I am often asked, “what types of things do you help your clients with?”. Whilst this answer could be as long as a piece of string (we are all unique, and so are our challenges), there are some general areas which often arise. Whilst you don’t need to have a specific ‘problem’ in order to benefit from incorporating a sport psychologist into your support team, I find that typically my clients reach out to me when they have noticed something that they feel is holding them back. They have recognised there is a problem, but are unsure how to go about addressing it. The most common challenges I assist with tend to be things like pre-event nerves, overthinking, low confidence and fear of failure. In fact, when clients discover that they are not the first person to come to me with such issues (and certainly won’t be the last), this can often provide them with a sense of comfort and relief in itself. There are multiple reasons why these types of issues and feelings may arise, and working alongside my clients we uncover what is going on ‘for them’. In this blog post, I outline some examples of potentially unhelpful thought patterns that I often help my clients to notice and adjust. Do any sound familiar? Please note that this article is intended for interest and information only. If you are struggling with these or any aspect of your sport mindset, please do reach out for professional support.
1. ‘Absolute’ thinking
The nature of sport can, quite understandably, mean that all our focus becomes placed on an outcome; typically, ‘success’ or ‘winning’. The desire to win is not necessarily problematic in itself (and indeed, it is often a powerful motivator!), however what can inadvertently develop is a belief that it must happen. So called ‘demand thinking’ (look out for words such as ‘must’, ‘need’, ‘should’) might develop for a number of reasons, not least because society tends to lead us to believe that ‘winning’ is all that matters! This inflexibility however does not allow for the fact that outcomes are very rarely in our full control. A slight alteration to our thinking can allow for the same desire, but free us from the ‘demand’. For example, thinking “I would strongly prefer to win, and will do everything I can to achieve this” rather than “I must win”, is likely to be a much more helpful and empowering thought in terms of our performance. We can do everything within our control to give ourselves the best possible chance of winning (or achieving any goal you may have set yourself), but ultimately, there will always be some elements that are outside our total influence. Identifying and adjusting any ‘demand thoughts’ (if you have them) may be a worthwhile exercise, and one that a sport psychologist can help you with.
2. Focus of Attention
Following on nicely from the previous point, clients can often find that they have started, sometimes without even really realising, to give their attention to things that are outside their control. Since our attention is a limited resource, we ideally want to be placing it on the areas that will help us most – things that are within our control! I have previously written an article about the need to ‘control the controllables’, so do check it out here if you haven’t already. Taking the time to pro-actively identify the factors that are within and outside of your control in relation to your sport is an extremely worthwhile exercise, and one that I ask almost all of my clients to undertake! Doing this proactively (outside of being ‘pressured’ or ‘in the moment’) gives you the opportunity to notice and think through what you would prefer to be focusing on, and develop strategies to keep your attention where you would like it to be (and where it will be most helpful!).
3. Overthinking and ‘What if’ thinking
“I just keep overthinking” must be one of the most common things clients say to me. This can be about all sorts of things, but thoughts starting “what if” tend to be pretty common. These often seem to become more overwhelming ahead of a big event or at the point ‘performance’ is required which of course. Whilst this makes sense, it isn’t particularly helpful! There are a number of different ways we might approach addressing an overthinking issue, depending on exactly what the thoughts are, when they are arising, and what is driving them. As an example, this might include building confidence, recognising strengths, noticing and accepting our thoughts, adjusting our focus of attention or present moment awareness, to name just a few. I have found that ‘what if’ thoughts can often link to low confidence, demand thoughts (point 1) and focusing on things outside your control (point 2). The important message really is that if you are struggling with overthinking that is affecting your sport performance, please do reach out for help and don’t suffer alone!
4. Overly focusing on the ‘problem’
This is an interesting one. Sometimes, we can spend so long thinking over a problem in our own mind, that it can actually become quite difficult to ‘take a step back’ and identify what to do next. Whilst analysing our problems and what is happening is certainly not necessarily a ‘bad’ thing (and in fact can potentially be useful!) it is possible to become ‘stuck’ in a problem focus. This has the potential to be quite damaging, both for well-being and performance. If you notice yourself in a bit of an “I can’t do x, y, z” thought cycle, a great question to ask yourself to begin shifting out of this is “OK, so what actions DO I want to be taking and what DO I want to be feeling like?”. It can sometimes help to imagine you could wave a magic wand and for things to be exactly as you would ideally like – what would that look like? What would that feel like? In my work with clients, I find that using this ‘solution focus’ (e.g., where do we want to get to, what is already working) can be extremely effective. It is rare that a ‘problem’ shows up in every scenario or in every area of life. In sport, people often tell me they feel no nerves when competing in a small or local event, but experience immense nerves when needing to execute the exact same skill in a national or international event. Examining the times we don’t feel nervous, and thinking about how we would like to feel, can provide immense benefit and insight.
5. Fear of failure and/or Self-sabotage
I have grouped these challenges together as I often find that if an athlete is afraid to ‘fail’ then self-sabotage may follow. This makes sense, as self-sabotage can essentially be used as a protective mechanism. If the idea of ‘failing’ seems so scary, and something that you very much want to avoid (perhaps you feel you ‘must’ win – see point 1!), self-sabotaging by, for example, not fully committing to your training, or reducing your effort on event day (“well I’m not going to achieve X now so I’ll just give up”), essentially becomes a ‘safety net’. It gives you an ‘out’ if you don’t get the result you want. Run slower than you wanted? “Oh well I didn’t really fully commit to my interval work”. The problem with this however is that although it may appease your unwanted or uncomfortable thoughts in the short term (you ‘know’ that if you had really tried, you would have got the result you wanted), in the long-term, your fear will be preventing you from performing at your best. By ‘getting comfortable being uncomfortable’ we can overcome our fears and give ourselves the opportunity to perform at our best.
So, there you have it! Just a few examples of the types of challenges and thought process I experience supporting my clients with. This is certainly not an exhaustive list, nor does it cover every possible approach to working on them. However, I hope that it provides a bit more of an insight into some of the work I undertake.
If you have any questions or would like to arrange a free of charge introductory meeting to discuss your challenges and see if you would like to work with me, visit: laurarowe.co.uk/contact or email: laura@laurarowe.co.uk
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