We all know that physical fitness is incredibly important when it comes to sporting performance, but how many of us think about our mental fitness, having good mental strength during training and racing has huge potential to improve performance. Building the self-awareness needed to analyse your current focus level will serve as a valuable tool to review training, racing and to learn from each experience. You will also reap rewards in day-to-day life too, finding the same tools cross over well into the work place or personal life.
When I talk about self-awareness and the positives of it, I am talking about the feeling of noticing the mind and the body, becoming more aware of how we feel before, during or after training and racing. It is also the feeling as we approach training; is it a case of rushing quickly after work, jumping on the river to smash out an interval session, not giving it a second thought OR is it taking the time to set an intention of how you want it to feel, noticing your surroundings, being grateful that you’re fit and able to train? It doesn’t take any longer! I will go over these details more later and how you can put them into practice. The benefits of taking the time to add these details are that you will become more present, be able to cultivate some empathy for yourself and be more in tune with your body. This helps to build positive self-talk which builds confidence and therefore confidence in your paddling too. Being more aware of your mind and body just might help you to avoid injury if you are listening a bit closer too. Just like our physical fitness there are no quick fixes, mental conditioning takes practice. It is possible to notice changes even within a short period of time as long as regular habits are built, but soon the magic will start to happen and the self-belief will start to grow.
The reason I would like to bring up this topic is because I recently realised that I had been neglecting my own mental strength, especially when the going got a bit tough in competition. I thought I was strong, but I had let some of the mental gym sessions slip by and I paid the price when I needed it the most. I would like to add that if you are struggling with a serious mental health condition, then it is essential to seek some professional advice on how you can start a journey to feeling better. There are so many wonderful therapies and practitioners who can guide you in the right direction. Please don’t be afraid to speak up if this is something you need, the right support is available. These tips aimed at creating extra habits to boost sporting performance.
The exact event that started this realisation came about as follows; on reflection it was the best sporting trip that could have happened for me this year – they say we always take the correct path. I headed to the Gran Canaria leg of the Euro Tour where I knew I would be out of my comfort zone, it was going to be something completely new to me, racing against women of a very high caliber. I rocked up to the event in what I thought was a good headspace, plenty of excitement for racing and a new experience. What I had failed to plan for was how I wanted to feel and how I was going to tackle this challenge, I was in some ways winging it and seeing what would happen.
I got on the water the day before the race and my confidence was immediately shattered by feeling unstable in choppy water. Anxiety and negative self-talk took hold, I just wanted to go home. That evening I had a good think about my intentions for coming to the race and what I wanted to achieve from it. It took a while but eventually I came around to feeling strong and able to start in the event the following morning. I knew that I was there for the experience of racing internationally for the first time, not to try and win, although sometimes it’s hard not to have expectations of performance. As a side note, after this event I also learned to set goals and outcomes that were not performance based yet measured on feeling.
The morning of the race I followed my normal pre-race routine and got my head into gear. (I will talk about pre-race routine in another piece) That morning water just happened to be so much calmer and forgiving. The air was warm and the water was gently swelly, crystal clear and incredibly inviting. I spent about 45 minutes enjoying catching the friendly waves, practicing turns and soaking up the present moment. This was all part of the experience I had travelled for – not just the racing. Intention 1 ticked off!
Feeling back to my normal self, I returned to the beach, ready to start the race with some fire! A little while later as I stood on the start line, I analysed the route I was going to take on the water, seeing myself perform a fast beach start and paddle confidently to the first buoy. This happened almost down to a T, however at the first buoy I hesitated as I started the turn, someone bumped my board from behind and I fell, hitting my head on the front of my board, literally knocking the confidence out of me and the negative self-talk back in. I jumped back on my board and tried to get into a rhythm again. If anyone one has ever experienced a confidence knock and negative self-talk firsthand, you will know that it feels like something sucking the energy and all the fight out of you. Holding composure was the only option, in this case I felt like I was desperately trying to maintain dignity and look as strong as possible to the end.
Although I gave the best performance I could in both races I couldn’t help but feel hindered by my mental performance more than my physical performance, knowing I could and should have put more mind prep into this race. It took a day of consolidation; some relaxing in the sun and a fun paddle before heading home to get my head around what had happened. I felt I needed to ask myself how I was going to move forward and how I was going to repair my confidence ready for the next event!
In analysis of myself post event I realised that I needed to boost my confidence as a sports woman and SUP paddler. I went back through some of the techniques I have used in the past for general self-confidence, relaxation and sporting performance. I made a plan to put them into use in my day-to-day life and in my training. It wasn’t always easy but change doesn’t happen over night. Here are the main topics I put into practice.
- Meditating on focus
- Writing a list of positive paddling focused affirmations
- Using visualisation techniques both in training and competition.
- Setting outcomes that are not performance based.
- Gratitude
I have chosen to go into more detail in the coming pieces about the topics above. I have found all of them extremely useful and use them regularly. I firmly believe in them and now having put them into practice as habit, I would highly recommend giving them a go.
I look forward to sharing these in more detail, including how I used them to have a fantastic experience at Euro SUP 2022 in Denmark this year. Stay tuned.
Live Life Adventuring 