Mental Toughness In Sport - Staying Ahead Of The Game

This article is the third in a series about the mental aspects of sport, and the second and final part of a series on mental toughness and overcoming obstacles, by one of Amazon's top sports psychologist authors and regular Tri247 contributor, Jeremy Lazarus. So if you're looking for that edge over your competitors in 2009 read on!

To recap on the previous article, in sport generally, as in life, we are bound to be faced with setbacks and difficulties. How we handle them psychologically is an essential factor in our results.
I suggest that setback can be grouped into three categories:
Defeat and/or poor performance
Injury
Difficult relationships

The first point was dealt with in a previous article. This article will deal with some aspects of the final two points.

Dealing With Injury
As well as physical aspects of injuries, there are mental aspects.
The first point I wish to make very clearly to the reader is that this article is absolutely NOT intended to replace medical advice from a qualified medical doctor, specialist or physiotherapist. I would strongly recommend that you take appropriate, professional advice. One of the challenges that faces some athletes is persistent injuries and/or a long-term or serious injury. Apart from receiving appropriate medical treatment, athletes can assist themselves by maintaining a positive mental approach. There are a couple of ways to do this.

Firstly, FOCUS ON WHAT YOU WANT. Keep seeing, hearing and feeling what it will be like when you are fit and recovered. Do this visualisation every day. It will assist you in maintaining motivation to regain fitness.

Norwegian international footballer Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, a centre forward for Manchester United FC, scored his first senior goal for three years on 23rd August 2006 after a succession of injuries over a three-year period. Solskjaer was quoted in a UK National newspaper as saying, “the prospect of doing it was one of the major things that motivated me over the past three years.”

Secondly, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence of the ‘mind-body link’, in other words, what and how we think has an impact on our body. With this in mind, it has been known for athletes and non-athletes to accelerate the body’s natural healing process. One approach would be to work with a suitably qualified and experienced hypnotherapist on this. In any event, please make sure that you consult your medical practitioner regarding the suitability of seeking any complementary health treatment. Whilst some readers may be skeptical, there is a significant amount of evidence to support the acceleration of the natural healing process using hypnosis and similar forms of visualisation.

Dealing With Difficult People
This section provides some other tips on dealing with difficult people who are supposed to be on your side, such as team-mates and coaches.

When competing, it is not uncommon for our opponents to be difficult and to use gamesmanship and other tactics to put us off our game. In fact, in some sports it is an accepted part of the game.
Challenges can come when we have difficult relationships with, or feel intimidated by, people who are supposed to be on our side, such as coaches and team-mates. Ideally, we would simply 'have a chat' and it would all be resolved. If dialogue does not work, there are other ways that we can alter our perceptions of the person(s) so that we have a more useful response to them.
One of my former clients was a very successful young tennis player. She was about to play a mixed doubles final, partnering the club coach. She felt extremely nervous about playing with him. Another former client was a highly promising female middle-distance runner, who was often teased by a male athlete, which had a strongly adverse impact on her performance.
Whenever we think of something or someone, we have internal pictures, sounds and feelings, and the meaning we place on the person, situation or event depends on the internal 'representations'. It is completely possible to change these representations, which changes the meaning and hence the responses we have.

As a guide, the impact of something will be lessened if we make our internal pictures smaller, darker, and more distant, our internal sounds softer, in a different location relative to us and further away, and our internal feelings still, warm, smooth and in a different location in our body.
With the tennis player, because she wanted to still think positively of her tennis coach, she made some tweaks to the volume and tonality of his voice in her head when she thought of him, and small shifts in the brightness and location of the picture. This had the impact of changing the way she felt about him, which enabled her to ‘put him in perspective’.

With the runner, because she had no reason to want to like the male ‘tormenter’, she was more extreme in the way she changed her internal representations. She imagined him speaking with a Donald Duck voice, and changed her internal picture of him to be like a ridiculous cartoon character. She continued to make changes until she laughed every time she thought of him, which completely changed the impact his words had on her.

Summary
We may not always be able to get the results that we want, but we can manage the way we respond. This article has given some tips how to deal with difficulties that many athletes will face at some point.

About the Author: Jeremy Lazarus is a High-Performance Sports Coach, and a Certified Master Trainer and Master Practitioner of NLP. He has coached a top five Ironman athlete. He has been coaching since 1999, and is the author of the best-selling book ‘Ahead of the Game: How to Use Your Mind to Win in Sport’ (Ecademy Press, ISBN 9-781905-823093), a practical guide for athletes, coaches and players of all levels. He can be contacted on: 020 8349 2929, jeremy@thelazarus.com, or by visiting http://www.thelazarus.com/, http://www.winningatsport.com/
He is also an associate of TriSport Coaching UK, which offers the full range of coaching and support for tri-athletes of all levels. For more information go to http://www.trisportuk.org/ or call Martin Allen on 020 8722 4617.