by Mike Gill

You don't know what pain is.

"A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more. Nobody is going to win a 5,000 meter race after running an easy 2 miles. Not with me. If I lose forcing the pace all the way, well, at least I can live with myself."
-Steve Prefontaine

Steve Prefontaine (or Pre as he was known) was one of the USA's greatest athletes. He often quipped that his athletic ability was inferior to everyone he competed against and he would only beat them by sheer force of will. Those that knew or coached him would tell you he talked himself in to believing that he was physically inferior even though the opposite was true. He did it to fuel his mind and push himself to the absolute limit.

Many of us in athletics have goals that, at one time, may have seemed unobtainable. Over time we worked to increase our ability and we trained to build our base one brick at a time.. We got better, physically, at our sport and wondered just what our maximum potential was. More often than not, we never even came close to our physical best. We got distracted, had other responsibilities, or just plain ran out of time to train. The will to win erodes over time and will undoubtedly become a bitter pill for many to swallow one day when they realize they passed on a dream.

Just as unfortunate are those with great potential that lose during contests because they quit. I'm not talking flat out stop take your ball and go home quit. No, I'm talking about shying away from the pain and slowing their pace, allowing someone to pass them in the standings. They may tell themselves they gave 100% and even fool themselves into believing it; but it's just not the case. They gave away first place and settled for less because of a lack of determination and mental strength.

I have a plan to stop that from happening to you. It's tough, but worth it if you want to win. If you don't, or can't be honest with yourself, then pass it on to someone who does. They will thank you for it.

The mental side of things:

"I'm going to work so that it's a pure guts race at the end, and if it is, I am the only one who can win it." -Pre

Your mind is holding you back. You lack discipline and fear pain. They are restricting your progress. They are results of evolution and environment, but you can change them by making simple daily routines part of your lifestyle.

Goal Setting: You must have clear, written, obtainable goals for the sort, medium, and long terms. You must review them and rewrite them monthly. They should be posted where you can see them several times per day as a constant reminder of what you are aiming for. Here's an example:

-Squat 315 for 5 reps by April 30, 2007

-Place in top 3 at ASCX Pro AM on July 18, 2007

-Receive pro card in the next 18 months

You can have more than three goals, but your list should not look like a Chinese take-out menu filled with everything you want to accomplish; that would be overwhelming. Instead, the list should be reasonable and achievable within the time specified, but not something you can easily accomplish.

When you hit a goal, have a little celebration. Be excited about it. Tell a friend or post it on your website. If you hit a bigger goal, go out for dinner and treat yourself. Build a positive experience in your mind around success as a reminder that winning feels good.

Become a master of your time: Time is our most important resource but many treat it like a valueless commodity to be wasted. When you bring order to your life and clear the chaos, your training will improve because it won't be missed and won't be rushed. Some important keys here:

• Never ever be late. You should be early to work, training, or anything that is important in your life. When you are punctual, you will feel less rushed and can afford proper preparation for the tasks at hand.

• Keep a schedule and stick to it. Space out your day in an appointment book, putting in everything you need to do. Put work and training in first, then work around those. Also, set aside 15 minutes (or more) per day to relax and unwind during a normally hectic time.

• Let others in your life know that your time means something to you. Don't let people drag you off your schedule to do random things that aren't contributing to your goal. If you want to go out and have fun, do it, but never skip a planned task to do so.

Get some sleep: Hey, we're playing a sport here. Eight to ten hours a day, everyday. I don't care if you think you can get by with five or six hours on a regular basis and perform your best. Your mind needs to unwind and your body needs to recover. Without proper recovery, everything else is a waste of time.

No monkeys. Got a bad habit? Now is the time to kick it. If cigarettes, TV, video games, alcohol or drugs run even a small part of your life, you don't have full control over your actions. By letting them dictate your actions you lose mental toughness. You have to get the monkey off your back and there is no better time then to do it now; cold turkey.

There's No Crying in Baseball... or any sport. Complain much? By constantly vocalizing your current state of discomfort you validate the pain. Yes you may be sore, I know that the last few reps hurt, but you don't have to talk about it. Learn to swallow it up. Chalk it up to: hard work pays off and you just owe some interest.

When you stop showing your weakness to everyone, they begin to view you as stronger and tougher and give you respect or begin to fear your pain tolerance. Let them, because it gives them self-doubt.

Food IS fuel. And that's all it is. Work with a coach or nutritionist to put together a plan that you stick to when you are in competition mode. What you put in your mouth is directly under your control. By taking the time to eat properly you will not reward yourself with little snacks and candies whenever you want. You will learn to appreciate the proper time for a celebration and work harder for it. Your performance will also not suffer due to irregular blood sugar levels or lack of muscle-building protein.

Visualize. The best golfers in the world do this before every shot. They stand back, look at the hole ahead and see the path their ball will take and where it will land. You need to do this with all your work sets, or pitches, or catches or what ever it is you do. See the process two ways: from your point of view and that of an audience member watching you.

Before you load that next personal record stone, replay your best ever stone load in your mind. Now replace the old stone with the one you are about to take on. See it on the ground at your feet, then in your hands making progress to the platform, and then finally coming to rest.

After you do that, look at it from the crowd's point of view. Watch yourself do it perfectly and flawlessly. See it over and over again. When you do this it helps the mind believe that it is already accomplished and that you can do it. Visualization helps you to expect success from yourself. When you think you can do something, you often can.

These are the very basic mental approaches you can start using today. In the next article I will discuss how you can tie these lessons to your physical environment and the use of severe training tactics. It is very important that you begin to implement the mental conditioning prior to the physical conditioning. Without being in the proper mindset you cannot use the body to harden the mind; it will only weaken it.

Posted by Mike Gill at 12:35 PM

Print Friendly · Digg it · del.icio.us · StumbleUpon · Netscape

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.festeringass.com/mt/mt-tb.fcgi/919

Comment Policy:

Anonymous comments are allowed. All anonymous comments and comments from those not registered with TypeKey are moderated. They WILL NOT appear until they are read and approved by a moderator.

It is strongly encouraged that you sign up and login with a TypeKey account. Once you do that, your comments will be immediately posted.

Comments

Posted by: JohnBoone at April 9, 2007 01:10 PM

Posted by: JuXtaposed at April 10, 2007 01:30 PM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)

Please type the phrase 'chasingkaz' in the box below (required):