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.
