Psychology of endurance sports - positivity
Every day a thousand thoughts go thorough your mind. It can be related to work, sports, your life in general and anything in between. It’s important to have sift through those thoughts and check for individual words and their sentiment.
Are most of the words and phrases positive (“I can do that!”) or negative (“This sucks!”)?
Today we will take a look at positivity and the impact it can have on athletic performance.
Positivity
How you feel has a direct impact on how you perform on a race or training session. If you are in a good mood and positive state of mind. You will see everything as a challenge to overcome and another way of testing your limits to get better.
On the other hand, if your head is not in the right place you can feel anxious, your heart rate will be elevated, your muscles tense up and it will be very hard for you to follow your plan.
It’s therefore important to embrace negative thoughts and let them fade away and make room for positive ones. It’s not easy, but, as always, it’s a skill that can be learned.
Negative self-talk
Psychologist Albert Ellis came up with a simple model that demonstrates how our feelings can impact us and the realisation of our goals.
A + B = C
It’s that simple. The A stands for Activating event. It can be a training session, race, job interview, or something completely different. The B stands for Belief. This now ties our thoughts and emotions to an event. Both of these things combined will end in a Consequence (C).
The more we are keeping B in the positive, the better the outcome should be.
This doesn’t mean that you should push away negativity as quickly as you can. Simply acknowledge it, think about it, and draw your conclusions. Once you are done with that the negative thoughts should start to dissipate. To have a positive outlook in sports, it’s important to have the rest of your life also geared towards positivity. It’s always easier to be in the best shape possible when your entire environment is set up just right.
Self-affirmation
One of the first things you should do is have a positive outlook on your training sessions. “This long ride will help me be stronger!”, “Today’s session will improve my speed!”, “I will be able to keep up with my teammates today!”.
All of these (and other) positive thoughts teach our brain to associate a particular activity with something positive. It will make it easier for you to push through when it gets tough because you know of all the benefits that come with the work.
Countering negative thoughts
Sometimes it’s important to be quick. When an illogical thought starts creeping into your head like “I can’t get over the last hill!”, you have to immediately counter with the opposite. “I have trained for this and I know I can do it!” should be your response.
You have prepared for the event and put in the necessary work so it’s really illogical to think that this final hill will break you. It’s just our bodies response that comes out of the physical and mental fatigue but it’s up to you to keep it in check and dig deep.
Rework your thoughts
Sometimes you can push through because you maybe pushed to hard in the begging. In those moments it’s important to work with your negative thoughts and rework them.
“I am tired! I can’t do this any more” can turn into “OK. Let’s slow down a little. Grab something to drink on the next aid station and then continue”. Create those small goals that can be as simple as 1 minute run, 1 minute walk.
As long as you can direct your thoughts into a positive you can keep moving forward.
Having a positive outlook can be a game changer for an athlete, if positive thoughts are dominating while the negative ones are kept at bay, the body will usually follow and allow the athlete to realise their true potential.
