Thought circles - coaching series

I'm a big believer in positive attitude and positive thought stream bringing rewards in just about anything you do.
If you ask top skiers how they mentally preview the course, it's always about attacking the gate, hitting the perfect line, and accelerating to the next gate - making the perfect run.  There is no 'plan B', no 'what if', and definitely not 'watch out for...'  Rehearsing disaster can do more to bring it on than ignoring it - it's a mental game, and really essential to focus on the positive mental aspects on race day.  You *learn* how to dance, ski, paddle, row, ride, run, climb back on the training course, home gym, or lake.  You learn how to deal with disaster there too.  If you are training hard, you'll make mistakes, you'll crash and burn and sometimes, you get hurt. You also learn how to recover - brace with your toes, stick your butt out and regain your balance, and dab your brakes to stay in the trail.  But come competition day, you clear your mind and put it all behind you.  On race day, the only thing that matters is the positive, clear and perfect race.

In the words of Morpheus from the Matrix, "Free your mind." Get to the venue early enough to warm up, collect your gear, Talk to your coach if you have one.  I get calls from some of my athletes at ridiculous hours of the morning on race day just for a pep talk. And it's not really a pep talk - just a chance to clear your mind about what you are doing.

The mechanics of *what* you think about on race day depends somewhat on the sport.  Rule one is always "think only about positive things".  Pre-race affirmations like "I am fast", "I know this course", "I'm feeling good today" are great, but come race time, park them, along with the negative stuff.  You belong here.  If you didn't, you wouldn't be on the line today.  Park it all.

I teach a 'thought circle' to use while racing.  The thoughts vary a lot depending on the event.  When I was racing time trials on bike, back before the days of power meters, heart rate monitors and tri bars, my thought circle was "heart, head, heels" I'd repeat this every minute or so. It's just a checkin for your body - am I going as hard as possible, is my head staying in the game, am I on plan for my legs.  You can vary this to fit your sport, and for a really short sprint, it may be a single word - like "breathe".  The important part is to have something to trigger positive actions and thoughts locked in your mind.

What you think about next does depend to some extent on how long your race is.  If it's a long race, like a ski marathon, you actually have lots of time to think, and if you tried to constantly think about a 3 word circle, you'd wear yourself out in about 2K.  But there are lots of other things to think about in a marathon - the course, your technique, others around you.  It's still very important to keep positive - even when your wax is slipping.  Think about what you need to do to fix it, or correct it, not "my skis are slipping, I'm going slow,"  Reality may be "my skis are slipping because my wax is gone, but I have one climb left and it will cost me more time to stop than to herringbone that hill".  Turn the negative into a positive PLAN.

The same concept holds true for a sprint race.  Kayaking and rowing are two of the highest energy output sports, and two of the most technical sports around.  So many things *can* go wrong, that it's easy to dwell upon them, and not think about the good that *will* happen when the horn goes off.

The thought circle becomes really important in sprint.  Write down the words you want to key on.  Setup, Catch, Pull, Exit, Return. Add in the elements of your race plan 'accelerate 20 blades at 500m', 'repeat at 750m', 'drive the final 50'  Don't focus on balance, don't focus on steering, don't worry about wind or waves or crabs or other distractions.  Don't even worry about your competition.  You won't be able to see them anyway, Just assume they are all right there with you.  Instead, commit yourself to that positive circle of thought.  You know what each word means, what it feels like when it's on.  How the boat gets 'the glide' when it's running well.  You know what you should feel like 75 or 80 blades down the course as you cross the finish line.  And you *know* how it feels when you do it right.

And when things go well in a race, and you finish well (or maybe win!), lock that moment in your mind.  Remember how you felt after you crossed that line.  Know that for that moment in time, you had the rock balanced at the top of the world.  It's a good feeling.  And it can become part of the circle next time.

~marsh