Training the mind of an Olympian - Psychology
Dr Steve Peters Psychiatrist and consultant to the British cycling team It’s extremely humbling to hear Victoria Pendleton say that she wouldn’t have realised her potential “without Steve” or Sir Chris Hoy say that “without Steve” he might not have won gold in Athens in 2004. But I am just one piece of the jigsaw that makes the successful picture, along with the rest of the support staff within the Great Britain cycling team. Sportsmen such as snooker star Ronnie O’Sullivan and footballer Craig Bellamy have gone public with the work that I do with them. The one thing they have in common is a desire to understand themselves and to use their minds — or, as I term it, to develop their emotional skills. This will help to take them to the top of their game. There is no doubt that the people I work with are superbly talented athletes with bodies at the peak of physical perfection. Often the one thing that may sabotage their performance is an inability to contain or manage their thoughts and emotions. It is vital to engage your mind as well as your body if you are to achieve success. Training your mind is like working out. To achieve what you want in the gym you have to define what that is; you then have to know which muscles to build, how to choose the right equipment and then how to use it correctly. Training the brain is the same.
Let’s take Chris. He is a well-rounded individual whorecognised that he might improve if he engaged his mind optimally during training and competing. He set out what he wanted — and didn’t want — and we made plans to ensure that he had the skills to achieve these objectives. Likewise with Vicky. She felt unable to manage her emotions which, in turn, led to her underperforming in training and competitions. To be the best, she needed to work on her emotional skills. Both these athletes were potentially undermined by something that I like to call our “inner chimp”. Our brain is highly complex and the model that I use is to think of it in three parts: the “human”, the “computer” and the “chimp”. The human is rational and rooted in fact and logic — in the case of Chris, the human is a great and focused athlete ... and a genuinely nice guy. The chimp is an emotional machine that thinks independently. For Chris, this inner chimp would distract him by offering unhelpful thoughts and emotions. He worked on how to manage his chimp — and proved to be an excellent student. The “computer” is a memory bank that influences the human and chimp by reminding them of past experience. This chimp model forms the basis of my book, The Chimp Paradox (Vermilion, £11.99), which is about understanding the way the mind works and then managing it to get a better quality of life. It is about life in general, not sport, and is written for the general public. There is no “one-size-fits-all” answer as to how to manage ourselves. We want different things and we experience life differently. But there are some common themes: people often want to improve their success at work or the quality of their relationships. I like to start by drawing up a sort of emotional business plan. You map out on a piece of paper the kind of person you want to be and the kind of emotions, thoughts and behaviours you want to exhibit. You then compare this with what you are experiencing — if there is a discrepancy, clearly there is room for improvement. If you want to improve, you have to accept that it will take a lot of work, but that you can do a lot to help yourself. For example, I sometimes meet people who don’t like their jobs. They work to support a lifestyle that often includes a big mortgage. They tell me that they would be happy living in a caravan, yet they don’t do that. I’m not suggesting that people live in caravans, but we sometimes don’t live out what we believe. We keep living in that big house and stay in the same job to pay the mortgage, when we could be happier living somewhere smaller. Sometimes simple proactive things can make your environment much healthier for yourself and your mind. For example, if you want more mental stimulus, try joining a night class or learning a language. The most unhelpful thing is to sit there and complain. And remember to laugh when you can, both at yourself and situations, because laughter really can be the best tonic that you can give your mind.
Case Study - Mel Clarke Silver-medalist archer, 2012 Paralympic Games My regime is 25 per cent physical, 75 per cent mental. In the five months leading up to the Games, my coach and I worked primarily on the mental side, because I was shooting as well as I was going to. I train 45 to 50 hours a week and shoot six days out of seven. Archery was rarely out of my thoughts for months leading up to the Games; even if I’m just watching TV, my mind wanders to it. I use lots of visualisation and mental imagery. I found photos and videos of the stadium so that I could practise shooting in that environment in my head. I also recorded the crowd noise at matches I had shot at before, and I’d play it on my headphones while picturing myself shooting really well. I’ll use everything I possibly can to build up the mental image for a competition — with noise, sound, feel, and I’ll then make myself feel nervous as I visualise it, so it’s not a surprise when I do it for real. Competing in an environment where there are 50,000 people watching you isn’t something you do every day. Commentators remarked on how calm I looked in the final, and that’s all down to the work that we did psychologically. If you’ve got a disability, mentally you already have to be tough. I was competing for England when I became ill with Lyme disease. A tick bite nearly killed me, but I survived and was blinded in one eye and paralysed from the waist down. I had to learn a new way of shooting and the first few months were a bit of a nightmare, but the skills I learnt in recovery were vital. Things might not be going the way you want them to, but it’s a question of focusing on what you can do and turning things round to be a positive.