The MIND is the athlete

THE MIND IS THE ATHLETE 
“The power of one is above all things the power to believe in yourself, often well beyond any latent ability you may have previously demonstrated. The mind is the athlete, the body is simply the means it uses to run faster or longer, jump higher, shoot straighter, kick better, swim harder, hit further or box better.”

- The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

This quote is one given to me by my friend Andy Palmer, a sports psychologist who sadly died at the age of 48 while running. Andy used to say “people refer to training as 90% mental and 10% physical, but they spend 90% of their time working on the 10%.”

When you step up to the start line know in your mind that you have put in the training, the "work" is done; you are as prepared as possible. Trust that you are ready to execute your plan. John Jerome alluded to this concept of trust in his book, The Sweet Spot: "It is inescapable that our bodies are often smarter than our minds, if we could only learn to trust them." Trusting the body is very difficult in a society that has trained itself to be so removed from that body. Recapturing faith and trust in the potential of the body is a gradual process, and for many runners it’s the hardest part of training.

Trusting that you will get everything out of yourself is very difficult. But negative thinking, may have dire consequences. Negative thinking is almost always the result of someone’s value judgments. One of the best things an athlete can do for himself is to learn how to treat his own body and performances objectively. Instead of judging the results of races, use them as a measuring tool of your progress on the way toward reaching your ultimate potential. That’s all a race result is. It’s not a measure of your self worth.

Use positive affirmations to help you shake off negative thoughts. Positive affirmations are personal, positive, present-tense statements that begin the re-framing process. "I can handle it," is a simple example. Triggers are anything that inspire positive emotions, like music, quotes, and people that make you feel good and can motivate you.

Some mental drills from Andy:

Become detached from your performance. This is the process of actually suspending judgment about the outcome of your running efforts. You must be truly able to "let go," to become a split personality of sorts. It’s not easy; after all, you are striving to do your very best, yet you have to not care about the result. Running the race should be the most important thing in your life while you are running it, yet you can’t care how it turns out. If you have trouble with this, ask yourself: Does caring help me or hurt me? Caring certainly helps you get to the starting line, but once there, you must simply trust your training and your ability to execute.

Run on automatic pilot. You probably already experience this mental state from time to time when you run, but in fragments. It happens when you just lose yourself in your running, yet still maintain your performance level. Recognizing these auto-pilot moments and the conditions that lead up to them can help you to develop the ability to achieve such a state at will, and this control can lead to better race performance.

As Andy had printed on his business card: “The Mind Is the Athlete”

See you at the races…

Coach Will