Mental Training in the Time of Social Distancing
by Brian Baxter
If you are like me, social distancing is not coming easily. I do enjoy my downtime, but for the most part, as an athlete and a coach, I thrive on my interactions with others. My time spent training, coaching, being coached, and competing with others informs my identity and fuels everything I do, and I imagine most people reading this feel the same way.
But, here we are. And the best thing to do is use this time wisely, so it is coincidentally a perfect time to work on your mental game. In my experience, most athletes and coaches know the importance of confidence, focus, and a strong mindset. Even though they are cognizant that it’s crucial for high level performance, however, dedicating time to mental training often falls down the priority list. Well, now there’s a lot of extra time on most people’s hands, making it the perfect time to take a deeper dive into mental training.
Before I go into some ways to train during this shutdown, I’d like to offer a little background about my field. Sport psychology was “invented” when an Indiana psychologist named Norman Triplett noticed people seemed to cycle faster in groups than when alone. In 1898, he took these ideas into the lab and found that in general, athletes do, in fact, perform better and faster with other people.
CBCG athlete Bindhu Isaac Newell’s impressive meditation skills
In the study’s conclusion he wrote: “We infer that the bodily presence of another contestant participating simultaneously in the race serves to liberate latent energy not ordinarily available.” Here is a copy of his research paper. If you are into that type of thing.
In 1924, another psychologist, Floyd Allport, furthered this research and termed this phenomenon “Social Facilitation.” It basically means that people perform better in the presence of others.*
Okay, that’s all good and sensible, but now what? What do we do with this info when, at the moment, we must focus on not being around other people. Social Distancing is enforcing a mutually exclusive ability for Social Facilitation. There’s a reason we workout with friends and teammates: it’s more motivating, more fun, and to quote the research, “...serves to liberate latent energy not ordinarily available.”
Chiefly, athletes will have to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions. The simplest is to find an accountability partner. Find someone with whom you can share your goals and workouts, and check in frequently. You can take this a step further and set up virtual workouts through FaceTime, Facebook or Instagram, all of which have video calling. Maybe the most effective thing you can do is find an online group to work with (Believe me there are tons of them out there! Check out this live online Soccer Workout for example, and also all the CBCG programming of The Endurance School found on our Twitch channel.
But more importantly, it would be invaluable to use this gift of extra time to train your mind. While it’s great to use the benefits of Social Facilitation, one of the goals of sport psychology is to build that motivation and gain skills to be able to push yourself without the help of outside factors. Perhaps capitalizing on this time to learn and practice skills like visualization and goal setting. Here are three practical ways you can develop a better mindset:
Take a Sports Mindset Inventory - Take this downtime to reflect who you are as an athlete, especially how it relates to your mindset. Answer questions like: What are my distractions? What things build and break down my confidence? How do I handle adversity? What can I do to get better? What things motivate and de-motivate me? Knowing the answers to these questions are important for the next tip.
CBCG Partner and Coach Molly Balfe is halfway through her current journal!
Set New Goals - During an unknown time like this, one thing that is known: the goals you had previously are going to change. Maybe not much, but they will change. The amount of training, the time period for which you want to achieve certain goals, and more. Setting goals around mental training and improving on your confidence, focus, mindset and motivation can now move into the forefront.
Practice Visualization - Visualization is an amazing, but under-utilzed tool in an athlete's arsenal. Visualization is basically a controlled daydream in which you imagine yourself performing a task, skill or event. Beyond just vision, it incorporates all five senses. Visualization is such a powerful tool, track and field athlete Marylin King came in 2nd in the Olympic trials in her event after being hospitalized from a car accident.
Undertaking these three techniques can help you mentally train while you can’t train physically. And, of course we don’t know when, but the Coronavirus will run its course, so we are back to normal training and competitions, where will you be, mentally?
Remember finally to take care of yourself on a mental and emotional level. These times are unprecedented, and so many are suffering for so many reasons. Keeping up your exercise is essential even more so these days. And definitely don’t do it alone! We are all in this together. Do not hesitate to reach out to your coach for advice or inspiration. To have them help you with the goal setting piece, and to point you in the right direction.
Want to amplify your mental game while sheltering? Check out the online AMPlify Your Game six-level program. Are you mentally strong enough to graduate? And, of course, you can contact Brian himself for options for one-to-one coaching. Stay healthy, happy, and strong, and we’ll see you on Twitch for The Endurance School!