The psychology of optimum performance.

One of the things that has really interested me in my long involvement on a number of different sports at a high level, is the Psychology or 'mindset' of competing, and especially in doing your best.

I have never felt that my main focus was 'beating everyone else' and 'winning', but rather I have always focused on finding out how well 'I' can do in any particular endeavour or situation. I thought very early on that there is probably always someone who can do something better than you no matter what level of skill or fitness you achieve. Often, as in windsurfing speed sailing, it is just that there will always be someone taller and heavier who has a natural advantage over you, or who is in the right place at the right time to get the ;'lucky gust'. But through learning from people like this, I realised that the difference at the elite level is really not that. It usually comes down to who can perform closest to their ability on the day. So I have never worried about those other things too much, but always strived to achieve as close to my own potential as possible. To be "the best I can be".

Achieving this is a challenge in many ways, definitely enough to keep things interesting, and can be very satisfying when you think you have got close to it, irrespective of where you place in a competition. And I learnt a long time ago that focusing what you can do and ignoring worrying about what others are doing can allow me to get closer to my best, and sometimes lead to you surprising yourself on where you place.

Way back in my distant youth, I was very into Whitewater Slalom Canoeing and competition, and later, Clay Target Shooting. In both, I was fortunate enough to train with and be coached and mentored by world class coaches and a couple of World Champions. I picked up a huge insight into self improvement and focus from this experience. I was able to put those lessons to good use in so many of the other sporting endeavours I have pursued. Speed-sailing and windsurfing is no different. I may be past my physical prime now (definitely!) but the same things still apply to getting the best out of myself.

What I am getting at is that in every sport, there is pretty insignificant differences between the skills and fitness of the top participants. The difference in winning a championship or achieving a personal best is usually not down to those things. It is about mindset, attitude and focus.

One of the coaches that has had a lasting impression on me is Bell Endicott. I never met him in person, but I was coached by those who he trained, and read his books over and over. He was coach of the top USA Slalom Paddlers in the 80's in a period where those paddlers pretty much dominated their world.

Here is a small extract of what he wrote (As you read, substitute in your mind 'windsurfing' for 'Paddling/Slalom'):

The Ultimate Run eBook created by daveyhearn.com with the permission of author William T. Endicott PSYCHOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES

Every year I am struck more and more by the huge role psychological considerations play in the pursuit of success in slalom. At major races, I find myself thinking that psychological matters transcend everything else, that few people paddle up to their ability on race day, and that a person of mediocre talents who could do so would actually do quite well.Paddling up to your level of ability: That's the prime concern after a certain point in your development. Obtaining a high level of ability is one thing. The work you need to do to achieve it is relatively straight-forward but hard and time consuming. It is discussed elsewhere in this book and in my previous book, "To Win the Worlds." Once you reach a high level of ability, however, paddling right up to that level on race day is an entirely different matter. You don't need to exceed that level of ability, only reach it. Many people do not really understand this, and think that in a major race, they need to do better than ever before. Thus, they hope that they will "get lucky" and paddle better than they usually do. I don't think it works that way. Most races are a matter of the winner simply making fewer mistakes than the others. Even the winner makes mistakes, but he paddles closer to his potential than the others. Very subtle things happen on race day, things that often do not occur in training sessions and therefore the athlete may not have experienced them before. Paddlers often psych themselves out by seeing a hard move on the course and saying to themselves or even out loud, "Boy, that's a dumb move; it's impossible to do that well," or "Gee, so-and-so looks really good -- what happens if I lose to him?" Often experiences like these raise the paddler's anxiety level too high which blocks his normal thought processes and he starts to think a bit irrationally. A high anxiety level also saps his energy and leaves him feeling weaker than in practice.Such things cause the paddler to become defensive instead of offensive in his mental outlook. Instead of rationally seeking ways to enhance his performance, he loses confidence, lowers his goals, thinks only about surviving and rationalizes a prospective bad performance with words like "I'm just not ready this time, maybe next time." Little things distract him and keep him from concentrating on his original goal which was to win the race. The inevitable result is that the racer doesn't do as well as he had hoped, and he goes away not really understanding why. He tends to focus on more technical matters such as lack of skill on reverse gates. In reality it may have been his inability to concentrate properly on running the reverse gate, rather than not understanding how they should be run in general. This inability may have been brought about by high anxiety, but instead of practicing ways to control his anxiety, the racer goes home and practices reverse gates harder. Thus, he never addresses the root problem.

The whole chapter can be read here: www.daveyhearn.com/Coaching/Technique/The%20Endicott%20Files/The%20Ultimate%20Run/TUR%20Chapter%206%20Psychology%20pages%20253-278.pdf

His entire book is reproduces here: www.daveyhearn.com/Coaching/Technique/The%20Endicott%20Files/The%20Ultimate%20Run/The_Ultimate_Run_by_William%20T%20Endicott.htm

I hope some readers find this interesting and helpful.

Another aspect to this is that entering into competition is a very good way of making personal improvements, better 'what size gear for the conditions' choices, better sail tuning, getting back upwind quickly for the next race, gybing at the marks in the choppiest water not where you would normally choose to gybe.

Being in a race is incredible fun, the more sailors in the fleet the better excitement level. It's not always about winning but participating, very rewarding.