Sports Psychology

Mind Your Language (Article for Fighting Fit Magazine)

2011-07-18T02:56:00.000-07:00

It is said that “sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt you”. Unfortunately, this is far from being the case. The words we use can cause all sorts of problems which can hurt your personal life, your working life and also your ability to train and fight effectively. There is a great power in the words we use to ourselves. The writer Rudyard Kipling once said “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used my mankind.” Kipling’s theory is supported by scientific research which has found that we respond emotionally to the words we hear or say to ourselves even though we are usually unaware of it. If you want to improve your performance in the ring, it may just be time to take out the dictionary and start improving your language skills.

Choose your words carefully

It has been found that we respond literally to the words that we hear. If we hear the word ‘bad’, we tend to feel worse than we did before we heard it. If we hear the word ‘good’ we tend to feel better.

An interesting study was carried out at an American university where one group was given a test to do which involved putting together a puzzle containing a lot of random words on it. Afterwards they recorded how long it took each member of the group to leave the building. They then took a second group and asked them to repeat the exercise; this time using a puzzle that contained a lot of words relating to being old such as ‘ancient’, ‘Florida’ and ‘bingo’. Significantly, it was found that those in the second group took considerably longer to leave the building because of the aging effect the words had on them.

It is therefore important to consider the kind of language you tend to use when you are training or fighting. I have demonstrated this to my clients by getting them to repeat the word ‘weak’ to themselves while they are trying to bench press a weight that they would normally be able to lift comfortably. In every case the client has struggled to lift the weight and in most cases has failed completely. I then ask them to repeat the exercise whilst repeating the word ‘power’ in their heads. In this case, each one of them has lifted the weight easily. So, if you want to feel strong, just say the word.

Say what you want (not what you don’t want)

One of the biggest problems I have found when working with fighters over the years is the language they use when they talk to themselves. This inner chat, otherwise known as self-talk or internal dialogue, is that voice we hear in our heads when we are thinking to ourselves. When we are stressed, angry, anxious or generally in a negative mindset, we tend to speak far more using negative statements. The anxious fighter, for instance, would say things such as “don’t mess up”, “don’t miss your punches”, “don’t make yourself look stupid” or “don’t drop your guard”. This becomes a problem because our brains cannot process negatives. If I was to say to you “whatever you do, do not think about a purple rhinoceros with pink spots” what do you think about? Exactly, you think about the purple rhinoceros with pink spots. When you make a negative statement to yourself you actually end up playing an internal movie of doing the thing you do not want to do. If you are a coach you can be sure that if you want your fighter to be scared the best way to go about it is to say “don’t be scared”.

Unfortunately, we do seem to spend a lot of our time using negative language. How often, when you ask a person how they are feeling do you hear them say “not bad”? “Not bad” certainly doesn’t mean “good” – it actually means “bad”.

Accentuate the positive

A fighter’s ability to perform to his best is largely dictated by the emotions he is feeling. Our emotions are the by-product of the way we think and our language can play a massive role in deciding how we feel at any given moment. A fighter will tend to perform well when he feels positive emotions and will tend to perform poorly when he feels negative emotions. However, very often there is a tendency for people to use words or phrases that make the negative emotions even worse and at best will neutralise the impact of the positive emotions.

I once worked with a boxer who was so good at using words that reinforced his negative emotions that by the time he got into the ring he always thought he was going to have a panic attack. The way he would achieve this state of near collapse before the fight had even begun was by putting great emphasis on his fears by using highly emotive negative words. When I asked him how his previous fight had gone he used phrases such as “my performance was dreadful”, “I was shocking”, “I was shitting myself” and “the result was sickening”. As he talked, I could see the emotion building up in him to a point that he was almost in tears. However, when I asked him to describe a fight that went really well for him the best he could summon up were phrases like “it was okay”, “my jab was alright”, “my movement was acceptable” and “my counter-punching was fine”. Here, the positive emotion was completely lacking.

An important thing to know about emotion is that it plays a big role in allowing us to recall memories; the stronger the emotion the easier the recall. Because my client was putting so much emotion into his bad performances, he found it far easier to remember them than his good performances. This meant he had a distorted view of himself and considered himself to be far worse than he actually was.

Interestingly, I had a client who was constantly using words like “fantastic”, “brilliant”, “excellent” and “superb”. His words were reflected by his body language, his energy, his tone of voice, his self-belief and his ability to draw on past successes. However, when I asked him to tell me about a poor performance, he struggled to find one, because he put so little emotion into them.

If in doubt change the label

I am very often working with fighters to overcome what they refer to as “nerves”. They tell me that they experience dreadful feelings which make it impossible to perform well. The problem, however, isn’t usually the feelings themselves but how they are labelled. The singer Carly Simon had to give up touring because of the immense stage fright she suffered from. She described how her heart would beat really fast, she would feel butterflies in her stomach and a buzzing in her head. She said she was terrified. Bruce Springsteen heard this description and stated that he couldn’t perform without these feelings. They had exactly the same feelings but one of them labelled them as “terror”, the other labelled them as “excitement”.

The words you use to describe how you feel about a fight will have a massive impact on you, so remember - always choose your words wisely.

Andy Barton

Fair weather sports performers

2010-12-24T09:27:00.001-08:00

How many of you are fair weather sports performers who believe they can only perform well if the sun is shining, there is no wind and the temperature is just right? If you are one of these people ask yourself how often such conditions exist. The fair weather sports performer is almost always at a disadvantage as they see rain and wind and cold as being bad. I think it was Billy Connolly who said 'There's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing'. If you want to be successful in all weathers, it is important that you learn to see the good in all weathers.

When I was a young rugby player, I used to love playing in the snow. There was something about it that brought out the kid in me and I used to especially love sliding along the ground for several metres to steal a ball that was lying out in the loose. Padraig Harrington thrives on playing in wet, windy conditions. Give him a choice between wet or dry conditions for a tournament and he would pick the former every time, because he feels this gives him a head start on the majority of his competitors.

Instead of getting down about the weather, learn to embrace it (or don't play!)

Andy Barton

Black and White Thinking

2010-10-29T05:29:00.000-07:00

One reason that people get stuck with problems can be because they don't give themselves enough options. We have a tendency to see problems as a choice between two options, neither of which give us what we truly want. I call this "Black and White thinking". An example of this would be where people feel they should be modest, self-deprecating, reluctant to take compliments and feel they should beat themselves up when they make a mistake. The only alternative they will see to this would be to be arrogant, brash, full of themselves and egotistical. All the other options just seem to get deleted so people then think "well at least if I am modest people might like me" and they stick with the problem state that they already had.

If you have a problem, find some new options. For instance, you can be confident without being arrogant. You can learn from mistakes without beating yourself up. You can feel good about a compliment without being egotistical.

The more options you have, the more flexibility you have to deal with problems. So move away from "Black and White thinking" and look for all the other colours and shades. You'll be surprised how many choices there really are.

Andy Barton

How to win The Open

2010-07-21T04:02:00.000-07:00

Louis Oosthuizen won the Open Golf Championship last week and also gave a fantastic demonstration of how to win a major championship. Although he had never been close to winning such a big event before, Oosterhuizen's victory was one of the most comprehensive in recent years. So what was the key to such a great performance? One word "consistency".

Throughout the whole tournament Oosterhuizen remained totally consistent. He was consistent in his approach; he was consistent with his routine; he was consistent with his play making and he was consistent with his body language. Most importantly, he was consistent with his emotional state. He stayed in the moment, took one shot at a time and remembered to enjoy himself. In fact he had a constant smile on his face throughout each of the rounds, even when he hit a poor shot (This is very reminiscent of Tom Watson, one of the greatest players of the game who always has a benign smile on his face every time he plays). Smiling plays an important role in maintaining a positive attitude as it releases the neurotransmitter serotonin into the body. This neurotransmitter is very important for regulating our emotions and has the effect of reducing anxiety and making us happy. Exactly how you want to be going down the back nine on the last day of a major.

So, if you want to win a major, remember to smile, stay in the moment and be consistent.

Andy Barton
Wider Vision Ltd - Specialists in Mental Performance Training for Sport

Penalty taking at the World Cup

2010-05-26T04:53:00.000-07:00

Now that the World Cup is nearly upon us, the main topic I am asking to comment on from the media is the art of penalty taking. Why, for instance, are England so bad at taking penalties and Germany so good at it?

A lot of commentators will refer to penalties as being a lottery, but it is far less so than many think. Although skill plays an important role in penalty taking, mental approach seems to have a far bigger impact and, in a nutshell, we tend to get what we expect. Germany has developed a cultural belief that they are good at penalties; this then has an impact their attitude when it comes to a penalty shoot out. England, however, has developed a belief that they are no good at penalties and this is also reflected in their attitude when it comes to a shoot out. If you go back to 2006 and the penalty shoot out against Portugal, England should have been delighted to take them to penalties. It was England, after all, who had to finish out the game with only 10 men. However, each one of England's penalty takers looked petrified. They walked from the centre circle looking as if they were on their way to their own execution. At the same time, their team mates were looking down at the ground, shaking their heads. Contrast this with Ronaldo when he went to take his penalty; his head was up, his shoulders thrust backwards as he marched purposefully towards the penalty area. If you watch Fabio Grosso as he walked up to take the penalty that would win the World Cup for Italy, he has a smile on his face. For these two men, taking a penalty is seen as an opportunity not a threat.

Matthew Le Tissier, who had a record of scoring 48 out 49 penalties during his career, believes that his main reason for success was that he loved taking penalties. When you love doing something you tend to focus on what you can do. When you hate doing something, you tend to focus on what you fear may happen. As we tend to get more of what we focus on, it makes sense that a positive penalty taker is far more likely to score.

All the England players need to do, therefore, is learn to love taking penalties. Simple!

Andy Barton
Wider Vision Ltd - Specialists in Mental Performance Training for Sport

Craig Bellamy Foundation

2010-03-08T10:37:00.000-08:00

When you think of Craig Bellamy, some of you may consider him in less than glowing terms. What some of you may not know is that he has invested a huge amount of his own time and money (over £1 million) into introducing football to the children of Sierra Leone. He is single-handedly the biggest funder of sport in this country. He has now got over 1600 kids playing football and he is funding the training of coaches, with a view of having more trained coaches in Sierra Leone than any other African country. One of the rules of playing is that the children must attend school and for those involved, school attendance has risen from an average 30% to over 80%. Not only that, children can increase the goal difference of the team by answering correctly questions about such issues as HIV after a match.

This is a fantastic illustration of an individual who thrives on having a sense of purpose. It has made him a more rounded individual (albeit still a vociferous one on the pitch) and getting a perspective that there are more important things than football (apologies to Bill Shankly!), I believe, has made him an even better player.

You can find out more at http://www.craigbellamyfoundation.org/

Why hypnosis is beneficial to sport

2010-01-15T03:14:00.000-08:00

Hypnosis has been widely used in sport since the 1950s. It has been widely documented that the Soviet team took no fewer than eleven hypnotherapists to the Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956. Since this time a many of the world's leading sports performers have used hypnosis to improve their mental approach. Tiger Woods has used hypnosis from a very early age and once stated that “hypnosis is inherent in everything I do now”.

In a sense, any sports performer who uses mental rehearsal to prepare for competition has used hypnosis as, to mentally rehearse an event, you have to take on a trance state.

It is highly significant that it has been found that there is a correlation between hypnosis and the ‘zone’ state that sports performers refer to when they are playing to their highest level. When sports performers are in the zone, their predominant brainwaves are Alpha brainwaves which are at a frequency of between 8-12Hz (cycles per second), the same brain state that most people access when they enter a state of light trance. Many sports performers describe the zone as being in a kind of bubble, where everything is easy and effortless, time seems to slow down and it is almost as if some other force has taken over their body. These are all examples of deep trance phenomena associated with hypnosis.

The ability to enter trance is therefore an extremely useful feature of peak performance and athletes need to train their ability to enter trance states to improve their mental ability in the same way that they need to train their muscles to enhance their strength and endurance. The most successful athletes are the ones who can put themselves into the most effective trance to perform.

Andy Barton
The Sporting Mind - Mental Training for Sport

The power of lightening up

2009-11-27T04:09:00.000-08:00

One thing that sports performers very often start to do when they get to a certain level is take their sport too seriously. The thinking behind this tends to be that if they want to get to a very high level, they have to take it seriously. Now, I'm not saying that sport shouldn't be important and I'm not saying that sports performers shouldn't strive to reach a high level - far from it. What I am saying is that taking sport too seriously (or anything for that matter) can have a real impact on performance. One thing it does, for instance, is it affects our physiology. When we take things too seriously, we tend to frown more and become more inward looking. The mere act of frowning will then impact on other muscles throughout our bodies and will also have a significant impact on how we think and feel. You can test this out for yourself. Put a frown on your face for a couple of minutes and notice how it affects your mood. Then put a big smile on your face and notice the difference. When we smile we increase the levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin which makes us feel happier and also reduces levels of anxiety. It is no coincidence that you are seeing more sports performers smiling when they are in competition. It is a noticeable change in the Chelsea team who seemed to have been playing with a smile on their faces since Carlo Ancelotti became coach (notably bringing with him the eminent psychologist Bruno Demichelis). Even Nicolas Anelka has been smiling. You may have noticed that Andy Murray has lightened up over the last year or so, as has Padraig Harrington with great results. The likes of Usain Bolt, Ronaldinho, Tom Watson and Luke Donald seem to have always performed with a smile on their faces. So if you want to improve your performance, first of all, make a commitment to lighten up, smile and enjoy yourself.

Andy Barton
The Sporting Mind - Mental Training for Sport

WAGS

2009-09-11T02:51:00.000-07:00

Fabio Capello has stated that Wives and Girlfriends will be able to meet up with the players for one day after each match and not at any other time during the World Cup. This seems to me to be a very sensible approach after the problems from the 2006 World Cup, although I wouldn't always suggest this is the best option.

One thing a player needs when away from home is some sort of normality, so usually the familiar face of a loved one at the end of the day can serve to keep the player grounded. It can also keep the player's mind off their performance, which can lead to over-analysing on occasions. In many sports being surrounded by family when touring is encouraged. Unfortunately, with the huge hype surrounding the World Cup there is no such thing as normality and the media interest in the WAGs only serves to heighten this fact.

In Capello's favour is the fact that he has created a winning mentality in his team. When a team respects and believes in the coach it is very unlikely there will be any dissent from their ranks. We just have to hope that the WAGs are on the same page and keep a low profile throughout the tournament. Something tells me it is a vain hope!

Andy Barton
The Sporting Mind - Mental Training for Sport

Tim Henman

2009-07-06T02:52:00.000-07:00

During Wimbledon fortnight I tend to get a lot of interview requests from the media regarding the mental side of tennis. One of the recurring topics is the question of what the media perceive to be Tim Henman’s failure.

Love him or not, Tim Henman was Britain’s most successful tennis player for decades. He won 11 World ATP tournaments, including the Paris Masters, reached the Semi-Finals at Wimbledon four times, once at the French Open and once at the US Open and ranked as high as number four in the World.

If that is considered failure, it’s a wonder why anyone would want to aim to be at the top of their sport.

Andy Barton
The Sporting Mind - Mental Training for Sport

Insane Golf

2009-06-12T03:33:00.000-07:00

A lot of golfers wonder why it is that they spend years and years playing the game, spend a fortune on the latest equipment, spend hours and hours on the driving range, have countless lessons with a swing coach and dedicate the rest of their time analysing and thinking about their game and yet, more often than not, find that they still get the same results they’d been getting for years - or may even get worse.

If you can recognise this in yourself, you may want to ask yourself whether you are doing anything differently to what you have done in the past to change your game. We are by nature creatures of habit. We essentially repeat patterns of behaviour without thinking. So a golfer will turn up at the driving range, get 100 balls and hit them one after another without putting any real thought into it or having any real purpose in mind. These people are often working on the erroneous principle that ‘practice makes perfect’. They feel that the mere effort of turning up to practice and hit balls is going to improve their play. However, because they tend to practise the same way every time, they are only reinforcing what they have already learned, including all their bad habits. Only perfect practice makes perfect.

It was Einstein who defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. If you want to improve, you must start doing things differently. Set yourself new challenges, put more effort into each shot, make your targets more defined, refine your pre-shot routine (if you haven’t got one yet, get one now), mentally rehearse how it would be to be the player you would like to be (we’ll discuss the power of mental rehearsal in more detail in a future blog), play with people you don't normally play with – just do something different. And if it works, keep doing it! Otherwise you are going to be stuck playing insane golf.

Andy Barton
The Sporting Mind - Mental Training for Sport

National identity and sports performance: Should England have their own national anthem?

2009-05-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

The question as to whether the English should have a national anthem of their own has been debated over the years. Whereas the Welsh and the Scots have laid claim to their own anthems, the English retain the British national anthem for sporting events. This gives the bizarre circumstances where, if England plays against either Wales or Scotland, they are effectively playing their opponent’s national anthem twice. When this issue has been addressed in the past, the emphasis tends to have been on the political ramifications of giving England their own national anthem. The psychological implications of playing ‘God Save the Queen’ however are usually neglected in the debate.

There are a number of factors that contribute to the psychology of a sports performer during competition; belief, confidence, a sense of worth, being prepared, the ability to relax and perform under pressure are just some of these.

One factor that has a huge impact on a performer is a sense of identity. A sense of identity will impact on our values, which in turn will affect our motivation levels. It will also impact on our sense of purpose or our will to go the extra mile for the greater good.

Many supporters may despair at the antics of some of our leading football coaches, who seem to spend an extraordinary amount of effort picking fights. They will pick fights with other coaches, the press, officials, members of the FA, even club owners and members of their own board. In the case of Jose Mourinho, he has been known to pick a fight with all of the above and many more. You may wonder what there is to gain from this seemingly childish and pointless behaviour. There is however method in their madness. What these coaches are aiming to achieve is to create an ‘identity’ among their players. This is achieved by establishing a common enemy to give the players the motivation and sense of unity to work together as a team, to achieve their aims.

So what has this got to do with the national anthem? Well, the national anthem is supposed to promote a sense of identity within a sports team. For that to happen, the national anthem should be appropriate to the team that is playing. ‘God Save the Queen’ is appropriate for the ‘British’ team during the Olympics in the same way that the European anthem is appropriate during the Ryder Cup. It isn’t appropriate for England (or Northern Ireland for that matter). The Scots and the Welsh don’t get fired up by ‘God Save the Queen’ so why should the English? Who can forget the Scotland v England rugby match of 1990 when ‘Flower of Scotland’ set in motion the impetus for an unlikely Scottish victory?

Surely, it isn’t coincidence that some of England’s greatest performances in competitions have been accompanied by alternative anthems; New Order’s ‘World in Motion’ at Italia ’90, ‘Three Lions’ in Euro ’96, as well as ‘Swing Low’ at the 2003 Rugby World Cup.

There are two songs that tend to be favoured if there was to be an English anthem, ‘Jerusalem’ or ‘Land of Hope and Glory’. Either one of these would be more appropriate for England and could give the vital edge that makes the difference between success and disappointment. So why deprive the English of what is their right – a sense of national identity?

Andy Barton
Wider Vision Ltd - Specialists in Mental Performance Training for Sport

Centring Technique for Powerful Scrummaging in Rugby

2009-05-12T10:45:00.000-07:00

The practice of ‘centring’ originates from mind-body traditions from the East and refers to the body’s ‘centre of gravity’ from where all movement and energy flow. This concept has particularly been adopted by the martial arts but its application can be equally beneficial in rugby and many other sports. If you watch the great rugby players, one thing they all have is balance, stability, fluidity and effortless power. This is due to their ability to centre themselves.

Centring involves putting your focus on the centre of your body. This is quite a strange concept for many rugby players to take on as they are more likely to put their attention on the extremities of their bodies, their fellow scrum members, the ball, the opposition or even their thoughts when they are performing.

There is a saying that “where our attention goes our energy flows”. What this suggests is that our centre of gravity actually changes according to where our minds are focused. When we are anxious, nervous and have a strong inner voice chatting away, our focus tends to go to our heads, and, in turn, it seems that our centre of gravity moves up towards our heads. If you were to imagine playing rugby with a heavy crash helmet on you would get an idea of how this affects your balance.

By putting our awareness on the centre of our bodies, it aligns the centre of gravity to where it should be. This not only gives us balance but also increases our power as it concentrates our mind on the area where we have our larger, more powerful muscle groups. This is extremely important for scrummaging, as, by focusing on this area, we are taking the power from the core of our bodies.

The technique that I have used in my work with a lot of forwards when they are scrummaging is to have them focus on the centre of their body and to imagine a ball, about the size of a golf ball, situated approximately an inch below their navel in the centre of their torso. I then get them to give the ball a colour which represents power to them and to imagine the ball spinning inside them. I then ask them to imagine two beams of light, the same colour as the ball, emanating from the ball up through their backs through their shoulders and out far off into the distance like a pair of powerful laser beams. At the same time, I ask them to imagine two more beams emanating from the ball down through their legs and feet and projecting hundreds of metres into the ground. If they wish, they can also imagine the beam giving off a powerful sound (a big favourite is the sound of the light sabres in Star Wars). Finally, they imagine the ball spinning faster and faster, intensifying the light and increasing the volume of the sound (Because our minds respond extremely well to symbols, the focus on colours, sounds and balls spinning in conjunction with focusing on our centre further increases the feeling of power). When the ball reaches top speed, they are ready to scrummage.

Andy Barton
Wider Vision Ltd - Specialists in Mental Performance Training for Sport