Mastering Mental Toughness: Techniques to Enhance Performance Under Pressure

2. What do these guys have in common? Jeff Gross/Getty Images

3. Mental Toughness

4. What is Mental Toughness? • Control over stress under adversity • Your ability to understand and use your stress reactions to optimize your performance • Sharper focus, confidence, and resilience

5. Four Techniques to Learn and Practice • Focus on your performance objectives through goal setting. • Manage stress through arousal control. • Create and use experiences in your mind through visualization. • Use your awareness of your beliefs and their consequences through self talk.

6. Can the Big Four be Learned? • Scientific research says, “YES!”

7. Cold-water Breath-hold Study • Two groups were immersed to measure breath-hold. • After measuring, one group was taught to use and practice the “big four.” • Both groups immersed and measured again. • The “big four” group outperformed by 80 percent. • The big four mental techniques helped control the cold-shock physical reflex! “Breath-Hold Performance During Cold Water Immersion: Effects of Psychological Skills Training” (Bartwood, Dalzell, Datta, Thelwell & Tipton, 2006) from Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, Vol 77, No. 11, November 2006

8. Tough starts here.

9. Human Stress Response • Fight or Flight: • Body’s primitive and automatic response to perceived danger • Starts HPA (Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis • Releases hormones , like adrenaline Control the HPA and you can control performance!

10. Physiological Reactions to Stress • Heart rate and blood pressure increase • Blood vessels constrict (get smaller) • Blood migrates from extremities • Muscles tense • Breathing (respiration) increases • Pupils dilate • Palms get clammy • Tears and sweat decreases • Adrenaline released

11. Cognitive Reactions to Stress • Memory, concentration, and judgment suffer • Inability to concentrate • Confusion • Repetitive or racing thoughts • Anger and resentment • Sense of being overwhelmed • Lack of confidence • Desire to escape or run away

12. Stress Response and Performance High P E R F O R M A N C E An “optimal” level of arousal Low AROUSAL High

13. Big Four • Goal Setting • Arousal Control • Visualization • Self-Talk 14

14. Goal Setting Focusing on your future skills and achievement Process Goals Outcome Goals Focus on achievement Milestones Progress Attainment • Focus on the “how” • Essential skills • Things you can control 15

15. Why Goal Setting Works • Directs attention to important elements of a skill to be performed • Mobilizes effort • Enhances and prolongs persistence • Fosters development of new learning strategies 16

16. Goal Setting Principles • Segmenting • The technique of arranging and focusing upon smaller goals as manageable parts of a larger goal. • Breaking things into smaller periods of time or activities 17

17. Goal Setting Principles Eat the elephant one bite at a time. Eat the elephant one bite at a time. 18

18. Goal Setting Principles • Make sure goals are: • specific and measurable • difficult but realistic • both long and short term • Set PROCESS goals • WRITE DOWN goals • Develop goal achievement STRATEGIES 19

19. Effective Goals: The SMART Approach • Specific • Measurable • Attainable • Realistic • Timely I will complete the 500 yard swim in 13:00 min. by the end of the third week of Prep. 20

20. Goal Setting Pitfalls • Fuzzy goals • Setting too many goals too soon • Inflexible goals: failure to adjust • Lack of PROCESS goals • No follow-up and evaluation • Failing to recognize individual differences 21

21. Arousal Control High P E R F O R M A N C E An “optimal” level of arousal! Low AROUSAL High 22

22. Arousal Control • Controlling the human stress response • Theory of Fours: Breath Control • Inhale: 4 seconds • Exhale: 4 seconds • Continue 4-6 minutes 23

23. Theory of Fours: Why it works • Normalizes human stress response (controls stress symptoms) • Forces people to focus on breathing vice stressor • “Centered-breathing” 24

24. What is Visualization? • Creating or recreating an experience in the mind • AKA: visualization, mental rehearsal / practice 25

25. Why Visualization Works • Vividly imagined events stimulate muscles like actually practicing a movement • Visualization creates a motor program in the central nervous system • Visualization improves concentration, reduces anxiety, builds confidence • If visualized properly, the first time you see the “real” event is actually the second time your mind has seen it. 26

26. Involve all of the Senses: • Visualize (70%) see yourself do a perfect sidestroke cycle into the glide • Hear (20%) the bubbles as you exhale during the bobbing • Smell (5%) the air on your breathing cycle / clean air vs. fumes / odors • Touch/Feel (4%) water flow over your body • Taste (1%) the chlorine 27

27. Does Visualization Work? • Anecdotal reports, case studies, and scientific experiments suggests that it improves performance • 90% of Olympic athletes use some form of visualization; 97% of them felt it helped • 94% of Olympic coaches used visualization during training, with 100% of them noting it enhances performance 28

28. Uses of Visualization • 20% everyday • 40% 3-5 days a week • 80% for competitive event preparation • 48% for technical errors • 44% for new skills • 40% for relaxation 29

29. Uses of Visualization • Improve concentration • Build confidence • Control emotional responses • Practice sport / tactical skills • Practice strategy • Cope with pain and injury 30

30. Types of Visualization • INTERNAL Visualization: imagining execution of a skill from your own vantage point ( as if you have a camera on your head) • EXTERNAL Visualization: view yourself from the perspective of an external viewer 31

31. VIVIDNESS CONTROL Basics of Visualization Training • Use all of your senses • Create or recreate as closely as possible the actual experience • Include emotions and thoughts • Manipulate your images • Make them do what you want them to 32

32. What is Self-Talk? • Your internal dialog and beliefs affect your performance. • Past experiences • Biases • Prejudices • Stereotypes • ABC Model: • Activating Event  Belief  Consequence 33

33. Relationship Between Beliefs and Reactions • Negative symptoms / consequences • Identify your own patterns • ID negative beliefs that lead to negative outcomes • ID positive beliefs that lead to positive outcomes 34

34. ABC - Control / Results

35. How Self-Talk Works • Thoughts influence emotional / physiological responses • Events themselves do not lead to emotional / physiological responses • Self-talk plays a key role in our reactions to situations 36

36. Technique to Improve Self-Talk Understand your personal belief system Use thought replacement!

37. When to Use the Techniques:Timing is Everything! Pre-Event During Event Post-Event Goal Setting Arousal Control Visualization Self-Talk Self-Talk Arousal Control? Goal Setting? Note: Arousal control and goal setting may have minimal impact during the event Self-Talk Goal Setting? Note: After the event, goals can be modified before the next event 38

38. Mental Toughness Summary • The “Big Four” techniques • Goal setting • Arousal control • Visualization • Self-talk (ABC theory)