Mindful athletic performance

Many of us athletes spend hours preparing our bodies for whatever sport we are in, but quite often we don’t give our minds the same level of attention. Negative thoughts about our performance or obsession with how our competitors are going to perform often eek their way into our minds and distract us from focusing on our own performance and being responsive to what is happening instead of reactive.

I have experienced first-hand the negative implications that such thoughts can have on a performance. Whether that has been swimming, cycling, surfing, kitesurfing, running, sailing, snowboarding or doing a simple handstand. Literally the thoughts that pervade your mind become reality in your performance. So I ask you this, how often have you weeded that garden like mind of yours from thoughts that do not serve you or your performance? How often have you systematically sat down and looked at the repetitive thought patterns and what they yield? Mindfulness is about bringing your attention into this moment, it is the practice of self-observation where we come to meet our own thoughts and the implications that these thoughts have on our feelings and behaviour, and vice versa.

There are many ways to improve a performance and certainly one of the most effective is employing good practical mental strategies. Mindfulness for athletes helps you to hone your focus, attention and ability to be in the present. It is in the present through awareness that your ability to modify behaviour comes. This is where you can implement the recommendations of your coach or fitness instructor. Only with awareness can you bring about change. If you are not aware of what you are doing, then it is very difficult to understand why you are doing it and then be responsive to the feedback that the present moment is sending you.

The body is constantly sending us signals, very wise signals, that in our Western logical driven mind often pushes aside and chooses to ignore. Logically we know that other people can train hard and have great results so we follow their paradigm. Logically we think that we are essentially bank accounts input the fuel and output the energy like a good accountant. However, our bodies are so much more complex than that. They are so complex in fact that by not learning to listen to these signals we find ourselves in all kinds of situations such as overtraining, stress-related illnesses or fractures, poor performance, focusing solely on our endpoint or goal at the loss of enjoying and being responsive to the present moment. Quite often athletes find that they are unhappy with their performance and literally beat themselves up as a result, instead of using the feedback from their bodies to constantly be reflexive, fluid, responsive which would ultimately enhance their performance and modify their habitual thought patterns.

More often than not it is our mental conditioning and self-talk that limits our performance. As Henry Ford said – ‘whether you think you can or you can’t you are right’. As such a whole host of self-fulfilling prophecies get snowballed and before you know it you are either winning or losing depending on the story you tell yourself. It is the story you tell yourself that creates your reality. Whether it is comparing yourself to yourself or to other competitors, this is where the stick to beat yourself with comes from.

So what can mindfulness offer athletes? Having been involved in my fair share of goal oriented sports from sparing in Tae Kwon-Do, cross-country athletics, basketball, ladies rugby, to surfing, yoga, triathlon and Ironman. I have seen my fair share of winning and losing. I have seen the emotional highs of a successful performance and the lows of an under-par one. Over the past 10 years I have cultivated and developed an approach using mindfulness and sports performance coaching with my own athletic performance through triathlon, surfing and Ironman to yield better physical health outcomes i.e. less injury, to greater emotional outcomes i.e. greater race and performance satisfaction, and not to mention improved race times and overcoming challenges such as improving skills. How? By bringing mindfulness, neuroscience, nutrition, biomechanics and evolutionary biology to bear on my training, recovery and performance.

I am selective about my sports and races. My goal is ultimately to amplify my health and happiness levels more than my stress levels. Which ironically many athletes think they are doing but end out over focusing on a stress inducing performance rather than happiness inducing ones.

Many athletes actually increase their cortisol levels (stress hormone) through their training that has a whole host of negative impacts on quality of life, health and can even result in weight gain. Excessive cortisol levels encourage releases of stored energy from the liver in the form of glucose and fats, which are useful for short term fight or flight (our defence activating system). However, when training results in a situation where you are releasing too much cortisol this gets flooded around the body damaging organs, increasing aging and promotes the storage of fat on your midsection. An increase in stress levels, particularly when you aren’t even aware that you are stressed can lead to maladaptive coping for the body and the mind.

Mindful Athletic Performance is an approach that teaches you to work intelligently with the body and the mind so that you can ultimately improve your health, happiness and sense control over all areas of your life. It is literally the MAP to a healthier and happier outcome. This helps to cultivate an unbreakable athletes mind that is able to deal with whatever emerges. You can join an upcoming course in either Galway (4 week course) or Dublin (1 day Saturday 19^th Nov) check out sueredmond.com.

Course content includes practical material to integrate into your sports performance; mindfulness, neuroscience, sports performance coaching, evolutionary biology, nutrition, biomechanics and cognitive theory.

Website: sueredmond.com
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