Stop Overthinking About Overthinking!
Gold Medal Ready
A few weeks back, I was lucky enough to be invited to a workshop at the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) focused on thought-processing methods to use leading into major competitions.
The session included about 10 athletes who are hoping for the ultimate chance to represent Australia at the Tokyo Olympic/Paralympic Games later this year, along with previous Olympic gold medalists and two Australian Defence Force Commandos.
It was slightly bizarre being in a room with so many people who are and were at the top of their respective fields on the world stage. It was even more bizarre to find out that the Commandos’ processes for dealing with high stress environments serving in a conflict zone were similar to athletes’ processes for dealing with the nerves leading up to a Paralympic/Olympic Games. One of the athletes I met was Lauren Burns. She won a gold medal in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games in Taekwondo. It seems that I have an affinity towards Taekwondo Olympic Gold Medalists!
Me and Lauren Burns (TKD 2000 Sydney Olympic Gold Medalist) at the Gold Medal Ready Session
Jimmy Kim (TKD 1988 Seoul Gold Medalist) being a boss and wishing me good luck!
To summarize an over two hour long workshop in a few hundred words, the gist of the session was recognizing how your thoughts and actions are affected by different coping methods in a high stress environment.
These were broken into four broad groups. (I’ll try not to butcher them below)
Overthinking
This I’m sure we can all attest to. A major goal is coming up and all of a sudden you find yourself trying harder to cram as much as you can in, overthinking and analyzing every small detail, panicking about worst case scenarios, trying to control every aspect so nothing ruins your plan. We see this in everyday life, too. Haven’t you ever packed for a trip and threw in a bunch of extra underwear as if you’re going to pee yourself twice every day you’re gone?
Surrender
This, to be honest, can probably roll off the back of the first one… The goal seems so daunting that you decide it’s best to just ignore it cause it won't get better. You start to think negative thoughts about the goal and have self-doubts about whether you can ever change it. Have you ever had a toothache or an injury and thought, “Well I should see a doctor. But, maybe if I give it time and ignore it it’ll go away.”?
Avoidance
Trying to escape thinking about any negative thoughts or emotions all together. Not thinking about the task at hand, you stop making positive decisions and taking positive actions. Many people freeze up and don’t take any active action as a passive way to avoid certain looming tasks or decisions. I know I do. This shows up commonly when prepping for an exam. People, myself included, would get overwhelmed if I thought about how much there was to study for the exam. So, your initial reaction is to not think about the exam at all and not study until cramming the night before...don’t do this!
Ready
Allowing room for all of these thoughts and emotions to coexist. Embracing the fact that you have all these emotions, positive and negative so you can start to shift your attention to how you are going to achieve your goal.
For me, my “ready” strategy is simple. When I recognise (or it gets pointed out to my delusional self) that I’m in a negative thought spiral, I actively pull myself aside, perform some breathing exercises to refocus myself, accept that I’m allowed to have these thoughts and feelings, then remind myself what my goal is and recenter my energy and effort into productive thoughts, plans and actions. Personally, the best headspace for me to refocus myself is by thinking about why I fell in love with this sport. My only goal when I’m on the track is to better myself as an athlete and to go as fast as I can. That’s the great thing about the 100m. As complex as it is hitting all the right steps in the race, at the end of the day it's who can get to the line the fastest. No strategies, just go fast. Simple, right? I guess that’s debatable...
Canberra Classic
The Canberra Classic came in hot, fast and entirely too wet last week. ACT greeted me with a humid and damp welcome as I made the trek up to the AIS to race in another qualifying opportunity. Sadly, this might have been the last domestic qualifying opportunity with the athletic summer season winding up for me at the AIS.
Race day rolled around and almost as if on cue, an hour before the race, the skies gave way to a torrential downpour, turning the track into a bright blue oval pool. What I did find interesting was how the points from the workshop creeped in.
Overthinking
I was considering how this was possibly the last qualifying race left on a quick track here in Australia, trying desperately to stay dry and make sure my chair was set and that I had the right glue not to slip.
Surrender
Well heck, nothing like getting out on a wet track in the rain, slipping and not being able to warm up properly to make you question why even bother…
Avoidance
Well, I was absolutely not thinking about the race cause thinking about racing in the rain would just stress me out right?
Ready
So what did I do? I broke out my “Ready Plan”. I embraced the conditions (especially the fact that there’s nothing I can do to change them), I centered myself with some breathing exercises, reminded myself what the goal was (go zoomy zoom!) and rolled around to the start line content and confident with putting my best foot forward...or wheel forward...regardless of mother nature's intentions.
So what were the results? Well, I crossed the line in 18.45, that’s right almost EIGHTEEN AND A HALF seconds… It’s hard not to feel disappointed in the result after having such a great start to the year. Obviously, I want to keep pushing fast times but I need to remind myself that sometimes the conditions just don't give you that opportunity and that I was far from the only one whose time suffered at the hands of mother nature. What was good, was being able to practice racing in the rain. We train in the wet throughout the year but with athletics being a summer sport and living in Australia...cue climate change dread... it often doesn't give a lot of wet race experience, which is something we always have to be prepared for.
So what can I take away from this blog?
Well, I could sit here and say how I still need improvements to become a “perfect” athlete, but, truth be told there's no such thing as a “perfect” athlete. I’ve been lucky enough to represent my country and compete at the highest level multiple times over my career and those experiences have shaped my “ready plan” into what it is today. But to be candid with you, who the heck bloody knows what obstacles will present themselves in future competitions!? So, despite my mind wondering when I see the weird drills my competitors are doing in warm up (Why is he flapping his arms like that? What is he, a bird?), what equipment they are using (Ohmygoodness, what is that contraption? Does it give him superpowers?) and how calm they might look in the call room (maybe it’s Botox), all I have to do is breathe, take a second to appreciate the moment, and “Go Fast!”