Here is a short interview conducted by Chris Womack, Sports Anchor for WLOS, on my work with USA Table Tennis during the time of COVID-19.
Tag Archives: mindfulness
In the moment
Thirty years ago, the first empirical test of a mindfulness-based intervention for athletes was published by Jon Kabat-Zinn and his colleagues. The researchers found that, following mindfulness training, a group of college rowers performed well above their coach’s expectations (based on experience level and physical ability). A second group (Olympic rowers, several of whom won medals) reported feeling that the mindfulness training (MT) had helped their performance. After this first study, there was a dearth of studies on mindfulness training in sports. But there has been a recent resurgence with most studies showing that MT is impacting athletes in positive ways (e.g., less stress, increased ability to focus, etc.).
The idea is that rather than trying to control internal phenomena (thoughts/images), it may be more beneficial for athletes to develop skills in present-moment awareness and acceptance. As Kabat-Zinn suggests, one is trying to pay attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.
Most of the athletes I work with don’t have much trouble with the first component (purposeful attention), but struggle more with staying in the present moment, nonjudgmentally… especially after they make mistakes, when the self-talk often becomes past-oriented and highly judgmental. Given that this is so hard for many of us, it makes sense to train the mind to be better at this.
What we are talking about is improving self-regulation (in this case, of attention) in order to facilitate optimal performance. Most of this training mirrors a well-established protocol called Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) which has been modified for work with athletes and teams.
To get a taste of this, try these strategies as a start.
1. Mindful Breathing
Take a few minutes a day to pay attention to your breath, which can bring on a calm and clear state of mind (via the parasympathetic nervous system). Physiologically, this can help to regulate your breathing if it becomes shallow. Sit comfortably, close your eyes, and start to deepen your breath. Inhale fully and exhale completely. Focus on your breath entering and exiting your body. Start with five minutes and you can build up from there. When your mind wanders (which it inevitably will), gently bring it back to the breath.
2. Body Scan
Practice a body scan to help release tension, quiet the mind, and bring awareness to your body in a systematic way. Lie down on your back with your palms facing up and legs relaxed. Close your eyes. Start with your feet and notice how they feel. Are they tense? Are they warm or cold? Focus your attention here for a few breaths before moving on up your body — as you travel from your foot to your ankle, calf, knee and thigh. Continue to move up your hips, lower back, stomach, chest, shoulders, arms, hands, neck and head — maintaining your focus on each body part and any sensations there. Breathe into any areas that are holding stress and try to release it. As you engage in this practice regularly, you will become more highly attuned to what’s happening in your body. You can spend 10 minutes or longer doing a body scan.
3. Internal Messages
Pay attention to your internal dialogue, but don’t spend time battling the chatter. That means when unhelpful thoughts arise — “I can’t keep this pace up,” or “I better not double-fault” — notice them, but don’t judge them or become stuck/fused with them. It’s okay to notice that the thoughts and feelings are there, but don’t attach any weight to them. Instead, let the thoughts and emotions go quickly (like clouds passing, or leaves floating down a stream) and speak in terms of what you want to achieve in this moment.
Your thoughts don’t control you
This week, I finished the third of three talks that I gave to the All-American Cross Country Camp (hosted by NC State University). Most distance athletes (swimmers, runners, cyclists) have had the experience of negative thoughts arising at the most inopportune times. (“I can’t do this… I can’t go with that runner…”) How do we disconnect from the thoughts without trying to banish them. Attempting the latter usually leads to a thought rebound and intensification. Thus, my talk was centered on explaining an approach used in clinical psychology — ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) — that I and others have modified for working with athletes.
A colleague in New Jersey has written about this beautifully and I wanted to share his post because it closely reflects the way I work with distance athletes.
“Yesterday, I went for a run and literally during the first minute the thought stream went a little something like this – “Why am I still doing this? It’s so hot out. I’m getting married, isn’t it time to develop dad bod?”
Years ago I may have fought or struggled with these thoughts. Or perhaps I would have tried to think positive or fix them. However, through studying the science of performance I have come to understand that such techniques do not necessarily work and worse yet can make running miserable. After all, it is pretty unenjoyable and potentially difficult to maximize your run when “I cannot wait until I stop.” “Running is terrible,” “How much longer do I have,” are playing in full blast in your field of awareness throughout a run and your way or dealing with them is to play tug of war with them or swat at them like annoying gnats that must go away.
Fortunately, there is an alternative approach that comes to us from the mindfulness- and acceptance- based therapies, particularly acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT, said as one word “act”). ACT offers a perspective on enhancing human performance that differs from traditional approaches. ACT contends that the path to achieving optimal performance is not by controlling our internal experiences (thoughts or emotions), but by transforming your relationship with them to be more open, accepting, and allowing.
For the purposes of brevity, I will focus on just one of those processes – Cognitive Defusion.
COGNITIVE DEFUSION: A core process targeted in ACT is cognitive fusion. Fusion occurs when all our attention is turned towards the thoughts in our mind. You can think of being fused with thoughts as similar to having your hands right in front of your face – it becomes too difficult to see and move around. When these thoughts are considered unhelpful or unwanted, often a struggle emerges to eliminate, fix, and/or control these thoughts. Problem is trying to control and/or eliminate your thoughts while running can be mentally exhausting and take away from connecting to the enjoyment of running (yes, that exists). In addition, fighting with thoughts takes cognitive effort, and mental fatigue can impair physical performance (e.g. trying to think a certain way can slow you down). So don’t burn your fuse, defuse by using these strategies.
1. Put the following words in front of your thought – “My mind is telling me that…..” “I notice my mind is having the thought that….” Doing this type of exercise creates distance between yourself and thoughts. Try it out “My mind is telling me that I am never going to be able to run two miles without stopping” versus “I am never going to be able to run two miles without stopping.”
First one sounds a lot better and helps you realize that a thought is just a thought, not the literal truth. This can seem unnatural at first so practice it a bunch. And remember when you think “this technique doesn’t work for me,” you really should be rephrasing that as “my mind is telling me this technique doesn’t work for me.”
2. Sing your thoughts to a popular tune or say them in a funny voice (not aloud). You start to become less fused when you say something like “Running is miserable” in the voice of Stewie from Family Guy. Or sing that phrase to the tune of Happy Birthday. Again this can be done in your mind. You do not need to impress other nearby runners with your wonderful impressions or singing voice.
3. Be Aware, Acknowledge, and do an Attentional Shift. The idea here is to first notice (awareness) when you are fused with a particular thought or thoughts. In doing so you step out of automatic pilot and can acknowledge that for the last five minutes of your run all you’ve been doing is thinking about when it is going to be over. When you notice and acknowledge you are doing that or caught up in another form of unhelpful thinking, you can then use your senses to shift your attention back into the present moment. A great way to do that is to check in with all your senses. Notice one thing you see. Notice one thing you feel. Notice one thing you smell. Noticing one thing you hear. Again, the whole idea is to notice when you are caught up in unhelpful thinking, acknowledge it, and gently shift your attention back into the present moment. You may need to do this over and over and over again but consider it weight-training for the mind. Believe me it’s far less heavy lifting than fighting with your thoughts.
4: Remind yourself that thoughts do not guide behavior. A quick exercise I occasionally do with athletes is to have them think in silence the thought “I can’t raise my hand, I can’t raise my hand,” over and over again. And then I ask them to raise their hand. This highlights the point that even though your mind is saying something that does not mean it is true or that you have to obey its direction. Problem is we often reinforce thoughts when we buy into them and let them guide our behavior. For example, it is quite common to get home from work or wake up in the morning and the mind to say something like “I cannot run today. I am just too tired. I just do not feel like it.” When you listen to those thoughts and do not go run then those types of thoughts only grow stronger and will take more control over your behavior. Remember you control your behavior, not the words of your mind. The same approach can be taken to when your mind says during a run “I need to stop,” or “I cannot go any faster.” If you respond to those thoughts by slowing down and/or stopping you only reinforce those thoughts. Next time a thought like that comes up, just see if only for a few seconds or maybe longer if you can run faster. This type of behavioral contrast to the thought helps quiet those thoughts into a mere whisper and puts you in the driver’s seat, not your thoughts.
It is not easy but with commitment mindful running can lead to greater enjoyment and many benefits for your overall well-being. If all else fails remember to be kind, compassionate, and loving towards yourself along your mindful running journey.” — Dr. Mike Gross
The 600 high school runners who attended the camp are now armed with some of this knowledge and can run more clearly with their goals in mind — not blinded by the thoughts that hook us and lead us down less helpful paths.
Turn off the inner critic, Part II — Mindfulness Training
Thirty years ago, the first empirical test of a mindfulness-based intervention for athletes was published by Jon Kabat-Zinn and his colleagues. The researchers found that, following mindfulness training, a group of college rowers performed well above their coach’s expectations (based on experience level and physical ability). A second group (Olympic rowers, several of whom won medals) reported feeling that the mindfulness training (MT) had helped their performance. After this first study, there was a dearth of studies on mindfulness training in sports. But there has been a recent resurgence with most studies showing that MT is impacting athletes in positive ways (e.g., less stress, increased ability to focus, etc.).
The idea is that rather than trying to control internal phenomena (thoughts/images), it may be more beneficial for athletes to develop skills in present-moment awareness and acceptance. As Kabat-Zinn suggests, one is trying to pay attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.
Most of the athletes I work with don’t have much trouble with the first component (purposeful attention), but struggle more with staying in the present moment, nonjudgmentally. Given that this is so hard for many of us, it makes sense to train the mind to be better at this.
What we are really talking about is improving self-regulation (in this case, of attention) in order to facilitate optimal performance or even the highly sought-after flow state. Most of this training mirrors a well-established protocol called Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) which has been modified for work with athletes and teams.
Here are a few tips gathered from a post Christine Yu wrote last year:
1. Mindful Breathing
Take a few minutes a day (in the morning or before you engage in an athletic event or exercise) to pay attention to your breath, which can bring on a calm and clear state of mind (via the parasympathetic nervous system). Physiologically, this can help to regulate your breathing if it becomes shallow. Sit comfortably, close your eyes, and start to deepen your breath. Inhale fully and exhale completely. Focus on your breath entering and exiting your body. Start with five minutes and you can build up from there. When your mind wanders, gently bring it back to the breath.
2. Body Scan
Practice a body scan to help release tension, quiet the mind, and bring awareness to your body in a systematic way. Lie down on your back with your palms facing up and legs relaxed. Close your eyes. Start with your toes and notice how they feel. Are they tense? Are they warm or cold? Focus your attention here for a few breaths before moving on to the sole of your foot. Repeat the process as you travel from your foot to your ankle, calf, knee and thigh. Continue to move up your hips, lower back, stomach, chest, shoulders, arms, hands, neck and head — maintaining your focus on each body part and any sensations there. Breathe into any areas that are holding stress and try to release it. As you engage in this practice regularly, you will become more highly attuned to what’s happening in your body. You can spend 10 minutes or longer doing a body scan.
3. Internal and External Messages
Pay attention to your internal dialogue as well as the stories you tell your family and friends, which can reflect and shape your mental state more than you might think. That means no more, “I can’t run that far,” or “I hope I don’t miss the goal.” Notice your thoughts and emotions, but don’t judge them or become attached to them. It’s okay to notice that the feelings are there, but don’t take that emotion with you into the next shot or next play. Instead, let the thoughts and emotions go quickly and speak in terms of what you want to achieve in this moment.
Finally, for a comprehensive academic review of this topic, check out this chapter (Mindfulness in Sports Performance) that was published last year in a massive tome called The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Mindfulness.
Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement
Imagine that you own a media player constantly stuck on “previous” or “fast forward.” It would be hard to experience your favorite music in real time without being able to just hit “play.”
“I think of the brain as like an MP3 player,” Dr. Amishi Jha said in a recent talk in Lipsett Amphitheater, part of NCCAM’s Integrative Medicine Research Lecture Series. She added that, for many people (especially under stress), the mind is largely occupied reliving the past or anticipating the future, which makes it difficult to fully experience the present and meet its demands. An associate professor of psychology at the University of Miami, she discussed the growing evidence based on a strategy that could help the brain stay on “play” longer: mindfulness meditation.
~ Ellen O’Donnell, posted today on the National Institutes of Health’s NIH Record.
This idea of staying in “play” mode for longer periods is highly relevant for athletes who want to stay more focused in competitions and in training. What if athletes could train their brains more effectively to be in “play” mode: in the zone; sharp; in the moment; non-judging?
One route might be Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement (MSPE). MSPE was introduced fewer than 10 years ago, but has long historical influences in Eastern meditation practices. In MSPE, athletes learn the basics of mindfulness and then begin to apply these new skills in the performance realm. You would start with core exercises in awareness, breathing, body scans, yoga, and walking meditations. Gradually, you would work up to running meditations and sport-specific mindfulness exercises.
Dr. Jha, whose research is highlighted in O’Donnell’s article, is embarking on a new study of the effects of mindfulness in athletes. The Cane Brain Project is a partnership between Jha’s lab at the University of Miami and the college football team there, the Hurricanes. It is designed to assess the benefits of mindfulness training (MT) in athletes, including MT’s role as a potential protective factor for athletes at risk for concussions.
At its core, MT (and, specifically, MSPE) has the potential to help athletes stay in the moment, not judging their performance — but simply performing. How many times have we seen athletes “choke” when they begin to overthink and overjudge their situation? Sport psychologist Sian Beilock has written an entire book about the process.
In my work with athletes, I often suggest that mindfulness practices be included in our mental training. There is evidence for many benefits such as reduced stress, increased cognitive control, improved working memory, and improved attention. For athletes who are interested in incorporating mindfulness into their regimen, it should be emphasized that this process shouldn’t be rushed. Athletes should find a qualified mindfulness instructor. (Many good instructors have been trained under the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction model developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn.)
Feel free to write me and I’d be happy to give you suggestions on how to start.
Olympic dreams supported by sound mental habits
Watching the Olympic Games is always a treat for me. The pressure on these athletes to put in a “performance of a lifetime” helps some thrive, while others struggle. I was fortunate to work at the Olympic Training Center (based in Colorado Springs) in the early 90s, helping young athletes develop their mental skills as fully as their physical skills. We were always working on improving consistency, mental toughness, and focus.
There are a lot of good books available for athletes looking for that elite mindset: Toughness, by Jay Bilas; Choke, by Sian Beilock; In Pursuit of Excellence, by Terry Orlick; Eleven Rings, by Phil Jackson. But for a quicker look at the mental habits of elite athletes, you should read the recent column by Carolyn Gregoire of the Huffington Post. This article, The Brain-Training Secrets of Olympic Athletes, is superb: current, on-target, and with many helpful links.
Gregoire focuses on five practices that Olympic athletes use to reach their peak. (She also makes it clear how we can use these strategies in our own lives — a focus of my own practice and blog.) So, without further ado, here are the strategies that Gregoire highlights:
(1) Visualize the outcome you want. I would add that you should also visualize what you will do when something sets you back — a mental contingency plan.
(2) Meditate daily. It seems daily that there is a new finding on the benefits (psychological and/or physiological) of mindfulness practice. Being in the moment is, not surprisingly, a key skill in high level performance.
(3) Evict the obnoxious roommate in your head.
“Do your thoughts tend to lift you up — or are you constantly tearing yourself down with an inner monologue of fear, self-doubt and feelings of unworthiness? Great athletes, through all the challenges they face, are able to exert a great deal of control over the way they talk to themselves, and they’ve managed to evict the”obnoxious roommate” living in their heads that tells them they can’t do it.” ~ C. Gregoire
(4) Set smarter goals. Goal-setting sounds so basic because it is. It is simple to do. But it is also simple to do poorly — for example, setting outcome goals without also setting the process goals. Set daily goals. Build on small successes. Emphasize what is in your control — attitude, effort, focus — rather than things like times, points, or places.
(5) Go with the flow. Gregoire closes her piece with the idea that Olympic athletes need to be able to achieve “flow,” that state of mind in which time seems to slow and when one feels fully immersed in the activity. Flow is not a random event. In fact, it is much more likely to occur if you have committed to the first four strategies listed above. Mostly, it is a function of quieting the mind — allowing yourself to achieve the confident, but calm mindset. This doesn’t mean you can’t be aggressive if that’s your style. But it does mean that you shouldn’t have to force it.
Well, back to my nightly watching of the Winter Games. So inspiring…
Focus, Part II — Mindfulness
Last Wednesday during MLS play, New York forward Thierry Henry scored both goals in a 2-1 victory over Montreal. It was the second goal that made the highlight reels. Watch it for yourself.
During the replay, the announcer says: “You can’t teach that stuff. You can practice it, but you can’t teach it. That’s just genius. Goal of the year. Goal of the decade.” Beyond the hyperbole — Goal of the Decade! — there is a larger myth many commentators perpetuate: that excellent performance can’t be taught.
Of course it can. There are probably thousands of kids trying that exact bicycle kick now. Some coaches will be teaching it too. I might even try it with my own team of 11-year-olds. Which kid will stick with it and learn that move?
The point is, we don’t need to mythologize excellence. We can admire it. But it is teachable.
Several years back, when Henry was dominating with the Arsenal side, he was asked by a reporter, “Are you experiencing the best form of your career?” “I don’t know,” Henry replied. “And I don’t want to know.” It was an irrelevant question to Henry. If he tried to think about it, he would self-evaluate in an unhelpful, distracting way — a manner of self-reflection that is incompatible with flow or being in the zone. Instead, over the years, Henry has worked on his ability to focus and on his many soccer skills. Henry has had access to a sport psychologist since he was a boy in France; his drive for perfection and mental skills were noticed early and strengthened. In the video, you can see Henry react instantly to the flicked ball, redirected by his teammate. Henry is in the moment, fully present, and fully focused.
How do you teach that kind of precision? That kind of focus?
In my interviews with elite athletes, the same answer comes up about the importance of staying in the present. And though most athletes don’t name it mindfulness, this mindset is crucial. Further, it goes beyond simply being in the present moment. It also means being engaged in the moment without evaluating or emotionally reacting to it. Most psychology research on the topic shows that training yourself to be mindful has tremendous benefits: reduced stress, improved emotional health, less pain and better physical health. One recent study demonstrated how mindfulness and relaxation work on a cellular level — improved metabolism, mitochondrial function, insulin function,and telomere maintenance; reduced inflammatory responses along stress-related pathways. In other words, when you practice mindfulness, you change yourself on a molecular level via gene expression. And the better you become at this, the more potent the changes.
How does mindfulness work on the more practical level? Psychologist Amishi Jha, who studies neural bases of attention and mindfulness, writes
Mindfulness training works, at least in part, by strengthening the brain’s ability to pay attention. [It] uniquely builds the ability to direct attention at will through the sea of internal and external stimulation while also allowing for greater awareness of what is happening in the moment… without getting caught up in [ongoing thoughts, feelings, and sensations].
Now we’re talking! This kind of focus is EXACTLY what elite athletes seek and what facilitates excellent performance. It has clear ramifications for anybody wanting to improve the ability to stay on task. Especially when the sea of internal and external stimulation feels like a roiling ocean.
In a study of two military cohorts preparing to deploy to Iraq, Jha and her colleagues found that marines who most consistently practiced mindfulness meditation training showed the greatest benefits in two important areas: mood and working memory. Reducing mind-wandering appears to free up working memory capacity — our ability to hold and manipulate multiple pieces of information in our mind. Not surprisingly, this also has implications for the ability to perform in the classroom. On the playing field, it would certainly be advantageous to have increased working memory along with a positive, focused mindset. (As an added benefit, you might even recover from workouts more quickly, based on the genomic research described above. I know I’ve always wanted mitochondrial resiliency!)
Ready to start? There are hundreds of instructional books and videos on mindfulness training. Yoga training works too. Here is an introduction to mindfulness training video from Dr. Jha and her colleague at the University of Miami. Start today. Ten minutes of daily practice will have an impact on your focus, attention, health, and mood. And the training should carry over to sports. Let me know…
Focus, Part I
Last week, researchers reported that adults who use a brain-workout program for ten hours have a mental edge over their peers even a year later. The training, done via computer games, significantly improved visual processing speed (one key to maintaining cognitive health).
Just ten hours of mental practice led to long-lasting benefits. Impressive.
What would I want to improve with a similar amount of brain training?
How about FOCUS? What distracts me even as I write? Is it my Spotify music playing in the background? How about other windows open just waiting for some attention? Am I among the many “suckers for irrelevancy” as Stanford sociologist Clifford Nass claims, unable to resist the drive to multitask?
I know my students are attempting to multitask; and they are not alone. One large survey revealed that 80% of students acknowledge sending at least one text in a typical class period. (15% send 11 or more texts per class.) We know that heavy media multitaskers (HMMs) struggle to manage the many streams of information, performing poorly on tests of filtering ability. The problem is that multiitaskers think they are great at it, though data clearly suggest otherwise. David Sanbonmatsu, a psychology professor at the University of Utah, told NPR earlier this year: “People don’t multitask because they’re good at it. They do it because they are more distracted. They have trouble inhibiting the impulse to do another activity.”
As I wrote last month, difficulties with distraction (e.g., losing focus in the boxing ring) are not uncommon, even among elite athletes. The question for athletes and anyone else seeking an edge in concentration and focus is: What can one do, specifically, to train focus?
When I talked with kayaker Chris Gragtmans, he spoke about the importance of rhythm (around the 1-min mark of this video) — citing the importance of synchronizing paddle strokes, heart rate, and breath. His metronome-like focus helps keep Chris in a state of flow. Chris also uses his helmet cam to record a run, then replay it numerous times while visualizing perfect execution. That way, when he is on the river and approaching a difficult feature, he is instantly in the moment, having run successfully this part of the river hundreds of times in his head.
LeBron James (who, at age 28, just won his 4th MVP in the NBA) describes how he stays focused each day. Speaking with Josina Anderson of ESPN about the award, James said: “Every night I step on the floor and every day I step out of my house, I have this band on my wrist which says “I promise.” James was talking about his promise to be a leader and a role model to children. But it also serves as a motivating/focal point for James, allowing him to work harder even though he could easily rest on his laurels. “I tried harder to win defensive player of the year than I did MVP,” James said. “That’s my goal. Coach (Erik Spoelstra) had me guarding every position. We’ll try again next year.”
Developing concentration and focus is one of my major emphases in sport psychology. What athletes are striving for is that experience of flow or being in the zone. This is usually described as a feeling of being fully immersed in the competition or training, without thinking too much about it. In flow we also see an important decrease in self-evaluation, so that the athlete is not judging him or herself anymore. But this state of flow seems magical and elusive to many athletes. “Man, I don’t know how it happened. I was just in the zone.” The thing is, you can increase your chances of experiencing this focused state through mental training.
Here is an acronym that I have borrowed and adapted to help people focus more effectively. Thank you to Sam Horn for posting this. (Note: These are not specifically geared towards sports, but will develop your ability to focus across situations.)
F-O-C-U-S
Five more rule. As you begin to lose concentration and are tempted to give up (or switch tasks), tell yourself “Five more.” (Read five more pages. Write five more sentences. Resist the urge to check twitter for five more minutes.
One think at a time. Stay with a task for a specific amount of time (say, 30-40 minutes). Then switch. If you are coming into a task already distracted by other thoughts, try the trash it or stash it trick. Write down the things that are distracting you. Then either trash the paper or stash it for later. (I use this for some class periods when students seem particularly preoccupied.)
Conquer procrastination. Putting something off that is difficult is simply reinforcing the notion that you can’t concentrate. Jump right in on difficult tasks (using the two previous tips).
Use your hands as blinkers. Literally. Create tunnel vision for yourself. Keep your cellphone out of your vision. Close other windows on your computer. (Remember, you can always go back to those other sites — but after you have met your goal time.)
See as if for the first or last time. “For lack of attention, a thousand forms of loveliness elude us every day.” — Evelyn Underhill
This last tip begins to get at perhaps the most important aspect of improving focus, attention, and concentration — mindfulness. Training one’s brain to be more mindful is an ancient practice, but is woefully underutilized by today’s athletes. Next week’s post will be devoted to mindfulness training — the benefits, the underlying neuroscience, and how you can apply it to many areas of your life — athletic and otherwise. Stay tuned…