Psychology of endurance sports - focus

If you have ever been to a race, you have seen all kinds of people doing different kinds of things before the gun goes off. Many chat with other people, some listen to music, and others have a specific warm up routine.

Any of these actions can help you focus on the race or hard training session.

Today we will dive a little more into focus and what you can do to improve yours.

Focus

There are many stories of elite athletes who say they don’t hear the crowd and recognize people just after an important race. Their sole focus in that moment is how well they are going to execute on their performance.

Once they cross the finish line, the barrier crumbles and they are back in the real world.

That’s a superb state of focus that is possible to be achieved by any person.

Before

The first thing you need to do is - relax. It’s not the kind of put your feet up and do nothing relaxation. It’s about channeling all the energy and excitement into a single thing. Perform some kind of routine that will put you in the correct state of mind so that you will be able to execute the best performance you can.

It can be anything from listening to music to having a top to bottom stretching routine. Find something that slows down your mind and channels it into a single direction.

Think about everything you have put into this moment since you signed up and have confidence in your preparation. If your preparation didn’t go as smoothly as planned, don’t dwell on it. Try thinking about the best performance you still can achieve.

During

Now that the gun went off it’s time to focus on your form and breathing. Having a regular breathing pattern can be the foundation to having an even form which in turn will help you not waste energy. Every so often make a self assessment of your form and make corrections if necessary. If you are running, are you standing tall or are you hunched up? Are you driving your knees? Where is your foot landing in relation to your center of mass? Are your arms relaxed or are you all tense?

Making sure that your form is OK will help you keep a steady pace. Tied with a regular breathing pattern, you will be able to focus on your execute until the finish line.

Some athletes also have mantras or phrases they say to themselves on a regular basis that help them re-focus during the race. Find out what works best for you and make adjustments as needed.

One thing to keep in mind here is to make sure not to be overly focused on the race. Enjoy the moment and be present in your surroundings. If there are people around, smile, give them high fives (kids love those) and try enjoying the place you are in. It’s not fun if it’s only hard work.

Control what you can

One thing that many people do is to start thinking about the end of the race which in some situations might be hours away. They start thinking of all the things that might happen, of what other people are doing, or things that happened during the race.

All of these things are out of your control, so it makes no sense to waste energy on them.

Stay alert

There have been situations where athletes were so focused on their own execution that they completely missed what their opponents were doing. By missing an opponents surge or other action they couldn’t maintain the gap and lost the race.

It’s very difficult to stay focused on our own performance while at the same time look out for some opponent’s move but at the top end of the field this is a requirement.

Just like professionals, amateur athletes can benefit from working on their focus. It’s easy to get distracted by different things and derail months of preparation but with a well execute routine you can always reset your mind and be present in the moment and in turn be able to have your best performance.