Brain training for competitions

A reader recently wrote to me asking if I had come across any good links relating to the mental aspect of performance.  My gut reaction was yes but I couldn’t remember them being particularly obvious or easy to come by.

After a bit of internet foraging and kicking my feed-reader around, I’ve pulled together this bag of interesting snippets.  As a rule, they divide roughly into two types: those articles that describe the whole mental aspect as “mental toughness” and those that shun that term and talk about various different aspects of mental performance separately, like confidence, focus, etc.

I hope you find them interesting…

1. The basics: concentration, confidence, control and commitment (the 4C’s) - these qualities are generally considered the main mental qualities that are important for successful performance in most sports.  Brian Mac takes us through the basics of what we need to know and gives a few links for more reading.
2. Five pillars of a strong mental game - I thought these five key attributes were interesting ones to try and develop.  They are: (1) Take responsibility for your performance, (2) Control your emotions, (3) Control your thinking, (4) Focus on the present, and (5) Commit yourself to constant learning.  Obviously, this then begs five questions, as to how to achieve each of those aspects!  However, there many different ways to approach these aspects so becomes a bit like powerlifting special exercises: try one and see if it works.  If it does, keep it.  If it doesn’t, try something else.
3. What is mental toughness? and Developing mental toughness - Peak Performance have produced a couple of simple articles giving an explanation of what constitutes “mental toughness” as an athlete and then detailing a case study of how one of their coaches helped a young athlete develop mental toughness.
4. What is this thing called mental toughness? – this investigation of elite sports performers set out a list of statements that were ranked by the sportsmen and women for what they felt were most important.  The top five points were: (1) Having an unshakeable self-belief in your ability to achieve your competition goals, (2) Bouncing back from performance set-backs as a result of increased determination to succeed, (3) Having an unshakeable self-belief that you possess unique qualities that make you better than your opponents, (4) Having an insatiable desire and internalised motives to succeed, and (5) Remaining fully-focused in the face of competition-specific distractions.
5. Visualisation and savouring the moment - this pair of posts cover the all-important topic of visualising your success in competition before actually competing.  Visualisation has been shown to have significantly beneficial results for a number of athletes and is well worth investigating.
6. Converting emotions into energy to help achieve goals - it’s hard to resist a post about the psychology of achieving goals that quotes Nietzsche.  Scott Berkun explains that achieving goals seems to be about being good at converting feelings into action.  It’s one thing to feel inspired or enraged but what do you do with that emotional energy? Are you able to convert it into actions you’re proud of?  That ability to convert explains achievement. Some people get a lot of mileage out of a small amount of emotional energy. Others seems to have massive quantities of emotional energy, but it never goes anywhere productive.
7. The psychology of champions - in this article, the Science of Sport explores to what extent the best athletes are mentally stronger than rivals?  They note that history is littered with athletes who have either (a) failed to achieve what their physical potential or (b) exceeded expectations, defied their own limitations and achieved much more than they may have been expected to.  In the case of (a), they note that we usually say that these athletes lacked the mental edge, they didn’t have that “killer instinct” or drive to put the time in, or even if they did, they couldn’t produce when it counted.  In the case of (b), we say that these athletes dug deeper, emptied their reserves and approached training and competition with an attitude and desire that gave them 1% more, enough to win.
8. Mind over matter - another, similar post from the Science of Sport team discusses how hard some people are able to push themselves and whether this constitutes the difference between winners and second place.
9. The Four Minute Mile - the story of Roger Bannister and the four-minute mile is famous and often used to discuss the concept of a mental “barrier” for athletes.  From 1945 until 1954, athletes felt intimidated by the idea of breaking four minutes for the mile.  Once Bannister broke the barrier, others followed.  But it took Bannister’s vision of what was possible to break the barrier and this is why he is remembered.
10. The psychopathology of champions - in a follow-up post to a discussion about the psychological issues surrounding the doping case of Floyd Landis, the Science of Sport team discuss the tendancy of champions to do whatever it takes to get to the top, even if that borders on psychopathology.  I guess the lesson is, don’t go too far in your quest to be the best!
11. The trait of a champion - and finally, a post at Elite FTS speaks out on the trait of a true champion…

If you have any similar recommendations, please flag them in the comments.

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