Book Break Down: The Champion’s Mind by Jim Afremow, PhD
It is safe to say that almost all runners are looking for a way to improve their performance. You diligently follow your training plans, you keep your eyes focused on your upcoming events as a way to stay on track and you willingly skip a social engagement or two in order to achieve your dreams. In this article, we hope to address the often-overlooked secret weapon; that thing that sits atop your neck, inside your skull, with all its beautiful neuronal connections, waiting to be shaped, guiding almost every move. Yes, your brain may be just the best tool you have to help you reach the next level.
As coaches, we often recommend books and other resources to help our athletes master the mental game of running. One of our favorite books is The Champion’s Mind: How Great Athletes Think, Train and Thrive by Jim Afremow. It has been expressed to us by multiple people that the book is dense, lofty and offers quite a lot to process. This led us to create this “Book Break Down” which will outline key concepts from the text that we hope will allow you to develop a gold medal mindset.
In the book, Afremow discusses The Mental Game Scorecard which is a quick and easy way to assess your mental game and it serves as a nice outline of the skills one could focus on to develop a winning mindset. We will present each with strategy suggestions to further develop each aspect.
Goal Setting: Goals ultimately set the stage for what is to come in training and competition. They allow you to see where your strengths and weaknesses are as you achieve, or fall short of, your set goals. The result is a game plan for where to focus next. Goals can increase your drive and your effort, keeping you on task with your eye on the prize. It can be useful to post your goals around in places you will often see them to help with motivation and sustained passion. It might be helpful to discuss your goals with a coach, friend, or training partner to have someone to talk it through with you. For each goal set, ensure it is measurable, positive, inspiring, specific, and displayed. It is suggested to use a three-level goal system for each workout, competition or training season: bronze(reasonable based on a recent performance which indicates current fitness), silver (represents a significant improvement) and gold (personal best or major performance breakthrough).
Mental Imagery: This is a well-researched and proven technique and simple to implement. The recommendation in the book is to practice imagery two to three times per week for 10–15-minute sessions. The idea is to feel yourself performing in just the way you need to reach your dream. The more vivid and real this feels, the more effective. It is helpful to conjure up all the senses and feel yourself performing rather than watching a movie of yourself performing. For complete instructions on how to create a visualization, please read our blog post Achieve Your Perfect Performance with Mental Rehearsal — P3 Running Set aside quiet time to do this, perhaps choosing the same comfortable place where you can relax and savor the experience. Another time where this technique can be used is during an injury hiatus. Experience yourself doing your workout even though you are injured. Still allow yourself to go on your route and feel yourself nailing the execution.
Self-Talk: Does anyone else have a personal narrator in your head evaluating every action you take? Of course, we all do. The thing to remember is that we don’t have to believe everything we are saying to ourselves. Some of this self-talk is downloaded tidbits from parents, coaches, teachers, and others who had influence in our lives. We get to direct our self-talk and decide what works for us now. While it might be natural for negative thoughts to surface, we can always challenge them and replace them with more realistic thoughts. What we say to ourselves has a powerful effect on our training, racing, and goal setting. We can choose the right self-talk for the task. Research has shown that for tasks that require fine motor skills, it might be most useful to use self-talk that is instructional. For example, when working on running form, the internal dialogue might be “lean forward”, “Drop your arms”. Motivational self-talk, such as “I’m so strong”, “atta girl, you totally got this” might be more useful for the sport of running that requires endurance and strength. Self-talk can include the descriptions you use about yourself. Are you willing to call yourself an athlete? Using this term when referring to yourself might free you up to act and live more like an athlete which could lead to positive habit changes around sleep, nutrition and commitment to your training plan. Having gold medal self-talk is not necessarily about going for the gold at the Olympics, but it can mean having the mindset to reach high and set challenging goals because you believe in yourself.
Confidence: Believing in oneself comes from preparation and past performances. It can be beneficial to have a long memory of your golden moments and quickly forget your failures in the sport. This is a type of selective amnesia that optimists possess. Remember to compare the similarities in the current challenge to times in the past where you succeeded. Remind yourself that what you went through made you stronger and you now possess that special sauce within to bring to the current task.
Focus: “The time is now. The place is here”-Dan Millman. Put another way, I often tell my clients to keep their brain and body in the same place. This is a skill that is honed over time and then can be easily found during a competition. When you notice your mind racing with thoughts, bring yourself to the present moment using your senses. You can notice how your foot feels in your shoe, you can take in the trees or the color of the sky, you can become aware of your breath. These are things in the here and now to put your attention on, rather than thoughts about the past or the future. If an athlete focuses on a mistake on the court or field, it harms their present performance. If they are too focused on what is to come next, this can complicate the present moment. For instance, a runner might start to think about how many miles are left and wonder if they have enough endurance to cover it. By contrast, staying in the moment allows them to attend to their current fueling needs, form corrections and master the mile they are in. Let distractions go; this includes external distractions such as things going on around you, as well as internal distractions like negative self-talk.
Breath Control: As mentioned, living in the present moment is something that results from practice. The same is true for attention to the breath. During our daily lives, at times of stress it is common to hold one’s breath. When this occurs, there is a great deal of muscle tension, and the breath is shallow. It serves us well to bring our awareness to our breathing often throughout our daily activities. Once it is noticed that the breath is being held, deliberately take a deep diaphragmatic breath, allowing the chest to open and the belly to expand. Once you have made gains with this, it is more easily translated during training and races. Breathe into the work, relax the breath and the muscles can work more effectively with less tension to reach the desired goal.
Mental Toughness: Being mentally tough means using your mind to overcome challenging moments and refuse to give up in hard circumstances. The athletes that are relentless in pursuit of their goals experience discomfort, inconveniences, and urges to stop. The athletes that are relentless in pursuit of their goals still experience discomfort, inconveniences and urges to stop; they have years experience developing mental skills for managing discomfort and pushing through “If one can stick to the training throughout the many long years, then willpower is no longer a problem. It’s raining? That doesn’t matter. I am tired? That’s beside the point. It’s simply that I just have to” -Zatopek, Winner of four golds and one silver medal.
Anxiety Management: “Get your butterflies to fly in formation” -Sports Psychology Adage. Competitive athletes expect to have race anxiety, this is not something that brings concern as it is considered a part of the process. Learn to be comfortable with the sensations and turn it into fuel for the task at hand. The sensation of anxiety and excitement are similar physiologically. Remind yourself that you are pumped up because this event matters to you. Review what you have done in training to prepare for the competition. Utilize the techniques presented earlier to change your breathing from panicked to more relaxed. Know that emotional states are transitory, always, and this too shall pass. You can utilize an imaginary container to place your anxiety and set it outside of yourself as you go through your pre-race routine. Take the time in training to develop a pre-race routine so that your body can focus on the right things on the day of competition. Keep your thoughts fixed on the present moment. Remember to smile, laugh, and take in the moment. You worked hard to get here, and enjoyment should be a part of the equation.
Enjoyment: “Every survival kit should include a sense of humor”. – Anonymous
If you have lost your sense of humor, you are in trouble. We have all experienced the adage, “laughter is the best medicine” and know that it feels good to laugh. It is a great way to release tension, not take ourselves or the situation too seriously and even overcome very tough moments. Furthermore, when we are having fun, we are performing better. If it is challenging to find ways to laugh, the author recommends: telling stories with teammates, watching comedy through movies or bits, and reading comics or satirical websites.Body Language: Our posture while running is something that we think about in terms of how to have the best form to run efficiently and reduce injury. We might think about our posture also helping us to get into a confident mental state. Next time you have a tough workout, take a moment to strike a superhero pose and see how it changes your internal experience. When tackling your next hill, rather than drop your head and hunch your shoulders, throw those shoulders back and look at the crest of the hill, reminding it that you are boss and you will be conquering it. As part of race prep, don’t neglect your outfit. It can be useful to have a race day kit and shoes that say, “I mean business”, that apparel, that when we put it on, we know it’s showtime.
Intensity: The correct intensity is one that allows an athlete to be in the zone, working hard and mindful and aware of each moment. This balance is sought after by most and requires the right amount of activation and you might need to “throttle up or down” depending on the situation. Ideas for increasing activation include encouraging, pumped-up self-talk, listening to upbeat music, forceful breaths, or pumping your fists. Suggestions for down-regulating are calming breaths, imagining a calm scene, light stretching, or relaxing music.
Personal Affirmations: “It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen” -Muhammad Ali
We need a way to drown out the negative self-talk and rewire the brain to have positive thoughts become the default setting. To that end, we can create affirmations; positive statements worded in the present tense that express how we want to feel (even if that is not how we currently view things). We can turn problem situations into the opportunity for a great affirmation. For instance, if you are feeling burnt out, your chosen affirmation might be “I run with purpose and passion”. You can post your affirmations around your living space as a constant reminder.
We hope that this article serves as a launching pad for you to elevate and fine tune your mental game. If you wish to discuss any of the concepts here, please reach out to your coach as we are always willing to discuss this important construct. In closing, we will leave you with a Buddhist teaching shared in the book:
It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or demons, heaven or hell.