Mental Mettle
What mental state is ideal for performance?
The question is a hot-topic among gurus and yogis seeking to achieve nirvana amid suffering, and among athletes seeking to, in a way, do the same.
The answer is likely a mix of confidence, focus, competitive fire, acceptance of pain, and an open anticipation of the unexpected ("Adapt, improvise, overcome," Jean Pacquet, the US Biathlon Development coach, likes to say).
In the Northern Michigan ski team wax room is posted, among other ski posters, newspaper clippings, and decades-old handwritten motivational sayings and Fjeldheimisms, is a piece of paper titled "PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PEAK PERFORMANCE" listing characteristics such as "viewing difficult situations as exciting and challenging", "self-regulation of arousal (energized yet relaxed)", and "total concentration." I used to stare at that paper and analyze myself: that fall before time trials I would often have none of the characteristics, but by race season, when I was excited and ready to race, I'd have nearly all of the characteristics, especially preceding my best performances. Chances are you can also point to a favorite race where you were in the perfect mental place and experienced a sort of peace amid pain and competition while racing to a successful result. At the end of the race you probably had the feeling that in that race you gave your very best. In that race you left everything out there. But how do you get back there again and again? How can you trigger that psychological state once again, so that it's automatic on race day, so that you can make that race happen again and again? You have to train the mind.
It's not just with racing that your mindset is so important. It's not really a "racing" mindset that you train, but a "performance" mindset. A performance takes place any time you're under pressure to give your best and you know it. Example: your basketball team is counting on you to sink two free throws in the final minute of the game. You're giving a presentation in front of a large audience. You're pitching an business proposal in an important meeting at work. You're talking to that girl you have a crush on. The actual performance task is often very easy, something the performer has done perfectly a thousand times over: shooting a free-throw, pushing your body in a race, or even just talking. But our minds play tricks on us, we get nervous, we flinch, and we mess up if we're not mentally prepared.
I never thought much about mental preparation until I started biathlon and it became apparent that my mental shooting game was a major weakness. So, just like training double poling specific-strength when that was my weakness, I've been focusing on training my mind to shoot five targets, while fatigued and under pressure. As my successful teammate Paul Schommer has said, "it's simple, but it ain't easy."
A biathlete is forced to steady and shoot a competition rifle in almost the most difficult possible state: muscles shaking, heart pounding, lungs demanding oxygen and heaving with ventilation (I say "almost" because it would be much worse if a competitor was actively trying to prevent you from shooting). Then a biathlete has to forget about all that - the shaking muscles, the screaming lungs, the wobbly legs - and knock down those targets. But simply "forgetting" isn't so easy. It's like the thing where I tell you to forget about elephants... but now you're only thinking about elephants.
My approach to mental training the last two months has been focused on this aspect: trying to teach my brain to focus on shooting when there are other physical distractions. One of my favorite dryfire exercises I practice is aiming at the target while holding my breath (I like to do 20-sec breath holds with just two large breaths between each). My lungs want to breath but I tell them "not now, I'm focused on something else right now." I find it's a similar mentality when I'm shooting after a hard level four interval. My body has a natural response after skiing hard, which is to rest, gasp for air, and even put my hands on my knees, but I have to postpone that response. My body wants to recover, breath hard, shake, and feel sorry for the pain it's in, but when I need to shoot I have to tell my body "not now, I'm focused on something else right now." The other major distraction for me is, strangely, hitting or missing the previous target. For example, my mind naturally wants to get really excited if I'm hitting all my targets. When I see I've hit 4/4, I'm distracted by the possibility of success. With this distraction, it's really difficult to hit 5/5 targets. So lately I relish the opportunities in training when I've hit 4/4 and I have a chance to practice telling my brain "sorry, you can't get excited now because I have to focus on something else right now."
The weird thing is, as I've focused on training my mind to hit targets, my mentality toward ski-racing has improved. The mental state I need to be most prepared to hit targets while tired and under pressure is the same mindset I need to be most prepared to ski hard while tired and under pressure. In fact, I think the ability to focus on one thing while blocking out distractions has benefits that transcend biathlon and sports in general. How can you perform your best in a presentation at work if you're focused on the responses of your audience? Will it distract you from success if the audience members start to look down at their phones or nod off into dreamland? If so, that's one target that has stayed black, a biathlon miss. Now how will you respond with your next shot?
Along with visualization that I've discussed in previous posts, I've been working on my mental preparation while training with the US Biathlon Development Group in Canmore, Alberta, Canada, one of my favorite places in the world. We had a few Nor-Am races with Canadian biathletes the weekend after Thanksgiving (Hyperlinked results: Saturday sprint and Sunday pursuit) as well as an intrasquad time-trial on Wednesday Nov. 29 and Wednesday Dec. 6. The races were my most consistent shooting to date. I trust the ski speed will come (I was slow in the Nor-Ams), but I hope to keep the mental mettle rolling as we head to Mt. Itasca in Coleraine, Minnesota for IBU Cup Trials. My goal is to win the trials and earn a spot at January IBU Cups 4 and 5 in Slovakia and Germany. I'll keep you posted on my progress.
It's been a great opportunity to train the past three weeks in Canmore and to reunite with Canmore friends. Here are a few pictures from the training camp:
Our first week in Canmore was met with a mix of rain and warm temperatures...
... but the 2.5km "Frozen Thunder" loop stayed intact and in pretty impressive conditions considering the heat.
The time for short and hard intensity sessions. This day's workout was a good one, level four intervals finishing with L5 30-30s.
Once the clouds and rain cleared, I relished the beautiful evening jogs.
Dec. 9 - 17 are World Cup paralympic races in Canmore. It got pretty busy on the trails as the paralympic skiers arrived for their pre-race training. I have to admit I often got passed by sitskiers - I was really impressed by what they can do.
A great final day in Canmore - Goodbye Canada!
