Athletes’ Dais


by Penny Werthner Bales

After returning to Canada from a series of European competitions last summer, I suddenly found myself feeling very “stale” and my training started going badly. I couldn’t seem to come close to running the times in workouts that I should have been. Penny Werthner BalesThere was no apparent physical reason for the drastic reduction in the quality of my training, but there it was, and I had a world championship race in Europe in three weeks! I began to feel very frustrated, anxious, and depressed. I felt I had lost control. The situation was now controlling me, rather than me controlling the situation.

Turning to Terry Orlick’s book on psychological preparation, In Pursuit of Excellence, I first tried to pinpoint the problem. I wanted to be able to learn how to control my emotions when my training was not going well. I needed to learn how to prevent the terrible training results from becoming a psychological barrier which would limit or destroy my races.

Once the problem situation was pinpointed, I then needed to examine it closely using Orlick’s “self-control interview”. This schedule of questions was designed to help me identify the specific circumstances over which I had the least control and which were causing the greatest anxiety, and conversely, the specific circumstances over which I had the greatest control and which caused the least anxiety.

The first question asked what I wanted to improve. Answer: I wanted to learn to stay positive, loose and cool when my training was not going well. Additional questions asked: What are you doing or failing to do? When does the problem occur — in practice, in competition, in national situations, in international situations? How important is it for you to change the situation? When is it at its worst? When does it get better? What are you thinking about or doing at these times?

I worked my way through the questions, answering as honestly and carefully as possible, examining and analysing what I was doing and saying and feeling in situations of least and greatest control. I found that in the worst situations, I was thinking very negatively and getting very down on myself, doubting my worth, not only as an athlete but as a person. In the best situations, when my training was going smoothly, I was very confident and full of positive thoughts.

When the analysis was finished, I chose to work with several different self-control strategies.

I practised replacing anxiety-producing thoughts with more appropriate self-talk. Each time a negative thought came into my head, I stopped and changed it to a positive one. When I caught myself beginning to say such things as: “How can I do well when I can’t even get my training right?”; or simply, “I can’t do it”; I would repeat such phrases as “I’m OK”; “I can do it”; “I can be smooth and fast”; “It’s just another race”; “I’m just going to do the best I can”.

I practised mental imagery. I “saw” myself running well. I went over all my good races, especially those which had occurred after bad training sessions or bad warm-up sessions.

I practised relaxation. I had done some of this before, but with additional practice, I was able to relax myself in a very short period of time. A situation such as a championship, with just a few races, a lot of time to kill, and all your rivals constantly around, can really play on the mind. There, relaxation can be a valuable asset. It does take practice, but it worked out very well for me.

I also removed myself from the specific situation which was causing the problem. I stopped working out on the track. This was the specific situation that was causing the anxiety and I had to get out of it. I kept reminding myself that it was not a life-or-death situation. What did it really matter if I could only run repeat 800’s in 2.19 instead of 2.12?

Along with these specific strategies, I learned a valuable lesson from Orlick’s book that helped me a great deal. It helped me realize something I had forgotten — that I am a human being who happens to run, and if I run poorly, I am still a worthwhile person. It helped me bring my athletic career into a much more realistic perspective.

With the strategies, I found that I was able to change a situation over which I had little control into a situation with great control. And I ran well in the world championships.

Perhaps there are athletes who don’t need these strategies. But I believe that many athletes fail to bring an adequate measure of self-control to their careers, reducing their chances of becoming the very best they can. I believe that many athletes, after practice in self-control strategies, could raise their level of excellence and also learn to deal with “down” periods or setbacks. I believe it, because I tried it, and it worked.

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