Train Your Mind
By
Mark Philippi
Have you ever stood in front of a crowd of thousands, ready to attempt the equivalent of your four-minute mile, a weight; more weight than you ever had lifted before knowing you had to lift it to win. The sweat of nervousness rolls off your nose; half scared, half psyched; your eyes shift up and left for strength (a Tony Robbins trick); that gets the hair standing up on the back of your neck. You then just have to go for it, whatever happens, happens. It could be success, failure or in the worst case scenario injury.
Experience alone won’t make you a great coach but it can help; it may provide the insight into what runs through an athlete’s mind during stressful times of competition or training. When there is self-doubt or a tendency to stay in the comfort zone. A coach's knowledge of how an athlete feels can instill confidence in the athlete. It may calm or help to mentally focus the athlete.
How do you increase the odds for success? There is no substitute for the experience of training and competing. As a coach with experience in the trenches of competition, that knowledge allows me to assist athletes in the mental aspects of performance training. The mental component of training is just as important as the physical component of a training program but very often neglected. Two athletes can perform the same workout and get two totally different results from the workout based primarily on their mental approach to training. If one athlete has the focus on every rep of every set like it was a max attempt and another other athlete just does the workout to get through it, which do you think is going to improve more rapidly. The mind creates all movement. You think, and then you move. A thought creates movement. Movement creates force. Something created from nothing; powerful concept. Matter and energy come together from something that is neither matter nor energy; a thought. (Quantum Strength and Fitness, O’Shea) The mind is a powerful tool. The more you learn how to control and coach the mind the greater the physical results.
Don’t waste time training if you’re not going to focus. All you accomplish is reinforcing poor technique. A good friend of mine Ed Coan once told me you would probably never miss a lifting attempt because you are not strong enough but because your technique breaks down. That is a mental problem. I highly recommend reading a book called ‘The Talent Code” by Daniel Coyle. It discusses the mylination of nerve pathways during focused practice. The more you practice in a deep focused method the greater the speed nerve impulses travel during that movement. It is like driving on a two-lane road at forty miles per hour versus driving on a six-lane highway at sixty-five miles per hour. Almost all great athletes, musicians, scientist etc. put this into practice.
According to Coyle, it takes 10,000 hrs of deep thoughtful focused practice to be elite in any field. If you want to be great don’t waste hours of training going through the motions. Lift every set, run every sprint, stretch every muscle with a purpose. Everything you do during a workout or a practice should be a learning experience. If a repetition was successful remember how it felt when you performed it. If it was unsuccessful learn from it, correct it but don’t dwell on it.
Speed, strength, and conditioning training should be performed and coached like any intense practice. Many coaches like to think of it differently. A coach would never tell a team I need to make some phone calls go out on the field and practice and let me know how it goes. But many handle their strength training in that fashion. Training should be done with the same focus as skill practice and should compliment it.
Another aspect of mental training should be to force an athlete out of their comfort zone. Many athletes like to hold back and not push themselves to their limits as they are afraid of the unknown. That is a mental issue-lack of confidence. By pushing hard in practice, out of their comfort zone, and realizing they can recover, confidence is instilled in the athlete’s abilities. Sport Psychologist Ken Ravizza’s phrase “you have to feel comfortable feeling uncomfortable” is a great statement. You are not in the zone most of the time, so get used to it. If you have to be at your best all the time to be successful you are in trouble.” The more you can mentally handle feeling uncomfortable the better you will be in competition when anything can happen, and usually does. The athlete that can adapt to any situation is the athlete that will succeed.
If you take the time to train your athletes to be better athletes take the time to train their minds at the same time. Every training session should have both physical and mental goals to improve. Push and challenge your athletes in both areas. Question them and force them to focus.