Transcript Mental Skills for Triathlon

Iowa HEAT Workshop
Cathryn Lucas-Carr
About Me!
 PhD student in Health & Sports Studies
 Working toward AASP certification as a Sport
Psychology Consultant
 Runner & triathlete!!!
Why Mental Skills for Triathlon?
 Triathlon – 3 sports (or 4 if you count the
transitions!!!) in one
 Do you have a discipline that you’d say is your weakness?
 You might find that mental skills will help!
 Lots of time out on the course stuck inside our own
heads!!
“Maintain your strengths, train your
weaknesses”
Mental Skills for Physical Activity &
Competition
 Focus & Concentration
 Negative Thought Stoppage & Positive SelfTalk
 Overcoming Mistakes or Setbacks
 Relaxation, Visualization & Imagery
 Controlling Emotions & Anxiety
 Goal Setting
 Training Strategies
 Race Strategies
Focus & Concentration
Internal, Narrow
(Rehearse)
Internal, Wide
(Analyze)
External, Narrow
(Act/React)
External, Wide
(Assess)
Focus & Concentration
• Workshop Practice
– 99s
– Walkabout
 Which were you able to better concentrate during?
 During periods with “no distractions,” did you find
your mind wandering?
 What did you think about?
Focus & Concentration
• Practice at Home
– Counting breaths w/ and w/o distractions
– Word searches w/ and w/o distractions
• Practice while training
– Think about a specific topic for 30 seconds without
interruption (build from there!)
– Bring your focus to various parts of your body, and
complete “status checks”
– Play “I spy” games while training
What happens when the workouts are just really
tough???
 Internal Thoughts
 Focus specifically on how your body is feeling or
technique
 Control breathing, count strides, strokes, RPMs
 External Thoughts
 Turn your attention away from screaming lungs/muscles
 Have a “go to” thinking subject
 Play internal decorator to the houses you pass
 Other Strategies
 Break the workout/race into do-able sections
 Mantras
Mantras
 Short, self-affirming phrases to help you stay focused
and/or get you through the tough spots
 Keep it Short & Simple

One sentence or less
 Keep it Positive

Moving toward a goal or challenge
 Keep it Energized

Use action verbs or adjectives
 Provide Instructions for yourself

Get up this hill!
Negative Thought Stoppage &
Positive Self-Talk
 Self-talk is a way we internalize our environment,
thoughts, and behaviors.
 Our self-talk often reflects our mood, and can often
spiral out of control. This is called negative self-talk.
 With negative self-talk, many athletes talk themselves
out of a good performance.
 We can develop positive self-talk
Negative Self-Talk
 How can we stop negative self talk?
 We can learn to recognize our triggers and
intercept negative self-talk before it begins!
 We can create positive affirmations to reinforce
our confidence!
 We can replace our negative thoughts with
positive ones!
 Learning positive self-talk can keep us relaxed in
a variety of situations!
Negative Thought Stoppage
 Specific strategies for reversing negative
self-talk
 Recognizing when we are starting have negative
thoughts
 Thought stoppage w/ physical or verbal cue
 Replacing a negative thought with a positive
affirmation
 Performance reviews and achievement
reminders
Visualization & Imagery
 What is Imagery?
 Seeing yourself performing & rehearsing a skill
 Imagining yourself competing in a specific
situation
 Not just seeing: Incorporate sounds, smells,
tastes, & feelings
 Reproduction of ALL sensory information that
produces a skill
How do you do visualization?
 Maintain a positive approach. Picture yourself
completing the skills well, the perfect pass or shot.
 Image in ‘real time’. Imagine yourself completing the
skill at the speed you would normally complete it.
Timing is a critical part of sport, and getting your body
prepared for ‘real time’ situations will help you when
those situations arise.
 Feel the movements. Focus on how all the muscles
involved feel during that skill, how your equipment
feels. You should really feel as if you are in the
situation.
Practice
 Transition Visualization
 1st: visualize the set-up of your transition
 2nd: visualize yourself going through the
transition, from the swim exit, to your transition
space, and out the bike start.
 Visualizing a problem or setback can help you stay
calm and deal with it when it happens
 Taking care of a flat tire
 Your reaction to “dead legs” on the run
Relaxation
 Staying relaxed is a good way to ensure a good
performance.
 As with the other mental skills we must PRACTICE
relaxation
 Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) is a good way to
learn how to feel when your muscles are relaxed
 Then you can do “targeted spot checks”
Thank You!!!!