Behaving Like a Champion

BY JENNY SUSSER, PhD//Sport Psychologist
Dealing with distractions is something we all must do on whatever level we compete, whether it be the Olympics or sectionals. The higher the competitive level, the higher the pressure of the distractions.

Making good decisions when under pressure is a life-long challenge. You will still make mistakes, but that’s part of being human.

An important part of making mistakes is how you deal with them and then trying to learn from them.

Being a competitive athlete offers daily opportunities to “behave like a champion,” not just during a meet, but also in practice and in everyday life.

How about while you’re having a bad set or workout, and you know you need to act one way when you’d much rather throw a tantrum and cry?

What about when you’ve been taken off the relay because someone swam faster than you? Again, is this a perfect time to get angry or feel sorry for yourself, or should you figure out how to swim faster by working harder or smarter in practice and then cheer louder than anyone else for the relay.

How about when you miss that cut by .01 of a second in the mile?! Sure, you will be disappointed. Who wouldn’t? But is it “champion” behavior to throw your cap and goggles and quit swimming?

No. A champion would get upset (for a short time), dust themselves off, get back to training and try again.

Behaving like a champion shouldn’t be reserved for those who are winning and only when you are competing. Sport is about many things, and winning is only one of them, no matter how important it might seem at the time.

Behaving like a champion and being mentally tough is a much greater challenge when you are NOT winning, which might mean more and make you an even greater champion…in and out of the pool.

Setting Controllable Goals

BY CHRISTOPHER CARR, PhD//Sport and Performance Psychologist

As I observed the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, I was reminded that athletes who win medals have, for years, had the goal of winning a medal. Yet, it was the daily work and effort that pays off at the Olympic Games.

In the men’s 4x100 freestyle relay, the USA team trailed France going into the last 100. But Jason Lezak came from behind and by .08 seconds beat the French world champion and set a world record. After the race, Lezak was quoted as saying to himself that he felt the fatigued.

"Then I changed,” he said. “I said, ‘You know what? That's ridiculous. This is the Olympics. I'm here for these guys. I'm here for the United States of America. It's more than me. I don't care how bad it hurts, or whatever, I'm just going to go out there and hit it.’”

The rest is Olympic history. But that history began with the goal of Olympic success. It is important to learn how to set goals in order to achieve your own swimming performance goals. As you prepare for this upcoming competitive season, make sure you have followed some important steps to effective goal setting:

Make daily practice goals. Take a notebook (could be your mental training journal) or some 3x5 cards and write down 1-3 goals for each practice. Not just doing what is on the practice schedule, but make the goal specific to your improvement (e.g. achieving 80% of your fast-paced intervals). Just 1-3 goals a day. Then review after each practice. Did you accomplish your goals? Did you make good progress? Then make revisions and be goal-directed at the next practice – every day.

Review your goals each day. Find time to sit down and review the goals you had for that particular practice/meet. Did you achieve the goal? What did you do (or not do) to help you achieve that goal? How can you make the goal more challenging tomorrow? Make this process your own and don’t wait for a coach to give you goal direction. The results will be more confidence in yourself when you step up on the starting block.

Learn how to refocus your goals during practice. If you made a practice goal that is going to be tough to accomplish (due to a bad start or change in drills), make the adjustment so you can still find success. Even small successes (finishing a tough set, using a positive cue word) can lead to confidence and focus. As soon as you drift from goals, you lose self-direction and focus.

Good luck to you in your pursuit of your swimming goals and successes…have fun and swim fast!

“The fight is won or lost far away from the witnesses…behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.” – Muhammad Ali

Pulling Together Increases Your Pain Threshold

ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2009) — A study of Oxford rowers has shown that members of a team who exercised together were able to tolerate twice as much pain as when they trained on their own.

In the study, published September 16 in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, researchers from the University of Oxford’s Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology found the pain threshold of 12 rowers from the Oxford Boat Race squad was greater after group training than after individual training.

They conclude that acting as a group and in close synchrony seems to ‘ramp up’ pain thresholds. The underlying endorphin release may be the mechanism that underpins communal-bonding effects that emerge from activities like religious rituals and dancing.

Each of the 12 rowers participated in four separate tests. They were asked to row continuously for 45 minutes in a virtual boat in the gym (as in normal training), in an exercise carried out in two teams of six and then in a separate session as individuals, unobserved by other team members. After each of the sessions, the researchers measured their pain threshold by how long they could stand an inflated blood pressure cuff on the arm.

The study found there was a significant increase in the rowers’ pain threshold following exercise in both individual and group sessions (a well established response to exercise of any kind). However, after the group training there was a significantly larger increase as compared with training carried out individually.

Since close synchrony is the key to successful competition-class racing, these results suggest that doing a synchronised activity as a group increases the endorphin rush that we get from physical exertion. The study says that since endorphins help to create a sense of bonhomie and positive effect, this effect may underlie the experience of warmth and belonging that we have when we do activities like dancing, sports, religious rituals and other forms of communal exercise together.

Professor Robin Dunbar, Head of the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University, said: ‘Previous research suggests that synchronised physical activity such as laughter, music and many religious activities makes people happier and is part of the bonding process. We also know that physical exercise creates a natural high through the release of endorphins. What this study shows us is that synchrony alone seems to ramp up the production of endorphins so as to heighten the effect when we do these activities in groups.’

Lead author Dr Emma Cohen, from the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, said: ‘The results suggest that endorphin release is significantly greater in group training than in individual training even when power output, or physical exertion, remains constant. The exact features of group activity that generate this effect are unknown, but this study contributes to a growing body of evidence suggesting that synchronised, coordinated physical activity may be responsible.’

One of the researchers involved in this study was Robin Ejsmond-Frey, a double Blue in rowing and former President of the Oxford University Boat Club.