Below you will find the slides for the sport psychology talk that I gave at the All-American Camp in July 2017.
Thanks to all the coaches, staff, and campers!
Below you will find the slides for the sport psychology talk that I gave at the All-American Camp in July 2017.
Thanks to all the coaches, staff, and campers!
See links below for the slides and mindfulness resources from the June 2017 talk at UNC Asheville: Pursuing peak performance in basketball.
In my last post, I described David Willey’s goal to run a marathon in under 3:30, which would make the cut for a BQ (Boston Qualifying time). He and I had several conversations about mental strategies that would complement his physical and tactical training that he was receiving from a group of Nike coaches.
A key for David was being able to identify the specific obstacles he would encounter, both in training and in the marathon, and then to mentally rehearse how he would respond to those obstacles. Of course, pain and fatigue were in there. But, more important perhaps was David’s fear that he wouldn’t be able to respond when it came to crunch time. He had experienced several disappointing attempts over the past decade and was worried that history would repeat itself.
Instead of worrying, David set his mind to practicing the strategies we discussed to build his mental capacity and toughness to deal with whatever was thrown at him (e.g., injury, fatigue). He did visualizations, mental contrasting, and even learned how to keep his face somewhat relaxed (with “smiling eyes”) during exhausting interval training.
You can listen to David and me discussing these strategies to prepare for his race on the Runner’s World Podcast (starting at about the 65 minute mark).
David did everything his coaches asked of him. And he did the mental training. So, when he ran last month’s Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City, Michigan, David felt ready — confident that he would make his BQ time. The race went pretty well until David’s hamstring began to seize up — multiple times. Each time he would need to slow or stop to stretch it out, impacting the race plan significantly. This happened towards the end of the race and it looked like an injury might cause him to miss his goal. But David dug in, with the support of his coach Julia (who ran the marathon by his side) and his pacers. They all picked up the pace, calculating what he would need to do over the last 4-5 miles to be able to make the cut.
The pain and fatigue increased, as you might imagine. But David recalled his mental strategies, stayed in the moment and didn’t panic. He showed incredible grit as he sped up over the last few miles. Despite all the pain, he was passing other runners who were fading/bonking at the end.
David crossed the finish line at 3:28:55, making the BQ time. The race was documented by the staff at Runner’s World.
Congratulations to David. See you in Boston in 2018!
A few months ago, I was contacted by Julia Lucas, a former professional runner now coaching with Nike. She is training David Willey, editor-in-chief for Runner’s World, in his goal to qualify for the 2018 Boston Marathon. David will probably need to run a 3:27 in his BQ (Boston Qualifying) marathon, which he will attempt at the Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City, Michigan (May 2017). Here is what David wrote about himself when it comes to marathons:
That [3:27 time] may not sound audacious, but here’s the thing: I’m not very good at running marathons, at least not when I try to run them fast. My first legit BQ attempt was at the Austin Marathon in 2007. It was the third 26.2 I’d ever run, and I was aiming for a 3:20. I was on pace, but hamstring cramps slowed me and I finished in 3:24. It was a nine-minute PR, and I felt like I’d stepped bravely onto the first rung of a ladder. Turns out I was already at the top. I made several other attempts at the Chicago, Richmond, and Marine Corps marathons, and all resulted in late-race flameouts that soured me on marathons altogether. My “best” was also my most recent: a 3:39 at Marine Corps in 2013. It was 14 minutes shy of a BQ. In six years of striving, I had gotten 10 minutes farther from my goal.
When Julia contacted me, it was about trying to help David with the mental part of his training. Julia strongly values the role of sport psychology in distance running; she worked hard to improve her mindset when she was a top runner in college and in the professional ranks.
David has great support in a team of Nike experts: sport scientists, nutritionists, massage therapists, and Julia.
I was happy to be connected with David to talk about mental strategies. When he and I spoke, David was struggling to overcome several setbacks related to injuries He was feeling discouraged and wondering out loud “Who am I kidding?” or “Here we go again”… getting stuck in a cycle of negative thinking.
With David, I needed to help him move past this cycle — but not by asking to engage in “positive thinking.” I’m not a fan of simple positive thinking. There is good evidence suggesting that being optimistic without being realistic can reduce our chances of achieving a goal. So, David and I talked about not predicting the future with a purely negative lens or a purely positive lens. Instead, I encouraged David to use a technique based on Gabriele Oettingen’s work: Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions. A mouthful, but actually quite simple. When you are visualizing your desired outcome (e.g., qualifying for Boston), you have to imagine all the potential setbacks and the plan that you will engage when you encounter the setback. Easy enough. And yet only 1 in 6 people use this strategy on their own. Most think it is better to fantasize about the ultimate outcome; they don’t want to think about the potential minefields, possibly fearing that they will set themselves up in some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.
In the next post, I will elaborate fully on the strategy. For now, you can listen to my interview with David on his podcast: The Runner’s World Show. This episode is called “Help from the team.” To listen to our part of the conversation, start at the 22:30 marker.
In March, I will be presenting in Colorado Springs at the beautiful Broadmoor Hotel on one of my favorite topics — using psychological science to help people make meaningful changes in their lives.
Robert A. Swoap, Ph.D.
When faced with the challenges of helping others make and maintain health behavior changes, how might we optimally blend motivation and skills training opportunities? How do we best motivate our patients, our employees, ourselves? And once we have found the motivation, what are key skills that need to be learned, developed, and implemented in order to maintain health changes? In this session, we will examine and combine three tactics drawn from psychological research: “getting out of your own head,” mental contrasting & implementation intentions, and mindfulness-based cognitive-behavioral approaches. We will highlight individuals who achieve behavior change goals consistently and how they blend these strategies. Finally, we will play with ways to apply these strategies in our own lives and to the lives of those with whom we work.
Outline
Stay tuned for more on this topic: the research and its applications….