How To Think Like A Winner
By Yasmin Boland
Applying The Principles Of Sports Psychology To Everyday Life
Imagine
being the best...
Imagine being
Venus Williams. You're a set down and your opponent is at match
point. If she wins her next serve, she wins the match. You know
you can bounce back. But it's been a long road and just getting
this far has taken it out of you. How does a champion like Williams
overcome such an awesome challenge, not just once, but time and
time again? How does she turn potential defeat into victory with
such apparent ease?
It's called
positive thinking and discipline. And it's also called sport psychology.
1. Visualisation
These days, no athlete worth his or her salt, would even contemplate
competing at world class level without a qualified sport psychologist
by their side and every great athlete - from Williams to Tiger Woods
to Brett Favre - has a 'sport psychologist' on their team.
Using simple
and extremely effective mental techniques such as positive affirmations,
relaxation and visualisation, this relatively new breed of psychologists
teaches competitors how to go one step beyond their talents so they
not only play but also "think like a winner".
Mr Jeffrey
Bond, the head of sport psychology at the Australian Institute of
Sport (and the man who trained Pat Cash to his 1987 Wimbledon victory)
- says that at the AIS, mental toughness is acknowledged as being
at least 60% of the battle to win.
Now psychologists
are looking into how to translate these successful 'confidence tricks'
for use in day to day life - so the rest of us can also learn how
to think like champions.
Sport psychologist
Trevor Dodd, who has worked extensively in the area for nearly 10
years explains: "The principles of the psychology of peak performance
can be applied throughout life.
"Anyone who
wants to enhance their performance - be it on the playing field,
in the boardroom or in the bedroom - needs to think about their
mental approach.
But it's not
so much about 'pschying out' your opposition as about 'psyching
up' yourself.
"Studies have
shown that up to 70% of our thoughts are negative in nature, even
if it's something as simple as 'it's going to be one of those days'
or 'I'm so stupid because I can't remember people's names'," says
Mr Dodd.
"Sport psychology
deals with replacing those negative thoughts with positive concentration."
The Five Basic Principles Of Thinking Like A Winner:
Visualisation is a tool used by sportsmen and women the world over
to mentally prepare for their event. But it can just as easily be
used to prepare for an important job interview, a major presentation
to a boss at work or even for a date with someone new who fills
your stomach with butterflies.
Says Mr Dodd:
"The first use of visualisation is that it takes the worry out of
something potentially 'scary' by making it familiar.
"Our Olympic
swimmers for example, have already been shown photographs of the
swimming arenas where they will compete in Atlanta. This means they
can actually visualise the day of competition in detail. They can
imagine what will happen when they arrive on the day, work out where
changing rooms and toilets are, where they'll chat to their team
mates and warm up.
"Then they'll
go one step further and imagine the actual race, visualising the
scene and even imagining the smell of the chlorine, the sounds of
the crowds cheering them on, the feel of the water.
"When the actual
day of competition dawns, they1ll have a lot less to worry about.
It will be that much less of a shock to the system," says Mr Dodd.
The rest of
us don1t always have the swimmers' advantage of being able to visualise
our future environments in such detail but that doesn1t mean we
can1t use visualisation to 'train' our mind for important events
- be they personal or professional.
EXERCISE:
Before a job interview, for example, you can visualise how you would
like the interview to proceed, using your imagination to fill in
blanks about where the interview will be or who you will be speaking
to, if need be.
"Visualise
yourself responding confidently and well to all the questions that
you are likely to be asked, what body language you will need to
use, what you1ll wear, how you'll sit," says Mr Bond.
"Also spend
time visualising how you will cope with any difficult queries, questions
about pay and so on.
"Not only will
you feel more familiar with the situation when it happens for real
but you will create a memory blueprint of how you want to behave
in the interview.
"If you have
practised this mentally in detail often enough, old, bad habits
- bad body language, nervousness and being tongue-tied - are less
likely to re-emerge under pressure."
2. STAYING IN THE PRESENT
As we said at the start, how often do we watch a champion like Monica
Seles or Steffi Graff pull herself together to win a match only
moments after being on the verge of losing? How do you stare defeat
in the face and turn it around? How do mere mortals like the rest
of us put our past failures behind us - promotions we've missed
out on, targets we failed to meet, even men we1ve failed to seduce?
- to function at our peak when the pressure's on in a meeting, an
interview or even a dinner date?
The answer,
according to sport psychologists is to "stay in the present".
Explains Trevor
Dodd: "All of us have a little voice inside our head which chatters
away to us non-stop, often dwelling on the past or worrying about
the future. We need to become more aware of this voice and to learn
to control it.
"You can indeed
learn from the past and plan for the future but while you1re actually
in the middle of a race - or an important meeting or even a candle
lit dinner you1ve been dreaming about - you must focus on the present.
"Recently I
worked with an AFL player who, in the closing moments of an important
match, had an easy kick for goal to make. If he got the goal in,
his team would win, if he missed, his team lost. He kicked and missed.
"Several days
later I had the chance to ask him what he was thinking about as
he kicked and he admitted that instead of 'focusing on the now'
and lining up the ball with an object behind the goal posts as he
usually did, he was imagining being carried off the field as a hero
by his team mates. That was his mistake."
EXERCISE:
Says Jeffrey Bond: "It's called 'task and outcome' focus. There
is a lot of pressure today on 'outcome' but when you1re actually
in a pressure situation, you need to focus on the 'task' at hand."
In other words,
don't concern yourself with what your interviewer thinks of you,
what your date is going to say next or whether your mascara has
run. Concentrate on what is.
"We talk a
lot about having positive thoughts but sometimes it's better to
have no unnecessary thoughts at all. If you become distracted with
thoughts - even positive ones - you can lose control of 'the now'."
3. RELAXATION
For athletes, relaxation of the body is obviously very important.
If your body1s too tense, there1s no way you can play effectively.
So athletes learn how to relax ‘on demand1, even during actual competition.
But mental
relaxation is just as high a priority, particularly for those prone
to nervousness under pressure.
Says Jeffrey
Bond: "A relaxed mind thinks more clearly. One of easiest ways of
learning to relax on demand uses a technique we call ‘Favourite
Place1. 3
EXERCISE:
With this method, we need first to think of a time where we were
most relaxed and happy - perhaps on a beach side holiday in our
teens, for example. Remember the sights and sounds, the feel of
the sand, the smell of the ocean.
Mr Bond then
advises sportsmen and women to slip into this 'favourite place memory'
even just for a few seconds - when they feel nerves start to overcome
them. The rest of us can conjure it up as we sit nervously waiting
for an appointment or meeting.
"This technique
works well for nearly everyone. If you can master the art of being
able to relax quickly under pressure you will give yourself a great
advantage over our opposition."
4. POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS
To explain the value of positive affirmations, Trevor Dodd tells
the story of a tennis player he was working with at the time that
'tie breaks' were introduced to the game.
"This player
was in the world's top 50 but he just couldn1t win a tie break.
It was driving him mad with anxiety and as a result he lost seven
tie breaks - and seven matches - in a row. He realised that there
was no point in competing at an international level unless he could
beat this bete noire.
"I taught him
to brainwash himself in reverse cycle - into believing he could
play tie breaks.
"He did this
by, in relaxed situations, convincing himself that in fact he loved
tie breaks. He stuck notes saying 'I love tie breaks' on his bathroom
mirror, so they greeted him first thing in the morning, he repeated
'I love tie breaks' over and over to himself throughout the day
and scrawled this mantra on whatever paper he could find, even on
serviettes in restaurants. He won the next nine out of eleven that
he played.
"What's important
is that there is no way that he actually believed that he loved
tie breaks when he started the 'brainwashing'. He programmed himself
into believing it."
EXERCISE:
If we tell ourselves often enough that we're useless or a failure
we start to believe it. By the same token, if we tell ourselves
we're successful, quick thinking, sexy or interesting often enough,
we start to believe it - and believe it when it counts. Promise
yourself you'll tell yourself what it is you need to here 10 times
a day. Don't feel stupid about it. Just do it and watch the results.
5. MAKING PHYSICAL CHANGES
Obviously, we all perform better when we feel good. What we must
remember is that feeling good is our responsibility.
Says Mr Dodd:
"Tests which monitor chemicals and hormones in our bodies have proven
that 'putting on a happy face' (ie: smiling) actually releases chemicals
which make us feel better about life within 10 seconds of us breaking
into a grin. Contrariwise, when we fall into depression, our bodies
release different, misery-making chemicals."
In other words,
we can cheer ourselves up, at least to an extent. Correcting our
posture - shoulders back, chin up - has also been shown to help
'trick the brain' into feeling happier.
In its simplest
form, this means we can control our emotions when it counts most,
even if we1re suffering from tiredness, PMT or simply feeling low.
EXERCISE:
If, for example, if you are about to walk into a room filled with
people you have never met before - either for business or pleasure
- you can give yourself an instant and scientifically proven pick-me-up
in as little as 10 seconds, safe in the knowledge that you will
get results.
Says Mr Bond:
"The challenge is to take responsibility for your emotions. There's
no need to perform badly just because you're 'having a bad day'."
As Jeffrey
Bond says: "Even for champions, there are only so many tactics and
technical shots they can play, there's only a certain level of peak
fitness they can achieve."
What sets champions
apart from the also-rans is their ability to go beyond these physical
basics and to perform well mentally.
And these rules
apply to life. You can be a strong person, someone with a lot to
offer, well dressed, smart, confident and well prepared. But unless
you have the ability to take all that strength with you wherever
you go - personally or professionally - opportunities are going
to slip away from you.
The mental
toughness that our elite athletes show is something everyone can
achieve. And many of us live out the basics of 'thinking like a
winner' without even realising it.
But it also
takes repetitive practice and determination so that, like a perfect
serve in tennis, or the ability to kick a winning goal, these confidence
skills never let us down when we need them most.
As they say
at the Australian Institute of Sport says, "If you take care of
your personal best, the winning will take care of itself".
c. Yasmin Boland
This article
first appeared in Australian Women's Forum
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©2000 Yasmin Boland. All Rights Reserved.