Mentally Preparing For The Paralympics/Olympics

The Olympics/Paralympics are arguably the biggest sporting events in the world. It is a fascinating period in which we can watch the best athletes in a wide range of sports compete for the ultimate prize, an Olympic or Paralympic medal. This event only comes around every four years, and many fans and sports fanatics alike tune in to watch this spectacle. 

Just imagine being an athlete in this situation. You have trained for the previous four years for this one moment. Just picture yourself standing there ready to take on the first event of your sport. How would you feel? 

There is no doubt that these athletes will be feeling the pressure. There is also no doubt that these athletes have been training the physical, technical and tactical components of their sport for this moment. One of the areas that would also have been trained for this moment is the mind. Mental preparation is needed if an athlete is going to have a chance of succeeding in this high-pressure environment. 

Luckily, there are many things we can do to help us mentally prepare for this situation. We are going to explore what an Olympian and a Paralympian might do to mentally prepare for this big occasion. We must make it very clear that an individual's mental preparation is unique to them. The techniques, how they use them and what works for them are unique to them. Everyone has their challenges and unique contexts they operate which requires many evidence-based techniques to be tailored for them. Therefore, we recommend not following these mental preparations exactly as they are. If you are going to try some of the techniques out, experiment with them. See how they work for you. What works for someone else might not work for you. 

Before we go into exploring what an athlete might do, we want to make clear that the examples we are using are not real. The techniques and preparation presented here are based on research and examples from real-life athletes. The point here is to provide an insight into what mental preparation for a moment like this would look like. 

Anyway, let's get started. 

Olympic table tennis athletes' mental preparation

Zhang Jike, one of China’s most renowned table tennis athletes and an Olympic gold medalist emphasized the importance of mental preparation, mentioning that it is important to maintain a focussed and calm mindset during matches. Just like many sports, table tennis is physically and psychologically demanding. Being able to deal with psychological demands is crucial for helping us perform effectively. 

Our table tennis player would first need to develop awareness of their internal world. What thoughts and feelings arise during table tennis situations? How do they typically react and behave in these situations?

What they might do to start their mental preparation is spend a few weeks developing this awareness through the use of a thought diary. Each day they will think about several situations they have been through, and then write down the thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviours that occurred during them. This will also help to identify what psychological aspects they are struggling with. For example, they might notice how their self-talk becomes critical after making a mistake. 

Once they have spent time developing their awareness and understanding their mental strengths and weaknesses, they can start to learn some techniques to help improve their weaknesses. Our table tennis player struggles with critical self-talk and feels nervous before competition. They spend some time learning the best ways to deal with these challenges and work with their support team (coaches and sport psychologist) to find the best way of implementing them into their training routine.

Here’s an example of what their mental training routine might look like leading up to the Olympics:

• Complete thought diary every day

• Imagery practice 3x a week for half an hour

• Mindfulness of breath 5x a week for a minimum of 10 minutes each day 

• Implement and practice pre-performance and between set refocus routines in training and matches

• Complete Effective, Ineffective, Continue and change reflection after training and matches   

• Practice using motivational mantras in training and competition
  

Our athlete integrates this into their training to ensure the key skills are practised and developed, therefore when it comes to competing they have the process solidified and autonomic. For example, when it comes to competing in their first match at the Olympics, they have the processes in place to deal with the pressure (mindfulness of breath and pre-performance routine developed) and have strategies to deal with mistakes, distractions and the unexpected (imagery, motivational mantra and between set refocus routine). 

Wheelchair Basketball athletes' mental preparation

As we move on to a different sport, it is important to remember that each sport has its unique psychological demands. These demands combined with an athlete's context mean the way each athlete mentally prepares is unique to them. Despite a lot of athletes utilizing similar techniques, strategies and approaches, the way they are used and implemented will be different. 

Brian Bell, a wheelchair basketball 2x gold medalist shared two things he did to stay mentally fit going to tough games and the Paralympics. He mentioned how he meditates and uses breathing exercises as well as pre-game imagery to mentally prepare for the occasion.

Our wheelchair basketballer previously competed in the Paralympics and sadly didn't perform to their usual standards. Therefore, when starting their preparation for the next Olympics, they analyzed their previous Paralympic performance. This enabled them to identify lessons and learn from that experience. They discovered that they didn’t know their teammates as well as they could have. They also struggled with their family providing feedback and asking questions during the game and also struggled with being the favourites competing. Our athlete is also struggling with the trauma developed from his life-changing injury. 

Again, being able to identify the unique demands for them is crucial to ensuring they effectively mentally prepare. With those lessons identified, the athlete can then work with their team to develop a mental training routine and integrate it within their training routine. 

Here is an example of the things the athlete might do to mentally prepare themselves for the next Paralympics:

• Spend more time developing relationships with my teammates (being more open and honest with them)

• Identity how I want my family and friends to communicate with me during the Paralympics and communicate this to them 

• Complete goal-setting with my coach and sport psychologist

• Create, iterate  and practise pre-performance and mid-performance routine

• Develop respond, relax and refocus self-talk

• Work with my sport psychologist each week or approach a clinical psychologist to help with the trauma 

Again, this is an example of what someone might do and different strategies, interventions or approaches can be added. When supporting a Paralympian, the strategies utilized might need to be adapted depending on the athlete and the athlete needs to be involved in this to ensure it meets their individual needs. For example, if you were to use progressive-muscle relaxation exercises with a paraplegic, it would need to be adapted to suit them.  

The main point is to understand the importance of mental preparation. Spending time mentally preparing enables athletes to feel confident, focused and in control, which is vital in high-pressure situations such as the Olympics and Paralympics. Building these mental foundations will help to ensure athletes arrive at the Olympics and Paralympics armed with a host of mental approaches in mind, having taken into consideration their weaknesses and fears as well as feeling confident they have mitigated or planned for them. This should help them feel confident enough to perform under pressure.  

As you will have hopefully seen, the importance of mental preparation for an event as big as the Olympics and Paralympics cannot be understated. The athletes who can perform under the immense pressure that these games bring about would have prepared mentally to cope with it. What they did to prepare is unique to their context and sport, however, they would have prepared. Regardless of the level you are competing at, mental preparation is crucial. Whether you are a youth athlete with dreams of competing in the Olympics or Paralympics or a Sunday league football player, the time spent mentally preparing will be beneficial.   

Mindfulness In Sport 101

What Is Mindfulness?

Before we start exploring what mindfulness is, I want you to try something. Set a two-minute timer on your phone. Sit comfortably, your back straight and close your eyes. Now just spend those two minutes focusing on your breath. Focus on how your belly expands and contracts. Focus on the feeling of the air going in through your nose. Whenever a thought crops up, just notice it. Don't judge if a thought is good, bad, annoying or however else you might judge one. Just notice it and then bring your attention back to the breath. 

What did you notice after doing that for two minutes?

If you are like the rest of us, you probably realise your attention is wandering from your breath constantly. You may have become distracted and didn't focus on your breath. This is a regular occurrence for athletes and when the pressure is turned up a few notches, the more the mind begins to wander. 

Mindfulness can be described simply as focusing on what is happening in the present moment, with intention, and without judgement. It also emphasises that you should be aware of your internal and external thoughts, feelings and sensations without judgement.

Mindfulness is about becoming aware of what is going on inside and outside of you. It is about not being lost or dragged around by the thoughts our brain throws at us. In sports, it is about putting our attention and focus where it is needed the most, on the task at hand.

In the book ‘The Mindful Athlete’ by George Mumford, he explains mindfulness as:

‘Mindfulness helps you to pay attention to your thoughts in an unattached manner, which can help to take the emotional charge out of them, slow down your experience of time, and reconnect you to the present moment. It is only in the present moment that we can cultivate conscious flow, achieve optimal levels of performance, and experience the holy place called ‘the zone’. 

As you can see, mindfulness can be extremely beneficial for our performance. 

The Space Between Stimulus and Response 

George Mumford, a mindfulness teacher who worked with Phil Jackson, the legendary Chicago Bulls basketball coach who coached the likes of Michael Jordan, talked about this calm space between stimulus and response. He likened it to a hurricane, with the space between stimulus and response being like the eye of a hurricane. In the middle of all the chaos is a quiet and calm centre. Everyone has this calm and quiet centre within them and mindfulness helps to connect us to this centre space. Once we are connected to it, it enables us to experience the present moment. 

In Victor Frankl's ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, he described it this way: ‘Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.’ Go and read this book. It is written by a psychiatrist who was able to observe the way that both he and others in Auschwitz coped (or didn’t) with the experience. 

It is when we stay in this calm centre of the hurricane, when the skies are blue, that we can think straight, make clear decisions, and respond effectively and intelligently. The minute we step away from the centre of the hurricane, we are thrown into chaos. If anyone has seen The Wizard of Oz, you know what happens to Dorothy!  

How Is Mindfulness Helpful For Athletes?

An athlete's mind can be full of negative thoughts, expectations, worry or self-doubt. We have a constant narrative or commentary running through our heads when we are performing. This commentary can yank our attention away from doing what is needed in the moment. For example, an F1 driver might be distracted by a thought going through his head that he missed his braking point and lost time in his qualifying lap. A boxer might miss the perfect opportunity to counter as he was focused on the fan's expectations of him. There are many examples we could use here but I hope you get the point. 

Our focus needs to be on the task at hand.  The task at hand will vary depending on the sport you play, but you will know what you need to do in a competition or match. Mindfulness can help us refocus on the task at hand, restoring control of our attention.

Now it isn't just performance that mindfulness helps with. Mindfulness can support our well-being as well. It helps us to understand how our brain works and engage with what matters most to us. We also start to realise that the thoughts, beliefs, images and expectations (all of these things can be referred to as cognitions) that come up in our brains are not the truth. They are literally just what they are. Nothing more, nothing less. 

How do I use mindfulness? 

Just like any technical skills, physical aspect or tactical know-how, mindfulness requires practice. We can train and practice our ability to bring our attention and focus back to the present moment, enabling us to choose the most effective responses. Many people refer to mindfulness as lifting weights for the mind. Mental resistance training!

Just like you would for any other part of your training, set a time throughout the day that is dedicated to mindfulness practice. The practice we are going to do is so simple, yet so powerful. Simply, it involves focussing on your breath. Just like you did at the start of the blog. 

Step-by-step guide to mindfulness of breath:

1. Set a timer on your phone (between 3-5 minutes to start with).

2.  Sit comfortably, your back straight and close your eyes. 

3. Focus on the breath and the feelings associated with breathing.

4. If anything in your mind pops up, notice it without judgement. If you become distracted or get lost in thought, bring your attention back to the breath.

5. Complete this at least once a day.

Key takeaways for using mindfulness:

• If you become distracted or lost in thought, bring your attention back to the breath. This is the key skill to develop in mindfulness.

• Don't worry about being good at it; there's no good or bad in mindfulness.

• Learning new skills can be tough initially.

• The goal is to train the ability to return to the present moment.

• Start with five minutes a day, every day.

• Gradually increase the time as you get comfortable.

• Practice mindfulness during everyday tasks (e.g., driving, cooking).

• Focus on the task at hand and bring attention back if distracted.

• Mindfulness can be practised in any activity.

• Begin with the mindfulness of breath, the fundamental technique.

• Once comfortable, explore other mindfulness exercises.
  

Not paying attention to what needs doing, becoming distracted and losing focus happens to all athletes. Learning and practising how to maintain your focus and attention on the task at hand as well as being fully present in the moment can be extremely beneficial for your performance if trained and practised regularly. Remember, we want to be in the calm centre of the hurricane where we can think straight, make clear decisions and respond effectively and intelligently.

Psychological Pillars of Optimal Performance: Part 1

Have you ever wondered what psychological characteristics the most successful athletes have? A whole host of research has been conducted to try and figure out what characteristics successful athletes have. Let’s explore these characteristics and discuss the most important part, how to build them. 

From all the research, we can identify five psychological pillars that need to be built for athletes to successfully develop and excel. 

The five pillars are as follows: 

1. Resilience 

2. Intelligence

3. Self-management

4. Drive

5. Fortitude 

These five pillars are made up of psychological attributes, in essence, the material that makes up the pillar itself. Just like a brick is made out of cement, these pillars require these attributes to be acquired to make the pillar strong. Let’s explore each pillar and its attributes. 

Resilience 

Resilience has many definitions, however, it can be identified as a crucial psychological factor contributing to our ability to adapt positively and overcome challenging situations. The resilience pillar is made up of the following attributes: 

• Confidence: A belief or degree of certainty that you possess the ability to be successful in your sport 

• Optimism: A mindset epitomised by having positive expectations about future outcomes. It is the way you interpret the situations and events that happen in your life.

• Self-efficacy: The belief in your ability to organise and execute the things required to successfully complete a task.

• Perseverance: Can be identified as not giving up when faced with overcoming adversity or challenges and consistently striving to achieve goals during these moments. 

Intelligence

Intelligence can be broadly described as our ability to adapt to different objectives and environments and achieve our goals within these constantly changing environments. Simply put, achieving our complex goals in complex environments. What attributes make up intelligence?

• Coachability: An athlete’s motivation to learn and improve, willingness to be a sponge and absorb as much information from coaches and other key stakeholders. Your capability to be easily taught and trained. 

• Adaptability: Our ability to anticipate and respond positively to changing and rapidly evolving situations. 

• Sport-Intelligence: Our sport-specific knowledge and our ability to search and identify relevant cues, use short-term and long-term memory, identify patterns of play and behaviours, possess a baseline level of knowledge about sport-specific tasks and make effective decisions. Knowing your sport inside and out.

• Socio-emotional intelligence: An understanding and knowledge of the social and emotional environment and how to successfully navigate them. Our ability to be aware of our feelings in the present moment.          

Self-management

Self-management can be referred to as our ability to respond effectively to the many situations we find ourselves in as athletes and cope with the many stressors, pressures, failures and discomforting thoughts and feelings. This overall pillar of self-management is made up of the following:

• Equanimity: An even-minded mental state in which you are calm and composed. Allows us to remain grounded and mindfully present in the moment, rather than being consumed by emotional reactivity.

• Self-Awareness: Understanding how your inner world works. How you respond to situations, what thoughts you have and where they come from, what thoughts, feelings and behaviours arise in situations. 

• Self-regulation: Our ability to plan, manage and adapt our thoughts, feelings and behaviours in the face of the challenging situations, demands and contexts athletes find themselves in to achieve their personal goals. 

• Accountability: Taking responsibility and ownership of one's development and performance. Focusing on the process and reflecting on how to improve.

Drive 

Drive can be described as our intent towards achieving our personal goals in sport and how willing we are to achieve them. It is made up of the following:

• Passion: Being an athlete is part of who you are in which you practice and compete because of the love for the activity. This allows you to fully engage in the sport you enjoy whilst maintaining a balance with other aspects of your life.

• Purpose: This is your ‘why’. The reasoning behind your involvement in sport. Why do you play this sport? What is important to you in this sport? What values do you have? 

• Self-determination: A feeling of autonomy (being able to have control over what we do), competency (feeling we have the ability and mastery over the things that matter to you) and relatedness (a sense of belonging, feeling as though you matter to people and are part of something). 

• Focus: Our ability to concentrate on the tasks required for success, not become distracted and attend to cues in the sporting environment. Concentrating on the performance-relevant cues in your attentional field. 

Fortitude 

The firmness and strength of our mind can hold up despite the pressures, challenges or misfortunes. Having a firmness of spirit, being willing to go above and beyond what is required, and keeping on going despite what is happening or the outcomes. It is made up of the following:

• Dependability: Regardless of what is happening, you will keep on going and not give up. People around you can depend on you to stick to the task or what needs doing. Staying true to your word. 

• Competitiveness: Our desire to win in our situations and the enjoyment of competitions whilst showing high levels of sportsmanship.

• Humility: Being respectful, modest and realistic about your strengths and weaknesses. Helps you learn from mistakes, appreciate your achievements and acknowledge your limitations. 

• Courage: Doing what is needed to be done in the presence of fear. Courage is when we choose to do what is needed, execution after mindful deliberation. We choose to do something at some personal risk which is driven by the need or desire to bring about a positive outcome.
  
  
  

Stay tuned for “Part 2” where we’ll discuss 4 techniques to build each pillar.

A step by step guide to settings goals

When training for an important competition, there is a huge amount of emphasis on physical preparation - but what about preparing mentally? A method that can help athletes mentally prepare for competition and enhance their focus, self-confidence and overall performance is Psychological Skills Training (PST).

PST involves techniques that an athlete consistently practices in order to enhance and maintain their performance. Primarily, PST is composed of four main components; goal setting, relaxation techniques, imagery and self-talk. Today I will be focusing on goal setting, explaining my role as a performance psychologist in helping individual athletes and teams set and achieve their goals.

Goal setting is at the core of psychological skills training to improve an individual’s motivation, productivity and attentional focus on a specific task. As a performance psychologist, I help educate athletes on how to develop, monitor and evaluate goals.

Firstly, I introduce athletes to the “SMART” acronym when settings goals, explaining that all goals need to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. This is a major component of setting both short term and long-term goals for an individual to remain accountable for the goals they have set, as well as evaluating their goals to assess their progress.

The goal setting process is broken down into three different components comprised of process, performance, and outcome goals:

• Process goals are the smaller steps an athlete takes to achieve their performance goals. They focus on the repeated execution of a specific skill or strategy during training that they the individual wishes to improve. By repeatedly practicing the skill, the individual is able to gain attentional control and improve their performance. For example, a process goal for a swimmer could be to practice not breathing out of the turn during the main set for the next four training sessions. After the sessions are complete, the individual would then evaluate this goal to establish whether they should adjust the goal to a more challenging process goal,  such as practicing not breathing out of turn during prep set and main set for the next four training sessions.

• Performance goals are the performance standards that athletes set themselves in order to reach their outcome goals. When setting performance goals remember that they should be aspects of your performance that you have control over. For example, a swimmer could set a performance goal of swimming 100M breaststroke in 1min 20s. If we refer back to the swimmer’s process goal of not breathing out of the turn, this goal is one of the steps to help them achieve their performance goal.

• Lastly, Outcome goals are the end result that the athlete is working towards, for example, getting a gold medal at Nationals.
  

Some key points to remember when settings goals:

(1) Focus on the goals you can control

•  Focus on process and performance goals you can control instead of focusing on the outcome
  
  

(2)  Write them down!

• Individuals who write down goals are more likely to achieve them then those who don’t write them down Writing down goals help to monitor your progress

(3)  Make them visible for you to read on a daily basis

• Ensure your list of goals is visible for you to read them a couple times a day (especially before training/competition) to remind you of your objectives.
  

If you have any questions regarding setting goals, please email Serena at serenamacleodsportpych@gmail.com

How can we help adolescent athletes to be open about their mental health?

As I work primarily with adolescent athletes, I continuously want to raise awareness and address the stigma against young athletes regarding their mental health. Awareness of mental health and well-being amongst adolescent athletes is has increased receiving both research and media attention throughout the last few years. Negative perceptions of the athlete’s performance and dealing with performing under pressure is a major aspect that contributes to a decrease in the athlete’s overall mental health. Although the importance of youth athletes receiving mental health support has increased, the most popular barrier that inhibits an individual in reaching out for help is the stigma surrounding mental health.

One of the most important roles for coaches and parents is to provide athletes an environment in which they feel comfortable to disclose aspects of their mental health that they are struggling with. Firstly, to help facilitate this environment, we can encourage athletes to be open and honest regarding their thoughts, feelings and emotions. By having a positive attitude towards mental health and encouraging the athlete to share what they’re struggling with, this helps develop trust and decrease the fear of being judged.

Educating adolescent athletes’ is another extremely important aspect when addressing mental health. By educating the athlete, we can provide them an understanding of what they are experiencing, and also to develop an awareness that they are not the only individual struggling with their mental health. It’s so important to validate and normalise what the athlete is experiencing in a kind, compassionate way. In the UK, there are several organisations that provide mental health support. Mind is a fantastic organisation that educates individuals regarding mental health, as well as providing resources for mental health support. Another organisation that provides education and resources for support is Mental Health UK. Alternatively, the athlete or parent can reach out to their sport clubs safeguarding or well-being officer to receive guidance regarding education and support.

It is important to provide adolescent athletes’ with the platform to speak about their mental health concerns without the fear of being perceived negatively. Together, we can end the stigma against adolescent athletes’ who suffer from mental health disorders and help them receive the appropriate support.