Use Your Head

In the May/June edition of Bicycling Australia we looked at how the mind can impact on your ability to reach your potential as an athlete. This month we asked Sam Patterson to uncover some practical tips to help you lift your mental game.

Every cyclist wants to be mentally tough; one of those athletes who always get the maximum returns from their physical ability and never puts in a bad performance when it counts. In recent years, there is no better illustration than Lance Armstrong, a man who seemed to be impervious to pressure at the Tour. We can’t all have the same, unshakeable self-belief as the American, but we can learn some simple techniques to help ensure we are mentally prepared to get the best out of our bodies. We asked some accredited sports psychologists and a couple of handy athletes for some simple techniques you can use before, during and after you race.

Before Race - Day Visualisation

Melbourne-based sports psychologist, Dr Michelle Pain, says the technique most commonly used by serious athletes to enhance performance is Visualisation or Guided Imagery. This involves playing out the event in your mind beforehand and watching it unfold according to your plan. Dr Pain says there are two basic types of visualisation.

“External visualisation is where you imagine you are watching yourself as if you were on television,” she says, “while internal visualisation involves imagining you are carrying out the movements, and you are looking through your own eyes. Most people have a clear preference for one technique over the other, but either can be equally effective.” While Dr Pain has supplied one approach to visualisation (see visualisation sidebar) she added that there are all sorts of techniques. Even watching videos of yourself or your sporting heroes can help. “I often advise athletes to think of someone they admire and try to take on the qualities of that person when they’re in a difficult situation during an event,” Dr Pain adds. “It helps if you can visualise how that person would react to the situation and watching videos can help with this. You think to yourself, ‘their body language looked like this, so I think I’ll try to act like that too’.”Dr Pain emphasises that while there are different ways to visualise, the key is to practice a little bit every day. “But beware of doing too much visualisation in the days leading up to an event,” she warns. “This can be dangerous as you tend to get too hyped up and it will impact on your sleeping patterns.”

Lance Armstrong in full focus

A Simple Guide to Visualisation

• Find a comfortable chair and close your eyes
• Take several deep breaths, sighing the breaths out, while letting your muscles relax
• Imagine yourself competing at a crucial stage of the event as per your race plan (the more you know about the course, the more effectively you can visualise, so it is worth familiarising yourself with the course if you can)
• Imagine yourself feeling strong, confident and relaxed as you follow through on your race plan
• Before finishing the session, imagine feeling pleased with your effort and feeling a sense of accomplishment

Race Day - Control your arousal level

Discovering your optimal level of arousal is another skill that is essential to achieving high performance. Arousal is a term used by sports psychologists to describe your intensity level. It is essentially the body’s state of readiness. Arousal operates on a continuum from extreme relaxation (almost asleep) to extreme over-arousal (a panic attack). Shayne Hanks, Director of ‘Performance Boost’ and an accredited sports psychologist based in Victoria, says the key to a good performance is to work out the level of arousal that is best for you and use techniques to replicate this level in subsequent races.

“The first step I take when I work with an athlete is to get them to think about their best ever races and write down how they were feeling before the race. Were you relaxed and calm? Were you nervous? How did you feel physically?” he says. “These questions are designed to identify what is required—both physically and mentally—for the athlete to produce their best performance. Once you know your optimal level of arousal, you need to get into the habit of ‘self-assessing’ on race morning. Whether you are under aroused or over-aroused, there are some simple things you can do to get your mind and body to the right level.”

Dealing with nerves

For most athletes a certain level of nervous energy is good as it helps them mobilise the resources required to tackle a big race. However, if race day anxiety levels go beyond a certain threshold it can impede your performance. Hanks says performance anxiety is often attributable to negative self-talk. The trick is to focus on turning the negative thoughts into positive thoughts and block out any doubts that threaten to derail your mental preparation (see doubts sidebar). “You need to train yourself to focus on the things that you can control and view them in a positive light, rather than worrying about things beyond your control, such as the speed of your opponents or the nature of the course,” he says. “Another tactic I use is to teach athletes to block out the distractions around them and focus on really simple, constructive issues that are within their control, such as their technique.” Your body language can also help. “If you picture yourself as an athlete with confidence, not only will you look like the person to beat but you will actually feel like the person to beat. It can have an amazing impact on your confidence,” Hanks says.

Mind over matter

Dr Pain says using positive self-talk is equally important during the race. “If you make a mistake in the race, the worst thing you can do is beat yourself up over it. Continuing to think about the mistake will interfere with your decision-making in the rest of the event. Of course, it is not always easy to let go and you do need to have a plan for discharging negative thoughts or emotions.” “A good technique is to take a deep breath and try to regroup your thoughts to concentrate just on those things that are going to help you recover your composure. Your thought process might be, ‘what would (my hero) do in this situation?’ and take on the qualities needed to get through it. Grit your teeth and keep going and most importantly, remind yourself that you love this sport, and making this mistake gives you a chance to show how mentally tough you have become.”

Listening to music is a great asisstance in calming down and focusing

After the Race

So what about after the race? We know that a warm-down helps th body to recover more effectively, but what about the mind? Hanks says it is just as important to do a ‘warm down’ for your mind by gathering your thoughts, relaxing and refocusing. “The most important thing is to be positive and highlight the things you did well in the race,” he says. “For example, you might have to acknowledge you were not able to follow Plan A but you were able to regroup and follow through with Plan B and you should be proud of this. “The most important thing is to look at why you were not able to stick to Plan A and write this down. This will help ensure you learn from the experience and you can refine your training to address this and make sure you improve your performance next time.” Dr Pain adds that in conducting this debrief, it’s important not to forget to review your mental performance and consider ways to improve. “Even those people who have some affinity for mental skills need to keep practising their mental skills, in the same way they devote time to developing their physical skills. Mental toughness is about persevering in the face of adversity and using good techniques to help you improve your performance and increase your enjoyment of your sport.”