Winner ’ s Thoughts
Emotional Conditioning
Winner ’ s Thoughts
I hated every minute of training , but I said , “ Don ’ t quit . Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion .” - Muhammad Ali
You are never really playing an opponent . You are playing yourself , your own highest standards , and when you reach your limits , that is real joy . - Arthur Ashe
Without self-discipline , success is impossible , period . - Lou Holtz
Show me a guy who ’ s afraid to look bad , and I ’ ll show you a guy you can beat every time . - Lou Brock ( Cardinals baseball )
If you have everything under control , you ’ re not going fast enough . - Mario Andretti
Just keep going . Everybody gets better if they keep at it . - Ted Williams
To uncover your true potential you must first find your own limits and then you have to have the courage to blow past them . - Picabo Street
What would you attempt if you knew you could never fail ? - Robert Schuller
Emotional Conditioning
Think about it . If every Olympic athlete is in the best possible shape , what gives one an edge over another ?
At the very top , elite level most athletes will have a similar speed , technique , or strength , so what ’ s the differentiator ?
The key is often emotional conditioning .
Nerves , doubts , or fears can often be eliminated with mental preparation , allowing the athlete to focus on their performance . Being able to handle any sort of unforeseen situation calmly is incredibly important and makes the race entirely their ow , n , unable to be altered or ruined by some outside force .
“ Emotional conditioning is crucial because once you get to any level in a sport — whether high school , Division I collegiate or the Olympics - everyone is pretty equal physically . It ’ s those who can handle noise , stress , pressure , and distraction who are the ones that win ,” says Jenny Susser , Ph . D ., a sports psychologist in the Women ’ s Sports Medicine Center at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City .
It ’ s not surprising then that swimmer Michael Phelps , who holds the all time record for Olympic Gold Medals , uses emotional conditioning in his training . Phelps retreats to himself , wearing a hood and listening to earphones to block out anything but what he wants to fill his mind before he competes .
Phelps knows a thing or two about how to come out on top and , for him , it ’ s all about visualizing the race .
After beginning his swimming career as a tense and moody seven-year-old , Phelps ’ coach taught him to imagine himself swimming a perfect race . Phelps saw himself make smooth strokes , touch the edges of the pool , and rip off his goggles at the finish to check his winning time . Phelps pictured all of this with his eyes closed . He calls it watching “ his videotape .”
Phelps also has an extensive pre-race ritual . He eats the same breakfast ( eggs , oatmeal , and four energy shakes ), works through the same stretching routine , completes the same 45 minute warm-up , and listens to hip hop while he waits for his race to start .
It was this consistent emotional preparedness that allowed Phelps to set a world record for the 200 meter fly in the 2008 Beijing games despite having water-filled goggles . He could have given in to panic and lost his focus . Instead , he swam the race he had always pictured .
When asked what it felt like to swim blind he simply said , “ It felt like I imagined it would .”
Adrenaline - Cont . from P . 2
The very first key to mental success in competition is learning to focus on your job and to not let negative thoughts intrude . The mind can only concentrate on one thing at a time , so rather than try to suppress what you don ’ t want to happen , try focusing on what you DO want to happen .
So your job is to fill your mind with that one , GOOD , WINNING , POSI- TIVE thing . And that has to be a “ do ” and not a “ don ’ t ”. Here ’ s an example . The law of dominant thought says you will remember your most dominant thought . Say you ’ ve been sitting down too early and that ’ s causing your horse to drop in and hit barrels . So you tell yourself over and over “ don ’ t hit a barrel ” and you ’ re looking in your mind at the barrel and trying to concentrate and your mind hears over and over “ hit the barrel , hit the barrel , hit the barrel .” If you think about hitting a barrel then a plus five is likely what you will get .
Instead of doing that , put something good into your head that drowns out all your thoughts about doubts and bad images . In this instance , say over and over in your head , “ drive all the way into the turn , drive all the way into the turn .” A mind works best when you tell it WHAT to do rather than WHAT NOT to do .
When you begin to worry , say that phrase ( or whatever your focus thought is ) over and over in your mind . It will block out all those negative thoughts and direct your powerful adrenaline-charged mind and body to the task at hand - what you need to do .
Try it . While you ’ re warming up your horse , in your mind or aloud , say your directive over and over ; repeat it in your head as you come into the alley and head for the first . Warning ; halfway won ’ t work . If you give lip service to this but are really thinking about your problem , your fears , your negative mind set , you ’ ll have trouble making this work .
Try to be disciplined enough to clear your mind of anything else in the moments before your run . It may be tough at first but this is a skill you can learn .
That ’ s a starting place for mending what Motivator Zig Ziglar calls “ Stinking Thinking .”