It will be hard to believe for people that know me from a post high school setting, but basketball was my primary athletic obsession when I was in younger.  Honestly, for about 6 years of my life, basketball was almost all that I worried about and gave attention to.  Basketball and trying to “fit in” were my primary goals and objectives when it came to surviving high school.

The idea of playing a game of basketball right now seems almost comical and if anyone was present at my last showing of the Annual O’Neill High School Alumni Basketball Tournament, then you know it is beyond comical and to the point of being embarrassing.  While my basketball career never blossomed and I never reached the levels of competition I dreamed about, I still take away some very valuable lessons from all those years dribbling, shooting, practicing and playing games.

Here’s a lesson that I keep coming back to that relates to mental imagery and sports performance.

Mental Imagery and Sports Performance:

One thing that I’ve developed over the last 7 years is a decent ability to use mental imagery and affirmations to support my performances.  These practices developed out of my meditation practice that was very consistent for about 4 years, the same period of time that I was regularly practicing and at times teaching yoga.

The irony is that this was a major weakness in my maturity as a basketball player.  Therefore, in a retrospective fashion, I have learned a lot about what not to do by looking back and reviewing my mental imagery during those games.

One thing I did well as a junior high and high school basketball player was practice hard and practice often.  By my junior year in high school, I had not only developed a decent ability to play “quick” but I had also developed a pretty serviceable jump shot.  The issue that I found was that the ability I demonstrated in practice and in the junior varsity games very rarely came through in a varsity game.  That was also the case my senior year (maybe more so) where I had transferred to a new school and found myself even more uncomfortable in my own skin.

The question is why?  I mentioned above that one thing that I focused on in high school was trying to “fit in”.  Something that most adolescents hope happens, but for me it became an issue that crippled my mental imagery during those games.  Let me give one example that sticks in the back of my memory and then I’ll discuss how this lesson is currently influencing my Iroman Louisville preparations.

1 for 3 at a free throw line:

My senior year I attended a new school and to my fortune we had a pretty good basketball team.  We were highly dependent upon one or two players ability to score, but overall it was a great year.  In the first game of the district tournament, there was a play that has stuck with me for all these years.

Just before half time the other team was pressing the ball up to the court to make a last second shot attempt.  I happened to be in a good position, stole the ball and sent up a shot from about 2/3’s the length of the court.  For some unknown reason a player from the other team fouled me, so I got 3 free throw attempts. (That’s how I remember it anyway).

I remember going to the line and looking at the hoop, getting the ball from the ref and going through my free throw routine.  I had been through this routine thousands (if not a hundred thousand) of times, since I started doing it in the Elks Free Throw Contests when I was in grade school.  So what was on my mind? 

It’s a picture of the crowd.  They are off to my right with several of the student body members holding home made signs and others wearing homemade shirts.  In particular, the individual I was most anxious about, the one I worried the most about what she thought was wearing a shirt with my number.  Or… I wasn’t sure … I wished she was … I hoped she was.  She was about 3 or 4 rows from the court and about 15 to 20 people from the wall.

As you can imagine, I didn’t do well at the line.  I went 1 for 3.  Your first thought might be that this doesn’t have a whole lot to do with mental imagery, it has more to do with concentration.  You might be partly correct, but let me finish the situation at the free throw line.

The interesting thing for me about the whole situation is not that I remember what was actually going on in the gym, with the crowd, with this anxiety raising person; the interesting thing is that I actually remember fairly well the situation that was NOT real.

I remember being at the line, going through my routine and then I remember a whole made-up post game scenario that was going through my mind.  Here’s the scenario that I was creating while at the line: 

[made up scenario] After not having talked to this person in sometime, for some reason after getting finished in the locker room I head out to the team bus, surprisingly she’s there by the exit door and is happy.  I think that she’s happy because we won the game, but she tells me that I had a really good game and she’s surprised that I am playing so well.  The conversation goes on about the game and all the good things that I was doing at the right time of year, then before we end the conversation, she asks what I would be doing later.  I eagerly mention that I had no plans and we decide to figure something out so that we could just hang out with some friends. [/end of scenario]

Again, this scenario never happened.  But that story line and the real setting that it occurred (at the free throw line alone in a district tournament game) have made it stay pretty clear in my mind.  The thing that I can look at now from a performance perspective is how this situation influenced my physiology, anxiety and ability to perform a simple shot – the free throw.

The anxiety associated with making the free throw was compounded by the need to make the shot to allow my fake scenario to come true.  Because what happens if I miss the free throw?  I don’t get the praise, I don’t get the ability to talk to the girl post the game and I end up going home after the game bored and a failure (that’s what I likely perceived).

So while I am in a high pressure situation and need to calm my mind, relax my wrists, have strength in my legs and have a fluid motion – I end up raising my anxiety, increasing my heart rate, tensing up my arms, rushing my shot and pushing the shot short because my legs give out.

Top down imagery:

Herbert Benson, MD has written one of my favorite books titled, Timeless Healing: The Power and Biology of Belief.  Benson is most famous for his work around the Relaxation Response which is a technique that I believe is very valuable for athletes, but it is the discussion in Timeless Healing around imagery that I find very valuable in this context.

Chapter 4 in Timeless Healing is titled, The Brain’s Prerogative.  Within this chapter there is a discussion about “top down” and “bottom up” events.  A bottom up event is something our brain responds to in response to the environmental stimuli we encounter.  The simple example is when we touch a hot burner, we move our hand.

A top down event is when our brain responds to something that we create in our imagination or bring up from a strong memory.  The thing that we need to understand is that our brain interprets these top down “situations” just as it does the bottom up events we encounter.

Here’s an example Benson gives in the book:

Have you ever been driving a car and imagined an accident occurring?  You probably emerge from this momentary lapse only to realize that your speed has decreased and that your heart rate has increased.  Without the enviornmental stimulus of an actual accident, of screeching tires or cars slamming against one another, without the physical impact of such an event, your nerve cells have nevertheless reacted.  Your mind has ordered the same fight-or-flight response it would have for the real threat of an accident, and unbeknownst to you has directed your foot to ease off the gas pedal.

How this applies to my triathlon training right now:

When we went and did the American Triple T race over Memorial Day weekend, one thing I noticed (pretty significantly) was that I was losing tons of time and speed on the downhills.  Some people were saying that it was just because I weighed a little less or was just a little anxious.  Others said that I shouldn’t worry about it because it is better to be cautious and stay upright than be a daredevil and end up on the deck.  At first I was in agreement that I didn’t need to worry too much about my descending, but it created a whole new level of mental anxiety when we did the team time trial at the TTT and while I was slowing down on a descent, I still developed significant speed wobbles.  Enough of a situation that the two guys that flew by my both commented on how I had made a nice recovery from my out of control front wheel.

It all came to the forefront on my mind again during our Cave Run Camp when I lost approximately 10mins of time on a training partner (Royden) on a 40mile loop and it was obvious that I was losing every second on a downhill.  Saturday night as everyone was discussing their rides, a few people talked about their top speeds on a descent we had on that first loop.  36mph, 40mph, etc.. etc… When I looked at my data, I was embarrassed to share the fact that I had only hit 28 to 29mph.

What people don’t know about my riding at the TTT weekend and at the Cave Run Camp is that I had been through 100’s of top down bike wrecks.  It was getting to the point that anytime I came to even a slight descent I would immediately begin to imagine out-of-control speed wobbles and most of the time I would imagine a wreck or two.

What do these imagined disastorous descents do to my body?

1. Increase my heart rate
2. Tighten up my aerobar grip
3. Get me out of my aerobars and into a seated position
4. Create a shallow breathe
5. Tighten my legs
6. Point my toes

All of these things actually make descending more difficult.  So in order to improve my descending, I have been focused on changing the mental imagery script that comes naturally when I start to go downhill.    Here is what I’m currently doing:

1. I take a deep breathe
2. On the exhale I begin to picture myself running through the finishing line strong with my arms raised in triumph
3. I take note of the finishing time on the clock and realize that I have met my race expectations

By the time I do that exercise, I am often to a place in a descent that I can ride through the rest of the downhill.  This exercise has actually been working very well for me over the past month.  I have developed a level of comfort in my aerobars that I haven’t had in the past and at the Cardinal Harbour Half Iron Distance triathlon I found that I didn’t lose significant speed/time on the downhills.  I still lose some, but nothing like before.

Another benefit is that I don’t have all the anxiety.  The breathing, the imagery – it all helps to keep my heart rate from spiking and my overall anxiety at bay.  What I find is that if I don’t actively choose to use these methods, I revert back to my hardwired imagery and start to see myself lying on the road bloody and beat up.

If you are someone who struggles with confidence or has periods of anxiety during a triathlon, start looking at the stories you create in your mind while training.  Then begin to retrain the negative stories lines by inserting more positive imagery.  It has helped me with swimming in the past and I hope it continues to improve my cycling skills.

We all need athletic “blinders” … most of the time.

This morning Nikki and I got into an argument during our run. It centered around a workout that I had given the Chicago Marathon group that we were in the middle of completing. I was trying to get a message of “experience” across, while she was trying to get the point of “perfection” across.

In the end, we both had reason to feel frustrated. But the workout ended great and another life lesson was learned while taking part in this endurance lead life.

Upon thinking about this mornings run, I have continued to think about this idea of training with an emphasis on perfection. I am actually in favor of training for perfection, but only within the right mindset. For example, training with a focus on perfect experience and not perfect outcome.

This may seem like an argument in semantics, but I don’t think so. I’ll share more on this subject when time allows, but here’s a quick thought:

Perfect Experience vs. Perfect Outcome

I find that when I become more devoted to challenging an aspect of my own physiology or mindset I obtain a higher satisfaction out of my endurance lifestyle, versus the times that I become focused on obtaining some external outcome (i.e. Boston Qualifying, top 3 age group, etc.). The irony is that I often perform my best when I am able to completely detach myself from those external influences (times, paces) and allow my body/mind to focus on self-perfection in my performance.

This is a fine line (as in today’s workout) when a workout or race is governed by specific external factors. It is difficult but it can be done.

Creating our athletic blinders.

Elaine Breeden is a swimmer at Stanford University that just qualified for the USA Olympic Team in the 100 and 200 fly. Back when Elaine was a swimmer for the Wildcat Aquatics program, I had the opportunity to work with her for a short period of time in one/one and team settings.

At that time there was also some interest in sharing ideas with her about how to prepare mentally for competition, I wrote my “Mental Training for Athletes” article as a response to thoughts that I wrote out to share with her. As time passed, I continued to see personality traits in her (at 14) that I felt were an essential part of her success. I wrote some of those thoughts in a blog post titled, “Personality of a Champion“.

After Elaine qualified for the Olympic Team she was quoted in the paper and interviewed on tv, which lead me to send her some questions regarding her mental preparation. I feel that one thing she said in her reply, really addresses this topic of “perfect experience” vs. “perfect outcome”.

Here is that specific question and answer:

Me: I am really interested in some things that they quoted you saying in the Lexington Herald and in your interview, specifically: “I had my eyes shut and was focused on my stroke” interview after the 200.

Elaine: Closing my eyes is more of a natural reflex while racing than something I plan on doing. Its my way of putting “blinders” on so I think about my stroke, not the rest of the heat.

Most of us do not understand what it means to compete at such an elite level – I don’t. But I can only assume that the temptation to feel motivated or driven by an outcome is significantly greater at that level of performance than any level I have competed in. Especially when your competition is ultimately determined by finishing first or second (and not some personal best).

Elaine’s response is the reminder that I sometimes need. I need to focus on my experience and ultimately the performance will be there and the outcomes will take care of themselves. This is another characteristic of a champion, they understand what they can and can not control – then they perfect what they have the power to manage. In fact, earlier in her response she wrote:

“My focus going into trials was to stay confident and positive and to concentrate on the things I had control of. “

It appears that she is much better at implementing some of the mental training and preparation ideas that I shared with her than I am myself. Not surprising to me. As I have said many times since meeting her, she is very talented physically, but there is something about her personality and character that sets her apart (and she is only 19!).

Elaine has shared some more thoughts with me and I have a few more questions to ask her, but I’m going to wait until she gets back from China.

Seek the perfect experience. Control what you can. Find the blinders you need … and allow the outcome to occur!