Training Your Mind for High Performance …and Everyday Life.

Lately I’ve been reflecting a lot on a theory coined by a colleague of mine (and Tall Tree’s own), Dr. Bruce Pinel, called “Pinel’s 90/10 Rule”.

There are 168 hours in a week, high performance athletes spend about 15 hours training = 10% (okay, I know, that’s 8.9%, but 90/10 sounds better than 91.1/8.9 rule. Thanks)

This 10% directly impacts your performance.

The other 90% of your time is spent away from sport but still it indirectly impacts your performance.

Every athlete you compete against experiences the same time split; however, you can separate yourself by being better at managing it.

A high performance lifestyle (the 90%) is where the real gains are made.

So the real question is: how can you make the most of 98% of your time?

Answer: develop the other areas of your high performance lifestyle. This includes nutrition, strength and conditioning and, drum roll, mental skills.

Here are a few mental skills and strategies you can work on, along with some resources to help you along the way.

“...motivation comes and goes; it isn’t constant.”

1. Start with Why

As I like to remind my athletes, motivation comes and goes; it isn’t constant. Some days it’s hard to do the things we need to do, to perform the way we want to perform.

The reason why you do something is critical – this is what pushes you to work hard, adapt, and find opportunities in the face of challenge. Take some time to reflect on why you train/compete/perform; what is it that keeps you going? What gets you out of bed and to the rink, pool, field, gym every morning? Why do you do what you do? And importantly, why do you keep doing it?

Take your answers and write them down. Writing them down makes them more tangible and will help you remember them, especially when motivation is lacking. Go one step further and stick that piece of paper somewhere you’ll see it every day – your bathroom mirror, next to your running shoes, on the refrigerator, etc.

Reflect on your why and use it as your compass; make choices that are consistent with it and you will find your way.

2. Journaling

While you have a pen in your hand, now would be an excellent time to do some journaling – either start one or actually use the one you "keep meaning to take out of your training bag but keep forgetting."

Usually when I mention “journaling” to an athlete, I get an eye roll and even the occasional audible groan. I’d like to point out that this doesn’t have to be time consuming and it really shouldn’t be boring, it can however be uncomfortable. Many people don’t like to look too closely at their weaknesses, and some don’t even like to think about their strengths. I acknowledge it might feel a bit awkward, and that’s fine; nonetheless, this is a critical part of mental training. If you don’t know why things went wrong, how can you fix them? And more importantly, if you don’t know why things went well, how can you recreate that performance again and again?

Here is a simple way to get started:

Think of a few of your best-ever performances and answer the question:
- When I performed well I…
Think of a few of your most disappointing performances and answer the question:
- When I didn’t perform well I…

Consider: your focus, thoughts, feelings (physical and emotional), confidence, anxiety, preparation, etc.

3. Visualization

If you’ve ever been reluctant to try this strategy, now is as good a time as any. Research has shown time and again that visualization can benefit performance by activating the same neural pathways in the brain that one would use if they were actually physically performing the skill. This basically allows you to get more repetitions without actually physically performing the skill, thereby building technical, tactical, and mental skills even in the absence of your usual training equipment and environment.

Much like the other suggestions outlined here, there are entire blogs, articles, and textbooks on this topic. I’ll do my best here to summarize some key ideas.

Vividness: imagine your experiences as close to real life as possible. Don’t skimp on the details! Incorporate all of your senses; what are some of the sounds you would hear? What do you see around you? How do you feel, physically and emotionally? Do your best to recreate those sensations in your mind. Use your body to perform whatever movements you can, move your muscles.

Perspective: some people observe themselves as if they were watching a movie, others prefer to see themselves from the inside looking out. Use whichever feels most comfortable to you.

Time: you want your visualizations to last about as long as it would take in real time. For example, if you’re a gymnast visualizing your 30-second beam routine, then you want your re-creation of that experience to take 30-seconds.

Positive Images: this one is pretty self-explanatory; you want to visualize yourself performing successfully. Feel free to use past positive experiences as fuel; mentally review your personal “highlight reel” and recreate a few of those performances over and over. Control what you see – don’t let the negative images creep in.

Remember: like all mental skills, this requires training. Start with something small, like a single skill, and build up toward a series of skills or whole performance. Give it the attention it deserves and it will pay off.

4. Meditation, Breathing, and Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Developing stress management skills such as deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), or meditation is a critical skill for any athlete (or person). Performance can often cause stress (some good, some not so good), not to mention a major life change can be a little stressful. People have different responses to the onset of stress and only you will know what management strategy(ies) work best for you. Regardless of what your strategy is, it takes practice to be able to apply it when you really need it. Take a few minutes out of your day and practice some deep belly-breathing, follow a PMR script/audio, or get your “ohm” on with a meditation session. Not only will it help you manage your current stress, but the training will come in handy in future situations where it rears its ugly head (and it will).

There is so much more to sport than the actual physical training and performance, and some of the hardest work doesn’t happen on the field, ice, or in the pool, it happens beneath the surface.