Good Mental Skills for Racing and Beyond

In my opinion, there is no more important athlete skill than solid mental skills.  Give me two athletes, one who is stronger physically and one who is stronger mentally, and I will bet on the second in every challenging race situation.

The sobering reality is that nine out of ten athletes will under-perform in a challenging race situation. They will not race up to their true potential.  Only one out of ten will meet or exceed their potential.

The key to being that one athlete that meets or exceeds his/her potential is to develop and practice mental skills as often as you practice your swim, bike, run, etc.

Critical mental skills include:

• The ability to shake off failures and disappointments.  Relish failures as a chance to learn and improve.  
• The ability to train and race with a "quiet mind" (do not over think or judge yourself while training or racing)
• The ability to stay "inside the box."  In other words, do not think of your entire race all at once, break it down into manageable segments (like the next mile or the next buoy) and focus on what you want to be doing during just that segment.
• The ability to be appreciative of your good fortune to have the ability, health and time to train and race.
• The ability to embrace periods of feeling uncomfortable or vulnerable.  
• The ability to feel deep satisfaction with your best efforts regardless of the place or finish time.

Developing these skills requires focused, repeated effort.  If you put in the time, you will earn the improved results in your athletic pursuits.  

You will also be better equipped to tackle non-athletic challenges.  This past week, a family member endured a dangerous and damaging house fire.  In the confusing hours and days that followed, these same mental skills helped both her and me to get through the difficult moments when our heads were spinning.  Shake off disappointments.  Quiet mind.  Stay inside the box.  Be appreciative of our good fortune.  Embrace feelings of being vulnerable or uncomfortable.  Enjoy a deep satisfaction in our best efforts.  These all apply to dealing with frightening house fires, insurance companies, rehab construction contractors and house fire cleaning companies.  

Mental skills...not just for racing!

USAT Paratriathlete High Performance Camp

Banner over the OTC Olympic Pool

I just had the privilege of spending eight days at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center as a staff coach for a USAT High Performance Paratriathlon Swim Camp..  The athletes at this camp are by invitation only - because they are all genuine medal contenders for the 2016 Olympics.  We had two 90 minute swim sessions per day plus lots of meetings with USADA, nutritionists, USAT, USOC and other expert coaches from this campus.  We also met with each athlete to map out their strategy for earning the points needed to contend at this year's world championships and to earn our country slots for the Rio Olympics.

  

It was an outstanding opportunity for me to feed my coaching soul by learning from the athletes and from the other coaches.  We all shared our own knowledge and were all so glad to be there.  

Coach John and me in the famous OTC Cafeteria

These paratriathletes continue to  overcome challenges that most of us cannot even imagine.  Therefore, they are incredibly appreciative of every day and every experience.  They are a dream to coach - they absorb every suggestion and immediately begin practicing it.  

We can all learn from them.  Aches or pains?  A little tired?  Toying with the idea of skipping a workout?  They wouldn't and their "excuses" are much more significant.  As I wobbled out of the door in the dark this morning to run on my gimpy knees, I knew that I certainly was lucky to be able to run.

I am reading a book right now called "Daring Greatly" by Brene Brown.  She talks about the correlation between dealing with challenges and the feeling of hope.  The more challenges that a person addresses and conquers, the more all-around hopeful they feel about life.  She also talks about being sure to not, "engineer your life to live small."  In other words, don't play it safe.  Go for it.  Most importantly, she advises us to "Dare to be vulnerable.  Dare to feel uncomfortable."  By doing that, you will likely feel much happier and hopeful about your life.  

So, I am excited about 2015 - for all of you, me and for these athletes.  I hope that you can use a little of their energy to help you to relentlessly pursue your goals this year.  Don't engineer your life to live small!  Let's live big together!

Hung out with other Olympians too