Olympic Champions – a case of mind over matter?
The body is a marvellous thing and the lengths to which it can be pushed never fail to amaze me. The sportsmen and women who will be competing in Bejing next month have spent years of their lives in prepation for an event which lasts only sixteen days. These elite athelets may only have a few moments to achieve their ultimate goal of Olympic victory – and in these tense seconds it is the power of the mind that will really make the difference.
So what are the ingredients that combine to make an Olympic champion? Undoubtedly the hours they spend practising and honing their skills. Obviously genetics, dedication and physical prowess also play a vital part. But ask any champion and they will tell you that it is the proper mental preparation that separates bronze from gold.
As a cognitive hypnotherapist, I deal in the realities our brains create in response to a range of situations. In simple terms, I work out why one person acts a particular way in a specific situation, whilst another responds in a completely different way. So what enables Justin Gatlin (2004 Olympic 100 metre sprint champion) to storm away from the blocks whilst others are slow off the mark? It is only by uncovering the pattern behind the behaviour that it is possible to help effect real change.
As a cognitive hypnotherapist, I deal in the realities our brains create in response to situations that occur around us. In simple terms, I work out why one person runs away from a dog someone else is happily stroking, why someone can speak up confidently in some situations and feel a complete fool in others, and why one person can kick accurately anywhere, anytime, and another can’t. By uncovering the pattern behind the behaviour I use the most effective method to assist them in changing.
Sport is full of examples of highly skilled people who are let down by their mental processes. One most recent example is that of John Terry who missed a crucial penalty in the European Cup Final. It seems inconceivable that someone earning what he does for being able to kick a ball should miss something that most 12 years olds could score from. So, what went wrong? I suggest it was his mind, not his eyes or his feet, that let him down. And we’ve seen it many times before, with the likes of Tim Henman, Jana Novotna (unkindly dubbed the lady from Chokeoslovakia), Greg Norman and any England football player called to take a penalty. So what goes on? What turns a superb athlete into a choker? And what can be done about it?
In any situation your brain (in simplistic terms, your unconscious thought) is working out the likely consequences of the actions you could take, it then selects the one most likely to bring you the result it believes is most beneficial to you. This is your brain. Your unconscious works using a simple, reflexive form of thinking; its fast but can sometimes be wildly inaccurate. If the calculation the brain makes of your future is negative it will release chemicals into your body that were originally intended to protect you from sabre-toothed tigers. They increase your heart rate, your respiration, stop digestion and, if strong enough, shut down those parts of our brain responsible for logical, considered thinking.
This puts you into a state best described as a trance. Not one that will get you to dance like a chicken, but one that will cause you to sky the ball over the cross bar, or forget your name in an interview. Anyone who’s ever felt ‘hijacked’ at such moments will know what I’m describing, a loss of feeling in control – truly, strong emotions make us stupid. It’s this fight or flight response that causes someone to run from a friendly dog, shake in front of an interview panel, or fluff a shot at match point, all because our brain looks at the present situation and calculates the likely consequence. As you stand ready to make your serve, do you foresee an ace, or the laughter of your friends as you hit yourself on the head? As you stand to make a sales pitch do you foresee an enthusiastic reception, or a mass of shaking heads?
Context is highly significant: you could be cool as a cucumber serving for the championship at Wimbledon, but a nervous wreck afterwards at the prospect of speaking at the press conference. This is because the meaning of the present situation you’re in (whether it’s good or bad), and its anticipated outcome is based on calculations the brain makes based on your past.
For example, if a young child trips over at the school play they will feel disoriented by the surprise and will look around her for what it should mean. If she spots her parents looking supportive and encouraging she might interpret the crowd’s laughter as something positive, shake herself down, and carry on happily. If they look disapproving or embarrassed then she’s likely to interpret the laughter as being humiliating and perhaps run off the stage in tears. A dozen different children experiencing that same moment could end up with different interpretations, mainly based on a split-second interpretation by the brain.
This moment may become what is called a hub memory, one that is used by the brain to calculate the meaning of present or upcoming events. So, the next time she is in a similar situation – the brain foresees the possibility of future humiliation and begins to trigger the flight or fight response hormones to help her get ready to run away from it. This is likely to be experienced as nervousness, something that grows stronger the nearer she gets to the event.
By the time this new event arrives the nerves are so strong that it’s likely to cause the predicted outcome to come true – the idea of self-fulfilling prophecies has a strong element of scientific validation. She’s so nervous she feels a fool all over again and is unable to perform well.
Now imagine a string of such calculations stretching up to adulthood. Each subsequent event would mould the context so the same event could be the cause of interview nerves in one person, or sports performance anxiety in another, or both in someone else; the permutations are endless, which is what makes my work as a cognitive hypnotherapist so fascinating – every day is a detective story.
So if the brain creates a version of reality that causes people to underperform, what you can do about it. Most people do is to try to wrest control back from the brain and ‘deliberately’ serve, or kick, or run. In other words we try to consciously perform an action that is so practised it’s almost completely unconscious and make a hash of it. We need something to keep us out of our own way and leave our unconscious to perform the actions we’ve practised.
Method One: Anchoring
Has a record ever come on the radio that reminded you of a past event and left you feeling a particular emotion? These are called anchors and work on the stimulus-response mechanism first identified by Pavlov. Basically the principle is that if, at the moment you’re experiencing a strong emotion, a stimulus is paired with it (a song playing, a group of people watching you, a dog running at you), then the two become wired together in your neurology and one will trigger the other off in you. Those examples were negative, but they can also be used beneficially by pairing a stimulus or trigger with an emotion relevant to your performance. A powerful trigger is a smell because the response to it can’t be controlled – even if you know something is going to smell bad you’ll still recoil from it.
British athletes have used this for a while. During training, whenever they get into a good performance state – run a personal best, feel full of energy or confidence – they’ll focus on their feeling and inhale a smell that’s impregnated on a wrist band. The smell itself is usually just something they like, although some natural products have been shown to have particular effects (peppermint improves short-term recall). They’ll continue to ‘stack’ these states over a period of time so the smell becomes strongly evocative of the emotional state that accompanies a good performance. On the big day, before serving, or settling into the blocks, or….taking a penalty…they take a deep breath and reaccess the positive state. Try it. Songs are another good trigger, and physical pressure like squeezing a finger and thumb also work well. All of a sudden the mannerisms of top athletes might take on a different significance – ever notice Tiger Woods twirling his club?
Method Two.
If I tell you not to think of a blue tree what happens? If I tell you not to think of…missing that penalty…the problem is that the brain has to process a negative; it has to think of the blue tree to not think of a blue tree. A key maxim in any situation where you want to perform is to think it how you want it. Before a game rehearse how you want it to go, see yourself performing well – make it a picture where you see yourself in it, rather then through your own eyes, because research shows that makes it more compelling. Fall asleep thinking of a positive aspect of your performance because it will prime you to notice your qualities and not your faults. If you play a sport where you have a moment to prepare, like tennis, golf or set pieces in football or rugby, then ‘play forward’ the next thing you’re going to do in your mind – while firing your performance anchor – precisely the way you want it. So, as John Terry approaches the penalty spot he pauses, takes a deep breath of his wrist band, and sees himself running up and placing the ball in a precise part of the goal. It will probably help if he closes his eyes so the goalie doesn’t get a clue from where he’s looking. For Arsenal footballers that line will magically disappear and you won’t remember reading it. Repeat that rehearsal until the effect of the anchor feels strong and then take shot, get in the blocks etc.
Method Three.
Imagination is one of your most powerful tools. I work with the mind/body connection everyday and know of its power, but you don’t have to take my word for it; researchers have found that old people given the task of spending time each day imagining bench pressing actually got stronger – and put on muscle! Imagine that, changing your body shape just by thinking. Also, an experiment was done where basketball players of equal ability were separated into three groups. One practised shooting hoops, one imagined shooting hoops, and one sat around reading magazines. After the allotted time they were put back on the court and their ability re-accessed. Who do you think had improved the most? Those who imagined, because they sat and rehearsed shooting perfect baskets and their mirror neurons – neurons which imitate the actions of others (and in our imagination we trick the brain into treating ourselves as an ‘other’) stored this ‘map’ of shooting a hoop and used it when it was next performed physically. Those who’d physically practised failed on some of their efforts so the map was more flawed. So, practise doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent, so make sure that what is being made permanent in your muscle memory is the best possible representation of your skill. Set aside 10 minutes a day to mentally rehearse key aspects of your game. As before, see yourself doing it – you have to represent yourself to your brain as an ‘other’ – and really focus. That’s why I suggest doing it for no more than 10 minutes, any longer and your concentration tends to drift.
There are many other things that modern psychology can teach us in order to improve our performance, and often they come from unrelated fields of study. One thing is for sure, in any contest between evenly matched opponents it’s going to be the mind factor that makes a difference – and sometimes it will against someone who is physically superior to you – remember Buster Douglas against Mike Tyson? So if you want to make headway, do head work.
This entry was written by a client of The Ideal Marketing Company – Trevor Silvster who is MD of The Quest Institute www.questinstitute.co.uk
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