune your routine until you find the one that’s most comfortable and best prepares you for a race. Lastly, remember, pre-race routines only have value if they’re used consistently. If you use your routine before every triathlon, in a short time, you won’t even have to think about doing it. Your pre-race routine will simply be what you do before each race and it will ensure that you are totally prepared to perform your best.

MAXIMIZE YOUR PRIME TRIATHLON IMAGERY

Triathlon imagery is perhaps the most powerful mental skill you can develop to help you achieve Prime Triathlon. There are four factors that will impact the quality of your triathlon imagery: perspective, control, multiple sense, and speed. You can develop each of these areas so you can get the most out of your triathlon imagery.

Imagery perspective. Imagery perspective refers to where the “imagery camera” is when you do triathlon imagery. The internal perspective involves seeing yourself from inside your body looking out, as if you were actually performing. The imagery camera is inside your head looking out through your eyes. The external perspective involves seeing yourself from outside your body like on video. The imagery camera follows you from the outside. Research indicates that one perspective is not better than the other. Most people have a dominant perspective with which they’re most comfortable. You should use the perspective that’s most natural for you and then experiment with the other perspective to see if it helps you in a different way.

Control. Have you ever been doing triathlon imagery and you keep making mistakes, for example, while imagining yourself swimming, the water feels thick like molasses or while imagining yourself running, your feet stick to the road? This problem relates to imagery control, which is how well you’re able to imagine what you want to imagine. It’s not uncommon for triathletes to perform poorly in their imagery. If bad images occur in your imagery, you shouldn’t just let them go by. If you do, you’ll ingrain the negative image and feeling which will hurt your confidence. Instead, when you perform poorly in your imagery, immediately rewind the “imagery video” and edit it and rerun the imagery video until you see yourself performing well.

Multiple senses. Good triathlon imagery is more than just visual. The best imagery involves the multi-sensory reproduction of the actual triathlon experience. You should duplicate the sights, sounds, physical sensations, thoughts, and emotions that you would experience in an actual triathlon. Visual imagery involves how clearly you see yourself performing, for instance, seeing yourself having a fast transition. Vivid auditory images are important because sounds can play an important part in triathlon, for example, the sound of your breathing during the run. The most powerful part of triathlon imagery is feeling it in your body. That’s how you really ingrain new skills and habits. To improve the feeling of your imagery, focus on the movement of your muscles as you imagine yourself in each leg of a triathlon.

Speed. The ability to adjust the speed of your imagery will enable you to use triathlon imagery to improve different aspects of your performances. Slow motion is effective for focusing on technique. When you first start to work on technique in your imagery, slow the imagery video down, frame by frame if necessary, to see yourself executing the skills correctly. Then, as you see and feel yourself performing well in slow motion, increase the speed of your imagery until you can perform well at “real-time” speed.

LESSONS FROM THE WORLD'S BEST TRIATHLETES

I have been fortunate to have worked with and spoken to many world-class triathletes over the years. Whenever I am with one of these triathletes, I ask them what lessons they have learned that have enabled them to reach the highest level of triathlon.

Perform to the best of your ability. In any given triathlon, you may not be at your best. You may not be fully prepared due to fatigue, illness, injury, or any number of reasons. An important lesson is that you can’t always perform your best. Many times, before a race, triathletes just don’t feel very good, and know they’re not going to have a good race. Because they’re not going to be at 100%, they, in essence, throw in the towel before the race even begins. However, you don’t have to perform your best to have a good experience and learn from the triathlon. So, you must learn to do your best with what you have on that given day. For example, if you’re only at 80%, perform at the full 80%. That may still be enough for you to have a good triathlon.

KISS. Triathlon is really pretty simple. Whoever goes the fastest wins the race. Yet, triathletes can make triathlon complicated by trying to do too many things. A rule to follow is the KISS principle. Most triathletes know the KISS principle as “keep it simple stupid,” but I believe it should be “keep it simple SMART!” When things aren’t going well, you might think too much and try to find some complex solution to the problem. This approach usually just makes it worse. Your goal should be to focus on a few things and do them to the best of your ability. In fact, on race day, the simplest of the KISS principle you should focus on is this: Give your best effort.

Expect it to be hard. Whether a sprint distance or an Ironman, there is no such thing as an easy Triathlon. Every race is hard. Triathlons should be difficult. That is what makes them so much fun and rewarding. They should be physically demanding, test your technical and tactical capabilities, and show you what you are made of mentally and emotionally. If you expect it to be hard, then there will be no surprises. If you have a bad swim, that is part of triathlon. If you fight as hard as you can and still don’t have a personal best, well, you can still feel good for having given your best effort. If you expect it to be hard, you will prepare yourself physically and mentally for the demands of triathlon.

Win the mental race. When you begin a race, you actually compete in two races. You compete against other triathletes and the course in the actual race. You also compete against yourself in the mental race. To win the mental race, you have to be your best ally rather than your worst enemy by staying positive all the time. Another key is to never give up. Remember what happens when you give up; you automatically lose. Two essential mental skills are to stay relaxed and focused throughout the race. Without these two Prime Triathlon skills, you will not be physically or mentally capable of having your best triathlon.

[top]

TENNIS ARTICLES

THE WINNING MINDSET

Published in Sun Tennis (1992)

SELF-CONFIDENCE IN TENNIS

Perhaps the single most important mental ingredient professional tennis players such as Jim Courier and Monica Seles need for success on the tour is self-confidence. Entering Centre Court at Wimbledon to play the finals against a hard serving, net rushing opponent can raise doubts in even the best players. But these professionals overcome uncertainty by learning to control their thinking and maintaining a positive attitude.

Recreational players experience the same sorts of problems with their self-confidence. Have you ever been in the club championships or a tight tiebreak and had thoughts like "I can't win this" or "I know I will double fault and lose the match"? Fortunately, recreational players can use the same techniques that the pros use to develop their self-confidence and maintain a positive attitude.

Tennis Player's Litany. In order for muscles to get stronger, they have to be exercised. The same holds true for the "self-confidence muscle". One exercise I have developed working with tennis players is the Tennis Player's Litany (see side box). This series of positive self-statements acts to train you to think positively. Even if you do not believe the Litany at first, if you tell yourself something enough times you will start believing it. For best results, the Litany should be said out loud before you go to sleep at night, when you get up in the morning, and parts of it can be used before and during matches.

Active Positive Thinking. There are two steps in learning active positive thinking. First, you must stop making negative self-statements. To prevent this, it is helpful to have keywords such as "stop" or "positive". Whenever a negative thought enters your mind, you can say the keyword which helps block out the negative thoughts. Second, you must replace these negative thoughts with positive ones. When negative thoughts pop up, you can immediately replace them with positive ones such as "I can hit my backhand" or "I can do better next game".

Think like a coach. How you coach yourself while playing can also influence your self-confidence. There are two types of coaching: negative and positive. Negative coaching is self-defeating and emotional. For example, if you miss a shot, you could say "I can't hit my forehand volley." This negative feedback causes you to dwell on what you did wrong and have feelings of anger and frustration. But if you think like a coach, you can instruct yourself to correct the mistake. For example, you could say, "I swung on my forehand volley, but if I just block it next time, I can hit it well". This approach provides information you can use to play better and you will feel more self-confident and relaxed.

By using these techniques, you can go from being your own worst enemy to your best ally. With a little time and effort, this new positive attitude not only enables you to play better, but it also makes playing tennis a lot more fun.

TENNIS PLAYER'S LITANY

I LOVE TO PLAY TENNIS!

I AM A GOOD TENNIS PLAYER.

I ALWAYS THINK AND TALK POSITIVELY.

I AM CONFIDENT, RELAXED, AND FOCUSED WHEN I PLAY.

I HAVE FUN PLAYING TENNIS.

I LOVE TO PLAY TENNIS!

KEEPING COOL ON THE COURT

Imagine the pressure that Steffi Graf or Stephan Edberg feel in the final set of a Grand Slam event. Thousands of people are watching, there is money and the title on the line. I'll bet you have felt similar pressure in matches you have been in. They might not have been at Roland Garros or Flushing Meadows, but they were important to you.

Whether a touring pro or a weekend player, the reaction is the same. Your heart pounds, your knees shake, your breathing is shallow, your muscles get tense, and you feel lightheaded and faint. You also have negative thoughts and you have trouble concentrating. ANXIETY has just set in! At any level of tennis, the ability to overcome anxiety will determine how well you play. So how can you overcome anxiety and stay cool on the courts?

Progressive Relaxation

One useful technique is called progressive relaxation. This involves tightening and relaxing major muscle groups: legs, chest and back, arms and shoulders, and face and neck. This method enables you to control your muscle tension, so when you are in a pressure-packed game situation, you have the ability to relax and play better. Here's how to do progressive relaxation:

Begin with the legs. Tighten your leg muscles up for three seconds, then relax (do it twice). Next, do the same thing for the other muscle groups. Finally, tighten your whole body for three seconds, and relax. Progressive relaxation can be done before the match, during changeovers, or between points.

Breathing

Another obvious, yet often neglected, way to reduce anxiety is simply to take some slow, deep breaths. Deep breaths will lower your heart rate and relax your muscles. Muscles can not function effectively without adequate oxygen, so by taking deep breaths, muscles will feel looser and you will be able to play better.

Counter Irrational Thinking

Another significant cause of anxiety is irrational thinking. Anxious players tend to blows things out of proportion. How many times have you heard, "he is serving 300 miles per hours", or "I haven't made a shot all day"? So, to reduce anxiety, these statements should be countered, i.e., show that they are not true. For example, it might be useful for someone to point out that even Goran Ivanisevic can't serve that fast or the fact that you just hit a great backhand passing shot. When this is done, anxious players usually see the absurdity of their thinking, relax, and are able to play better.

Smiling

Perhaps the simplest and most hard to believe technique that is effective in reducing anxiety is the act of smiling. This does not mean finding something funny or laughing, rather simply raising the sides of the mouth and smiling.

Smiling influences our feelings in two ways. First, we are brought up believing that when we smile, we must be happy and relaxed. Second, research has shown that when we smile, biochemical changes result in a relaxing effect. So next time you begin to start to feel the pressure, breathe, tighten and relax your muscles, think realistic thoughts, and, most importantly, SMILE!

STAYING FOCUSED ON THE COURT

One of the most difficult things professional players have to deal with is maintaining concentration throughout the whole match. With increasing pressure and fatigue, thoughts can wander, resulting in mistakes and lost points and games. The same thing can happen to recreational players during matches. Things may pop into your head that have nothing to do with tennis, for example, being distracted by players around you or remembering what you have to do the next day. These problems boil down to one thing: the inability to focus on the things that will enable you to play well.

Good concentration involves focusing on only those things that are necessary for you to play your best such as the ball, your opponent, and yourself. Poor concentration involves focusing on things that hurt your tennis such as other people, things that happened yesterday or will happen tomorrow. Fortunately, there are several simple techniques that can be used to improve concentration.

First, when concentration begins to wander, reminders that I call keywords can be used to refocus attention. When you are distracted, you can repeat a keyword that enables you to regain the proper concentration and reminds you to do things that help you to play better. Keywords such as "loose", "shoulders", and "attack" are common. There are two good reasons to use keywords. First, repeating these keywords out loud or to yourself blocks out the distracting thoughts. Second, they remind you of things you need to do to play well.

Another way to improve concentration involves using a key object. This consists of picking an object to concentrate on when you are playing. The most obvious key object is the ball. You could also use the corner of the service box that you want to serve into. Also, breathing can be used as a key object to regain concentration. When concentration is lost, you can focus on your breathing by taking deep breaths. It helps you concentrate better and, by getting more oxygen into your body, you are able to relax and play better.

It is important to emphasize that good concentration takes time and practice. Here's an exercise you can use. In alternate games, concentrate on something different and see what happens. For example, in one game think about the ball. The next game, focus only on your opponent. Finally, concentrate only on your body. This exercise will teach you to be aware of what you can concentrate on. It will also help you control your concentration.

By practicing these skills, you will develop the ability to maintain your concentration. But, if you lose your concentration, you will also have the skills to regain it.

TENNIS IMAGERY

Mental imagery is a technique that has been used by the world's best tennis players for many years. It is common to see professionals close their eyes during changeovers and rehearse points. This technique can also be used to help recreational players to play their best.

Tennis Imagery refers to repeatedly imagining a tennis performance. Tennis Imagery involves the total reproduction of actual performance including visual, auditory, tactile, and muscular sensations. Thus, it is more than just "mental" rehearsal. Tennis Imagery can be used to enhance technical, mental, and physical aspects of tennis.

Developing a Tennis imagery Program

1. Goal-setting - Prior to beginning the Tennis Imagery sessions, you should ask yourself a question: What do I want to work on? Your goal can be technical, mental, or physical.

2. Performance hierarchy - You can make a list of tennis situations in order of the amount of pressure they provoke from least to most. In between these extremes should be situations of increasing difficulty and stress. You should be sure that your performance hierarchy is consistent with your ability. For example, if you are a beginner, then you should not imagine yourself playing Boris Becker at Wimbledon.

3. Step-by-step progression - You should begin your Tennis Imagery at the lowest step until you are able to perform well at that level. Then you can move on to the next step. Your goal is to imagine yourself playing well in your most pressured match situation.

4. Tennis Imagery sessions - Tennis Imagery sessions should be done in a quiet, comfortable place and should be done about three times a week for 5-10 minutes. Doing Tennis Imagery between points and on changeovers can also help.

5. What to imagine - During each session, choose a particular opponent and setting, then in your mind's eye, play out several game scenarios while working on your chosen goal. For example, see and feel yourself hitting winning forehands or imagine yourself being relaxed in a tiebreak.

6. Rewind the film - Tennis Imagery is like a film running through your head. If you make a mistake, you should rewind the film and repeat it until you do it right. You should not let the error go by because then you are reinforcing the old, bad images you are trying to change.

By using Tennis Imagery, you will find that will be more self-confident and relaxed because you will actually be able to see yourself playing well. Tennis Imagery can then help you to play better and enjoy your tennis more.

THE MENTAL EDGE FOR TENNIS

Published in Various Tennis Periodicals (1992-99)

PLAYING YOUR BEST AS THE FAVORITE AND THE UNDERDOG

The Favorite

As you walk onto the court you are the clear favorite. You are simply better than your opponent. You know you will win the match. But as the match starts, you just don't feel right. Your head isn't in the match and your body feels sluggish. Before you know it, you're down 1-5. You're in trouble. How could this happen?!?!?

However enviable it may seem, being the favorite going into a match is one of the most difficult positions to be in in tennis. You're in a no-win situation. If you win, it's no big deal. You were expected to win. If you lose, it's a huge blow because it simply shouldn't happen. But it is a common scenario that affects the world's best players. We've all seen top-10 players in early round matches at a Grand Slam struggle early. They may lose the first set before rebounding to win the match or they never recover and are ousted early in a big upset.

So why does the favorite often not play like the sure thing they are supposed to be. The problem starts with overconfidence, knowing that you're going to win. This absolute certainty produces a variety of mental and physical change ensure that you won't perform up to the level that made you the favorite in the first place.

The first thing that goes mentally is your motivation. You know you're going to win, so you think you don't need to work as hard to win. You don't put quite as much effort in your game as you need to play well. Then your intensity drops. You no longer have the oxygen, blood flow, and adrenaline that makes you strong and quick. Finally, you lose your focus. Instead of being focused on the process, that is, what you need to do to play your best, you're already in the locker room patting yourself on the back for a match that you haven,' even played yet.

Combating the Favorite Blues

Avoiding this letdown, what I call the Favorite Blues, involves taking active steps to change your mental and physical states before and at the start of your match. To show everyone why you are the favorite, follow these suggestions:

1. Be confident, but not overconfident. Combating the Favorite Blues starts with your attitude toward the match. You want to be confident in your ability to play well and win, but you don't want to assume that a victory is a foregone conclusion. The fact is, on any given day, if two players are even remotely close in ability, anything can happen. Winning is never a certainty. You don't know if your opponent has improved since you last played or whether you're totally on your own game. Have respect for your opponent and know that if you play your best you will win.

2. Get your intensity up. If you're the favorite, you can assume that you'll start the match with insufficient intensity to play your best. So actively "rev your engine" before you go on court and in the first few games of the match. Jump rope five minutes before you start. Jump up and down and keep moving between points. Don't sit down on changeovers. Use high energy self-talk (e.g., "Let's go!" "Come on!") and body language (e.g., slap your thigh, pump your fist).

3. Keep a process focus. Since you expect to win, it's easy to focus on the outcome, that is, your win, rather than on the process, that is, what you need to do to play well. Remember, the outcome occurs after the match ends, so focusing on it actually interferes with you achieving that desired outcome. But if you focus on the process, for example, getting your first serve in, hitting deep, or coming in on short balls, then you're more likely to play well and the result will be that you have a greater chance of attaining the outcome you want, namely, the victory you so richly deserve.

The Underdog

Walking on the court, you know you don't have a chance. You've played your opponent before and he or she crushed you. Sure enough, in the first few games, you don't play well and you fall behind 0-3 even though your opponent doesn't seem as good as you remembered. What do you do?!?!?

Being the underdog is the most enviable of positions to be in for a match. You're in a no-lose situation. If you do lose, you were supposed to. But if you win, what a coup that would be. But most players don't think that way. Most likely, you go into a match in which you're the underdog with very little confidence. You already know the outcome of the match and it's not a good one for you. Since you know you're going to lose, you get nervous before the match because you're going to look like a jerk losing to this player again. With this attitude and the accompanying anxiety, your focus is shot too. You're so focused on how badly you're going to play, well, that's how you're likely to play.

Give the Underdog Some Bite

1. Believe you have a chance. The great thing about tennis is that the match has to be played to find out who wins. So there really is no certainty. Anything is possible. If the 60th player in the world can beat Sampras or Hingis on any given day, then you have a chance with your opponent today.

2. Realize what the favorite feels. You can pretty much expect that your favored opponent is going to be feeling what I described above. They have a lot to lose and will probably not be on their game at the start of the match. If you can come out strong, you may be able to put them on the defensive and rattle them enough to win the match.

3. Have a strategy. Having played your opponent before (or checking them out during warm-up), look for some chinks in their armor. Make a game plan that exploits a weakness early in the match. With a few well-placed shots, you can make them go from overconfident to under-confident very quickly.

4. Chill out. To play well, you need to lower your intensity and get rid of your anxiety. Before the match, go off by yourself, listen to some calming music, do some deep breathing and relaxation exercises. Once the match starts, slow the pace of the match, take deep breaths, and relax your body between points. Use a lot of positive and calming self-talk (e.g., "Stay cool." "Easy does it.").

Regardless of whether you're the favorite or the underdog, the goal is to play the best you can. If you play good tennis, you're more likely to win. But if you don't, at least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you did the best you could.

ACHIEVING PRIME TENNIS

Mental Edge Pyramid

The Mental Edge Pyramid provides you with a way of understanding the development of mental skills. The Mental Edge Pyramid describes the Prime Four (motivation, confidence, intensity, and focus) that are critical for developing the Mental Edge. These four factors will progressively lead you to Prime Tennis. Prime Tennis is defined as being able to play at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions.

Playing your best evolves from a sound foundation of Mental Edge skills. These Mental Edge skills influence each other in a particular order that leads to Prime Tennis. At the base of the Pyramid, prime motivation ensures total preparation including physical, technical, and mental training. Prime motivation leads to prime confidence in your tennis ability, truly believing you can playing your best. Prime confidence results in prime intensity which enables you to stay relaxed and overcome challenges during matches. Prime intensity then produces prime focus while playing where you are totally concentrated on what you need to do to play your best. The culmination of the Mental Edge Pyramid is Prime Tennis.

Positive Change Formula

Change of any sort, whether technical, physical, or mental, does not occur automatically. Change due to trial and error is slow and inefficient. Positive change requires three steps. First, an awareness of what you are currently doing and how you need to improve. Second, controlling that which you want to improve. Third, putting in the necessary repetition to ingrain the positive change fully. So developing your mental skills as well as your tennis skills involves an awareness of your mental, physical, and technical abilities, taking active steps to control them, and having sufficient repetition to make the changes automatic, thus producing positive change, which puts you on the road to Prime Tennis.

Benefiting from the Mental Edge

Developing the Mental Edge will provide you with several important benefits to your tennis. You will have a greater understanding of what contributes to and interferes with playing your best. You will have more information and understanding of mental preparation for your tennis. You will develop Mental Edge skills that will enable you to play to the best of your ability. You will have the skills to overcome the challenges that you will face in your tennis. Finally, you will play consistently better, gain more satisfaction from your tennis, and just plain have more fun.

Remember, "The gem can not be polished without friction, nor people perfected without trials."

WALK THE WALK FOR MORE CONFIDENCE

Confidence is the most important mental ingredient for success in tennis. One technique that most people are not aware of for building and maintaining self-confidence involves how you carry yourself. How you walk and move can influence how you think and feel. In other words, you have to learn how to "Walk the Walk".

If your body is down, your thoughts and feelings will be down. If your body is up, your thoughts and feelings will be up. Examples of not walking the walk include head and eyes down, shoulders slouched, feet dragging, and no energy in your step. Walking the walk involves holding your head high, chin up, eyes forward and focused, shoulders back, arms swinging, and bounce in your step.

It is very difficult to be walking the walk and saying things like "I stink," "I'm awful," and "I can't do this." Similarly, it hard to be not walking the walk and saying, "I am a great tennis player," "I am confident in my ability," and "I know how to handle pressure." This is because, in both cases, what you are saying to yourself is inconsistent with how you are carrying yourself.

Walking the walk is a skill that, like any other skill, takes awareness, control, and repetition to master. You can learn to walk the walk in practice by being aware of how you carry yourself and focusing on making positive physical changes when you walk. Exaggerating positive body language will further sensitize you to how you carry yourself. Then in matches continue to walk the walk. Between points and on changeovers, make sure your entire body is up and positive. This is especially important when you are not playing well or you are behind. In time, you will naturally walk the walk and your game will stay as up and positive as your body. By walking the walk, you will find that you naturally feel more positive and energetic.

Remember, "The gunslinger rule - Have confidence, swagger, come out smoking."

TYPES OF NEGATIVE THINKING

Though negative thinking is something that should be avoiding as much as possible, it is a normal response to poor play. In fact, some negative thinking is healthy because it means that you care about how you are playing. However, the wrong kind of negative thinking can be very harmful to your tennis.

There are two types of negative thinking. The first kind, give up negative thinking, is associated with feelings of depression and helplessness. You say things like, "There is nothing I can do to play better" or "No matter how hard I try, I just can't do it." Give up negative thinking also causes you to dwell on past performances, focusing on mistakes made and bad results in recent matches. This type of thinking hurts confidence, focus, and motivation. Quite simply, there is never a place for give up negative thinking the mind of a tennis player.

The second kind is called fire up negative thinking. Fire up negative thinking produces feelings of anger, energy and being psyched up. You say things such as, "I hate playing poorly and I'm going to play better the next match," "I am so mad that I am going to work twice as hard in practice this week." The focus of fire up negative thinking is on doing better in the future. As a result, fire up negative thinking can be useful. However, it should not last more than a few days because negative thinking and emotions require a lot of energy that could be better used for training and matches.

Remember, "Person who says, "it can not be done", should not interrupt person who is doing it."

TRUST YOUR ABILITY IN MATCHES

A disagreement I have gotten into with coaches involves whether it is good for players to think about technique right before and during a matches. They argue that if they don't think about technique they won't play well. But it is my belief that if you focus on technique you will do that technique well, but your overall game will suffer because you are not thinking about hitting out and playing aggressively.

There is a time and a place for technique. That time is during training. It is here that you question and analyze your tennis and focus on a particular part of your game in order to develop it. By doing this, the new technique becomes, with practice, second nature and it will then help you to play better in matches.

But when a match arrives, you shouldn't question, doubt, analyze, or get technical. If you do not have a technique down by the time you get to the court, you will not be able to use it effectively in the match. Whatever ability you bring to the match believe in it, and play the best you can with what you have. Simply put, TRUST YOURSELF to play the very best you can on that day.

Remember, "Limits are only what any of us are inside of."

DETERMINING YOUR PRIME INTENSITY

Perhaps the single most important thing you need to do before and during a tennis match is reach and maintain your prime intensity. Intensity refers to amount of adrenaline, oxygen, and blood flow your body has. Too much intensity and your muscles are tight, you can't breath, and your body is shaking from fear. Too little intensity and you feel tired, unmotivated, and weak. In either case, you do not play your best.

Before you reach your prime intensity, you have to know what it is. To do this recall several occasions when you played your very best and very poorly. Remember how your body felt, for example, when you played well, you may have felt energized, your heart was pounding, and you had a good sweat going before your match. When you played poorly, you might have been shaking, had difficulty breathing, and your muscles were tense. Next, remember your thoughts and feelings. In good matches, you may have been very positive and felt happy and excited. In bad matches, you may have been thinking negatively and been a little afraid. Also, note the event, the level of competition, and the match site. When you had a good match, it might have been on your favorite surface, say clay, at a lower level of competition, and on a beautiful day with ideal conditions. When you had a poor match, it may have been on cement, on a windy, overcast day. The chances are there are some common factors associated with when you played well and others when you played poorly.

Once you establish those common factors related to good and bad tennis in matches, you can actively work to avoid the factors connected with poor play and reproduce the factors associated with good play. By identifying your prime intensity, you have taken a first important step to controlling your match rather than the match (and your opponent) controlling you.

Remember, "Do the thing you fear the most and keep doing it... that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to overcome fear."

TOTAL COMMITMENT TO YOUR TENNIS

For players on the pro tours, being the best tennis player they can be is simple, but not easy. It is simple because all that is required is that they do everything possible to be their best. It is not easy because to do everything requires Total Commitment. Whether you are a touring pro or a junior with big dreams, Total Commitment means hard work and patience both on and off the court.

When touring professionals walk onto the court, there is no room for being tentative. If they let up or back off during a match, defeat is a certainty. For players of all levels of ability, one of the most important things you must do when you get onto the court is to be totally committed to playing your very best.

Unfortunately, as you develop, you will often come upon an opponent or conditions that you think are over your head. You may be uncertain about playing well. This uncertainty creates doubts and anxiety. If you try to play when you are uncertain, you are going to play tentatively and give up at the first sign of trouble. This is discouraging.

So before you begin a match, make sure that you are focused on playing to the best of your ability. During a match, constantly remind yourself that the only way you are going to play well and have a chance to win is by playing aggressively and going for your shots. Make sure you are totally committed to doing it all the way. By being committed, you will play better, make fewer mistakes, improve faster, and have a whole lot more fun. If you have Total Commitment, at the end of the match, you won't have to ask yourself the saddest question there is, "I wonder what could have been?"

Remember, "If you don't got no guts, you don't get no glory."

CONTROL OR NOT TO CONTROL

The life of a professional tennis player is stressful. There are many things that they can worry about and which can make them depressed, angry, frustrated, and distracted, all of which will hurt their tennis. Unfortunately, many players, pros or junior players, worry about the wrong things. The big problem is that people get stressed out about things over which they have absolutely no control, i.e., they can't do a thing about them. In a tennis player's life, there are some things they should think about and other they shouldn't.

Things that you should pay attention to are those things over which you do have control. These things include your physical condition, effort, attitude, thoughts, emotions, behavior, equipment, preparation, and performance. All of these are within your control, so by thinking about them and working on them, you can improve. Things that should not affect players include opponents' attitudes, thoughts, emotions, behavior, and performances, coaches, officials, seeding, weather, and court conditions.

The next time you find that yourself worrying about something, ask yourself one question: "Is the thing that I am worried about under my control?" If it is not, let it go and focus on things you can control. If it is within your control, instead of worrying about, do something about it!

Remember, "The human body is the only thing we have that we can control to some degree, and the mental control the physical."

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

A major source of stress for professional tennis players, and players at all levels of ability, is the unexpected things that come up before and during matches. The natural reaction to unexpected events is to back off, become tentative and anxious, and lose confidence and focus. Unexpected events hurt performance.

During a match, all kinds of things can wrong for a tennis player. On the way to matches, you can lose equipment and bags. At matches, racquets can get broken, schedules can be changed, and strings can break. If you are not prepared, you will react negatively to these unexpected occurrences and this will hurt your tennis.

The best way to deal with this problem is to Expect the Unexpected. This can be accomplished easily. Take a sheet of paper and on the left side of the page, make a list of all the things that can go wrong in a match. Then, on the right side, list solutions to these occurrences. For example, if your racquets are stolen, you should know someone beforehand who has extra frames that are similar to your own and who is willing to lend them. Or, if you break shoe lace, you can carry some extras in your racquet bag. Using this strategy, you can reduce your stress by making the unexpected no longer unexpected.

Remember, "Whenever we're afraid, it's because we don't know enough. If we understood enough, we would never be afraid."

KEYWORD PROGRESSION

Becoming a better tennis player is, at the same time, satisfying and frustrating. It is wonderful to learn to hit new shots or become more consistent. However, improving is a slow and difficult process. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to learning is focusing on the skills as you play.

Typically, you will be thinking about the new skill as you begin a practice drill or match, but quickly forget it as more important things come up like getting the ball over the net or winning points. So instead of focusing on and practicing the new skill, you go back to your old style. The result is that you become more skilled at doing the wrong things. That is, you get better at getting worse.

A strategy for maintaining the focus on the new skill is called the keyword progression. A keyword is a word that, when repeated, will remind you of the new technique that you are working on. Whenever you get instruction from a teaching pro or coach, reduce it to one highly descriptive word that you are able to focus on when playing. For example, keywords such as "shoulders," "turn," and "reach" can be used. Once you have decided on a keyword, you can begin the progression.

First, when you are playing, say the keyword repeatedly out loud while you are hitting. By saying it out loud, you are constantly reminding yourself to practice the skill. Second, once you are able to do the skill in this way, you can then say the keyword quietly to yourself. Finally, you will know you have learned the new skill when you are able to execute the skill without saying the keyword at all. By using the keyword progression, you will learn new skills more quickly, thus resulting in better match play and making tennis more fun and satisfying.

Remember, "Concentrate on one thing at a time, and rule out all outside influences that don't have any real bearing on the task at hand."

PRE-MATCH AND BETWEEN-POINT PREPARATION

On the day of a match, the time you spend before your match is the most crucial period of match preparation. All of the hours of practice you spend on the courts may go for naught if you do not use your pre-match time wisely. What you think, feel, and do before a match will dictate how well you play in the match. This pre-match period should ensure that you are physically and mentally ready to performance your best consistently. All of your energy must be effectively directed toward achieving Prime Tennis.

Prime Tennis is a concept I developed in reaction to my dislike of the phrase, peak performance, which is widely used by sport psychologist, coaches, and players. I see two things inherently wrong with peak performance. First, a peak is by nature very narrow, meaning that a high level of performance can not last long. Second, an inevitable part of a peak is the accompanying valley. So peak performance may mean one or two great matches, but also more average or poor ones.

In contrast, Prime Tennis denotes a consistently high level of performance across the year. Prime Tennis then should be your goal. To achieve Prime Tennis, you must do three things before a match: (1) Prepare your equipment; (2) Warm up your body completely and move toward prime intensity; and (3) Have prime confidence and focus. You can ensure this total preparation by actively taking control of your time and space before a match.

Key Pre-Match Factors

Tournament Site. Where you do your pre-match preparation can have an significant impact on your match readiness, particularly in how it affects your match focus. Some players are easily distracted by all of the activity in and around the tournament site. The competitors, officials, and others can draw your focus away from your preparation and putting on your "match face," resulting in inadequate readiness and poor match performance. If this describes you, it is important for you to get away from this hub of activity and move off by yourself. By doing so, you can focus on what you need to in order to get ready.

Other players are focused too inwardly, too aware of their thoughts, emotions, and how their body feels. This self-absorption usually results in negative thinking, increased anxiety, poor match focus, and subpar performance. If this describes you, it is best for you to stay around the tournament site activity. This draws your narrow focus outside yourself and, at the same time, allows you to focus sufficiently on your pre-match preparation.

Who to Interact With? Another critical influence on your pre-match readiness is who you interact with prior to the start of your match. You should only be around people who will assist you in your preparation including coaches, family, and friends who help you become totally ready. You should actively avoid anyone who interferes with this process including chatty competitors, officials giving unwanted match information, and media.

In sum, specify what you need to do to be totally prepared to play your best, decide where you can best accomplish your preparation, and identify who can assist and who will interfere with your preparation. With this information, you can develop an effective pre-match routine to ensure total preparation and Prime Tennis.

Pre-Match Routines

Why Pre-Match Routines? Routines have many benefits to your pre-match preparation. They guarantee completion of every important aspect of match preparation. Routines build physical, mental, and emotional consistency, which will result in more competitive consistency. They enhance familiarity of competitive situations and decrease the likelihood of unexpected things occurring. Routines increase feelings of control, thereby raising confidence and reducing anxiety. Regardless of the importance of the match, by using a well-practiced routine, you will condition your mind and body into feeling that this is just another match.

Routines vs. Rituals. The goal of routines is to totally prepare you for your match. Everything done in a routine serves a specific function in preparing yourself. Routines are flexible; adjustments can be made to adapt to the situation, for example, a delay at the start of a match due to a long prior match. So you control routines. In contrast, rituals control you. Rituals involve anything that does not have a specific purpose in match preparation. Rituals are inflexible and superstitious. Rituals must be done or you will not believe that you can play well. Seek out routines and avoid rituals!

Prime Tennis Funnel. A pre-match routine acts as a funnel, which involves a narrowing of effort, energy, and focus as you approach the start of the match. Each step closer to the match should lead you to that unique state of readiness in which you are physically, mentally, and emotionally primed to play your best. What will emerge from this funnel is Prime Tennis.

Components of a Pre-Match Routine. Your pre-match routine should comprise everything that you need to do to be totally prepared for your match. This includes meals (e.g., carbo loading), match strategy (e.g., use serve and volley game), equipment (e.g., strings and grips properly prepared), physical warm-up (e.g., run, stretch, stroke warm-up, adjust intensity), and mental preparation (e.g., mental imagery, positive thinking, match focus).

Developing a Pre-Match Routine. Though the above factors are common to most if not all pre-match routines, there is no one ideal routine that works for everyone. In other words, routines are very personal. They should reflect your own individual personality and style.

In order to develop an effective personalized pre-match routine, you can use the following guidelines. First, write down what you need to do before a match to be totally prepared. Second, using your knowledge of pre-match activities and the tournament site, order your needs chronologically leading up to the start of the match and specify where each step of your routine can be best accomplished. Third, experiment with your routine at subsequent tournaments. You will probably have to fine tune it until you find a routine that you are completely comfortable with. Finally, routines only have value if used consistently. If you ask top players such as Steffi Graf and Pete Sampras about their routines, most will describe one that they have been using for years. So make a routine a part of your match preparation and it will assist you in achieving your own Prime Tennis.

Between-Point Routines

As with pre-match preparation, the 25 seconds you spend between points will often determine how you play during points. So you should use that time to ensure that you are maximally ready to play your best. This can be best accomplished by developed an effective between-points routine that includes everything you need to do that will lead to Prime Tennis. This routine can best be organized with what I call the 3 R's: Rest, Refocus, Recharge.

Rest. Tennis can be physically demanding. Long points can leave you breathing heavily and your muscles fatigued. So immediately after the conclusion of a point, you must take steps to rest and recover for the next point. To do this, turn your back to the court, take several controlled deep breaths, and relax your muscles, particularly in your neck and shoulders. This step should take 5-10 seconds.

Refocus. There is a tendency for many players to dwell on the previous point, particularly if important and poorly played. Maintaining this past focus is unproductive because the previous point can't be changed and focusing on it will not help you play the next point. So this step of the 3 R's should be directed toward focusing on what you need to do to play the next point well. First, direct your focus inward, taking your mind off your opponent and the court surroundings. Second, briefly examine the last point and learn from it. For example, you may have just gotten passed by a cross-court forehand for the fourth time. Third, consider your strategy for the upcoming point. Finally, decide on your strategy for the next point, for instance, by hitting an approach shot to your opponent's backhand. Most importantly, as you walk to the line to serve or receive, you should know exactly what you want to do on that point. This step should take about 10 seconds.

Recharge. During the previous 15-20 seconds, your body has had a decrease in intensity and your focus is narrow and inwardly directly. As you move to begin the next point, you need to do two things. First, increase your intensity to get your adrenaline flowing and the energy you need to play well. This be done by moving, jumping around, using high-energy self-talk (e.g., "let's go" and "hustle") and positive body language (e.g., pump your fist and slap your thigh). Next, redirect your focus and point strategy outward onto your opponent and the game situation.

When you come to the line to serve and receive you should be mentally and physically ready to play the next point as well as you can.

As with pre-match routines, between-point routines are also personal. How you accomplish the 3 R's will depend on your individual personality and style. You can apply the guidelines I described above for pre-match routines to your between-point routine to develop one that works best for you.

By developing pre-match and between-point routines, you will be better prepared to begin a match and to start every point. These routines will ingrain a consistent pattern of skills and habits that will result in a consistently higher level of play, that is, you will more often play Prime Tennis.

SELF-CONFIDENCE IN TENNIS

Perhaps the single most important mental ingredient professional tennis players need for success on the professional tennis tours is self-confidence. Entering the stadium court for the finals of an event, waiting to receive serve from Boris Becker or Steffi Graf, and being down 5-1 in a final set tiebreak can raise doubts in even the best players. But touring professionals and recreational players alike can overcome uncertainty by learning to control their thinking, maintain a positive attitude, and develop self-confidence by using some simple, yet effective techniques. The goal of these exercises is to reduce negative thinking and increase positive thinking.

Walk the Walk

How you carry yourself, move, and walk influences what you think and how you feel. If your body is down, your thoughts and feelings will be negative. If your body is up, your thoughts and feelings will be positive. Simply put, it is hard to feel down when your body is up.

Because of this, it is important to learn to walk the walk. Not walking the walking involves moving like a loser: head and eyes down, shoulders hunched, feet dragging, and no energy in your step. In contrast, walking the walk means moving like a champion: head high, chin up, eyes forward, shoulders back, arms swinging, and a bounce in your step.

Learning to walk the walk takes practice and should be rehearsed both during practice and matches, when you are winning and especially when you are losing, and both on and off the court. Within a short time, you will find that you do not get discouraged and are able to maintain a positive attitude even in the toughest matches.

Tennis Player's Litany

In order for muscles to get stronger, they have to be exercised. The same holds true for the "self-confidence muscle". One exercise I have developed working with tennis players is the Tennis Player's Litany (see side box). This series of positive self-statements acts to train you to think positively. Even if you do not believe the Litany at first, if you tell yourself something enough times you will start believing it. For best results, the Litany should be said out loud before you go to sleep at night, when you get up in the morning, and before practice and matches.

TENNIS PLAYER'S LITANY

I LOVE TO PLAY TENNIS!

I AM A GOOD TENNIS PLAYER.

I ALWAYS THINK AND TALK POSITIVELY.

I AM CONFIDENT, RELAXED, AND FOCUSED WHEN I PLAY.

I HAVE FUN PLAYING TENNIS.

I LOVE TO PLAY TENNIS!

Active Positive Thinking

There are two steps in learning active positive thinking. First, you must stop making negative self-statements. To prevent this, it is helpful to have keywords such as "stop" or "positive". Whenever a negative thought enters your mind, you can repeat the keyword. These keywords help to block the negative thoughts and refocus your concentration in a positive direction. Second, you must replace these negative thoughts with positive ones. It is useful to make up positive phrases such as "I can return this serve" or "I can do better next set" beforehand, so that when negative thoughts start to pop up, you can immediately replace them with positive ones.

Think Like Your Coach

How you coach yourself while practicing and playing matches can also influence your self-confidence. There are two types of coaching: negative and positive. Negative coaching is self-defeating and emotional. For example, if you double fault, you could say "I just can't serve". This negative feedback causes you to dwell on what you did wrong and have feelings of anger and frustration. What results is even poorer play and lower self-confidence.

However, if you think like your coach, you can give yourself instructions that will enable you to correct the mistake. For example, you could say, "I double faulted because my toss is too low, but if I get my toss up, I will be able to serve better next game". This approach provides information you can use to play better and you will feel more self-confident and relaxed.

By using these techniques, you can go from being your own worst enemy to your best ally on the court. With a little time and effort, this new positive attitude not only enables you to play better and against more challenging opponents, but it also makes tennis a lot more fun and satisfying.

COACHING YOUNG PLAYERS

Published in USPTA News Journal (1992)

RESPONSIBLE TOURNAMENT SELECTION

One of the most difficult tasks for coaches from the development level to the professional tours is seeing that their athletes develop in a consistent and progressive manner. This process involves many decisions such as what is the appropriate level of off-season physical training, how much on-court training do they need, and how often should players compete in order to reach their developmental goals. The latter issue, namely, tournament selection, may be the most important issue because competition is the bottom line in a tennis player's life.

Why Responsible Tournament Selection?

Responsible tournament selection is critical because the competitive season is very long and physically demanding. This problem was illustrated recently by a touring pro who, in one year, played in almost 50 tournaments and exhibitions and attained a high world ranking. Unfortunately, the next year he slumped considerably and developed a chronic injury that has sidelined him indefinitely.

Playing too much can cause fatigue, produce burnout, and, as demonstrated above, result in injury and illness. This is especially important because many important tournaments are at the end of the year. It is all too common for players to say "I can't wait for this tournament to be over with" or "The season is almost over, great". This is not a good attitude to have entering key tournaments. Rather, players need to maintain their attitude, motivation, and health in order to perform well to the very end of the season.

When to Play

Players should only compete when a tournament meets certain criteria. As a general rule, tournaments should serve a specific purpose in fulfilling players' seasonal goals. More specifically, first, players should compete when they need more tournament experience. Second, they should play for qualification purposes. Third, when they have the opportunity to compete against their peers or to gauge their progress. Fourth, competing is advisable when players need some matches under their belt before an important tournament. Finally, keep in mind that tournaments should provide positive learning experiences for the players that benefits their development.

When Not to Play

Players should never compete to build their confidence. Confidence does not come from competing, it comes from sound preparation. Typically then, players will come out of a "confidence-building" tournament with less confidence than they had before.

Players should never enter a tournament because they know they will win. This is, in fact, a no-win situation. If they win, little is gained because they are expected to win. If they lose, it can be a severe blow to their confidence.

Players should never compete unless they are totally prepared to play their best. If they are not totally prepared, either mentally or physically, they will not play well and the experience will hurt them.

Players should never enter a tournament to break out of a slump. If a player is in a slump, competing is not the way to get out of it. The pressure they place on themselves to break out of the slump will almost ensure that they will not play well. Rather, players get out of slumps by relieving themselves of the pressure, understanding why they are in the slump, and, through proper training, progressively raising their level of play.

Finally, players should never compete for no reason, just for the sake of playing. Invariably, motivation will be low and poor play will be inevitable.

In sum, coaches should, in planning a player's tournament schedule, consider these criteria and carefully select tournaments that will facilitate the player's long-term development. Ultimately, coaches should follow one basic rule: players should only compete when they have more to gain than lose.

TALK TO YOUR ATHLETE

Understanding your athletes is one of a coach's primary responsibilities. Knowing players' needs, what motivates them, and what is happening in their lives is critical to your work with them. This, however, is not an easy task. You can not read minds and you are often responsible for a large number of players. Keeping track of them is a job in itself. But this information is essential for you in order to enhance their tennis experience.

Essential Information

What information do you need to know to best serve your athletes? You need to know about their needs in training, at tournaments, as part of the team, and issues going on off the court.

1. Since off-season training and preparation is typically the foundation of the tournament season, you want to understand your athletes' motivational needs. Do they need to be pushed hard by you, encouraged and supported very positively, paired with a motivated athlete, or can they be left alone because they are self-motivated?

2. An important part of leading a team or training group is maintaining harmony and reducing conflict. Knowing the interpersonal needs of your athletes will benefit them by making the team experience more positive and you by having everyone get along better. So for each athlete, you want to know how they best fit into the team. Do they like to be alone or around teammates, who are their friends on the team, and what communication problems and conflicts do they have with teammates?

3. While training on-court, you want to make sure that the coaching you give each athlete is understood. So you want to ask them what their learning style is. Do they learn best with verbal, visual, or kinesthetic instruction? Do they need to be given technical cues to remind them of what they are working on?

4. On the day of a match, your interaction with the athletes can significantly affect how they play. But it is not often clear what you should do with them. For example, before their match, does the athlete like to be talked to or left alone? Does he or she like to be given some technical, motivational, or performance cues? Since the pre-match period is critical to their tournament performance, this is information that is important for you to know.

5. Finally, athletes are not in a vacuum while on the court. Issues that are present off the court will certainly influence their tennis. So you should make an effort to understand each athlete's life away from the team including family and social relationships, health concerns, and school performance.

Obtaining the Information

In order to understand your athletes fully, you need clear information that you can best obtain by placing the onus on them. That is, give them the opportunity to supply you with the necessary information. You can get this useful information by having them complete a brief questionnaire, which I call the Talk to Your Coach Questionnaire (see Appendix A) which you may then study at your leisure. It is also useful to put each athlete's information on an index card that you may refer to when needed.

1. What motivates you most in training?

2. Who are your friends on the team and with whom do you get along?

3. What are the most common types of conflicts that arise within the team?

4. Which type of instruction do you learn from best: verbal, visual, kinesthetic, or a combination?

5. What should and shouldn't I do in the start area to help you prepare for your match (talked to or left alone, given technical cues)?

6. What are some things in your life off the court that I should know to help me work with you best (e.g., family, social, school, health)?

PRE-MATCH MANAGEMENT

The time that players spend before their match is the most crucial period of match preparation. What they think, feel, and do prior to play will dictate how well they perform in the match. Due to this importance, coaches can help ensure that each athlete is optimally prepared.

Players have three goals before their match. First, their equipment should be ideally prepared. Second, their bodies must be warmed up and at an optimal level of intensity. Third, they must be confident in their ability and focused on performing their best in the match.

There are several key factors that will either help or hinder players' preparation prior to their match. The first question is: where at the tournament site can they best accomplish their preparation? This will depend largely on their concentration style. If they tend to think too much, they should stay amid all the activity of the tournament and get prepared. If they tend to be distracted by the activity, they should go off by themselves to prepare.

Next, players must decide what they need to do to be totally prepared. As just discussed, there are three major areas, but within each of them, every athlete has particular things they like to do. For example, each player may have specific exercises he or she likes to do to get physically ready. Coaches should assist their players to develop structured routines that enable them to fully prepare themselves in the three areas.

Players then need to determine who they must interact with and what they should avoid in their preparation. They should only interact with those individuals at the tournament site who can facilitate their preparation, for example, coaches. Conversely, players should identify who and what they should avoid that might interfere with their preparation such as chatty players, officials, parents, and unwanted tournament information.

In sum, coaches should assist their players in identifying what they need to do to be totally prepared to play their best. Players may then develop a pre-match management plan that enables them to control these factors, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will play their best match.

POST-SEASON COACH EVALUATION

As coaches know from their work with athletes, improvement in any particular area comes from being made aware of a weakness and then working on improving it. Despite this knowledge, coaches are themselves rarely evaluated in any organized and systematic manner as a means of developing their abilities. Moreover, even more rarely is feedback obtained from those individuals who are the recipients of the coaches' skills, namely, the players.

A common practice that occurs within the field of higher education is the evaluation of teachers by students. This information is used as constructive feedback for the future development of the teacher and in hiring and promotion procedures. This same process could be used to the benefit of the profession of coaching and the sport of tennis as a whole.

Drawing on the teacher evaluation form used in the School of Psychology at Nova University (where I hold a faculty position), adapting a form for tennis coaching would assess performance in a variety of areas on a five-point scale (1: poor; 2: below average; 3: average; 4: good; 5: excellent). Along with each numerical rating, a section for comments would enable players to provide specific feedback to the coaches.

1. Coaching knowledge - The depth and breadth of knowledge that the coach possesses in the areas of technique, physical and mental training, and equipment.

2. Manner and explanation - The ability of the coach to clearly convey relevant information to players.

3. Enthusiasm and stimulation - The amount of energy and love for the sport that the coach brings to his or her coaching responsibilities.

4. Attitude toward the athletes - The manner in which the coach treats the players in terms of respect, concern, and discipline.

5. The coach generally - How the player views the coach in general.

In addition to these assessments by the players, other important areas of coaching performance could be evaluated by the program director and head coach. Of particular note are the coaches' off-court responsibilities including organizational and administrative capabilities, interpersonal skills with other staff members, parents, and individuals in the tennis industry, and intrapersonal attributes such as initiative and time management skills.

In taking this approach, it is important for coaches to view this process positively and constructively rather than being perceived as threatening. In fact, using such an systematic approach to coach evaluation would benefit coaches by removing potential arbitrariness and subjectivity from the decision-making process in hiring, pay raises, and promotions. On a more personal level, it would enable coaches to obtain clear information that they could use to improve their coaching.

MOTIVATING DEVELOPING TENNIS PLAYERS

The quality of any tennis performance is influenced by three factors: ability, motivation, and the difficulty of the task. Of these factors, only one, motivation, is entirely within the control of the player. Consequently, coaches should focus much of their energy on developing and maintaining a high level of motivation in their players. This task is not easy because of the length and intensity of the competitive season and the mental, emotional, and physical stress the athletes are under during this period.

What is Motivation?

Simply put, motivation is the ability to initiate and persist at a task. This desire to participate in an activity comes from the belief that it provides some type of intrinsic (e.g., satisfaction, joy) or extrinsic (e.g., validation from others, wealth) rewards. At a practical level, it is these rewards that enable players to keep working hard in the face of boredom, fatigue, physical pain, and the desire to do other things. Though intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can both be effective in the short term with players, research has shown that intrinsic motivation provides the longest lasting effect on participation and achievement. This is because the presence of extrinsic rewards can vary or, quite possibly, disappear. However, tennis players have control over their intrinsic rewards and can utilize them at any time. Thus, with all players, self-motivation is ideal.

Highly self-motivated players are willing to do everything they can to become the best that they can be and are not dependent on others for rewards. This drive must be directed into physical conditioning, technical training, mental preparation, and general lifestyle including diet, sleep, school, family and social relationships. A simple progression helps illustrate the importance of motivation to performance: High Motivation ! Total Preparation ! Maximum Performance.

Symptoms of Low Motivation

It is not often difficult to identify those players who lack motivation. These athletes have a lack of interest in some or all aspects of training, give less than 100% effort, and may skip training altogether. They also may shorten their training routines or practices, use minor injuries to get out of training and take unnecessary days off.

Developing Motivation

Regular Training Partners

No matter how hard players train alone, they will work that much harder if they have someone pushing them. A useful way to increase motivation is have players work in pairs. This is especially effective if the players are of similar ability, and have similar goals and training programs. On any given day of training, at least one of them will be motivated to work hard. They will also be more dedicated if they know someone else is counting on them.

Identify Greatest Competitor

Another effective motivator is to ask your players who is their greatest competitors. Have them place the name or a picture of that competitor where they can see it regularly. Also, you can periodically ask them whether they are working as hard as their competitor.

Motivational Keys

The more players can reminded to stay motivated, the more it will sink in. A useful way to constantly remind them is to identify some motivating keywords, e.g., hustle, go for it, phrases, e.g., "if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly," and photographs, e.g., Sampras or Graf, and place them around the club house, particularly above the door as they go to practice or train.

Ask Daily Questions

Finally, there are two questions that you can ask your players at the beginning and end of every day. Before training, ask your them, "What can you do today to become the best tennis player you can be?" After training, ask them, "Did you do everything possible today to become the best player you can be?"

Training Diary

It is reinforcing for players to see improvement in different areas of their training and performances. An effective way for them to clearly see their progress is by keeping a training diary. Maintaining a detailed training log enables players to record important aspects of tournament preparation such as physical, technical, and mental training. It also enables them to track their match performances. Plotting improvement provides clear and tangible evidence to players providing reinforcement to their efforts which increases their motivation. Training diaries are also useful means of identifying the causes of overtraining, illness, injuries, and performance slumps and streaks.

Quality vs. Quantity

Having players with high self-motivation is a worthy goal. However, highly motivated players must also be monitored and "reined in" at times. These players often have the belief that sheer quantity is the way to develop fully. For example, if one hour of drilling is good, then two hours will be even better. They often lose sight of the importance of quality in their training. An important theme to instill in them is, "Don't train hard, train SMART!!" Along with this idea, you must show them how training smart, rather than hard, will lead them to their competitive goals. You can facilitate this process by indicating how placing quantity over quality can result in staleness, burnout, illness, injury, and slumps.

DEVELOPING AN OFF-COURT TENNIS IMAGERY PROGRAM

Tennis imagery is used by virtually all great players in their training and competitive play. Considerable research has also shown that combining mental imagery with actual practice facilitates learning and improves performance better than practice alone. Tennis imagery is one of the most powerful tools players have to enhance the quality of their competitive preparation and performances because it enables players to develop and integrate all aspects of their game including technique, tactics, and mental skills. Tennis imagery may be used prior to and during the tournament season and can provide mental, physical, and technical benefits. Coaches can make tennis imagery sessions a part of training and help the athletes to develop their own tennis imagery programs. These programs may be organized in team meetings during pre-season training.

Set Imagery Goals

Most players at all levels of tennis use imagery in some way, most typically in the form of daydreaming about their play. Goals are what enables these random imagery experiences to become a valuable part of training. Tennis imagery goals provide purpose and focus to the imagery. Coaches can assist players in deciding what they want to focus on in their tennis imagery. For example, athletes may have a significant technical flaw that needs to be improved. They may want to improve their self-confidence or other mental area. Some component of overall performance may be the emphasis such as being more consistent or aggressive.

In setting these objectives, players should focus performance rather than outcome goals. That is, imagery should address specific areas related to improving the quality of their play rather than on seeing themselves win. Simply put, if players imagine themselves playing well, they are more likely to do their best and winning is the probable result.

Climb Competitive Imagery Ladder

Players must create a competition ladder of tournaments in which they will be competing in the upcoming season. The ladder should start with the least important tournaments and increase through more important tournaments up to the most important tournament in which they will compete. Tennis imagery is then begun at the lowest level of the competitive ladder. Players should stay at that rung until they can reach their tennis imagery goal. When that is achieved, they should stay at that step for several imagery sessions to reinforce positive images, thoughts, and feelings. Players then should work their way up the ladder until they reach their tennis imagery goal at the top of the ladder.

Match-Specific Tennis Imagery

Players should not imagine themselves playing on some court in some match at some tournament. Rather, they should choose a particular tournament and site, e.g., 18s at Kalamazoo. Players can then select a different match for every tennis imagery session, thus reaching their tennis imagery goals on different courts and in varying events and conditions. One thing that must be emphasized to players is that tournaments, sites, and conditions should be appropriate to their competitive levels.

What to Imagine?

Since a tennis match can last up to several hours, it would not be realistic for players to imagine playing an entire match. Rather, they should select 4-5 critical match situations and imagine themselves playing them. For example, key situations might include the opening game, closing out a set, being down a break, and playing a tiebreak. Coaches can help players choose the situations that are most appropriate for their game. For instance, a player might have tendency to let down when ahead or tank when behind. Imagery focused on these situations would enable the player to practice positive responses to them.

Enhancing Tennis Imagery Quality

Total reproduction. Imagery is more than just mental. It involves players seeing and feeling themselves playing their best. Good imagery should be a total reproduction of the actual tennis experience. It should include all of the thoughts, emotions, and senses (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) that are experienced during an actual match.

Imagine realistic conditions. It is important that players imagine themselves performing under realistic conditions. That is, if players are not seeded and will be playing on outside courts, they should imagine themselves playing under these conditions. They should only imagine themselves playing under ideal conditions if they are usually seeded and play on the center courts. Players should always do imagery under those conditions in which they normally compete.

Imagine realistic performance. Players should focus on playing well rather than perfectly in their imagery. For example, junior players imagining themselves playing under tough conditions against a difficult opponent should not see themselves playing flawlessly like a pro. Instead, they should picture themselves playing within their ability and coping well with the difficulties.

Tennis Imagery Sessions

Tennis imagery sessions should be done 3-4 times per week. Tennis imagery should not be done too often because, as with any type of training, players can get burned out on it. A quiet, comfortable area where they will not be disturbed should be set aside. Each session should last about 10 minutes. Players may expect to see some results in 6-8 weeks.

Tennis Imagery Journal

One difficulty with tennis imagery is that, unlike physical or on-court training, the results are not tangible. An effective way to deal with this problem is for players to keep a tennis imagery journal. These logs should record key aspects of every imagery session including the quality of the imagined performance, any thoughts and feelings that occur, problems that emerged, and what they need to work on for the next session. Tennis imagery journals enable players to see progress in their imagery, thereby making it more rewarding.

Tennis Imagery is a Skill

It is important to emphasize that tennis imagery is a skill that, like any other skill, will develop with time. Coaches may find players who can't seem to imagine themselves playing clearly or they make errors in their imagined performances. Both of these are natural and expected. But if players are patient and put time and effort into an organized tennis imagery program, they will become skilled at imagery in a short time and will gain the many benefits tennis imagery has to offer.

ON-COURT MENTAL EDGE TRAINING

Some of the most effective Mental Edge training can be done on the court during regular practice. Incorporating Mental Edge skills into on-court preparation will enhance the quality of the training and reinforce the value of the Mental Edge training to the players.

On-Court Tennis Imagery

Tennis imagery can be useful at three phases of drilling. First, typically after you have given feedback following a drill, players will say they understand. How well the instruction sinks in questionable. In order to ensure that players really process the feedback, have them close their eyes and imagine themselves doing the technical change for 15 seconds. This practice serves two purposes. It increases the likelihood that they will remember the instruction. Also, since visual information transfers to the muscles better than verbal information, the imagery will enhance the learning of the skill. Additionally, if players have a good drill, they should mentally review how they hit, so they will remember the feelings associated with it.

Second, players in group training settings often spend more time standing around than hitting. That time is usually spent talking, i.e., wasting time. Instead, players can use this time to increase the quality of their training. During this time, they can close their eyes and imagine themselves doing the new skill in the next drill. This will further ingrain your feedback and facilitate the learning process.

Third, players should use imagery just prior to their next drill. Before beginning to hit, they should briefly imagine what they want to work on. This further ingrains the new skill and establishes effective concentration for the drill.

Tennis Key Words

Maintaining concentration when working on technique is one of the biggest difficulties players have during training. Typically, at the end of a drill, coaches will provide some kind of lengthy technical instruction. However, it is likely that the players can not retain the entire instruction they were just given and, often, they forget what they are working on by the time they begin the next drill. In addition, even if players are thinking about the new skill before the drill, as soon as it begins, other more salient factors such as getting the ball over the net may push the new technique out of their mind. Quite simply, if players are not thinking about the skill, they will not work on it. If they don't work on it, they will not learn it.

Coaches can assist the learning process with the use of tennis key words. After the detailed instruction, coaches should reduce the information to one or two words. For example, from a discussion of effective volleying, the tennis word, "block" could be used. Then, during drills and practice matches players may go through a tennis key word learning progression.

The first step in this progression is for players to say the key word outloud repeated during drills and hitting. This repetition ensures that the key word and the corresponding technique are remembered and practiced. Once the players are able to execute the skill while saying the key word outloud, they can then say the key word to themselves. The ultimate goal of this strategy is for players to be able to do the skill without conscious thought. When this occurs, they will have mastered the skill and will be able to use the technique effectively in tournaments.

Pre-Drill Routines

Similar to the day of the match, it is useful for players to develop a routine in preparation for each drill. Too often, players are not adequately ready physically or mentally to have a quality drill. This results in poor training, little learning, and inefficient use of training time.

A sound pre-drill routine will last only about 10-15 seconds and should leave players totally prepared to have a drill that will further their development. There are two primary components to a pre-drill routine: focus and intensity. Players must be totally focused on what they want to accomplish in the drill and their body must be at the right level of intensity in order to be able to physically meet the demands of the drill.

A basic pre-drill routine can be summarized as the 3 R's: Rest, Re-Focus, Rev. Following a previous drill, players will be breathing heavily from the exertion. First, having them begin a new drill while still out of breath will result in poor quality tennis. Having players focus on deep breathing and muscle relaxation will facilitate recovery. Second, players need to direct their focus on their goal for the next drill. This goal could be technical or tactical and can be focused on with a key word. Finally, players need to rev up their intensity so that they have the quickness, strength, and agility needed to accomplish the drill.

Thinking Too Much

Thinking too much, that is, being overly analytical is the bane of every tennis player in matches. Paralysis by analysis interferes with letting the body play the way it knows how to play. However, for most players, practice is a time that requires thinking. Before new skills and habits can learned and ingrained, they must be understood and focused on in a deliberate way. However, as the skills are acquired, players should think less and less about them. So when a match arrives, players are able to focus on only basic tactics, enabling the skills and habits that were learned through the thoughtful training process emerge automatically and result in a high level of play.

THE IMPORTANCE OF REST

Rest is perhaps the most under-rated training tool at a coach's disposal. It is an absolutely critical part of any effective training program, yet it is often over-looked by coaches and players alike. A common mentality that has emerged from the "nose to the grind" attitude is that more is better, for example, if four miles of running is good, six will be better; if hitting two hoppers of serves is good, hitting four will be better.

Players are conditioned to believe that not training is a sign of weakness. Typical fears about rest held by athletes (and some coaches) include "I will lose my timing," "I will get out of shape," I will forget how to play," and "I am lazy if I don't practice." Yet, as exercise physiologists have demonstrated, rest following a period of training is the time when the actual gains are made. This is when the body, which has been broken down from training, can repair and build itself beyond its previous level.

Rest as Part of Training and Competition

Rest is as important to competitive preparation as physical, technical, and mental training. Rest influences every aspect of a player's performance: (1) physical condition (strength, flexibility, endurance); (2) mental state (confidence, anxiety, concentration, motivation); (3) ability to handle pressure; and (4) enjoyment in training and competition.

In addition to the wear-and-tear of training, the pressure of the regular tournament schedule and daily stressors unrelated to tennis will also wear players down. Regular rest guards against the accumulated long-term effects of the grind of the competitive season. Even if players do not feel tired does not mean they do not need rest.

Warning Signs

There are four clear symptoms of the need for rest that coaches should watch for in their players. First, players who are always tired, yawning a lot, falling a sleep during the day, and dragging in training. Second, a loss of enjoyment, interest, and motivation to train is a sure sign of the need for rest. Third, lingering illness and injury that won't quite go away suggests that the body does not have sufficient resources to repair itself at its current pace. Fourth, uncharacteristic emotional responses by players such as anger, frustration, or depression may indicate excessive fatigue. Players are very good at communicating (nonverbally) to coaches about how they feel. It is up to the coaches to recognize and act upon these signs.

Incorporate Rest into Training

Coaches can show players the importance of rest by making rest a regular part of the training regimen. This can be accomplished in several ways. Mandatory rest days can be scheduled once a week. The Monday after a tournaments is common. The intensity of training should also be varied depending upon the time of season, the upcoming tournament schedule, and how the players are feeling. This process, called periodization, is the new wave in training technology.

Players should also take extra days (perhaps 2-4 days) off following a stressful period of training or tournaments. For example, following a tournament with six matches in seven days, coaches should close the courts for up to three days. Coaches, if necessary, should force their players to rest even if they do not feel tired. Finally, coaches should plan time off (3-5 days) about three weeks before a major tournament. This will ensure that the players are fresh and fired up for the upcoming tournament.

Finally, coaches can not always tell when players need rest. One of the most important lessons coaches can teach their players is to listen to their body. Our bodies are very good at telling us when we need rest. The most apparent signals that players should look for are those mentioned above in Warning Signs. The most difficult thing is to get players to be aware of these signals and to act on them. This can be accomplished by educating players about the negative effects that fatigue has on tennis performance and showing them how incorporating rest into their training programs will contribute to the attainment of their competitive goals.

PLACING DEMANDS ON YOUNG ATHLETES

Self-esteem is the single most important thing that young people need to develop in order to be happy, successful, and productive adults. Self-esteem refers to peoples' basic view of themselves that is reflected in statements such as, "I like myself," "I am a good person," or "I am a failure," or "No one loves me." Though there are many sophisticated ways to measure self-esteem, coaches can get a general sense of their players' self-esteem by listening to how positive or negative their self-talk is, seeing how they react to success and failure (e.g., are they satisfied with their wins, are they able to constructively deal with failure?), and how dependent they are on success in tennis to how they feel about themselves.

Unfortunately, most people have a misconception about how to best develop self-esteem. Many people think that this is accomplished by constantly reinforcing, encouraging, and supporting children. This approach, however, does not develop confident people. Rather, it creates individuals who are dependent upon people and feel good about themselves only when reinforced by others.

The fact is that life, whether in tennis or the "real world," can be difficult and stressful. It can be lonely and punitive. As an adult, there is not always someone there to pick people up and pat them on the back. If they can not pick themselves up, they are probably going to stay down. So it is important to teach young people how to do just that. This is the basis for developing self-esteem.

Self-esteem emerges by challenging young people and providing them with skills that they may use to meet those challenges. Thus, people with high self-esteem are those who have the confidence to expose themselves to challenges and possess the coping skills to effectively master these difficult experiences.

Self-esteem is developed by having young athletes set realistic and challenging goals and being shown how to achieve them. It is also protected and cultivated by showing players that the value of who they are does not depend on what they do or whether they win or lose. "Unconditional love" is a term that describes this last concern. Self-esteem is lost when young people feel unloved or feel that love and respect depend on meeting the expectations of others, particularly in the form of results.

The tough question is: "How do we help young people to develop these skills?". The answer to that is by placing expectations and demands on them. Children do not naturally know to what level they should aspire. So they look to adults like parents and coaches to give them feedback about their expectations and their performances. Starting out, they are probably going to work until it becomes a little uncomfortable, then stop. If coaches don't tell them that was not enough, they are going to conclude that that was far enough.

An essential lesson I have learned in my work with young athletes is that young people must learn to make choices. Moreover, in order to make choices, it is necessary to have alternatives from which to choose. Too many people these days do not make choices. Rather, they simply do what they have been brought up to believe they should do. It is important for coaches to provide the experiences from which young athletes can make informed decisions about the life they lead. For example, young people can not decide whether they want to work hard in their tennis unless they have, in fact, experienced pushing themselves to their limits. It is essential that they know what it is like to give 100% effort, to try their hardest. Once they have, they can then make a choice. I should point out that it is okay if they decide not to work their hardest. Not everyone has to be a superstar. There is great value in being a good friend, husband, or mother. The important thing is that they make an informed decision in the direction they choose to take their life.

What kinds of expectations should be placed on young people? They should not be ability-based demands. Due to heredity, people have only a certain amount of ability, whether intelligence or athletism, and they have little control over it. Moreover, I have known many people who were very bright or physically gifted, but they were not happy or successful. One difficulty for these people is that these abilities enabled them to succeed without expending much effort. To them, they did not have to do much to succeed. As a result, they had difficulty taking ownership of their successes, it was not really them succeeding.

As a result, the demands placed on the young people should be effort-based. These types of expectations are those that should emphasized. An important aspect of effort-based expectations is that they are controllable and a sense of control is a key contributor to high self-esteem. Learning the relationship between effort and results is one of the most valuable lessons people can learn because, though a cliche, the satisfaction and value from success does not come from the result, but rather from the process. Also, since effort is controllable, people can take ownership of their successes, they can say "I did it."

In the face of our result-oriented society, it up to parents and coaches to temper this perspective with a healthier one that emphasizes the process over the outcome and effort over results. For example, after a match, coaches who ask players, "Did you win?" or "How did you do?" is sending a powerful signal that the result is the important thing. In contrast, questions such as, "How hard did you try?" or "Did you have fun?" convey a perspective that will build self-esteem. An overemphasis on winning or players seeing a connection between their results and how much their parents and coaches love them will lower self-esteem.

People think that since I am a psychologist, I believe in being very supportive and caring toward young people. Though these are important, they are also not enough. As I have said earlier, placing demands on them is most important and I encourage coaches to do so. This means being tough on them. However, this approach can be as damaging as it can constructive. Before the demands are placed on the young people, coaches must explain to players that they are going to be tough on them. Young athletes must understand that coaches are not doing it because they hate the players and think them a bad person. Rather, it is because coaches care for them, see something worthwhile in them, and want to help them bring that something special out. By explaining what coaches are going to do beforehand, players will not waste a lot of negative energy hating them. Also, coaches will be joining them in a partnership to help them explore the limits of their ability.

Once this foundation has been established and the understanding is there, then it is the coach's responsibility to place those demands on the young person strictly and consistently. It should be pointed out, also, that being tough does not mean being punitive. It does not mean being derogatory and humiliating. That is one thing that can really hurt self-esteem. Rather, being tough means setting standards and not allowing young people to stop until those standards have been met. By consistently applying these demands, young people will learn the relationship between effort and performance and, hopefully, internalize the great value in trying their hardest. This, in my view, should be the goal of coaches: teaching young people to discover what they are truly capable of. Having them learn that successful people are not those who are the smartest, most talented, or the best athletes, but rather are those who understand the meaning of effort and strive to do their best in every area of their life.

GOAL SETTING FOR BETTER PLAYER PERFORMANCE

One of the most widely used techniques to increase motivation among athletes is goal setting. Having players establish goals at different levels of training and competition will improve their effort and intensity. In order to ensure the value of goal setting, there are several components that must be included in a well-organized goal setting program.

Macro-Goals

Long term goals specify what the players ultimately want to achieve in their careers. Examples of long term goals include receiving a college scholarship or playing professionally. These objectives are similar to dreams because they are so far off they may seem unreachable. Due to their distance, these goals should be kept in the back of players' minds, but not focused on often.

Seasonal goals indicate what the players want to accomplish in the coming season, such as reach a certain ranking or attain a new level of competition. These goals are important because they will dictate all subsequent goals that are set.

Competitive goals designate how players want to perform in particular tournaments during the season. Competitive goals might include a certain placing to qualify for the next tournament or players lowering their ranking to be named to a traveling team. These goals are critical because attaining them should lead to reaching their seasonal goals.

Training goals specify what players need to do in their physical, technical, and mental training that will enable them to reach their competitive goals. Training goals might involve increasing leg strength by 10%, working on down-the-line passing shots, or learning to control anxiety.

Lifestyle goals indicate what players need to do in their general lifestyle to reach the above goals, e.g., develop better sleeping habits, eating better, or being more disciplined studying.

As can be seen, these goals are incremental and progressive from the bottom to the top. In other words, the lower goals lead step-by-step to the higher goals.

Goal Guidelines

In setting goals, it is important to follow several guidelines to maximize their value. First, goals should be challenging, but realistic and attainable. That is, they should be reachable, but only with hard work. Goals that are too easy or too hard have little usefulness because they will be reached without effort or are unreachable even with extreme effort, respectively.

Second, goals should be specific and concrete. For example, an ineffective goal is "I want to get stronger", whereas a useful goal is "I want to increase my bench press 20% in the next three months". They also should be objective, tangible, measurable, and time-limited.

Third, athletes should focus on the degree, rather than absolute attainment, of goals. Inevitably, not all goals will be reached, but there will almost always be improvement toward a goal. By emphasizing measurable improvement, changes in performance can be followed and progress can be rewarded.

Finally, goals should be examined and updated regularly. Some goals may turn out to be too easy and must be made more difficult. Other goals are too hard and must be eased. Also, goal setting is a process, there really is no end. When one goal is reached, a new higher goal should be established immediately. In addition, there does not need to be a goal for every aspect of performance all of the time. There are times when certain areas should be stressed and others should be de-emphasized.

Micro-Goals

In addition to the macro-goals described above, players can improve their motivation and the quality of their training on a daily basis by setting micro-goals. These goals specify exactly what the players want to accomplish every time they train. Coaches may assist players in developing micro-goals by simply asking them what they are working on before each training session. If the players do not know, they shouldn't be allowed to train until they have a particular objective in mind. Micro-goals are an excellent means of helping athletes stay focused during training and increasing the quality and decreasing the quantity of training.

The role of the coach in the goal setting process is critical. Young players often do not have the experience or objectivity to set appropriate goals. Coaches can provide guidance as to the specific goals to which players should aspire, assist them in developing realistic, challenging, and measurable goals, and help them monitor their progress.

MAKE PARENTS YOUR ALLIES

When I ask tennis coaches what is the biggest challenge and stressor in their work with young players, the almost unanimous response is PARENTS! Coaches indicate that more often than not parents interfere with rather than facilitate their coaching. This is an unfortunate situation as parents have a powerful impact on players. Considering this, it is important for coaches to do what they can to make their allies.

Why Parents are Not Your Allies?

Though there are some strong examples to the contrary in tennis, most parents are not mean, malicious, and ill-intentioned. Most want the best for their children as players and young people. Unfortunately, many parents don't know what is best for their children in their tennis. In other words, they are simply uneducated about how the roles they play can have a positive and negative influence on their children's tennis experience.

Goals of Tennis Participation

The most basic thing parents need to know and accept are the primary goals that they should emphasize with their children. Specifically, their goals should be no greater than having tennis contribute to their children's personal and social development, build their self-esteem, learn transferable life skills such as motivation, confidence, and focus, and gain a love of a lifetime sport. If young players achieve these goals, they are going to be happy and productive people. Any other goals like a college scholarship or a professional career would only be icing the cake.

Recommendations for Making Parents Your Allies

1. Establish mandatory parent-coach meetings to discuss your program's philosophy and goals. These must be consistent between the parent and coach for the young player to benefit from tennis.

2. Identify specifically how parents' behavior can help or hurt their child. For example, hugging and encouraging players whether they win or lose vs. showing negative emotions during matches.

3. Identify specifically how parents' behavior can aid or undermine your coaching. For instance, making sure players are properly equipped and on time for practice vs. coaching their child away from your practices.

4. Create regular opportunities for parents to give input about their child. For example, establish office hours when parents can stop by or call. You can learn a great deal from each other to the child's benefit.

5. Provide regular written progress reports to parents about how their child is developing physically, technically, competitively, and psychologically. They have a right to know.

6. Establish clear guidelines of appropriate and inappropriate behavior for parents like my Do's and Don't's of Tennis Parenting (see Note below).

7. When conflicts arise, act like an adult and treat the parents like adults. Your communications will be more amicable and productive.

8. Choose the appropriate setting for a discussion with parents, for example, in your office. Never speak to parents about important issues in front of players, coaches, or other parents.

9. Enlist parents within your program for advice and guidance about parent issues that arise.

10. Most important of all, create and foster an atmosphere of cooperation, mutual support, and communication aimed at providing the child with the most positive tennis experience possible.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR PRIME TENNIS

There are many things that go into developing skilled tennis players. Physical conditioning, technique, tactics, and psychology require years of constant attention for young players to become the best they can be. Yet, underlying all of the information, exercises, techniques, and strategies are some basic and essential concepts that players and coaches must understand for everything else to follow.

Concept #1: Positive Change Formula

In order for any change to occur, whether physical, technical, or mental, in the most efficient and effective fashion, players must follow a three-step formula. One, players must become aware of what they are doing incorrectly and how to correct it. Two, players must control what they want to improve. Third, players must engage in sufficient repetition to ensure that the change is ingrained and automatic.

Concept #2: Prime Tennis

A common term to describe a high level of tennis is "peak performance." But there are problems with peak performance. First, because a peak is very narrow, there can be few great performances. Second, an inherent part of a peak is that there have to be valleys. From this perspective, peak performance is not descriptive of what athletes should strive for. The dictionary defines "prime" as: "having the highest quality or value." Prime Tennis means players being able to play their best consistently under the most challenging conditions. Prime Tennis should be your goal with players.

Concept #3: Prime Law of Tennis Training

The purpose of training is to develop effective skills and habits. With this in mind, you should be sure that every time your players train, whether on- or off-court, they are focused on instilling physical, technical, tactical, and mental skills and habits that will enable them to play Prime Tennis.

Concept #4: Prime Law of Match Preparation

Whatever players do in training, that is what they will do in matches. Two corollaries of this law are: If players don't do it training, they will not be able to do it in a match. And if they need to do it in matches, they must do it in training. All efforts in training are directed toward what players need to do in matches. Two key areas in which this law is most relevant is with focus and intensity. Players must practice playing at 100% focus and intensity, so when they get to the match, they are entirely accustomed to it and the focus and intensity will allow them to play Prime Tennis.

Concept #5: Mental Skills are Skills

Many people think that mental skills are something players are born with or they are not. If not, they can never develop them. But it is important for players to understand that mental skills are skills, just like technical skills, and they can be learned in the same way. Like technical skills, mental skills are acquired with the Positive Change Formula, namely, awareness, control, and repetition.

Concept #6: Prime Tennis Pyramid

The Prime Tennis Pyramid is a progression of mental skills that lead to Prime Tennis. Motivation lies at the bottom of the pyramid because without the motivation to play, there would be no interest in improvement and competition. Prime motivation ensures total preparation. From motivation and preparation comes Confidence, players' belief in their ability to play their best. Prime confidence gives players the desire to compete. From confidence comes Intensity, players' ability to respond positively to the pressure of competition. Prime intensity enables players' bodies to play their best. From intensity comes Focus, the ability to focus properly before and during matches. Prime focus allows players to stay focused and avoid distractions. From this pyramid comes Prime Tennis, players' ability to play at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions.

[top]

SKI RACING ARTICLES

QUICK TIPS FOR

THE MENTAL EDGE

Published in Ski Racing (1984-2004)

COMMIT YOURSELF TO YOUR RACING

When you are on course, there is no room for being tentative. If you let up or back off going in the middle of a run, you are going to be in trouble. At best, you will be slow. At worst, you will fall and could injure yourself. One of the most important things you must do when they get into the starting gate is to be totally committed to going as fast and hard as you can.

In order to ski your best, you have to be committed to ski the very best you can. Unfortunately, as you develop as a racer. you will often come upon courses, terrain, or conditions that you think are over your head. You may be uncertain about skiing it. This uncertainty creates doubts and anxiety. If you try to ski these when you are uncertain, you are going to ski tentatively and bale out at the first sign of trouble.

So before you make a run, whether in training or a race, make sure that you are focused on skiing to the best of your ability. Make sure you are totally committed to doing it all the way. If you are not totally committed, step, get refocused and committed, then GO FOR IT! By being committed, you will race better and faster, make fewer mistakes, improve faster, and have a whole lot more fun.

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

A major source of stress for ski racers, and people in general, is the unexpected things that come up in life. The natural reaction to unexpected events is to back off, become tentative and anxious, and lose concentration. The unexpected usually hurts performance.

During the course of a race weekend, all kinds of things can wrong for a ski racer. On the way to races, airlines can lose skis and bags can be stolen. At the races, skis can get broken, goggles can become fogged, and buckles can break. If racers are not prepared, they are going to react negatively and this will hurt their races.

The best way to deal with this problem is to Expect the Unexpected. This can be accomplished easily. Take a sheet of paper and on the left side of the page, make a list of all the things that can go wrong at a race. Then, on the right side, list solutions to these events. For example, if skis are stolen, racers should find someone beforehand who has an extra pair of skis that are similar to their own and who is willing to lend them. Or, if racers have fogged goggles, they can carry some napkins or have an extra pair in a bag at the start. Using this strategy, racers can reduce their stress by making the unexpected no longer unexpected.

SKIWORD PROGRESSION

Becoming a better skier and racer is, at the same time, satisfying and frustrating. It is wonderful to learn to ski more challenging courses, terrain, and conditions. However, improving is a slow and difficult process. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to learning is focusing on the skills as you train.

Typically, you will be thinking about the new skill as you begin your freeski or training run, but quickly forget it as more important things come up like controlling your speed, not falling, and staying in the course. So instead of focusing on and practicing the new skill, you go back to your old style.

A strategy for maintaining the focus on the new skill is called the SKIword progression. A SKIword is a word that, when repeated, will remind you of the new technique that you are working on. SKIwords such as "balance", "hands", and "forward " can be used. Once you have decided on a SKIword, you can begin the progression. First, when you are free skiing, say the SKIword repeatedly out loud as you ski down. By saying it out loud, you are constantly reminding yourself to practice the skill. Second, once you are able to do the skill in this way, you can then say the SKIword to yourself. Third, repeat steps one and two in training courses. Finally, you will know you have learned the new skill when you are able to do it without saying the SKIword at all. By using the SKIword progression, you will learn improve more quickly, thus enabling you to ski better and faster.

TYPES OF NEGATIVE THINKING

Though negative thinking is something that should be avoiding as much as possible, it is a normal response to a poor performance. In fact, some negative thinking is healthy because it means that you care about how you are skiing. However, too much or the wrong kind of negative thinking can be very harmful.

There are two types of negative thinking. The first kind, "give up" negative thinking, is associated with feelings of depression and helplessness. You say things like, "there is nothing I can do to ski better" or "no matter how hard I try, I just can't do it". "Give up" negative thinking also causes you to dwell on past performances, focusing on mistakes made and bad results in recent races. This type of thinking hurts self-confidence, concentration, and motivation. Quite simply, there is never a place for "give up" negative thinking the mind of a ski racer.

The second kind is called "fire up" negative thinking. "Fire up" negative thinking produces feelings of anger, energy and being psyched up. You say things such as, "I hate going slow and I'm going to go faster the next race" or "I am so mad that I am going to work twice as hard in training this week". The focus of "fire up" negative thinking is on doing better in the future. This type of negative thinking increases motivation, intensity, and concentration. As a result, "fire up" negative thinking can be useful. However, it should not last more than a few days because negative thinking and emotions require alot of energy that could be better used for training and races.

WALK THE WALK FOR MORE CONFIDENCE

Self-confidence is the most important mental ingredient for success in ski racing. One technique that most people are not aware of for building and maintaining self-confidence involves how you carry yourself. How you walk and move can influence how you think and feel. In other words, you have to learn how to "Walk the Walk".

If your body is down, your thoughts and feelings will be down. If your body is up, your thoughts and feelings will be up. Examples of not walking the walk include head and eyes down, shoulders slouched, feet dragging, and no energy in your step. Walking the walk involves holding your head high, chin up, eyes forward and focused, shoulders back, arms swinging, and bounce in your step. It is very difficult to be walking the walk and saying things like "I stink", "I'm awful", and "I can't do this". Similarly, it hard to be not walking the walk and saying, "I am a great ski racer", "I am confident in my ability", and "I know how to handle pressure". This is because, in both cases, what you are saying to yourself is inconsistent with how you are carrying yourself. You can practice walking the walk by being aware of how you carry yourself and focusing on making positive physical changes when you walk. By walking the walk, you will find that you naturally feel more positive and energetic.

TRUST YOUR ABILITY ON RACE DAY

A disagreement I have gotten into with coaches involves whether it is good for racers to think about technique right before and during a race. They argue that if they don't think about technique they won't ski well. But it is my belief that if you focus on technique you will do that technique well, but you will also be slow because you are not thinking about just going fast.

There is a time and a place for technique. That time is during training. It is here that you question and analyze your skiing and focus on a particular part of your skiing in order to develop it. By doing this, the new technique becomes, with practice, second nature and it will then help you to ski faster in races.

But when race day arrives, you shouldn't question, doubt, analyze, or get technical. If you do not have a technique down by the time you get to the starting gate, you will not be able to use it effectively in the race. Whatever ability you bring to the start, believe in it, and go as fast as you can with what you have. Simply put, TRUST YOURSELF to ski the very best you can on that day.

DETERMINING YOUR PRIME INTENSITY

Perhaps the single most important thing you need to do before a ski race is reach and maintain your optimal intensity. Intensity refers to amount of adrenaline, oxygen, and blood flow your body has. Too much intensity and your muscles are tight, you can't breath, and your body is shaking from fear. Too little intensity and you feel tired, unmotivated, and weak. In either case, you do not ski your best.

Before you reach your optimal intensity, you have to know what it is. To do this recall several occasions when you skied your very best and very poorly. Remember how your body felt, for example, when you skied well, you may have felt energized, your heart was pounding, and you had a good sweat going before your run. When you skied poorly, you might have been shaking, had difficulty breathing, and your muscles were tense. Next, remember your thoughts and feelings. In good races, you may have been very positive and felt happy and excited. In bad races, you may have been thinking negatively and been a little afraid. Also, note the event, the level of competition, and the race site. When you had a good result, it might have been in your favorite event, say GS, at a lower level of competition, and on a fairly flat race hill. When you had a poor result, it may have been in a slalom on a steep, icy hill. The chances are there are some common factors associated with when you skied well and others when you skied poorly.

Once you establish those common factors related to good and bad skiing on race day, you can actively work to avoid the factors connected with poor skiing and reproduce the factors associated with good skiing. By identifying your optimal intensity, you have taken a first important step to controlling your race day rather than the race day controlling you.

THE SKI RACER'S LITANY

Too often, athletes don't do any form of mental training until they have a problem, for example, they get into a slump, become nervous, or lose confidence in themselves. This is the wrong approach though. I believe in prevention that is similar to physical preparation. You don't wait to get hurt to lift weights, stretch, and run. Instead, you exercise in order to improve competitive performance and prevent injury. The same approach should be taken with mental preparation.

A valuable strategy you can use to "exercise" your self-confidence "muscle" is called the Ski Racer's Litany. A litany is a group of positive self-statements you say to yourself to teach yourself positive thinking and strengthen your self-confidence. One I use goes like this:

I LOVE TO SKI RACE.

I AM A GREAT SKI RACER.

I ALWAYS THINK AND TALK POSITIVELY.

I EXPECT TO FEEL PRESSURE AND THAT'S OKAY

BECAUSE I KNOW HOW TO HANDLE IT.

I AM CONFIDENT, RELAXED, AND FOCUSED WHEN I RACE.

I ALWAYS PUT MY FULLEST EFFORT INTO TRAINING.

By saying the Ski Racer's Litany regularly, you train your mind to think positively, so that when you do have some difficulties, you will stay positive and maintain your self-confidence. It is important that you not only say the Litany regularly, but you say it like you mean it. Even if you don't believe it at first, if you tell yourself something enough times you will start believing it. I recommend that you say the Ski Racer's Litany when you get up in the morning, before you go to sleep, and prior to training and races. So by reciting the Litany often, your mental muscles will be as strong as your physical muscles.

PRE-RACE ROUTINES

Routines are one of the best ways for racers to prepare themselves for competition. Pre-race routines are valuable for several reasons. They ensure completion of every important aspect of pre-race preparation. Routines increase the familiarity of race situations and decrease the likelihood of unexpected things occurring. They build consistency of thought, feeling, and action. Routines increase feelings of control and self-confidence, and reduce anxiety. Regardless of the importance of a race, by using a well-practiced routine, you will condition your mind and body into feeling that this is just another race.

A pre-race routine should be composed of everything you need to do to be totally prepared for competition. This includes packing for the race, meals, early morning physical warm-up, course inspection, skiing warm-up, equipment, start area physical warm-up, and finally, mental preparation.

There is no one ideal pre-race routine to follow. Rather, routines are personal so you should develop one that suits your particular needs. To do this, make a list of what you need to do before a race. Then create the routine by deciding when is the best time to complete each part of the routine. Finally, follow this routine before every race. Within a few months it will become second-nature and it will ensure that you are totally prepared to ski your very best.

START AREA PREPARATION

The most critical period before your race run is the time you spend in the start area. What you do there will often dictate the success of your run. There are three things that must be done to ensure that you ski your best. First, you must prepare your equipment: bindings, edges, bases, boots, clothing. The last thing you want to worry about before your run is your equipment, so you want to get it ready first.

Second, you must get physically ready. This involves stretching, doing warm-up exercises, and making turns. The best measure of whether your body is ready to ski its best is if you have worked up a sweat. A sweat indicates that your muscles are warm and loose, and you have plenty of oxygen and blood flowing through your body.

Finally, you must get mentally prepared. This phase involves putting on your "race face", that is, narrowing your focus onto the race, using mental imagery to rehearse key parts of the course, thinking positively, and actively moving toward your prime intensity. This start area routine will lead to a level of preparation in which, as you enter the starting gate, you are totally prepared to ski your best and you only have one thing on your mind: skiing as FAST as you can!

RACE-CONFIDENCE CHALLENGE

Race-confidence in your ability is critical to your success as a ski racer. How well you perform will often dictate your race-confidence. This means that when you are skiing well, you will have high race-confidence. Unfortunately, it also means that when you are skiing poorly, you may lose your race-confidence. This relates to what I call the race-confidence challenge which is often the difference between racers who are successful and those who struggle.

It is easy to stay confident and when you are skiing well. Your training is going well and you are getting good results. There is nothing to worry about. But an inevitable part of ski racing is that you will have ups and downs during the race season; there will be periods when you are skiing poorly. What separates the best from the rest is what happens when you are not skiing well. This is the time that you must meet the race-confidence challenge.

Most racers, when they ski poorly, will lose race-confidence and get caught in a vicious cycle, in which both race-confidence and performance deteriorate (see Upward Spiral/Vicious Cycle). Once you are caught in a vicious cycle, it is harder and takes longer to get out of it.

The best racers may go through a period of poor skiing, but will maintain their race-confidence. This means that they won't get caught in the vicious cycle. Instead, by keeping their race-confidence up, their skiing will stay down for a shorter period and it will be easier for them to return to a high level of skiing.

All racers will have slumps during the season. The skill is not getting caught in the vicious cycle and being dragged down evern further. The skill is keeping your race-confidence and turning it into an upward spiral in which race-confidence and performance push each other to higher levels. So, to ski your best all season, meet the race-confidence challenge.

RELAXATION TECHNIQUES TO REDUCE OVER-INTENSITY

One of the most common obstacles to a great skiing performance is over-intensity or anxiety in the start area before a race. Over-intensity manifests itself in extreme muscle tension, stomach butterflies, difficulty breathing, a loss of coordination, and an over-narrowing of concentration. For you to ski your best, you must learn to control your over-intensity. There are three simple techniques you may use to relax before a race run.

First, the most basic way to relax is simply to breathe. I have seen many racers at the start taking short, choppy breaths that do not give them enough oxygen. Taking long, slow, deep breaths will relax your muscles and give your muscles the oxygen they need to work well.

Second, muscle tension is the most common symptom of over-intensity and it is difficult to just relax the muscles when you are nervous. So I recommend using a technique called progressive relaxation which involves doing the opposite, that is, tightening your muscles even tighter than they are. In the start area, if you feel tense, tighten that body part for five seconds, then release it for five seconds (do this twice). Also, take a deep breath when you relax the muscles. You can also do progressive relaxation systematically. Before your start, lie down and follow this procedure for four muscle groups: legs and buttocks, chest and back, arms and shoulders, and face and neck.

Third, a surprisingly powerful way to relax is to smile. I don't mean be happy or have a good time. Simply raise the sides of your mouth into a smile and hold it for 60 seconds. This works in two ways. As we grow we learn that smiling means we are happy. Also, when we smile, it releases brain chemicals which cause us to relax. It is hard to feel nervous when you are smiling.

MUSIC TO ACHIEVE PRIME INTENSITY

An important responsibility that you have when you arrive at the start area is to reach what I call prime intensity, which is your ideal level of physical readiness where you have just the right amount of blood flow, oxygen, and adrenaline to ski your best. Many racers use music to help reach their prime intensity.

We all know that music has a profound physical and emotional effect on us. Music can make us happy, sad, and inspired. Music can also excite or relax us. As 1993 world silver medalist Julie Parisien has said, "It's a tool for my intensity and concentration. I can tell if I am really "there" if I pick up a certain sound. I use different music for different events because they have two disparate feelings."

So you can use music to regulate your intensity. Before a race, if you find that you are too relaxed and need to increase your intensity, you should listen to high energy music that gets you fired up. If you are too nervous before a race and need to lower your intensity, you should listen to mellow music that calms you down.

It is very important that you make sure the music you are listening to is appropriate for your current intensity level. I have known racers who liked high energy music, but tended to be too nervous before races. By listening to high energy music, even thought they liked it, they would become even more intense, which hurt their race performances. So be sure your music helps you reach your prime intensity. A warning: do not listen to music when you are free skiing. I have known several racers who were hit by a snowcat or another skier because they didn't hear them.

FOUR-STAGE LEARNING PROCESS

Acquiring new skills is perhaps the single most important goal for young ski racers. Unfortunately, learning can be a long and frustrating process. To make the learning process easier, it is helpful to understand how most people learn new skills. There are four stages in the learning process.

The first stage, intellectual understanding, involves understanding what you are doing incorrectly and the correct execution of the skill. If you do not understand the right and wrong execution, learning will simply be trial-and-error. To ensure this understanding, ask your coach to describe and demonstrate the correct and incorrect execution, and watch videos of yourself and other racers so that you can see the difference.

The second stage consists of muscle awareness in which you know what position your body is in and what your body is doing. Without this awareness, you will not be able to control your body and learn new skills. To improve this awareness, you can watch videos of yourself to get a good image of how you ski and, while skiing, focus on body position.

The third stage, initial learning, is the first indication of skill development. In this stage, in order to execute the skill correctly, you must focus totally on your body and the skill. Any distractions will cause you to forget the skill and you can only do the skill on easy terrain and snow conditions.

The fourth stage involves generalization in which you progressively are able to use the skill in increasingly more difficult conditions. For example, if you are working on countering your upper body, you first can only do it free skiing on smooth, flat terrain. Then you can counter on steeper, rougher terrain with uneven snow. This process progresses until you can do it in a race under difficult conditions.

There are several benefits to understanding the learning process. You will have more realistic expectations about learning. You will be less frustrated during learning. You will develop a patient attitude. Finally, you will view learning as a positive experience, thus motivating you to want to improve more.

PRE-RACE CONCENTRATION STYLES

My work with thousands of ski racers, from the junior level to the U.S. Ski Team, has indicated two distinct concentration styles before a race. Concentration style is important because it affects your ability to stay focused before a race and determines what you need to do in the start area to ensure prime concentration which I define as your ideal focus that enables you to ski your best.

The first type of pre-race concentration style is called overloaded externally (OE). Racers who are OE are hypersensitive to things going on around them. They become overly focused on start area activity including coaches, other racers, tech reps, and starters. They are unable to block out these start area distractors and can not focus on their pre-race preparation.

If you are OE, you need to block out external distractions. Before a race, go off by yourself away from the start area distractions, for example, into the woods or to the other side of the trail. Focus on your pre-race routines. Listen to music: if you are listening to music, you will be less aware of external distractions. Also, control your eyes: focus them down and away from distractions.

The second type of pre-race concentration style is called overloaded internally (OI). Racers who are OI are overly focused on internal distractions such as unnecessary thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations. These internal distractions cause them to forget the course and interferes with their pre-race preparation.

If you are OI, you need to block out internal distractions, that is, stop yourself from thinking about unnecessary things. Stay in the start area around other people. This external activity will keep you from getting too internally focused. Do your pre-race routine around other racers and coaches. Also, listening to music will keep you from thinking too much.

By following these steps in the start area you will control your pre-race concentration style rather than it controlling you. This will enable you to develop prime concentration to ski your best.

CONTROL OR NOT TO CONTROL

The life of a ski racer is very stressful. There are many things that you can worry about and which can make you depressed, angry, frustrated, and distracted, all of which will hurt your skiing. Unfortunately, many racers, and people in general, worry about the wrong things. The big problem is that racers get stressed out about things over which they have absolutely no control. In a ski racer's life, there are some things they should think about and others they shouldn't. Things that you should pay attention to are those things over which you do have control. These things include your physical condition, effort, attitude, thoughts, emotions, behavior, equipment, preparation, and performance. All of these are within your control, so by thinking about them, you can improve. Things that should not affect racers include competitors' attitudes, thoughts, emotions, behavior, and performances, coaches, officials, parents, start number, weather, terrain, and snow conditions.

Next time you find that you are under stress, ask yourself one question: "Is the thing that I am worried about under my control?" If it is not, let it go and focus on things you can control. If it is within your control, instead of worrying about, do something about it!

COMMIT THE CRIME, DO THE TIME

The most useful technique I ever developed to stop negative talk and encourage positive talk is what I call, "Commit the Crime, Do the Time". It is best used by a team or within a training group and involves making racers aware of their negative talk and making it undesirable to say negative things.

It works like this: Your training group decides it is against the law for both racers and coaches to say anything negative while on the hill. The group then decides on a suitable "punishment" for offenders. The "punishment" should either make the offender a better racer or a better person. For example, at the U.S. Ski Team Development Camps I worked at, one group chose 50 hop turns as their punishment (this would make the offender a better racer). Another group decided that the offenders had to stand up in the middle of the Mt. Hood base lodge and announce to all present that "My name is so and so, I am with the U.S. Ski Team Development Camp. I said something negative, but I will be more positive in the future" (this would make the offender a better person). This strategy will make you aware of your negative talk because your teammates will catch you committing the crime and make you do the time. Before you know it, you have not only reduced your negative talk during training, but you actually begin to say more positive things.

PREPARATION, WINNING ROLE MODELS, AND SUCCESS

There is a misconception that, to build confidence, you have to succeed first. But that is unrealistic because few people can just go out and ski well in a race. Before you can build your confidence by skiing well in races, there are two ways you must build your confidence. First, preparation builds confidence. In order to ski well, you have to be well-prepared. Racers who know they have done everything possible to prepare themselves to succeed are going to be confident that they will ski their best. If you are in good physical condition, technically skilled, have your equipment well-prepared, and are mentally ready, you will truly know that you will ski your best.

Second, you can build your confidence by choosing winning role models. Skiing champions like Marc Girardelli and Julie Parisien exhibit common qualities, habits, and behaviors. It is these shared characteristics that contribute to their success. If you want to be successful, you can acquire some of these qualities and behaviors by watching and emulating champions. Areas that you can emulate include their attitude, work ethic, training, pre-race routines, and intensity. Don't just copy them, rather take these characteristics and incorporate them into your own style.

When you are well-prepared and have acquired some of the characteristics of winning ski racers, you will also be more confident. You are now in a better position to most directly improve your confidence through successful skiing experiences. If you have skied well in the past, then you will develop the confidence that you will ski well in the future. It is important that in all of your ski racing, whether in training or racing, that you succeed more than 50% of the time. So, through preparation, choosing winning role models, and success in training and races, you will be as confident as possible and, as a result, you will ski your best.

100% SOLUTION FOR TRAINING

One of the biggest problems I see in young racers is a lack of consistent focus and intensity from free skiing to gate training to race day. Too often, racers will free ski at 60% focus and intensity, gate train at 80%, and expect to race at 100%. This is unrealistic because if you haven't done it in free skiing and training, you will not be able to do it in a race. As U.S. Ski Team member Erik Schlopy has said, "I think training's just like racing. I want to go out there and pretend it's a race every day. That way, when I get to the race, it's no big deal."

A basic rule to follow is that whatever you need to do on race day, you must do in free skiing and training. For you to be able to race well at 100% focus and intensity, you must become accustomed to it, and this is accomplished in free skiing and training. You should put 100% focus and intensity into every run you take. This will enable you to be mentally and physically used to what it feels like to ski at that level. A way to do this is with what I call the 100% solution which involves always skiing with purpose. The 100% solution means that in every aspect of your training, you have a specific

purpose and goal in mind. Every time you go out to ski, you should know exactly what you want to accomplish. If you are not using the 100% solution, you are not only not improving, but you are making it harder to improve because you are practicing (and becoming more skilled at) the wrong things. Make sure that whatever you are working on, whether technique, conditioning, mental skiing, going fast, or just having fun, that you are doing with purpose and 100% focus and intensity.

MENTAL EDGE CODE OF COMMITMENT

Total Commitment

Being the best ski racer you can be is simple, but not easy. It is simple because all that is required is that you do everything possible to be your best. It is not easy because to do everything takes total commitment. Total Commitment means discipline, hard work, patience, and responsibility. If you do not have Total Commitment, at the end of your ski racing participation, you may have to ask the saddest question there is, "I wonder what could have been?"

Why the Code of Commitment?

Too often when coaches ask racers their opinion on some part of training or racing, the typical response is, "I don't know," "I don't care," or "It doesn't matter." Too often, when coaches ask racers the cause of a problem, the common response is, "Don't blame me" or "It's not my fault." But if you don't know, don't care, and it doesn't matter, then you are not committed to your ski racing. You must know, you must care, and it must matter if you want to be your best.

It it is not your responsibility, then whose is it? When you are in the starting gate, there is no one there to help you. On the result sheet, there is no excuse session where you can say, "I would have won, but my coach missed the wax." Whether you win or lose, the responsibility is yours.

What is the Code of Commitment?

The Code of Commitment is a series of statements that clearly demonstrate your commitment to being your best. The Code illustrates your willingness to take full responsibility for all aspects of your training and competitive performances.

Code of Commitment

I DO KNOW.

I DO CARE.

IT DOES MATTER.

IT IS MY RESPONSIBILITY.

THREE TYPES OF CONFIDENCE FOR SKI RACING

Confidence is the most important psychological factor that impacts ski racing performance. There are, in fact, three distinct types of confidence that you must develop for confidence to help your ski racing. Each type of confidence contributes to your ability to ski your best.

Athletic confidence involves your belief in two areas related to your athleticism. First, your belief in your overall ability as an athlete. How confident are you in yourself as an athlete? Do you believe that you are a good athlete who can learn and master any sport you try? Do you consider yourself coordinated, agile, and quick? Second, athletic confidence refers to your belief in your level of physical conditioning. How confident are that you are in the best shape possible?

Technical confidence refers to your belief in your ability to related to technical development. How confident are you in your ability to learn new skills? Are you a fast learner, do you pick up technical feedback from your coaches easily? Also, how confident are you currently in your technical skiing ability? Are you skiing well enough to accomplish your immediate goals?

Race confidence involves your belief in several aspects of your ability to perform your best in competition. First, do you believe that you can perform well in races? Second, how confident are you that you can respond well to race pressure? Third, do you believe that your mental abilities will help rather than hurt your race performances?

If you lack confidence in any of these three areas, you will not be able to perform up to your ability. If you don't have full confidence, do not lose hope. In fact, even the best racers in the world have lost confidence during their careers. Many racers believe that confidence is inborn; you either have it or you don't. But confidence is a skill, much like physical and technical skills, that can be learned. Just like technical skills, confidence can be acquired with awareness, control, of how you think, and practice at thinking more positively.

USE MAG-LITE FOCUS IN YOUR RACING

An important goal in your race training is to develop focus control. Focus control involves several steps. First, you must understand how you focus best and how your focus impacts your race preparations and your competitive performance. Second, you have to recognize the internal and external cues that help and hurt your focus and your performance. Finally, you must learn to focus on cues that help your racing and block out distracting cues.

The Mag-Lite is a special flashlight that helps illustrate how you can develop focus control. The Mag-Lite beam can be adjusted to illuminate a wide area or focused to brighten a narrow area. Your focus can be thought of as a Mag-Lite beam you project that illuminates what you want to focus on.

Wide beam. There are times when your Mag-Lite focus must be wide to take in a lot of information such as inspecting the course and focusing on line, terrain, and snow conditions.

Moderate beam. Other times your Mag-Lite focus must have a moderate beam to take in some external information, e.g., watching other racers before your run, or some external and internal information, e.g., getting feedback from your coach and reviewing race tactics.

Narrow beam. As the race approaches, your Mag-Lite focus must become narrow. In the start area, this narrow beam would help you focus on using race imagery how how you want to run the course. When you enter the starting gate, your narrow beam would shift externally to enable you to focus in the course during your race run.

ACHIEVING PRIME PERFORMANCE

Prime performance means skiing your best consistently, with minimal peaks and valleys. Prime performance means skiing your best under pressure when it really counts. Prime performance comes from the development of three key areas related to ski racing performance. First, you must develop yourself physically. This includes being at the highest level of physical conditioning, having a balanced diet, being well-rested, drug-free, and not having any injuries or illness. Second, being technically and tactically sound. Your skills must be well-learned and your tactics need to be ingrained so that everything is automatic. Finally, you must have the Mental Edge. This includes being motivated, confidence, at prime intensity, and totally focused on skiing your best..

How do you know when you have attained Prime Performance? There are several common characteristics associated with it. There is the sense of effortless focus. You are totally absorbed in the race. You are focused on the process rather than the outcome. There are no distractions and your focus is narrow, but intense.

Your skiing is automatic. There is no thoughts and no mental interference. Your body does what you have trained it to do. Your skiing is effortless. It is comfortable, easy, and natural.

Your senses are sharp. You have heightened sensory perception. Time seems to slow down. You have boundless energy. Your endurance is lasting and your experience no fatigue. Finally, your have what I call Prime Integration. In which everything, mental physical, and technical is working together. Every aspect of your racing performance is in synch.

Every aspect of the Mental Edge is directed toward you achieving the Prime Performance. By using the information and techniques described in Quick Tips for the Mental Edge, you move closer to attaining Prime Performance.

KEEP THE MENTAL EDGE PERSPECTIVE IN YOUR RACING

Ski racing is important to you. You put a lot of time and effort into your racing. When you don't the results you would like, it can really hurt. During these times, you need to remember the big picture of why you race. Ski racing gives you so much more than results, points, and rankings: fun, travel, friends, health, a lifetime sport, confidence, motivation, discipline, and much more. When your results are not as good as you want, remind yourself of all the great things you get from racing. Use those benefits to motivate yourself to work harder and get more from ski racing.

Ups and Downs of Ski Racing

In the history of ski racing, very racers have had perfect or near perfect race seasons: Klammer, Tomba, Street. Even the best racers in the world have ups and downs. If they do, then you would expect other racers, like yourself, to have ups and downs as well. Down periods are caused by a wide variety of things including fatigue, injury, illness, or just plain bad luck. It is not whether you have ups and downs during the season, because you will, but how big they are and, most importantly, how you respond to them.

In a down period, it is easy to get depressed and frustrated. You are disappointed and feel out of control to change it. You just want to give up. But none of these feelings will help you accomplish your most important goal: getting out of the down period.

The best racers know how to get back to an up period quickly. They keep the down period in perspective; it is not the end of the world. These racers recognize that down periods are natural and expected. They stay positive and confident even though they are not skiing well. They also take a short break from skiing if necessary.

Most importantly, these racers keep working hard and never give up. They are also very active in looking for the cause of and solution for the down period. Finally, they learn from the decline so they can prevent it from happening again.

Ski Racing is About Love

It is easy to lose sight of why you ski race. there are the results, trophies, and attention. When that happens, you often do not have as much fun or ski as well. Ski racing is really about love: love of skiing, love of others, and love of yourself. If you lose the love, it is time to find something else to do. If you remember that skiing is about love, then you will always ski your best and have fun. So in your ski racing, always... KEEP THE LOVE!!!

BECOME A MENTAL EDGE COMPETITOR

Being the best ski racer you can takes more than being in great physical condition and being technically skilled. There are many racers who have those qualities, but do not ski their best. Skiing to the best of your ability requires that you have all the normal things you would expect including excellent physical conditioning, sound technique, well-prepared equipment, and solid mental skills. But that is not enough. To truly ski your best, you need to become a Mental Edge Competitor.

There is a big difference between being able to ski well in training, in races, and in pressure situations. To ski your best when it really counts, you must evolve from being a racer to a performer to a Mental Edge Competitor. Racers are technically strong, ski well in training and time trials, but typically do not perform up to their ability in races. They also ski poorly when under pressure.

Performers generally ski adequately in training and time trials, and ski well in most races. However, they do not know how to harness the competitive pressure in big races. They do not know how to step to the fore when the race is on the line. They are usually not able to ski their best when the pressure is on.

Mental Edge Competitors don't always ski well in training or time trials, and ski well in most races. But it is in the big races that they separate themselves from the pack. They respond positively to race pressure and are able to raise their skiing when it really counts. they also thrive on the pressure of big races.

To become a Mental Edge Competitor, you must follow several key steps. First, you must be in the best possible physical condition. No one should be in better shape than you. Second, you should be so technically sharp from over-learning your skiing skills until they are automatic. Third, you should be mentally ready, with high motivation, confidence, focus, and the right amount of intensity for every race. Fourth, you should train for adversity so that you learn how to respond positively to adverse race conditions. Fifth, you should be totally prepared for every race: physically, mentally, technically, tactically, and equipment. Sixth, you should seek out pressure situations and love the intensity of big races. Finally, you should view pressure situations as an opportunity to stretch your limits and show yourself what you are made of. By following these guidelines, you will become a Mental Edge Competitor and perform to the best of your ability consistently!

Mental Edge Quote of the Day: "I love ski racing and that's important. If you don't, either you have to figure out a way to do it or you might as well hang it up. You're not going to be a contender if you're not enjoying yourself" (Casey Puckett, USST member).

MENTAL EDGE FOR WINNING AND LOSING

Too often, our society defines winning and losing very narrowly. Society defines winning as coming in first. The gold medalist is the winner and the silver and bronze medalists are losers. It defines losing as anything that is not first place. This means that in any ski race, there can only be one winner and there are many losers. But I have known first place finishers who were not happy with their performances and 25th place finishers who had the race of their life. You can come in first and still not win and you can finish far behind and still not be a loser.

A better way to define winning is performing to the best of your ability. Winning means doing everything possible to ski your best. Winning means giving your best effort all of the time. Losing can be defined as not doing everything you can to ski your best. Losing means not having given your best effort.

Myths and Reality of Winning and Losing

There are many myths about winning and losing that need to be cleared up. Myth #1: The only way to win to have always have won. Myth #2: Winners rarely lose. Myth #3: Losers always lose.

Reality #1: Winners lose more at first than losers. Losers lose a few times then quit. Winners lose at first, learn from the losses, then begin to win because of what they learned and because they kept working hard and believed in themselves.

Reality #2: Learning to lose and learning from losing is an important part of learning how to win. Reality #3: There are problems with winning too much too soon. Winning can breeds complacency because, if you win a lot, you have little motivation to improve. Winning doesn't identify areas in need of improvement. Winning doesn't teach you how to constructively handle the inevitable setbacks you will face in competition.

Reality #4: There are important benefits to losing. Losing provides information about your progress and what you need to work on. Losing shows you what not to do, which narrows down the possibilities of what you need to do to ski well. Losing shows you how to respond positively to adversity.

Reality #5: A necessary part of learning to ski your fastest is to find your performance limits. The only way to do this is to go over the edge of your limits, which will cause you to fail. Once you have gone over your performance limits, you know where they are an can take a small step back and perform up to those limits, thus skiing your best.

So though you should never be happy with losing, you should keep it in perspective, learn from these experiences, and use them to ski your best and become a winner.

Mental Edge Quote of the Day: "You can win and still not succeed, still not achieve what you should. And you can lose without really failing at all" (Bobby Knight).

NEGATIVE THINKING IS YOUR ENEMY

Perhaps the biggest barrier to success in ski racing is negative thinking. If you enter a race expecting to fall or ski poorly, you probably will. Of all the Mental Edge skills that you must change to ski your best, negative thinking is the most important.

The way you think is a skill that develops over time and with practice. Unfortunately, many racers develop the skill of thinking negatively rather than positively. This skill becomes ingrained with consistent use of negative thinking. When you are in challenging situations, since negative thinking is the well-learned skill, your automatic reaction is to think negatively.

Just like a bad technical habit, negative thinking is difficult to change. But negative thinking can be changed in the same way that you change technical problems. First, you need to become aware of your negative thinking. Off the hill, during training, and at races, be aware of how you talk to yourself and note when you say something negative. Also, ask coaches, friends, and family members to point out times when you are negative.

Second, work on controlling your negative thoughts and statements. When you think or say something negative, replace it with a more positive thought or statement. Find positive and realistic things that can take the place of the negative thoughts. A difficulty with beginning this process is that you probably won't believe the positive things you are thinking or saying. That's okay. The more you say positive things, the more comfortable you will become saying them, and the more you will start believing them. Finally, you need to keep practicing this to remove the negative thinking skill and ingrain the positive thinking skill. With time and effort, you will retrain your thinking skills so that when you get to a race, you will be positive and confident about your skills. And when you get into challenging situations, instead of being your own worst enemy and knowing you will fail, you will be your own best ally and you will know that you will ski your best.

Mental Edge Quote of the Day: "I would try to remember that if I allow myself to be discouraged, I made myself my own worst enemy" (Armand Hammer).

IMPORTANCE OF MISTAKES

One of the most frustrating aspects of developing as a ski racer are the mistakes that racers make as they work to improve. Unlike in other sports, the consequences of mistakes in ski racing are dramatic and sometimes painful, in the forms of blowing out in training courses or crashes in races. Yet, racers often don't realize that mistakes are an essential part of becoming a better racer. Mistakes are a natural part of the learning process and are valuable information showing you on what you need to work. Mistakes mean you are moving out of your comfort zone and working to improve. If you are not making mistakes, you are not pushing yourself to be your best.

Many racers view mistakes as failure. If they didn't have a perfect run, they failed. But mistakes only mean failure when you do not learn from them and if they are repeated. Mistakes should be viewed as success because they mean you are trying to get better. Mistakes mean success when you learn from them and are not repeated.

Rarely has there ever been a perfect race run, even by World Cup racers. The best ski racers in the world make mistakes, so if you are not at that level, you shouldn't be surprised that you make mistakes too. What makes World Cup racers different is not that they don't make mistakes, but rather how they respond to them. Instead of getting angry, depressed, and frustrated when they make mistakes, the best racers stay positive and motivated. Also, they learn from their mistakes so they don't make them again.

To ensure that mistakes mean success, immediately after a mistake, identify what exactly you did incorrectly, decide what you need to do to correct it, and focus on the correction on the next run.

Mental Edge Quote of the Day: "In training, the only true failure is the failure to learn."

RACE IMAGERY

Race imagery is the most powerful psychological tool you can use to ski your fastest. It is used by all great ski racers in training and race preparation. There is also considerable scientific evidence showing that when you combine actual training with race imagery, you will improve more than just with training alone.

Race imagery involves total mental reproduction of an actual training or race situation. Race imagery is more than just picturing yourself skiing well. Good race imagery includes seeing, hearing, and feeling everything you would when racing and having the same thoughts and emotions too.

Race imagery is a skill that develops with practice. Many racers, when they first try race imagery, don't have clear images or make mistakes and fall in their imagery. They assume that they are just not good at it, so they stop using it. But with some time and effort, race imagery will improve and the benefits will emerge.

Race imagery can be used in a variety of ways to improve training and race performance. Off-snow race imagery can continue your skiing development even when you are not skiing. A race imagery program during the off-season can include imagining race scenarios and seeing and feeling yourself working on parts of your skiing such as technique, aggressiveness, intensity, or focus.

Race imagery can be used while training as well. At the top of a training course, imagine how you want to ski that run. After the run, if you made mistakes, rewind the imagery and "edit" it, replacing the negative image and feeling with positive ones. If you had a great run, "replay" it to ingrain the positive image and feeling.

On race day, you can use race imagery to memorize the course and, in the start area before your run, you can imagine yourself skiing fast and aggressively. Particularly before a race, move your body with the race imagery, increasing feelings associated with skiing fast.

Mental Edge Quote of the Day: "I visualized GS for two weeks and then after a few runs, it was a breakthrough. I realized, I'm there, that's what it's supposed to feel like" (Casey Puckett, USST member).

POSITIVE CHANGE FORMULA

Training is, at the same time, one of the most rewarding and frustrating parts of ski racing. It feels so good to finally learn something technically or hit just the right line on a course. But it seems like it takes forever for that improvement to occur. Despite the time it always takes to make changes in your skiing, racers often think they can work on something for a short time and expect to use it effectively. And just because you can do it on a training course doesn't automatically mean you can do it in a race. This is because most racers don't really understand how they go about improving. The reality is there are no shortcuts, magic dust, quick fixes that will greatly speed up how fast you learn. Change of any sort, whether technical, physical, or mental, does not occur automatically and change due to trial and error is slow and inefficient.

There are three steps, which I call the Positive Change Formula, that racers must go through to improve. First, have an awareness of what you are currently doing and how you need to improve it. If you don't know what you are doing wrong, there is no way you can work to improve it. Second, control that which you want to improve. In other words, you have focus on the improvement and make the change in your skiing. But making the change a few times will not ingrain that improvement into your mind and muscles. So, third, put in the necessary repetition to instill the positive change fully.

The biggest mistake racers make is underestimating the amount of repetition that is required to completely learn something. It takes thousands of turns for an improvement to become automatic. That sounds like a lot, but consider that ten runs of a 30-gate course gives you 300 repetitions. It is also important to understand that the repetitions must be done in increasingly more difficult conditions. It may be easy to execute an improvement on easy terrain, but you may not have learned it well enough to do on steep terrain. You know you have made a lasting improvement when you can do it automatically without thinking in the most important race of your life under the most demanding conditions.

Mental Edge Quote of the Day: "We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way" (John Holt).

THREE D'S OF PRIME MOTIVATION

To be the best ski racer you can be, you have to be highly motivated to put in the time, effort, and energy in all aspects of training. That level of being so highly motivated is called "prime motivation." To achieve prime motivation, you must respond to what I call the "Three D's."

First, choose a direction. Before you can attain prime motivation, you must consider the different directions you can go in your ski racing participation. You could stop ski racing completely, continue at your present level, or strive to be the best you can be.

Second, make a decision. With these three choices, you must now select one direction in which to go. None of these directions is necessarily good or bad, right or wrong. They are simply your choices. Perhaps you find something more enjoyable for you, so you decide to pursue that area in place of ski racing. Or you are perfectly happy at your current level and do not have the desire to sacrifice other areas of your life to put more time and effort into your ski racing. Or you truly want to find out how good you can be and are willing to commit yourself to the pursuit of that goal. The decision you make will dictate the level of ski racing in which you participate and achieve.

Third, have dedication. Once you have made your decision, you must dedicate yourself to that decision. You must devote yourself to that decision totally. If your decision is to become the best ski racer you can be, then this last step, dedication, will determine whether you have prime motivation. Your decision to be your best must be your top priority, taking precedence over almost everything else. Only by being completely dedicated to your direction and decision will you ensure prime motivation and put in the necessary time, effort, and energy into your physical, technical, and mental training to realize your dreams.

Mental Edge Quote of the Day: "With motivation, you can be involved or committed. Just like with ham and eggs: the chicken was involved, but the pig was committed. You have to be like the pig" (Martina Navrotilova).

GOAL SETTING FOR SKI RACING

Goal setting is one of the most valuable tools that ski racers can use to build motivation and direct focus. Goal setting increases commitment to training and racing and provides deliberate steps toward your ski racing aspirations. Goals act as a road map to your desired destination. In other words, goals show you how to get there.

There are five types of goals you should set before every race season. Long-term goals specify what you ultimately want to achieve in your racing, for example, win an Olympic goal medal or get a college scholarship. Seasonal goals indicate what you want to accomplish this season, for instance, reach a certain ranking or qualify for the Junior Olympics. Competitive goals designate how you want to perform in particular races during the season that will lead to your seasonal goals, for example, place in the top ten of JO qualifiers. Training goals specify what you need to do in your training to reach your competitive goals, for example, improve your technique or tactics. Finally, lifestyle goals indicate what you need to do in your general lifestyle to reach the above goals, for instance, related to sleep, diet, and alcohol or drug use.

There are a number of goal guidelines you should follow in setting your goals. First, goals should be challenging, yet realistic. You should be able to attain them, but only with hard work. Second, Goals should be specific and concrete. For example, you should set a goal of increasing your leg strength by 15% rather than a goal of just getting stronger. Third, focus on degree rather than absolute attainment of goals. Not all goals will be reached, but there will surely be improvement toward the goal. Fourth, goal setting never ends. As soon as one goal is reached, another should be set. Fifth, prepare a written contract detailing your goals. If they are clearly detailed, you are more likely to achieve them. Sixth, get regular feedback showing progress toward your goals. By seeing consistent improvement, you will be more motivated to keep working toward your goals.

Mental Edge Quote of the Day: "The resources of the human body and soul are enormous... We go part of the way to consciously tapping these resources by having goals that we want desperately" (Herb Elliot, Olympic running goal medalist).

PRIME LAWS OF TECHNICAL TRAINING

Engaging in quality on-snow training is the foundation for successful ski racing. To ensure that you get the most out of your training opportunities, there are a few Prime Laws you can follow. First, always engage in purposeful training. Many racers believe that they will improve just by showing up to training, skiing, and running gates. But that approach will only ingrain old habits. To have quality training, you should always have a particular purpose, that is, have something specific you can focus on that will improve your skiing.

Second, learn from your mistakes. Mistakes are an important part of the learning process. If you are not making mistakes, you are staying in your comfort zone and not trying to improve. After every mistake, learn how to keep from repeating it.

Third, over-learn your skills. Learning new skills takes a lot of quantity as well as quality. You have to practice the things you are working on thousands of times. Over-learning is accomplished in several steps. Engage in high repetition of what you are working on. Then, practice it in a wide variety of conditions such as different types of courses, terrain, and snow conditions. Finally, rehearse it under adverse conditions. If you can execute the new skill consistently in diverse and challenging conditions, you know you have learned it and will be able to use it in a race.

Fourth, be patient. Too often racers unrealistically expect to learn a new skill in a short time and use it immediately in a race. Learning new skills takes time and repetition. You must be patient and willing to put in the necessary time to fully learn the skill.

Fifth, never give up. The learning process is the most frustrating part of ski racing because of the time, effort, and energy it takes to improve. There are times when it seems like you will never learn a new skill no matter what you do. It is easy to get frustrated and give up. But if you give up, you automatically lose because you are no longer working to improve. No matter how difficult and frustrating your training can be, if you keep trying, you will, in time, improve and succeed in your ski racing.

Mental Edge Quote of the Day: "Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution."

MAXIMIZING THE BENEFITS OF VIDEO

Watching videos of yourself and top racers is a valuable tool for improving technique and increasing motivation, confidence, and focus. Video enables you to more clearly understand and see what you need to work on and proper technique and tactics demonstrated by world-class racers. Video, as a form of external race imagery, also helps you generate the image and feeling of skiing your best.

But you may not be watching video in the most effective way. You may watch only your mistakes in the belief that this will help you correct it. But this approach ingrains a negative image into your mind. You may focus too much on details of the video, for example, hand position, rather than on the whole image. Watching too much World Cup video and not enough of yourself may cause you to imagine yourself skiing like one of them rather than the way you ski.

When you watch video follow these rules. Take in the whole image rather than paying too much attention to details. Allow the image of good skiing sink into your mind. Though you learn about what you need to work on by watching your mistakes, I recommend watching at least 75% "highlight" videos of yourself skiing well. Watching World Cup racers is valuable, but rather than imagining yourself skiing like them, include their good technique into how you actually ski. To maximize this benefit, when you watch World Cup footage, identify racers who are physically and technically similar to you so you can more easily incorporate good technique into your style.

You can enhance the value of video by using race imagery as part of a video session. After watching yourself make a mistake on video, "edit" the video in your mind and replay the run with race imagery, seeing and feeling yourself skiing better. After a "highlight" run on video, replay the run with race imagery to ingrain the positive image and feeling. After watching World Cup racers, take key parts of their skiing and include them in your skiing with race imagery.

Mental Edge Quote of the Day: "It's a mental thing. There's a psychological zone I have to discover to ski my best" (AJ Kitt).

POINT A TO POINT B

The start and finish of a training course are the most important parts of training. They often determine the quality of training runs. Yet, the start and finish are also the most neglected parts of training. A course can be thought of as Point A (the starting gate) to Point B (the finish line). Since the clock starts at Point A and finishes at Point B, it is essential that you learn to ski your fastest from Point A to Point B.

Racers often have weak starts or take several gates to settle into the training course and establish their rhythm before they start skiing hard. In effect, they haven't started racing the course even though they have left the starting gate. By doing this, they are developing the habit of easing into a course, so on race day, that is what will come out. Since the race clock starts as soon as racers trip the wand, this approach is causing them to already be behind at the first gate and will be playing catch up the rest of the course.

Coaches should always have a starting gate set up for training courses and ideally a wand should be used as well. If there is no starting gate, pretend there is one. Train yourself to go 100% from the start. Have a strong start and attack the first gate with abandon. Then continue this "attacking attitude" for the remainder of the course.

Another annoying habit of many racers is to ease up a gate or two before the finish. Also, coaches often don't even set a finish gate. This too creates a bad habit of letting up before Point B when the clock stops. This can cause you to lose focus and intensity before the training course or race is over. In fact, it is quite common for racers to make a mistake like hook a tip a few gates from the finish.

Coaches should always set a finish gate in training. Be sure you go all out and maintain the attacking attitude through the finish line. Experiment with ways of finishing the course fast, for example, skating or tucking. During training, always think in terms of Point A to Point B, going all out and not letting up from start to finish.

Mental Edge Quote of the Day: "I think training's just like racing. I want to go out there and pretend it's a race every day. That way, when I get to the race, it's no big deal" (Eric Schlopy, former USST member, current pro racer).

RACE PRIMING

Race priming is the final stage of training that follows technical work and precedes races. This is the place in which you gear yourself up for the confidence, intensity, and focus necessary to ski your fastest in races. In order to achieve race priming, there are four rules you can follow.

First, if you have to do it in a race, you must do it in training. Whatever skills and habits you develop in training, good or bad, will come out in a race. The purpose of training is to develop effective technical, tactical, mental, and competitive skills and habits. Whatever you need to do in a race in order to ski your best must be ingrained, automatic, and comfortable from training or it will hurt your performance.

Second, consistent training leads to consistent race performance. Perhaps the most important thing that distinguishes great racers from good ones is their level of consistency in races. The great racers can go out and ski consistently fast day in and day out whereas the good racers have some good races, but also many bad ones. Learning to ski consistently fast develops from race priming in all areas of training including your thinking and emotions during training, the quality of your off-snow training, your efforts in your Mental Edge training, your training routines, and how well you maintain your equipment. The bottom line is that consistent preparation in these areas leads to consistent race performances.

Third, speed is an acquired skill. There is often such an emphasis in training on developing proper technique that the most important skill for ski racing, namely, learning to go fast, is forgotten. Speed too is a learned skill that develops with time. The only way to learn to go fast is to focus on speed in training and progressively increase speed during race priming. Speed is the last skill you must learn before race season.

Finally, you must believe in speed. To ski your fastest, you must believe in your ability to ski fast. This confidence comes from all of your preparation to this point. This belief enables you to trust in your ability to ski your best. This belief in speed comes from knowing you have put your full effort into your training, over-learned your technical and tactical skills, and practiced going fast. Real belief in speed enables you to forget technique before races, let your body do what you have trained it to do, and focus entirely on going as fast as you can.

Mental Edge Quote of the Day: "I wanted always to be very fast in races, but I couldn't find the right way to transfer my training to my race" (Marc Girardelli).

WHEN TO ARRIVE AT THE START

An important part of racers' pre-race preparation is deciding how far before their run they want to arrive at the start. You can arrive well before your run or shortly before it. There are two start arrival approaches you can use: methodical and spontaneous. Which approach you choose depends on several factors.

The methodical approach involves arriving at the start 15-30 minutes before your run. This time enables you to slowly go through your pre-race routine. It allows you to progressively prepare your equipment, then yourself physically and mentally. The methodical approach provides structure and time to complete your pre-race routine and offers a strong sense of control over your race preparation and performance. This approach is recommended if you need to keep a narrow focus on your race preparation, have a high need for structure and control, and perform best at a lower level of intensity. Marc Girardelli is a World Cup racer who prefers the methodical approach in which he must go through a thoughtful and deliberate process in his race preparation to ski his best.

The spontaneous approach consists of arriving less than ten minutes before your start and quickly going through a brief pre-race routine. The spontaneous approach allows little time to think, increases intensity, keeps your focus off the race until the last minute, and allows your body to do what it has been trained to do without interference from your mind. This approach is suggested if you get overwhelmed if you think too much about the race, need a sense of "letting it happen," and perform best at a higher level of intensity. Picabo Street is a racer who is most comfortable with the spontaneous approach, in which she thinks little before her race and can ski her fastest relying on her emotions, energy, and instincts.

Mental Edge Quote of the Day: "I was too nervous before almost every race. To deal with it I came late to the start or did something to keep myself busy so I didn't think too much."

TRAIN LIKE YOU RACE

A question I often ask racers and coaches is, "Should you race like you train or train like you race?" I never get clear consensus. I say that it's impossible to race like you train because there is one big difference: races matter. I believe that racers should train like they race. If they're used to the feeling of being in a race, when they get to a race it will be no big deal.

When I say train like you race, I don't mean skiing every run as fast as you can like a race run. There are times when racers need to work on technique or tactics and speed isn't the focus. What I mean by train like you race is that you put in race-level focus and intensity into whatever you're working on. Too often I see racers free skiing at 60% focus and intensity because they think it's not real training. When they get into gates, they may up their focus and intensity to 75%.

The problem is when they get to races. If they have trained at 60-75% and they try to race at 100%, one of two things happens. Either they only race at 60-75%, and go slow, or they try to get to 100%, but since they're not accustomed to it, they crash and burn.

The bottom line is that if you don't train like you race, you won't be able to ski your best in races. Training like you race offers several benefits. It increases your familiarity with race conditions. It helps you understand what you need to think, feel, and do to ski your best. It also makes your mind and body comfortable with race focus and intensity.

Be sure that every run you take, regardless of whether you're free skiing, working on technique, or training for speed, you are totally prepared to ski your best. This includes having your equipment ready to go before you get in the gate. It also involves being completely warmed up physically. Finally, you should be at your race level of focus and intensity.

Mental Edge Quote of the Day: "I think training's just like racing. I want to go out there and pretend it's a race every day. That way, when I get to the race, it's no big deal." (Erik Schlopy, former USST member)

TAYLOR'S FOUR LAWS OF PRIME TRAINING

It is my belief that races are not won on the day of the race, but rather on the training days leading up to the race. Because of this, I place tremendous emphasis on importance of what I call Prime Training. Prime Training is defined as being able to consistently train at the highest level of quality throughout a training session. The ability to achieve prime training depends on whether racers can follow Taylor's Four Laws of Prime Training.

Taylor's First Law of Prime Training is the purpose of training is to develop effective technical, tactical, and mental skills and habits. Too often, I see racers practicing skills and habits that will hurt rather than help their skiing. For example, racers don't maintain an effective focus that enables them learn new technical skills. Or they are totally prepared for each training run. If you want to be able to ski your best in races, you must ingrain effective skills and habits in training.

Taylor's Second Law of Prime Training is that whatever you need to do in a race, you better do it in training first. Have you ever tried doing something new in a race because you thought it would help? Typically, it doesn't work and you either go slow or fall. Races are not the place to try new things. What you need to do is decide what you need to do in a race and practice it in training.

Taylor's Third Law of Prime Training is that prime training requires clear purpose, and prime focus and intensity. I often see racers without any clear idea what they are working on. So what happens is that they practice old skills and habits that slow their progress. Every run you take you should know exactly what you want to do to improve. You also need prime focus and intensity. If you're not totally focused on skiing your best and if your body doesn't have the intensity it needs to be strong and quick, you're not going to ski as well as you can.

Taylor's Fourth Law of Prime Training is that consistent training leads to consistent race performance. One of my primary goals with athletes is for them to ski at a consistently high level. But you won't be able to race consistently if you don't train consistently. Consistent training comes from consistently prepared equipment, consistent physical preparation, consistent motivation, consistent confidence, consistent focus, and consistent intensity.

Mental Edge Quote of the Day: "Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution."

PRIME LAWS OF RACE PREPARATION

What you do in your pre-race preparation will often dictate how well you ski in the race that day. There are several simple laws you should follow to ensure that your preparation helps rather than hurts your race performances.

There are a lot of things on race day that you have little control over, for example, the weather, snow conditions, and other competitors. At the same time, there are some things that you have total control over such as your equipment and your mental and physical preparation. Yet, I often see racers giving control over these areas to other people such as coaches and tech reps. If you do this, you're taking a chance because they might not get done. And if they don't get done, they might hinder your race performance. Anything that impacts your preparation and performance, you should take responsibility for and be sure it gets done. Because the result sheet doesn't have an excuse section.

Every race presents new and different things that could change your preparation, for example, weather, snow conditions, length of lifts, start times, and warm-up space. When things are not exactly as you like them, it's easy to get rattled. When this happens, you can lose confidence, get distracted, and feel nervous. To ensure that these changes don't negatively affect you, you should identify them as soon as you can. Once you know what they are, you can figure out how to adapt to them so instead of getting stressed out about them, you can just go with the flow.

Your pre-race routine is your connection between the hours of training you put in and the race performance. Your pre-race routine should consist of physical, technical, and mental skills and habits that you have ingrained in your training. Your pre-race routine is the foundation of the consistency of preparation that will lead to Prime Performance.

On race day, you should focus on only one thing: skiing as fast as you can. Any other thinking or preparation you do should be directed toward that single focus. Any other thoughts or distractions about technique, other racers, or results will detract from that focus. As you approach your race run, you should constantly remind yourself that your focus is speed.

Mental Edge Quote of the Day: "There's nothing mysterious about winning. It's a matter of executing the fundamentals." (Baseball star, Cal Ripken, Jr.)

WHAT IS PRIME SKI RACING?
10-20-00

I define Prime Ski Racing, as “performing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions.” There are two essential words in this definition. The first key word is, “consistently.” I’m not interested if a racer can have only one or two great races. That is not enough to be truly successful. I want racers to be able to ski at a high level day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out. Prime Ski Racing means performing at a high level with only minimal ups and downs instead of the large swings in performance that are so common among racers. The second key word is, “challenging.” What makes the great racers successful is their ability to ski their best under the worst possible conditions against tough competition when they’re not skiing their best.

Where does Prime Ski Racing come from? Though I focus on its mental contributors, the mind is only one necessary part of Prime Ski Racing. You must also be at a high level of physical health including being well-conditioned, well-rested, eating a balanced diet, and free from injury and illness. Prime Ski Racing is also not possible if you’re not technically sound. Your technical skills must be well-learned and your tactics must be ingrained.

Have you ever experienced Prime Ski Racing? Let me describe some of the common experiences of Prime Ski Racing. First, Prime Ski Racing is effortless. It’s comfortable, easy, and natural. You don’t seem to have to try to do anything. Prime Ski Racing is also automatic. There’s little thought. The body does what it knows how to do and there’s no mental interference getting in the way. You also experience sharpened senses. You see, hear, and feel everything more acutely than normal. Also, time seems to slow down, enabling you to react more quickly. I’ve heard World Cup racers say that when they are skiing well, everything seems to be moving in slow motion. Prime Ski Racing also has effortless focus. You’re totally absorbed in the experience and are focused entirely on the process. You have no distractions or unnecessary thoughts that interfere with your skiing your best. You have boundless energy. Finally, you experience what I call prime integration. Everything is working together. The physical, technical, tactical, and mental aspects of ski racing are integrated into one path to Prime Ski Racing.

Prime Ski Racing Quote of the Day: “It's way mental. The biggest thing is the psychological aspect of believing I can go out and give it 100 percent. When I'm going for it really aggressively I ski my best. The toughest part is finding that zone.” Olympic champion Tommy Moe

THE 12 LAWS OF PRIME PREPARATION

11-10-00

First Law: Races are not won on the day you race, but rather in the days, weeks, and months before the race. If you’ve put in the time and effort to develop your physical, technical, tactical, and mental abilities, you will have the skills and the belief to ski your best on race day.

Second Law: Take responsibility for everything that can impact your ski racing. These areas include all of the components of preparation. If you address every area that impacts your racing—physical, technical, tactical, and mental—you can be sure that when you get to the race, you will be totally prepared to ski your best.

Third Law: Preparation is the foundation of all physical, technical, tactical, and mental skills. Developing skills of any sort requires awareness of what you’re doing incorrectly, control to do the skills correctly; and repetition to ingrain the new skills.

Fourth Law: The purpose of training is to develop effective skills. If you practice effective skills and habits, you’ll develop skills that will help you ski your best. If you practice poor skills and habits, you’ll develop skills that will hurt your skiing.

Fifth Law: Racers should train like they race. Racing like you train is impossible for one simple reason: racing matters. Training like you race means putting as close to the same level of motivation, focus, and intensity into training as you do in a race.

Sixth Law: Prime preparation requires clear purpose, prime focus, and prime intensity. You must have a clear purpose that tells you what you’re working on. You must consistently maintain focus on your purpose. Your body must be physically capable of performing the purpose.

Seventh Law: Consistent training leads to consistent ski racing. Consistency relates to every aspects of race training including conditioning, technique, and tactics, attitude, effort, focus, intensity, emotions, sleep, and diet.

Eighth Law: Patience and persistence are essential to achieving Prime Tennis. You must the patience to allow yourself to develop and the persistence to face the setbacks and obstacles that are a part of achieving Prime Ski Racing.

Ninth Law: Failure is essential for Prime Ski Racing. There can not be success without failure. Failure shows you what is not working. It means that you are moving out of your comfort zone. Failure means you are taking risks. Failure teaches you how to deal positively with adversity.

Tenth Law: Prime Ski Racing comes from “one more thing, one more time.” When you feel you have done enough, by doing one more thing, one more time, you are doing that little bit extra that would separate you on the day of the race.

Eleventh Law: It takes 10 years and 10,000 hours to become a great ski racers. Research has found that the longer you have skied and the more hours you have trained, the better you will be.

Twelfth Law: Prime preparation is devoted to readying racers to ski their best under the most demanding conditions in the most important races of their lives. The ultimate goal of Prime Ski Racing is for you ski your best when it really matters.

Quote of the Day: “Preparation is everything to winning. It is easy to say, ‘I am going to win.’ So I don’t think about it; instead I concentrate on my training…which really determines who will make it. Then, on the day of the race…I can say with confidence, ‘I am ready.’” Olympic champion Jean-Claude Killy

MENTAL EDGE PROFILING

11-24-00

One of the most difficult things about dealing with the mental side of ski racing is that its not tangible. Unlike physical conditioning where you can see yourself getting stronger by the amount of weight you're lifting or technical training where you can see progress on video and on the clock, mental training can't be directly seen or measured.

Mental Edge profiling helps you make your mental strengths and weaknesses more concrete. By having a better understanding of yourself mentally, you can more clearly specify the areas you need to work on. I have identified 12 mental and emotional factors that I have found to be important to ski racing success. To create your Mental Edge profile, rate yourself on a one to ten scale for each of the 12 factors listed below.

Confidence is how strongly you believe in your ability to ski your best in races (1-not at all; 10-very much). Motivation is how committed you are to your ski racing and how hard you work in your training (1-very low; 10-very high). Intensity is how well you are able to reach and maintain an ideal level of intensity in training and racing (1-poor; 10-ideal). Focus is how well you're able to concentrate on things that help your skiing and block out distractions that hurt your skiing (1-poor; 10-prime). Imagery is how often you use mental imagery in your training and race preparation (1-never; 10-often). Understanding is how well you know what you need to work on to reach your ski racing goals (1-not at all; 10-completely). Training is how much focus and intensity you put into your training (1-0%; 10-100%). Emotions are how positive or negative you feelings are before a race (1-very negative; 10-very positive). Pressure is how well you respond to pressure situations (1-respond poorly; 10-respond well). Preparation is how physically and mentally prepared you are for races (1-not at all prepared; 10-totally prepared). Routines is how much do you use routines in your training and pre-race preparation (1-not at all; 10-a great deal). Mental skills is how much do you include mental skills into your training and race preparation (1-not at all; 10-a great deal).

Having completed the Mental Edge profile, you now have a clear description of your mental skills in ski racing. Scores below a 7 indicate areas that you need to work on. Write down the factors that you need to address, set goals related to improvement in those areas, and decide how you will develop the areas. Then consistently work on them until you have strengthened them.

Much like physical testing, take the Mental Edge profile every few months to see your progress. With some time and effort, you can develop your mental strengths and alleviate your weaknesses so you can achieve the Mental Edge.

Quote of the Day: "A winner goes through a problem; A loser tries to go around it, and never gets past it." Pat Williams, NBA general manager

NO SUCH THING AS FREE SKIING

12-1-00

I hate the words free skiing. They are inaccurate and misleading. These words suggest that when you're not running gates, it doesn't matter what you do. I see this with a lot of racers. When they're running gates, they are focused and intense, but when they're free skiing, they're often not doing anything to make themselves a better skier.

The fact is free skiing is anything but free. It will cost you or you will profit from it. Free skiing should be called gateless training. It is the time when most fundamental technical work is done. Only after you are able to do something technically while gateless training will you be able to do it in gates. So gateless training should have the same level of purpose, focus, intensity, and effort that you put into your gate training.

Gateless training is so important because every turn you make counts. Becoming the best ski racer you can be is about repetition. You have to make thousands upon thousands of turns before you can make a good turn. But repetition alone isn't enough. You have to have quality repetition. If you don't here's what will happen. You're going to make a run of 40 turns. Since you're free skiing rather than gateless training, you only maintain good quality for the first 20 turns. So you made 20 good turns and 20 bad turns. Did you improve that run? Absolutely not! The 20 bad turns erased any benefit you may have gotten from the 20 good turns.

You must make sure that every turn you make is of the highest quality. Okay, so every turn may be unrealistic. But if you make 90% good turns, you're way ahead of the game. To have quality repetition, you must have clear purpose, 100% focus and intensity, and give your best effort.

Quote of the Day: "I started to free ski more consciously, controlling all of my movements. I set imaginary gates in front of myself. I tried to feel all of the movements during free skiing." March Girardelli

PERSPECTIVE ON COMPETITION

12-8-00

Ski racing is obviously important to you. You put a great deal of effort into your ski racing participation. Because of this, you put your ego on the line every time you get in the starting gate. When you don’t ski well, you’re disappointed. This may not feel good, but it’s natural because it means you care about your ski racing.

There is, however, a point at which racers can lose perspective and their feelings toward their racing can hurt their performances. The key warning signal of this overinvolvement is “too.” When they care too much, when it is too important to them, when they try too hard to win, when they press too much in critical races, then they have lost perspective.

In this “too” situation, racers’ investment in their skiing is so great that it is no longer enjoyable. If you find yourself feeling this way, you should reevaluate what your ski racing participation means to you and how it impacts your life and your happiness. You will probably find that it plays too big a role in how you feel about yourself. When this happens, you not only ski poorly and have worse results, but you may find that ski racing is no longer fun to you.

To ski your best and to have fun, you need to keep your ski racing participation in perspective. It may be important to you, but it should not be life or death. What is important is that you have a balanced view of ski racing. Remember why you participate; it’s fun, it feels great to become a good skier, and, yes, you like to compete and win. The Prime Ski Racing view of competition means keeping your ski racing in perspective. If you have fun, work hard, enjoy the process of ski racing, and do not care too much about winning and losing, you will enjoy ski racing more, you will ski better, and you will have better results as well

Quote of the Day: “I have never made sports bigger than life. I just played and enjoyed them. My whole approach was based on what I could learn from sports.” NFL quarterback Rick Mirer

Developing Prime Motivation

12-15-00

Motivation is the foundation of lies at the base of the Prime Ski Racing. Without your desire and determination to improve your ski racing, everything else is meaningless. To become the best racer you can be, you must be motivated to do what it takes to maximize your ability.

Focus on your long-term goals. To be your best, you have to put a lot of time and effort into your ski racing. But all of that time and effort is not always enjoyable. I call this the Grind, which involves having to hours upon hours of time into training, well beyond the point that it is fun and exciting. During those times, focus on your long-term goals. Remind yourself why you’re working so hard. Imagine exactly what you want to accomplish and tell yourself that the only way you’ll be able to reach your goals is to go through the Grind.

Have a training partner. It’s difficult to be highly motivated all of the time on your own. There are going to be some days when you don’t feel like getting out there. A training partner is someone who can push you through those motivational lows. The chances are on any given day that one of you will be motivated. Even if you’re not very psyched to train on a particular day, you will still put in the time and effort because your partner is counting on you.

Focus on greatest competitor. Another way to keep yourself motivated is to focus on your greatest competitor. I have racers identify who their biggest competition is and put his or her name or photo where they can see it every day. Ask yourself, “Am I working as hard as him/her?” Remember that only by working your hardest will you have a chance to overcome your greatest competitor.

Set goals. There are few things more rewarding and motivating than setting a goal, putting effort toward the goal, and achieving the goal. The sense of accomplishment and validation of the effort motivates you to strive higher. You should set clear goals of what you want to accomplish in your ski racing and how you will achieve those goals.

Daily questions. Every day, you should ask yourself two questions. When you get up in the morning, ask, “What can I do today to become the best ski racer I can be?” and before you go to sleep, ask, “Did I do everything possible today to become the best ski racer I can be?”.

The heart of motivation. Motivation is not something that can be given to you. Motivation must ultimately come from within. You must simply want to ski race. There are two things that should motivate you to race. You should compete because you have a great passion for ski racing. You should race because you just love to get out there and do it.

Prime Ski Racing Quote of the Day: “Training to win takes competitive drive.” USST member Sarah Schleper

Progression of Prime Confidence

1-19-01

The ultimate goal of Prime Confidence is to develop a strong and resilient belief in your skiing ability so that you have the confidence to give your best effort, ski at your highest level, and believe you can be successful in the most important races of your life. I have identified four steps that are required to develop Prime Confidence.

Preparation breeds confidence. Preparation is the foundation of confidence. If you believe that you have done everything you can to ski your best, you will have confidence in your ability to ski well. This preparation includes the physical, technical, tactical, and mental parts of ski racing. If you have developed these areas as fully as you can, you will have faith that you will be able to use those skills gained from preparation to ski as well as you can.

Mental skills reinforce confidence. Confidence is a skill that develops with practice. A meaningful way to strengthen your confidence is to use mental skills that provide repetition of the confidence. These mental skills include goal setting to bolster motivation, positive self-talk and body language to fortify confidence, intensity control to combat anxiety, keywords to maintain focus and avoid distractions, and emotional control to stay calm under pressure.

Adversity ingrains confidence. Your biggest challenge is to maintain your belief in yourself when you’re faced with adversity. To more deeply ingrain confidence in your skiing, you should expose yourself to as much adversity as possible. Adversity can involve anything that makes you uncomfortable and takes you out of your comfort zone. Adversity can include bad weather, poor snow conditions, or a race hill on which you have never skied well.

Success validates confidence. All of the previous steps in building Prime Confidence would go for naught if you did not then ski well and have success in races. Success validates the confidence you have developed in your ability. It demonstrates that your belief in your ability is well-founded. Success further strengthens your confidence, making it more resilient in the face of adversity and poor races. Finally, success rewards your efforts to build confidence, encouraging you to continue to work hard and develop your skiing.

Prime Ski Racing Quote of the Day: “Confidence comes from laying the strong foundation to build a career on: physical conditioning, eating a well balance diet, getting plenty of rest, having the right equipment to fit your needs, and having a well thought out long range plan. Confidence comes from hard work and making sacrifices.” Former U.S. Olympic ski coach Finn Gundersen

Determining Prime Intensity

1-26-01

An essential part of developing Prime Ski Racing involves identifying what is your prime intensity. Think back to several races in which you skied very well. Recall your level of intensity. Were you relaxed, energized, or really fired up? Then remember the thoughts, emotions, and physical feelings you experienced during these races. Were you positive or negative, happy or angry, relaxed or tense? Then, think back to several races in which you skied poorly. Recall your level of intensity. Remember the thoughts, emotions, and physical feelings you had in these races. If you’re like most racers, a distinct pattern will emerge. When you ski well, you have a particular level of intensity. This is your prime intensity. There are also common thoughts, emotions, and physical feelings associated with skiing well. In contrast, when you’re skiing poorly, there is a very different level of intensity, either higher or lower than your prime intensity. There are also decidedly different thoughts, emotions, and physical feelings.

Another useful way to help you understand your prime intensity is to experiment with different levels of intensity in training and see how the differing intensity impacts your skiing. Here is a good exercise you can use to learn more about your prime intensity:

Let’s say you’re going to take six training runs of slalom. Break up the training session into three segments. The first two runs will emphasize low intensity. Before you begin the run, take several slow, deep breaths, relax your muscles, and focus on calming thoughts (e.g., “Easy does it,” “Cool and calm.”). As you start the run, stay focused on keeping your body relaxed and calm.

The next two runs will focus on moderate intensity. Before the run, take a few deep, but stronger breaths, jump around a bit, and focus on more energetic thoughts (e.g., “Let’s go,” “Pick it up.”). Before the run, bounce on your skis lightly and feel your intensity picking up. During the run, pay attention to feeling the intensity and energy in your body.

The final two runs will highlight high intensity. Before the run, take several deep, forced breaths with special emphasis on a hard and aggressive exhale, start bouncing up and down on your skis immediately, and repeat intense thoughts (e.g., “Fire it up,” “Get after it.”), saying these out loud with energy and force. Feel the high level of intensity and energy as you begin the run, and focus on maintaining the intensity throughout the turn.

I encourage you to use this exercise for several days so you can see clearly how your intensity impacts your skiing. You will probably see a pattern emerge in which you ski better at one of the three levels of intensity. With this knowledge, you will have a good sense of your prime intensity and can then use that information to recognize when you’re not at prime intensity before a race and when you need to adjust your intensity to a prime level.

I should also point out that prime intensity may differ between events. The feedback I get from many racers is that the technical events usually require a higher level of intensity than the speed events. However, this view in not unanimous. You should use the two strategies I just described to determine your prime intensity for each event.

Prime Ski Racing Quote of the Day: “Every day I trained at 100 percent World Cup intensity. You have to eat, breath, sleep, and live that intensity.” USST member Chad Fleischer

Focus Styles

2-2-01

One of the most important developments I’ve made in my work in recent years is in understanding the importance of identifying racers’ focus styles. A focus style is a preference for paying attention to certain cues. Racers tend to be more comfortable focusing on some cues and avoid or don’t pay attention to other cues. Every racer has a dominant style that impacts all aspects of their skiing. This dominant style will surface most noticeably when they’re under pressure. The two types of focus styles are internal and external.

Internal focus style. Racers with an internal focus style ski best when they’re totally and consistently focused on their skiing during training or a race. They need to keep their focus narrow, thinking only about their skiing. These racers tend to be easily distracted by activity in their immediate surroundings. If they broaden their focus and take their mind off their skiing, for example, if they talk about non-skiing topics with their friends before a race, they’ll become distracted and will have trouble narrowing their focus back onto their skiing.

External focus style. Racers with an external focus style ski best when they only focus on their skiing when they’re about to begin a training or race run. At all other times, they broaden their focus and take their mind off their skiing. These racers have a tendency to think too much and become negative and critical. This overly narrow focus causes them to lose confidence and get nervous. For these racers, it’s essential that they take their focus away from their skiing when they’re not training or racing.

External focus style runs counter to beliefs held by many coaches. They think that if racers are not totally focused on their skiing, then they’re not serious about it and they won’t ski their best. Yet, for racers with an external focus style, they don’t want to think too much or be too serious because this causes them to be negative and critical. They’ll ski their best when they’re not thinking too much about their skiing and they simply allow their natural abilities to emerge on their own.

Prime Ski Racing Quote of the Day: “I am aware of what’s going on around me, but I’m not paying attention, because I don’t care what anyone else is doing.” Olympic champion Picabo Street

Emotional Threat vs. Emotional Challenge

2-16-01

In recent years, I have found that a simple distinction appears to lie at the heart of the emotional reactions racers have to their skiing: threat vs. challenge. At the heart of emotional threat is the perception that winning is all-important and failure is unacceptable. Emotional threat is most often associated with too great an emphasis on winning, results, and rankings. Pressure to win from parents, coaches, and racers themselves is also common. With these beliefs, it is easy to see why competing in ski racing would be emotionally threatening.

Emotional threat manifests itself in a negative “emotional chain” in which each link separately and cumulatively makes racers feel badly and hurts their skiing. The most common reaction to a threat is the desire to avoid the threat. There is often a loss of motivation to ski and compete, especially when the threat of losing is immediate, for example, when a racer is behind after the first run, (think of giving up as a major loss of motivation). Emotional threat also suggests to racers that they’re incapable of overcoming the situation that is causing the threat, so their confidence is hurt and racers are overwhelmed with negative and defeatist thoughts. The threat produces strong negative emotions such as fear, anger, frustration, depression, despair, and helplessness.

The emotional threat also causes anxiety and all of the negative physical symptoms associated with anxiety. The previous links in the emotional chain make it nearly impossible to focus effectively because there are so many negative things pulling racers’ focus away from a useful process focus. All of the previous links in the chain ultimately result in very poor skiing and little enjoyment in ski racing.

In contrast, emotional challenge is associated with racers enjoying the process of ski racing regardless of whether they win or lose. The emphasis is on having fun and seeing racing as exciting and enriching. Ski racing, when seen as an emotional challenge, is an experience that is relished and sought out at every opportunity. Thus, emotional challenge is highly motivating, to the point where racers love competing in big races.

Emotional challenge communicates to racers that they have the ability to meet the demands of ski racing, so they’re confident and filled with positive thoughts. Emotional challenge generates many positive emotions such as excitement, joy, and satisfaction. It also stimulates racers’ bodies to achieve prime intensity, where their bodies are relaxed, energized, and physically capable of performing their best. Racers also have the ability to attain prime focus, in which they’re totally focused on what enables them to ski their best. All of these links in the emotional challenge chain lead racers to Prime Ski Racing and great enjoyment in their ski racing.

Prime Ski Racing Quote of the Day: “I can maintain a level head when I make huge mistakes. I don't get down on myself between turns or when something goes wrong, or in a larger sense between runs or races.” USST member Bode Miller

Prime Ski Racing Training

3-2-01

Too often, I see racers begin training without any clear idea of what they’re working on to improve. When this happens, racers are not only not improving, they’re also making it more difficult to improve because they’re ingraining old and ineffective skills, which makes it harder to learn new skills. You should follow these rules to get the most out of your training.

Goal and purpose. You need to always train with a goal and a purpose. A goal is some aspect of your ski racing that you want to improve—physical, technical, tactical, or mental. A purpose is something specific you work on in training to enable you to achieve your goal. For example, if a racer’s goal is to maintain a lower tuck on the flats, his purpose would be to lower his hips and feel his chest against his thighs.

100% focus and intensity. Most racers need to work on their focus and intensity in training. Racers should train at a level of focus and intensity that will allow them to ski their best in races. Too often I see racers training around 70-80%. When they get to a race, they want to ski at 100%, but since they haven’t trained at that level, their skiing actually gets worse rather than better.

One more thing, one more time. One of the greatest lessons I have learned from world-class racers came from 1972 Olympic downhill gold medallist Bernhard Russi. He told me a simple rule that he found enabled him to elevate himself above the other great racers of his time: One more thing, one more time. He assumed that all of his competitors were working hard. So, every time he came to the end of a workout, he said to himself, “One more thing, one more time.” He would then do one more sprint or one more set of weights or take one more training run.

Get out of your comfort zone. To become your best, you must move out of your comfort zone. This means making changes to your skiing that will enable you to ski faster in the future. The risk of moving out of your comfort zone is that you’ll make some mistakes at first and might ski poorly for a while. But as you do it more, you’ll become more skilled and familiar with it, and before you know it, you’ll have raised your comfort zone and your skiing to a new level.

Never give up. There’s a tendency among many racers to give up in training when they’re not skiing well. They rationalize giving up by saying that training doesn’t really count for anything. But if you give up in training, you’ll give up in races.

Never giving up is so important because something rather important happens every time you give up: You automatically lose. If you keep fighting, you may not win, but at least you have a chance. You want to ingrain never giving up no matter what happens during training or a race.

Prime Ski Racing Quote of the Day: “It’s doing more than everyone else. It’s finding your own way to make your body tough, and fit. It’s the extra two reps in the weight room. It’s an extra interval.” Sarah Schleper

Ensuring a Prime Race Start

3-23-01

One of the first lessons that emerged from my work with World Cup racers was that they could not afford to work their way into a race run. Many racers I have seen believe that they can take the first few gates to settle into their race run. But these racers seem to forget that the clock starts when they leave the starting gate. If racers are not going for it from the moment they trip the wand, they are falling behind and having to play catch up the rest of the run. In ski racing, where races are won and lost by hundredths of a second, racers can warm up on the race course.

Having a prime start depends on being totally prepared to ski your best from the very start of the race. Your ability to experience a prime start is based on whether you’re physically and mentally ready to ski your best from the moment you leave the starting gate.

At the heart of this readiness is your pre-race routine. It should ensure that you are completely ready to ski best from the start of your race run. You must have a good physical warm-up, which should include everything necessary to ensure total physical readiness. Common physical warm-up activities in ski racing include a short run, jumping rope, stretching, and agility drills.

The next step should be your skiing warm-up that is organized and comprehensive, and include both free skiing and training course warm-up. Your skiing warm-up should begin relaxed and comfortable, allowing your body to warm up, and then increase in energy and effort to race focus and intensity.

The final step of the prime start warm-up is mental. You should check and adjust your focus and intensity. You can also preview your race run using mental imagery. With a prime start, you can ski to your fullest ability and ensure that you will be competitive from the moment you kick the wand.

Prime Ski Racing Quote of the Day: “My best races this year have consisted of a good mental warm-up.” Sarah Schleper

Next Season Starts…NOW!

4-6-01

The race season is finally over. It’s time to hang up your skis, pack away your gear, kick back, and relax, right? WRONG!!! Being the best ski racer you can be is not a part-time activity. It requires a year-round commitment and consistent effort in your physical, technical, tactical, and, yes, mental training. If you’re a ski racer serious about achieving your competitive goals, the end of the race season simply means it’s time to start your preparations for next season. After a short period of rest and relaxation, you need to begin your planning and your training that will get you ready to continue your progress next winter.

Evaluate last season. The first thing you want to do is to look back on the recently completed race season and evaluate how you did. Did you improve during the course of the season? Are you physically stronger than last year? Are you technically better? Did you achieve the results you wanted? Did your rankings go up?

With these questions answered, you can then decide what in your training worked and what did not. You can use this information to adjust your off-season training program to build on your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.

It’s about preparation. How you do ski next year depends on what you do this summer and fall. The foundation of conditioning and skills you develop in the off-season will determine how much you improve and whether you reach your goals next winter. There are three areas in which you must focus to maximize your preparation.

First, you must commit to an intensive physical conditioning program. Ski racing has become a sport of strength, power, agility, and quickness. The only way to develop these areas is with an organized fitness program that may involve weight training, plyometrics, speed work, some endurance training, and stretching.

Second, most racers spend at least part of the summer and fall on-snow. Without the pressure of racing, summer and fall skiing allows you to take the time to make significant technical and tactical changes in your skiing. It also enables you to test and adapt to new equipment.

Finally, the off-season is the best time to engage in mental training. Just like physical conditioning and technical skills, mental aspects of ski racing take time and effort to develop. An organized program of mental training can have huge benefits when you enter the race season.

Goal setting. To help you figure out how to work on all of these areas, you should write down your goals for next season. The first goal you should set is your long-term goal, that is, what you want to accomplish next year in terms of results, rankings, etc. Then, using the information you gained from your evaluation of last year, you can set specific goals for your conditioning, technical development, and mental training to achieve those goals. These goals should be specific (e.g., amount of weight lifted, frequency of workouts) and structured into a weekly training plan. The idea is that every day when you get up, you know exactly what need to do that day to achieve your goals.

Mental skills. There are several essential mental skills that you can work on in the off-season that will enable you to be as conditioned mentally as you are physically next winter. The first area is motivation. Your ability to commit to the goals that you set will depend on your level of motivation. If you have trouble motivating yourself, there are several things you can do. Having an organized weekly training program will help you build your training into your daily activities. Also, having a training partner to work out with increases commitment because someone else is counting on you.

Second, a major purpose of off-season training is to build confidence. If you are working hard and improving during the summer and fall, when the winter begins, you will know that you will have the confidence that you have done everything possible to ski your best. Also, maintaining a positive attitude and practicing positive self-talk can increase confidence.

Mental imagery is perhaps the most powerful tool you can use in your mental training during the off-season. Mental imagery, which involves regularly imagining yourself in different race situations, is like weight training for the mind. It can develop all of the different mental areas that impact your training and racing. Mental imagery increases motivation because you see yourself skiing well and reaching your goals. It builds confidence because you are seeing yourself succeed and ingraining the image and feeling of skiing your best. You improve your intensity and focus because you are creating actual race scenarios that require that you get your body psyched up and your mind focused. Finally, mental imagery instills positive emotions about your ski racing because, with each positive image, you are also generating positive emotions that make you feel good about your ski racing.

Mental imagery can also help your technical and tactical development. As you imagine yourself racing, you can incorporate improvements into your skiing that will make your skiing better even though you are not actually on-snow. Considerable research has shown that if you combine physical and mental practice, you will improve more than just by physical practice alone.

How important is your skiing to you? How badly do you want it? The key to your success next winter starts now! If you commit to an intensive off-season physical, skiing, and mental training program, when you get in the starting gate of your first race next winter, you will know that you have done everything in your power to prepare yourself to ski your best. And the chances are, you will be successful and reach your goals.

Prime Ski Racing Quote of the Day: “Life isn’t easy and the important things take hard work. I learned that to accomplish my goals, I have to look at what it will take to get there, the steps along the way. If I take those steps, the desired outcome will follow.” Hilary Lindh

qUALITIES OF A PRIME SKI RACING COMPETITOR

10-19-01

Looking back at the great ski racers over the years from Jean-Claude Killy and Nancy Greene to Gustavo Thoeni and Annemarie Proell to Herman Maier and Deborah Campagnoni, you see in them common qualities that made them Prime Ski Racing competitors. Each had unique abilities, styles, and personalities, but all shared several essential characteristics.

At the heart of all Prime Ski Racing competitors is an unwavering determination to be the best. They are driven to get better and better. They have a great passion for hard work. They spend hours training every day to improve their skiing. They love the grind and repetition of training and they are willing to suffer to succeed. Most basically, their love of ski racing precedes their love of competing and winning.

Prime Ski Racing competitors have a deep and enduring belief in themselves. They have the confidence to take risks, to do seemingly impossible things, and to never give up no matter what. This belief enables them to be inspired rather than discouraged by defeat and allows them to keep faith in their ability even when they are not skiing their best. Difficult conditions and tough competition are exciting challenges and opportunities to showcase their skills.

Prime Ski Racing competitors are able to raise their performances when they need to in order to win. They seem to seek out and thrive on pressure of the “big race” like the World Championships. They have the ability to stay calm and focused with an Olympic gold medal on the line. Most fundamentally, Prime Ski Racing competitors ski their best in the most important races of their lives.

Prime Ski Racing Quote of the Day: “The most important thing is to be convinced of your chances.” (Alberto Tomba)

SUCCESS AND FAILURE ARE NECESSARY
FOR PRIME SKI RACING

12-7-01
Defining Success and Failure
How you define success and failure, and your perceptions of the roles that winning and losing play in developing Prime Ski Racing, will determine your ability to ski your best consistently. Too often, success and failure are defined narrowly with only one winner and many losers. The racer who wins the race is the winner and everyone else is a loser. But how many times have you skied well, yet lost. The fact is you can’t usually control whether you win or lose. What you can control is the effort you put in and how well you ski. It’s fruitless to strive for something that’s out of your control, so winning and losing should be defined in terms of things over which you have control. With this in mind, I define success as giving your best effort, performing to the best of your ability, and achieving your goals. I define failure as not trying your hardest, not performing as well as you can, and not reaching your goals. The nice thing about these definitions is that they’re within your control, you’ll feel less pressure, you’ll ski better, and as a result, you will probably win more.

Myth and Reality of Winning and Losing

There are many myths and misconceptions that racers hold about winning and losing. Many racers believe that the only way to win is to have always won; that winners rarely lose and losers always lose. The reality is that winners lose more often than losers. Losers lose a few times and quit. Winners lose at first, learn from the losses, then begin to win because of what they’ve learned.

Both winning and losing are essential to becoming a consistent winner. Winning builds confidence and reinforces your belief that you can ski well and at a high level. There are, however, problems with winning too much and too early. Winning can breed complacency because, if you win all of the time, there’s little motivation to improve. Sooner or later though, as you move up the competitive ladder, you’ll come up against someone who is just as good or better than you, and since you haven’t improved your skiing, you won’t be successful against them. Winning also doesn’t identify areas in need of improvement. If you always win, your weaknesses won’t become apparent and you won’t see the need to work on your skiing . Winning also doesn’t teach you how to constructively handle the inevitable obstacles and setbacks of ski racing. You will be so accustomed to winning that when you finally do lose, it will be a shock to you.

There are also benefits to losing that will ultimately enable you to win more. Losing provides you with information about your progress. It shows you what you’re doing well and, more importantly, what you need to improve on. Losing also shows you what doesn’t work, which helps you identify what works best. Losing teaches you how to positively handle adversity.

Rather than becoming discouraged by losing, you should focus on how it will help you become a better ski racer. If you learn the valuable lessons from both winning and losing, you’ll gain the perspective toward ski racing that will allow you to achieve Prime Ski Racing.

Prime Ski Racing Quote of the Day: “Michael Jordan told me once that you have to learn how to fail before you can learn to succeed.” Shaquille O'Neal

MEET THE CONFIDENCE CHALLENGE

12-14-01

The real test of confidence is how you respond when things are not going your way. I call this the Confidence Challenge. It’s easy to stay confident when you’re skiing well, when the conditions are ideal, and when you’re competing against a weak field. But an inevitable part of ski racing is that you’ll have some down periods. What separates the best from the rest is that the best racers are able to maintain their confidence when they’re not skiing their best. By staying confident, they continue to work hard rather than give up because they know that, in time, their skiing will come around. They also know that even when they aren’t at their best, they can still be competitive.

Most racers when they ski poorly lose their confidence and get caught in the vicious cycle of low confidence and poor performance. Once they slip into that downward spiral, they rarely can get out of it. In contrast, racers with prime confidence maintain their confidence and seek out ways to return to their previous level. All racers will go through periods where they don’t ski well. The skill is not getting caught in the vicious cycle and being able to get out of the down periods quickly.

The Confidence Challenge can be thought of as a Prime Ski Racing skill that can be developed. Learning to respond positively to the Confidence Challenge comes from exposing yourself to demanding situations, difficult conditions, and tough competition in training and races and practicing positive responses.

There are several key aspects of mastering the Confidence Challenge. First, you need to develop the attitude that demanding situations are challenges to be sought out rather than threats to be avoided. When you’re faced with a Confidence Challenge you must see it as an opportunity to become a better ski racer. You also need to believe that experiencing challenges is a necessary part of becoming the best ski racer you can be. You have to realize that, at first, these challenges are going to be uncomfortable because they are difficult and unfamiliar. As you expose yourself to more challenges, they will become less threatening and more comfortable.

With this perspective, you should seek out every possible challenge in training and races. Be sure you’re well-prepared to meet the challenges. You can’t master the Confidence Challenge if you don’t have the preparation and skills to do so. Stay positive and motivated in the face of the difficulties. Don’t allow yourself to be sucked into the vicious cycle. Then, focus on what you need to do to overcome the challenge rather than on how difficult it may be or how you may fail. Also, accept that you’ll make mistakes and may not fully succeed when faced with a challenge for the first time. Don’t take this as a failure, but rather as an experience you can learn from to improve next time. Finally, and most importantly, never, ever give up!

Prime Ski Racing Quote of the Day: “I have no secret. I just feel very confident, and that allows me to take all the risks I want and to push all the way down the hill.” Michael Von Greunigen

Mind Over Matter:

Incorporating Mental Skills Training into Your Race Program

10-18-02

No ski coach in America would deny the importance of mental preparation to ski racing success. Whether for an aspiring JIV, a top junior, or an established USST star, there is almost unanimous agreement that the mind plays an essential role in racers’ efforts to achieve their goals. Yet, despite this consensus, little formal mental training occurs in junior race programs.

Given its well-accepted importance, the question is: What keeps programs from incorporating mental training into their athlete development? The answer I have found is that, most often, coaches have so many other responsibilities—physical conditioning, technique and tactics, and program administration, and race schedule planning—that mental training simply slips through the cracks.

The only viable solution to this dilemma is to make it easy for you to integrate mental training into your normal training program. This article shows you the few essential mental areas that you should emphasize, what simple and practical techniques you can teach your racers, and how to incorporate mental skills into your athlete development programs without undue time and energy.

Prime Ski Racing

Before you can teach young racers mental skills, you have to give them a goal to aim for. That goal is Prime Ski Racing: “performing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions.” There are two essential words in this definition. The first keyword is, “consistently.” I want racers to be able to ski at a high level day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out. The second key word is, “challenging.” What makes the great racers great is their ability to ski their best in the worst possible conditions against tough competition in the most important race of their lives.

Prime Ski Racing Pyramid

There are five mental factors that will lead to Prime Ski Racing: motivation, confidence, intensity, focus, and emotions. To develop these areas, you can choose a few basic techniques and then insert them into your training schedule so that they simply become part of what your racers do. This is essential because if you don’t make it a part of your team’s usual and expected routine—like the mandatory two warm-up runs before the kids get into the gates—mental training will go by the wayside within a few weeks.

Motivation

Motivation is perhaps the most difficult mental area to develop because motivation can not be given to racers, but rather they must find the reasons they want ski race. There are several strategies you can use to help racers find their motivation. First, at the start of the season, ask your athletes why they race. Is it because ski racing is fun, they like the competition, they like being with friends, they like improving, they want to make the U.S. Ski Team, or their parents are forcing them to? Understanding why they race will help them stay motivated throughout the season especially when their results may not be what they want. This discussion will also help you give them what they need to stay motivated, for example, if they ski race to be with their friends, make sure they are in the same training group and don’t emphasize technique or results.

Setting goals, working toward them, and then achieving them is one of the great sources of satisfaction and motivation for young athletes. At the start of the season, have your racers complete write down their goals for training, races, and the season that tell you what they hope to achieve this year. As the season progresses, remind them why they should continue to work hard.

Confidence

Confidence is the most important mental factor because it affects racing performance directly —if racers don’t believe they can ski fast and finish, they won’t go all out—and it also influences every other mental area; athletes without confidence are unmotivated, nervous, unfocused, and frustrated.

The foundation of confidence comes from good preparation. Your goal should be for athletes to get in the starting gate of a race and be able to say, “I am totally prepared to have my best race.” Remind racers of the work they are putting in and the progress they are making. Preparation builds confidence without racers even knowing it.

Exposing your athletes to adversity is another great way to build confidence without them realizing it. Challenging your racers with bad weather, difficult snow conditions, and tough courses and helping them to respond positively to the adversity instills in racers the belief that they can handle anything that is thrown at them on race day.

Self-talk is the most powerful tool racers have to build their confidence. Help your athletes become aware of their negative talk and teach them to be more positive. Make negative talk about themselves (“I suck!”) or others (“You suck!”) against the rules. Force them say something positive (“I can do it better next run”) even if they don’t believe it at first. Make being positive a fun and cool thing for the racers to practice.

Intensity

All of the mental skills in the world won’t work if racers aren’t physiologically prepared to ski their best. This means helping them to achieve “prime intensity.” Ask your racers if they race best really relaxed, somewhat energized, or really wired. If they don’t know, have them experiment and find out what works best for them. Then have them either psych up (e.g., jump around, listen to high-energy music,) or psych down (deep breathing, listen to relaxing music, do muscle relaxation exercises) before every training run. Practicing prime intensity in training helps them ingrain it so they can reach prime intensity at races.

Focus

The ability to stay focused is essential for racers to ski fast and consistently. Using keywords and mental imagery during their training runs can help athletes achieve “prime focus.” After you have given your athletes some instruction, have them come up with a keyword that they can say to themselves repeatedly when they’re free skiing or in gates that will help them stay focused on what they are working on. Racers can use mental imagery on the lift and just before a training run—seeing and feeling themselves ski their best—to narrow their focus, remind them what they want to work on, and give them a positive image of good skiing.

Emotions

The emotions that racers experience before races will often determine how they ski. If they are excited and happy, they will likely ski well. If they are fearful, frustrated, or feeling despair, their race will not go well. There are no specific mental training techniques to improve emotions. You can help your athletes develop “emotional mastery” by teaching them to recognize what emotions they are feeling, what is causing the emotions, and then look for solutions to resolve the cause of the emotions. You should use opportunities in which your racers are feeling bad to teach them how they can change their emotions so they can feel good and ski better.

In general, you should look for situations in which you can teach your athletes lessons about how the mind influences performance (and life) and how they can use their mind to work for them rather than against them. These lessons will not only help them achieve their ski racing goals, they will also help them in all areas of their lives.

POSITIVE PARENTING

Expectations: Weapons or Tools

11-15-02

One of the most common questions I am asked by parents is: “Should I set expectations for my child?” My answer is a resounding—though qualified—“Yes!” Expectations can be a powerful tool you use to help your child become successful and happy. Or expectations can bee a destructive weapon that can cause you child to fail and be unhappy. Which impact expectations has on your child depends on how you use them.

An unfortunate mistake that many parents make is to set expectations that make achieving those standards less likely. An ability expectation is one in which a child is expected to achieve a particular result based on his or her natural ability—“We expect you to win because you’re gifted.” If children fail to meet ability expectations, they’re forced to attribute their failure to a lack of ability—they weren’t skilled or smart enough. This type of attribution is harmful because ability is not within children’s control; they may come to believe that they are incapable of being successful.

An outcome expectation is one in which parents expect their child to produce a certain outcome—“W expect you to be the podium.” Our society places great emphasis on competition and winning. Moreover, outcome expectations are often based on how children compare to their peers—“You are a much better skier than your friend Eddie. You should definitely beat him.” Yet children may do their best, but still fail to perform up to the level of their peers and fail to meet their parents’ outcome expectations. This is particularly unfair because children develop at different rates; a child who is less successful at age ten may surpass his peers at age 14.

Healthy expectations hold your child to high standards that will encourage his or her growth as athletes and people. Your challenge is to set expectations that will help your child achieve his or her goals, internalize essential values, and develop beliefs and attitudes that will foster his or her growth as a successful and happy person.

The first step in ensuring that you convey healthy expectations to be sensitive to your own expectations and what expectations you communicate to your child. What ambitions do you have for your child? Are your expectations realistic? Are you setting our child up for success or failure? Do your expectations contribute to your child’s health, happiness, and success?

You should ensure that you only set expectations over which your child has control. Effort expectations emphasize how much determination, hard work, and persistence you expect your child to put into his or her achievement activities—“We expect you to always try your hardest and do your best.” If your child meets these reasonable expectations, he or she will learn the essential relationship between effort and outcome. If your child doesn’t meet your effort expectations, he or she learns the downside of this relationship, but the lesson is still learned. Your child may be disappointed, but he or she knows what needs to be done to meet those expectations next time—work harder.

Many parents don’t realize that outcome expectations often keep children from being successful. Concentrating on the results of children’s efforts prevents them from paying attention to what they need to do to meet those expectations, namely, work hard, stay focused, improve their skills, be prepared, and be patient and persistent. If children meet these effort expectations, they will be as successful as they are capable of.

Ultimately, meeting expectations should be a choice that your child makes about his or her behavior and achievement. Your child can choose to meet realistic expectations and reap the internal and external rewards of success, or he or she can choose not to meet the expectations and accept the consequences of parental disapproval, low achievement, and dissatisfaction. Considering expectations as choices places more of the onus for meeting the expectations on your child rather than his or her feeling forced to accept the expectations. The responsibility for meeting the expectations is his or her own, and this sense of ownership motivates your child to meet the expectations. Expectations as choices also give your child control over how he or she responds to the expectations, further fostering the essential perception that he or she alone has the power to be successful.

POSITIVE PARENTING

Strive for Excellence, Not Perfection

11-29-02

Perfectionism is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, perfectionists can be very successful people who are driven maniacally to achieve. On the other hand, perfectionists often crumble under the weight of striving for perfection and find neither success nor happiness. Children who are raised to become perfectionists come to believe that nothing short of perfection is good enough for their parents, so they must be perfect or they won’t be worthy of love. Dr. David Burns describes perfectionists as people “whose standards are high beyond reach or reason…who strain compulsively and unremittingly toward impossible goals and who measure their worth entirely in terms of productivity and accomplishment.”

Perfectionists set unrealistic expectations, have little tolerance for mistakes, are never satisfied with the fruits of their efforts, and show little enjoyment in their achievements. They often lack confidence in their capabilities and are highly critical of themselves. Perfectionism has been found to be associated with a variety of psychological problems including eating disorders, substance abuse, fear of failure, performance anxiety, and depression.

Children usually learn their perfectionism from their parents. Parents who are perfectionists abhor failure and show great distress when they are unable to live up to their own impossible standards. They communicate the importance of being perfect in many ways. Parents who raise perfectionistic children set unrealistically high goals and are excessively critical of their children. They rarely reward good results and often punish what they see as poor performances. Children see the perfectionistic messages of their parents, internalize them, and their parents’ perfectionism become their own.

Perfectionistic children are fundamentally unhappy because they strive toward goals they can never achieve, and that failure tells them that they are not worthy of being loved by their parents, themselves, or by anyone else. Imagine what life must be like for children who are perfectionists, living in a constant state of fear of feeling worthless and unloved. Every morning waking up and needing to prove to themselves and to the world that they are deserving of love and respect. Every success is only the briefest respite from the fear of not being loved. Every failure is painful confirmation of their worthlessness.

Excellence is the antidote to perfectionism. I define excellence as being successful most of the time. Whereas perfection is unattainable and, consequently, a fruitless pursuit, excellence is an achievable and worthwhile goal toward which you should encourage your child to strive. Children who strive for excellence will achieve a high degree of success and they will find happiness in their efforts.

Striving for excellence takes the best that perfectionism has to offer and removes its harmful aspects. Excellence still demands that children set high expectations. It still encourages them to give their best effort and to do the very best job they can. However, excellence lightens the burden of having to avoid mistakes and failure because they are seen as necessary parts of striving for success. It removes the fear of failure because children know that their parents will love them no matter how they perform. And excellence allows children to enjoy their achievement efforts, even if they aren’t successful all of the time.

Striving for excellence has several essential benefits. Excellence is an goal that any child can achieve. With hard work alone, your child can attain some level of excellence. Excellence also allows for mistakes and failure. Your child doesn’t have to be perfect—what a relief!. It’s not only okay to fail, but also encouraged because failure offers valuable lessons that will help him or her to become successful—patience, perseverance, responding positively to adversity. A child who strives for excellence can be satisfied with a 10th place in a race if she skied her best. She can slide low on a gate and still be happy with her run. Your child can even have bad runs periodically and find some gratification in having given her best effort.

Perfection is a huge burden on a child’s shoulders. As author Shirley Gould suggests: “If you don’t expect your offspring to be perfect, you encourage them to accept themselves as they are, freeing them to function in productive ways.” Striving for excellence lifts the burden of perfection from children. Striving for excellence relieves the need for children to achieve the impossible so they can achieve the highly probable.

POSITIVE PARENTING

Overscheduling Your Child and Your Family

12-06-02

A ubiquitous—and unfortunate—phenomenon that has emerged in the last ten years is the overscheduling of a child’s life. Today’s ski racing children are not only racing, but also taking piano lessons, playing soccer, and acting in their school play, in addition to having their normal school and family responsibilities. These overly ambitious lives do more harm than good not only to children, but also to the entire family. The children are overloaded with work, feel stressed by the time constraints, and have little time for free play, creativity, and just being a kid. This overplanned life interferes with rather than fosters their achievement and happiness. With so much to do, children have limited time to devote to or focus on any one or two activities to find out whether they actually enjoy it enough to want to explore it further.

Parents are similarly overloaded trying to organize the schedules of one or more children, experience even greater stress trying to juggle all of these demands and to “keep up with the Jones,’” and have little free time to spend with their families and even less time for themselves and their spouses. They also put themselves under so much stress trying to live up to society’s image of “good parents” that they lose sight of what really makes parents good.

One family I know has three kids. The mother was a world-class performing artist and the father was an elite athlete. They both have successful careers. Both parents are high achievers who want their children to adopt similar values. Here is the breakdown of their children’s activities. Eldest child: tennis and piano. Middle child: basketball, soccer, baseball, and guitar. Youngest child: cross-country running, baseball, and tennis. All of the children attend two sleep-away summer camps. The mother says that it is most difficult for her and her husband because they have to manage both family and careers—“This is what makes parents crazy,” she says.

Though I can’t give you definitive guidelines for how much of your child’s life should be scheduled and how much should be unstructured, I can offer a few reasonable suggestions. Your child shouldn’t be involved in more than two achievement activities at one time. He or she should participate in only one achievement activity each day. Scheduling shouldn’t interfere with your child’s getting a good night’s sleep or eating three healthy meals—fast-food dinners in the car going from one activity to another doesn’t count as a healthy meal. Your family should be able to sit down and eat dinner together more times than not each week. Your child should be able to finish his or her homework well before bedtime and get to bed at a reasonable hour. Your child should have time at least several days a week to play outside during the day and inside in the evenings. At least several times a week your family should have “hangout” time during which you do something—or nothing—together. Your family should share an activity at least twice a month, such as going for a day hike, visiting a museum, or attending a dance concert. You should have time to read a newspaper or a book, watch something you enjoy on television, or share a relaxed, non-child-related conversation with your spouse most evenings each week. At least half of each month’s weekends during some parts of the year should be open and unplanned.

These are very general guidelines. The motivation of your child, your values, and the demands of the activities in which your child is involved will all cause these guidelines to need to be modified at times. For example, ski racing is a very time-intensive sport, requiring winter-long commitment to a race program, often long drives to get to your home ski area and even longer drives to get to races, in addition to many hours of training on and off the hill. The great thing about ski racing, however, is that while your child is training, you can go have fun skiing yourself—imagine the tennis, golf, or chess parents who just sit around all day! Also, ski racing is seasonal so when the snow melts, life can become more normal (at least until summer training camps start). Ultimately, you are the best judge of how much is too much. I believe that you know when enough is enough, but you may be reluctant to assert yourself because you’re afraid you will be viewed as a “bad parent”—in reality, the Jones’ will be jealous of you.

POSITIVE PARENTING

Parent and Child Responsibilities in Ski Racing

12-13-02

For your child to have a great ski racing experience—which, for me, means developing essential life skills, achieving his or her goals, and having fun—both you and your child must understand and fulfill your respective responsibilities. Taylor’s Law of Family Responsibilities states that if family members fulfill their own responsibilities and do not assume others’, then children develop into healthy, mature, and successful people, and everyone is happy. However, problems arise when parents take on the responsibilities of their children and their children are not allowed to assume their own responsibilities. This usurping of responsibilities results in parents taking ownership of their children’s ski racing.

Your Responsibilities

Your responsibilities revolve primarily around providing your child with the opportunity, means, and support to pursue his or her ski racing goals. The practical means include ensuring that your child has the necessary equipment, proper coaching, and transportation, among other logistical concerns. The psychological and emotional means include providing love, guidance, encouragement, and perspective in his or her efforts.

Your Child’s Responsibilities

Your child’s responsibilities relate to doing what is necessary to maximize the opportunities that you give him or her. These responsibilities include being motivated, giving his or her best effort, being responsible and disciplined, listening to coaches, and staying committed. Other practical responsibilities include participating in all training programs, getting the most out of coaching, being cooperative, and expressing appreciation for others’ efforts.

Taking on Your Child’s Responsibilities

Problems arise when parents take on the responsibilities of their children. If you are assuming your child’s responsibilities, you are communicating that you don’t think they are competent enough to adequately fulfill their own responsibilities. Your child may internalize the belief that he or she is not trustworthy or competent. For many children, it also opens the door to avoiding their responsibilities: “Heck, why should I do it if my parents will do it for me?”

A practical way for you check whether you are taking on your child’s responsibilities is to ask yourself whether you “micromanage” his or her life. It is a fundamental responsibility for you to manage your child’s life by instilling important values, providing guidance and direction, setting appropriate boundaries, and attaching consequences to his behavior. However, micromanaging means getting involved in areas of your child’s life that are not your responsibility. As a general rule, any action on your part that interferes with your child’s ownership of his ski racing, his sense of control over his participation, his learning the connection between effort and outcome, and his being held accountable for his actions can be considered micromanagement. For example, if you find yourself working on your child’s equipment and packing his or her bags, you are micromanaging.

Teach Responsibility

The best way to ensure that you and your child assume the appropriate responsibilities is for each of you to know what your responsibilities are. When your child begins a new race season, you should sit down with him or her and outline each of your responsibilities.

Make a list of what you as a parent will be doing to help your child succeed—pay the bills, make sure they have the necessary equipment, get them to training and races, show interest in their efforts. Ask your child about what he or she believes you can do to help. Encourage your child to tell you about a particular responsibility should not be yours.

Next, make a list of what your child’s responsibilities should be. Before you share your thoughts with your child, ask him or her. If you feel your child has missed some important responsibilities, suggest them. Then, identify other individuals who will have responsibilities in your child’s ski racing, such as a coach. List what responsibilities they should have.

There should also be consequences for not fulfilling responsibilities. Ideally, there should be consequences for both your child and you, but it is probably unrealistic for your child to “punish” you in some way (though there are certainly some parents who could use a “time-out”). The best consequences are those that remove something of importance to your child and give him or her the control to get it back by acting appropriately.

Knowing your respective responsibilities provides absolute clarity to both you and your child about what your “jobs” are. It also allows for no confusion at a later point when either of you step over the line and assume the other’s responsibilities or neglects your own.

Maximize Your Race Imagery

Jim Taylor, Ph.D.

11-13-03

Race imagery is perhaps the most powerful mental skill you can develop to help you achieve Prime Ski Racing. There are four factors that will impact the quality of your race imagery: perspective, control, multiple sense, and speed. You can develop each of these areas so you can get the most out of your race imagery.

Imagery perspective. Imagery perspective refers to where the “imagery camera” is when you do race imagery. The internal perspective involves seeing yourself from inside your body looking out, as if you were actually skiing. The imagery camera is inside your head looking out through your eyes. The external perspective involves seeing yourself from outside your body like on video. The imagery camera follows your skiing from the outside. Research indicates that one perspective is not better than the other. Most people have a dominant perspective with which they’re most comfortable. You should use the perspective that’s most natural for you and then experiment with the other perspective to see if it helps you in a different way.

Control. Have you ever been doing race imagery and you keep making mistakes, for example, you keep falling in your imagery? This problem relates to imagery control, which is how well you’re able to imagine what you want to imagine. It’s not uncommon for racers to ski poorly in their imagery. If mistakes occur in your imagery, you shouldn’t just let them go by. If you do, you’ll ingrain the negative image and feeling which will hurt your skiing. Instead, when you ski poorly in your imagery, immediately rewind the “imagery video” and edit it and rerun the imagery video until you do it correctly.

Multiple senses. Good race imagery is more than just visual. The best imagery involves the multi-sensory reproduction of the actual skiing experience. You should duplicate the sights, sounds, physical sensations, thoughts, and emotions that you would experience at an actual race. Visual imagery involves how clearly you see yourself skiing. Vivid auditory images are important because sounds can play an important part in ski racing. For example, the sound of the skis on the snow tell you about the snow conditions. The most powerful part of race imagery is feeling it in your body. That’s how you really ingrain new technical and mental skills and habits. A useful way to increase the feeling in your race imagery is to combine imagined and real sensations. Imagine yourself skiing and move your body with the imagined skiing. You see World Cup racers doing this before races.

Speed. The ability to adjust the speed of your imagery will enable you to use race imagery to improve different aspects of your skiing. Slow motion is effective for focusing on technique. When you first start to work on technique in your imagery, slow the imagery video down, frame by frame if necessary, to see yourself executing the skill correctly. Then, as you see and feel yourself skiing well in slow motion, increase the speed of your imagery until you can ski well at “real-time” speed.

Prime Ski Racing Quote of the Day: “I slip by each gate, imagining myself at full speed busting through it. After imagining myself skiing the entire course, I’m so ready to ski…that I can barely wait…for my start.” Sarah Schleper

Getting Ready for Your Own Big Race:

Lessons Learned from St. Moritz

2-21-03

You’ve worked hard all winter. You’ve qualified for the big races that you set as a goal in the fall: the States, Junior Olympics, U.S. Nationals, or perhaps the World Championships. But getting there isn’t enough; you want to ski your best in the “big one!” Continuing to improve your technique and sticking with that winter physical conditioning maintenance program will help. But whether you succeed or fail to achieve your goals at these all-important races ultimately depends on what happens between your ears as these events near. Approaching these races with the right attitude is your key to skiing your best.

The problem is that important races can play mind games with your head. Instead of just wanting to do your best, you REALLY want to do your best. Your focus can shift from “What do I have to do to ski well?” to “What will happen if I don’t ski well?” What had been goals turn into pressure-laden expectations. What is supposed to be a challenge to enjoy becomes a threat to fear. If you go the “dark side” of big races, you have lost before you even get in the starting gate.

There are two schools of thought on how to prepare for a big race. One approach is to try to ignore the fact that it is a big race and simply say, “It’s no big deal so there is nothing to get worked up about.” The U.S. Ski Team took this tack in their athletes’ preparations for the World Championships in St. Moritz. Wanting to continue the successes their charges have already had so far this season, the coaching staff had their athletes training in isolation in Italy, keeping the media away so that they didn’t get distracted or buy into the expectations that the outside forces, such as the press, can often impose on athletes before big events. The USST wanted their athletes to treat the World Championships like just another race and to ignore the hype surrounding this event.

The risk of this approach is that big races like the World Championships are hard to ignore even if the athletes are kept isolated. By ignoring the reality of the situation, you are not preparing yourself for the magnitude of the event that will inevitably hit you sooner or later. You will have to face the hyped expectations—usually from family, friends, and coaches—at some point, but you won’t be mentally prepared to handle the inescapable pressure that comes with the big race. However, despite these dangers, this approach worked for some of the USST athletes, as Bode Miller won two gold and one silver medal, Erik Schlopy won a bronze, and Kirsten Clark and Jonna Mendes earned the silver and bronze medals. This strategy may have been less effective for other members of the USST, in particular Daron Rahlves, Caroline LaLive, and Sarah Schleper.

The other school of thought argues that big events can’t be avoided, ignored, or downplayed. Rather, athletes must face the reality of these races and do what they can to respond positively to the unavoidable expectations and pressures. The Austrians assume this approach as, given the popularity of ski racing in their country, there is nowhere for them to hide. This approach has athletes say, “This race is a big deal, so let’s figure out how to deal with it positively.” With this approach, you must acknowledge that your upcoming race is a huge event and is not to be taken lightly. You must establish an attitude that will enable you to achieve your goals (“I am going to believe in myself, stay grounded, and focus on what I need to do to ski my best.”). This attitude helps you deflect the external and self-imposed pressures and enables you to maintain a positive and healthy perspective and focus as you approach the big races. You need to figure out what you need to do to be totally prepared to ski your best (e.g., on-hill training, physical conditioning, mental preparation, social activities). You also should recognize what and who might interfere with your preparations (e.g., too much time with family and friends). Finally, you must take deliberate steps to ensure that you maintain the attitude and do the things that you have learned will lead you to success.

The risk of this approach is that, despite your best efforts, you won’t be able to deflect the expectations and pressure. Instead of inoculating yourself against the pressure, you actually succumb to it. This tactic has worked for the Austrians as Stephan Eberharter and Herman Maier earned the gold and silver medals in the Super G and Michaela Dorfmeister won the gold medal in the women’s Super G, but may have hurt Benjamin Reich who was on the podium after the first runs in two events only to lose ground on his second runs. I would like to note that the reasons why some athletes falter can never be known with certainty and that my speculations are not intended to assign cause for their difficulties, but rather to illustrate the importance of preparing the right way for big races.

What we can learn from this is that there is no one ideal approach. You must look at how you have handled big races in the past. If you skied well using one approach, then stick with it (“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”). But if it didn’t work before, don’t expect it to work next time. In this case, you will want to do something different. Regardless of the approach you take, the goal is to enter a big race feeling motivated, confident, relaxed, and focused. If you feel that way, you will ski your best and, most likely, achieve the goals you have set for yourself.

VISUALIZE SUCCESS:

Train Your Mind to See the Best You Can Be

10-13-04

Race imagery is perhaps the most powerful mental skill you can develop to help you achieve Prime Ski Racing. There are four factors that will impact the quality of your race imagery: perspective, control, multiple sense, and speed. You can develop each of these areas so you can get the most out of your race imagery.

Imagery perspective. Imagery perspective refers to where the “imagery camera” is when you do race imagery. The internal perspective involves seeing yourself from inside your body looking out, as if you were actually skiing. The imagery camera is inside your head looking out through your eyes. The external perspective involves seeing yourself from outside your body like on video. The imagery camera follows your skiing from the outside. Research indicates that one perspective is not better than the other. Most people have a dominant perspective with which they’re most comfortable. You should use the perspective that’s most natural for you and then experiment with the other perspective to see if it helps you in a different way.

Control. Have you ever been doing race imagery and you keep making mistakes, for example, you keep falling in your imagery? This problem relates to imagery control, which is how well you’re able to imagine what you want to imagine. It’s not uncommon for racers to ski poorly in their imagery. If mistakes occur in your imagery, you shouldn’t just let them go by. If you do, you’ll ingrain the negative image and feeling which will hurt your skiing. Instead, when you ski poorly in your imagery, immediately rewind the “imagery video” and edit it and rerun the imagery video until you do it correctly.

Multiple senses. Good race imagery is more than just visual. The best imagery involves the multi-sensory reproduction of the actual skiing experience. You should duplicate the sights, sounds, physical sensations, thoughts, and emotions that you would experience at an actual race. Visual imagery involves how clearly you see yourself skiing. Vivid auditory images are important because sounds can play an important part in ski racing. For example, the sound of the skis on the snow tell you about the snow conditions. The most powerful part of race imagery is feeling it in your body. That’s how you really ingrain new technical and mental skills and habits. A useful way to increase the feeling in your race imagery is to combine imagined and real sensations. Imagine yourself skiing and move your body with the imagined skiing. You see World Cup racers doing this before races.

Speed. The ability to adjust the speed of your imagery will enable you to use race imagery to improve different aspects of your skiing. Slow motion is effective for focusing on technique. When you first start to work on technique in your imagery, slow the imagery video down, frame by frame if necessary, to see yourself executing the skill correctly. Then, as you see and feel yourself skiing well in slow motion, increase the speed of your imagery until you can ski well at “real-time” speed.

Prime Ski Racing Quote of the Day: “I slip by each gate, imagining myself at full speed busting through it. After imagining myself skiing the entire course, I’m so ready to ski…that I can barely wait…for my start.” Sarah Schleper

THE THINKING COACH

Published in American Ski Coach (1988-94)

PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES IN SKI COACHING EFFECTIVENESS

The roles of ski coaches are many and diverse. Coaches must be teachers, trainers, friends, parents, and, yes, psychologists. Moreover, they are expected to have expertise in many fields including physiology, biomechanics, psychology, and education. Much time and energy has been directed toward the education of coaches on the technical and physical aspects of skiing. However, only relatively recently has the skiing community begun to examine the important role that psychology plays in coaching.

Coaches have a significant influence on the psychological development of their racers. This influence is profound because the beliefs that racers develop about themselves through their skiing participation can significantly affect other aspects of their lives. As a result, coaches should give careful thought to how they can teach their athletes a healthy, positive approach to participation and competition at all levels of skiing. More importantly, coaches should consider not only how they can help them to become better athletes, but also better people. This four-part series of articles will present a discussion of issues that relate to the psychological aspects of coaching. It is hoped that it will provide to coaches a better understanding of the psychological dynamics that occur in ski racing. The goal of these articles will be to offer practical skills and methods that coaches may employ as a means of creating the most positive atmosphere and provide the best instruction possible for their racers.

This series will address a number of topics of interest and importance to ski coaches. First, a much neglected area in coaching development involves the notion that coaches are people too. In other words, coaches should have a basis for maintaining motivation and developing enjoyment in their work. The concepts and skills that sport psychologists teach to athletes can also be valuable to coaches as a means of managing stress, and developing a greater sense of self-worth and satisfaction in their profession.

A second area of importance to ski coaches is the development of a sound foundation of upon which to build their specific skills. This foundation, termed Interpersonal Coaching Style (ICS), is the general manner in which coaches present themselves and communicate with others.

The third area to be examined consists of the psychological and motor aspects of skill acquisition. This topic discusses the role of the coach in the technical development of racers. Issues of importance include the four steps in the learning process, concentration in learning, and the role that expectations and goals play in learning.

The fourth area involves how coaches may most effectively convey instructional information to their racers. Topics to be addressed include information feedback, reinforcement, and teaching independence.

The value of the issues that will be presented is that they can be offered in parts or as a comprehensive program. This knowledge can be used with the coaching staff of a team to improve specific areas of each coach and to enhance the overall functioning of the staff as a whole. Alternatively, these issues can be incorporated into a systematic coaching education and development program. Finally, only when these issues have been addressed fully can coaches be sure that they are providing the best instruction possible for their athletes and they are creating the best possible environment for them to develop both athletically and personally.

COACHES ARE PEOPLE TOO

It is a commonly held belief that ski coaches are overworked and underpaid. They are often under a great deal of pressure to succeed and their positions can be tenuous. These issues can contribute to a wide variety of difficulties. Considerable attention is paid to difficulties that are experienced by athletes at all levels of skiing. However, little consideration is given to similar problems that coaches must face. Many people simply do not realize that ski coaches are people too. It is important for the mental, emotional, and physical health of coaches that individuals within the athletic community appreciate that coaches have doubts, worries, fears, and other problems and that these issues can lead to more serious difficulties that will affect the coaches as individuals and in their involvement with their racers and teams. Addressing this issue directly is essential in assisting coaches in building a sound foundation for maintaining motivation and enhancing the satisfaction and enjoyment they derive from their work.

Why's and What's of Coaching

The first step in building this foundation is to aid coaches in understanding their own motivations and reasons for coaching. This phase can be accomplished with a process termed, the why's and what's of coaching. This strategy involves, first, asking coaches to identify and list the reasons why they are coaching. Responses to this query should include issues related to personal values, quality of life, and financial expectations. Second, coaches are then asked to indicate what they believe are the benefits and detriments of coaching for them. The coaches' answers should be comprehensive in their appraisal of all of the positive and negative aspects of coaching. Third, coaches should indicate what they want out of coaching, i.e., what are their goals in their career. Once again, their responses should encompass all aspects of their coaching experience.

Once the why's and what's of coaching have been clarified, it is then necessary for the coaches to set personal goals. These goals can be classified into three general categories: attitudes and behavior, skill development, and individual athlete and team performance. Attitude and behavior goals involve setting goals for the attitudes and behaviors that coaches exhibit in their interactions with athletes, coaches, and others such as parents and officials. Skill development goals comprise standards for the acquisition of the skills that are necessary for effective coaching. Lastly, perhaps the most significant measure of coaches' ability and success is the performance of the team and individual athletes on the team. As a result, goals involved with individual and team performance can be set as a means of maintaining motivation.

________________________________________________________

1) WHY DO YOU COACH? "I like working with kids, not only making them better athletes, but also better people. I don't want to sit behind a desk. I enjoy being outdoors".

2) WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS AND DETRIMENTS OF COACHING? "Seeing the kids improve and mature, being able to travel around the world, participating in my favorite sport for a living are all benefits. Detriments include low pay, long hours and burn-out, and freezing all the time".

2) WHAT DO YOU WANT OUT OF COACHING? "I would like to develop some world-class skiers and be respected by my peers. I would also like to make enough money to maintain the quality of life I want and have some security in the future".

3) WHAT PERSONAL GOALS DO YOU HAVE SET FOR YOURSELF? "On a personal level, I would like to get less frustrated with my kids and be more positive rather than critical. I would also like to develop my knowledge in the areas of physical and psychological training. I would like to see several of my athletes named to the USST. Lastly, within the next few years, I would like to be a coach for the USST".

________________________________________________________

Developing a Coping Repertoire

A significant source of difficulties that negatively influences coaches' motivation, satisfaction, and performance is common problems that they face on a regular basis. These problems can range from the trivial such as broken or lost equipment to the serious such as substance abuse among team members. The ability of coaches to address these issues in a positive, constructive manner will influence significantly their coaching performance and their own sense of self-worth and well-being. As a result of this importance, the development of effective preventive measures and coping skills is essential. A useful way to initiate this process is through group brainstorming with the coaching staff. This method allows coaches to share techniques they already use and to generate and have consensus on the most effective means of dealing with problems.

The first step in developing a coping repertoire is to identify common sources of problems. Within any particular skiing setting, there is usually a common set of difficulties that coaches must address regularly. These frequent problems include intra-team conflict, negative attitudes, and injuries. A detailed identification of these areas will clarify for the coaches the problems that are most frequent and frustrating and provide the basis for prevention and coping.

The most effective means of dealing with problems involves using preventive measures. In other words, the best way to deal with problems is not to have to deal with them. Through active management of the team environment, coaches can create a setting that prevents many problems from arising. As a result, a significant source of stress for the coaches can eliminated.

Invariably, not all difficulties can be prevented. Consequently, it is necessary for coaches to develop a coping repertoire as a means of addressing these problems in a healthy fashion. There are many ways to deal with obstacles. However, the ideal solution should be one in which all involved parties emerge with good feelings and a sense of closure. As a result, careful consideration should be given to the best means of solving problems. Techniques such as time-out, i.e., getting away from the problem, assertiveness, and honest communication are examples of ways that difficulties can be addressed in a positive manner.

________________________________________________________

PROBLEM: Overbearing parents at training and races.

PREVENTIVE MEASURE: No parents at training, parent education classes.

COPING SKILLS: Role-playing of diplomatic, but firm response to parents. Relaxation techniques to control anger.

PROBLEM: Burn-out.

PREVENTIVE MEASURE: Limit and structure work hours, delegate responsibilities.

COPING SKILLS: Time-out, build social support, seek counseling.

________________________________________________________

Building Support System

Perhaps the most important way that coaches can maintain their motivation and satisfaction and deal with the stresses associated with coaching is through the development of a broad-based social support system. First, possibly the greatest source of frustration for coaches is the lack of financial, logistical, and moral support from upper-level management. The inability to accomplish necessary tasks that are outside of the immediate responsibilities of the coach is detrimental to coaches on both a psychological and practical level. As a result, considerable effort should be made to open up lines of communication between coaches and upper-level staff.

A second important area of support must come from within the coaching staff itself. A cohesive, mutually-supportive staff will be more efficient and will be able to address a greater variety of issues more effectively. A meaningful issue relative to this concern is in the selection of the staff. Consideration should be given not only to the individual abilities of the coaches, but also to how their strengths and weaknesses complement and support each other. A well-balanced staff does not have to be composed of individuals possessing every necessary coaching skill. Rather, a carefully selected staff will be comprised of coaches who, in aggregate, possess all of the requisite skills necessary to fulfill their responsibilities. A useful method for building and maintaining support within a coaching staff is to schedule regular coaches meetings with the express purpose of solving problems, providing an emotional outlet, and developing preventive and coping strategies.

Another significant source of support for coaches is from family and friends. Particularly for coaches that are required to travel extensively, time away from home can be lonely and stressful. In order to minimize these difficulties, teams can incorporate a program by which coaches have ready access to support from family and friends.

Finally, the sport psychologist can play an important role in the support system of coaches. It is often the case that coaches are experiencing difficulties that they do not feel comfortable discussing with other coaches. In this situation, the sport psychologist is an essential source of support, providing problem-solving, emotional catharsis, and simply someone with whom coaches can speak.

In sum, it must be emphasized that coaches are people before they are coaches. As such, if coaches are expected to do the best job they can, they must be considered on a personal level. Moreover, active management by coaches can ensure that they maintain their motivation and derive satisfaction and enjoyment from their work. So when coaches ask themselves why they coach, they can come up with a lot of good reasons.

INTERPERSONAL COACHING STYLE

The interpersonal coaching style is the foundation upon which all specific coaching skills, whether technical, physical, or psychological, are built. Interpersonal coaching style (ICS) is defined as the manner in which coaches present themselves to and communicate with their athletes. How they look, how they carry themselves, how they communicate both verbally and nonverbally, have a profound effect upon the athletes with whom they interact. Particularly among young, developing coaches, this notion should be considered and addressed.

The interpersonal coaching style is comprised of several specific components. They include issues related to leadership, authority and discipline, overt and covert communication with athletes, coaches, and others, the effective communication of technical and performance information, organizational skills, and coaches' response to stress and pressure.

Coaches' interpersonal style will influence their racers in several ways. First, it will affect their overall attitude and perspective toward their skiing, e.g., whether competition is viewed as enjoyable or stressful. Racers' interactions with their coaches largely determine their perception of the sport.

Second, coaches' ICS will affect their athletes' motivation to practice and compete. In other words, their ICS will dictate whether athletes perceive their experiences on the race hill as positive and healthy, thereby increasing their desire to participate, or as negative and detrimental, thus reducing their motivation to participate.

Third, the coaches' ICS will affect the racers' receptivity to the specific coaching skills that they employ during the course of training. Quite simply, if racers do not like or respect their coach, they are going to be less receptive to the subsequent instruction and it is likely that training will be viewed as a negative experience.

The type of athletes that are to be coached is an important issue that must be considered relative to the suitable ICS. Several athlete factors have to be examined. First, what is the goal of the participation? Clearly, coaches would behave differently if they were working with a junior program who's primary goal was participation and fun as compared to elite racers training for the Olympics.

It must also be stressed that, like technical instruction, there is no single best ICS. There are many interpersonal coaching styles that are effective. In fact, for every successful coach, there is a unique and valuable style. For instance, some are funny and energetic, others are serious and encouraging. However, despite the diverse styles, they share some common characteristics such as the ability to instill self-confidence and motivation, and to make the learning experience fun and satisfying. As a result, it is not so important for coaches to mold themselves into the ICS of a famous, well-respected coach. Rather, what is important is that coaches know what ICS they want to convey and then work to develop it. In addition, the successful coach does not have one ICS that is used with all racers. Rather, different styles will be used to fulfill the needs of each individual athlete.

In order for coaches to develop an effective ICS, it is first necessary to evaluate their present style. It is sometimes the case that coaches are unaware of their own demeanor, i.e., how they behave during training or at races. As a result, the development of this awareness will enable coaches to judge the quality and effectiveness of their current ICS. This process can be accomplished in several ways. A technique that is often used in academic education is the video-taping of teaching performances. Applied to coaching, an actual training session or competition can recorded and then reviewed, enabling coaches to become aware of the particular attitudes and behaviors that they exhibit. Self-monitoring of behavior and feedback from racers and, more importantly, from other coaches are additional tools that are valuable in the evaluation process.

Once the current ICS is clarified, it is necessary to establish the criteria for the desired ICS. This can be done by specifying all of the desired characteristics that coaches wish to project. These attributes might include being more enthusiastic, speaking more slowly, or using more physical demonstrations of skills.

When both the current and desired ICS are established, they can