It’s been estimated that up to 17 million sport injuries occur each year in the United States. If you’re like most injured athletes, you’re going to want to get back in the game as quickly as possible. You probably know that medical advances have significantly reduced the time injured athletes are sidelined, but you may not know that using mental skills can also help you manage pain, optimize healing, and accelerate your comeback.

It was once thought that sports injuries were not only caused, but also cured, solely by physical processes; the mental aspects of injuries were largely ignored. These antiquated attitudes, however, began to change in the 1970s when physicians began to recognize that behavioral and psychological factors played a significant role in injury rehabilitation.

For example, a study with collegiate athletes who were taught relaxation training showed a 52% decrease in injury rates among swimmers and a 33% injury rate decrease among football players. Additionally, several studies have shown that injured athletes who practiced both physical therapy and mental skills like relaxation training, imagery, and positive self-talk experienced less pain; used less medication; had greater strength and flexibility; and had a shorter recovery time than athletes who received physical therapy alone.

Okay, so what does all this data mean? Here are three tips:

• Use positive self-talk. After an injury it’s easy to catastrophize and tell yourself that your season is over or that you will never return to your previous form. It’s also easy to have negative thoughts that make you anxious and less confident when you’re getting back into your sport. Negative self-talk may not be true, but they definitely will not help you recover. To cope with this, become more aware of what you say to yourself by making a list of your negative self-talk. Then make a list of more positive and realistic thoughts that you can use in place of the negative ones, such as, “Yes this stinks, but if I stick to it and work hard I can make progress,” or “I’ve done the work; I’m ready to make my comeback.”

• Use imagery. Imagery is a powerful tool, and can be used in two ways during injury rehabilitation. First, you can use imagery to mentally rehearse technical skills and competition strategies. This will improve your muscle memory and strengthen your mental blueprint to keep you sharp while your body heals. Secondly, you can use imagery to facilitate the healing process by imagining such things as diminished the swelling and increasing the blood flow to the injured area. It helps if you have your physician show you a model or picture of your injury. I know, this sounds hokey, but believe it or not research clearly indicates that it works.

• Use goal-setting. One of the worst things after an injury is the realization that you can’t do nearly as much as you used to. This can add to your feelings of helplessness and despair. To cope with this, it’s important to establish clear goals for your rehabilitation. Start by thinking of your ultimate dream goal, and then make a list of the things that you need to do that can get you there. Determining realistic short-term goals and strategies to accomplish them will help you feel more confident, in more control, and assist you in complying with the treatment prescribed to you by your physician, physical therapist, or athletic trainer.

But wait, there’s more!

GET 30% OFF THE EXTRA GEAR’S INJURY RECOVERY AUDIO SERIES! Visit The Extra Gear’s eStore and check out my brand new injury recovery audio series. Each series has nearly two hours of mental skills tips and techniques to help you manage pain, optimize healing, and get back to your sport with more confidence and less fear of reinjury.

Use the Coupon Code “TEG30OFF” and get 30% off before November 1, 2012. I’ve been researching and designing these audios for more than a year now, and in my completely objective and unbiased opinion, they are the best thing since sliced bread and you should get them.

On April 15, 1947, four-hundred Major League Baseball players took to the field for opening day. For the first time in history, however, only 399 of them were white. On this day, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play in the big leagues.

To appreciate the mental toughness necessary for Robinson to play at that time, consider his circumstances: In 1947 several southern states continued to deny African-Americans the right to vote. Lynchings still occurred from time to time. Blacks were not allowed to sit in the same bus seats, use the same bathrooms, go to the same schools or eat at the same lunch counters as whites. When the news broke that Robinson would play for the Brooklyn Dodgers, several of his own teammates threatened to quit. As the season progressed, Robinson received countless death threats. He endured endless racial slurs from fans and opposing players. There were constant rumors about opposing players planning to hit him in the head with a pitch or slash him with their spikes to take him out of the game. And in addition to all the threats, Robinson also carried the hopes and expectations of an entire race on his shoulders; the dreams African-Americans had that he would play well enough to show that blacks were equal to whites.

Yet Jackie Robinson not only played baseball under these excruciating circumstances, he excelled under them. He batted .297, was voted Rookie of the Year, won the hearts of all but the most bigoted fans and players, and led his team to within one game of winning the World Series.

That Robinson was both scared and infuriated at the treatment he received is well documented. What is less talked about is the incredible mental toughness he demonstrated throughout that season. Of all the mental skills required to thrive under such adversity, two stand out. First, Robinson had an incredible ability to focus. Imagine the skill it must have taken to focus in the batter’s box without being distracted by the taunts, the threats and the enormous expectations. Second, Robinson had an uncanny ability to redirect his emotions. He was able to channel his rage and use it to energize himself to perform at his peak.

Most baseball historians agree that Jackie Robinson was not the most physically talented African-American baseball player in 1947. He had a mediocre throwing arm, a bad ankle and, at age 28, he was a little old to be a rookie. But he wasn’t chosen to break baseball’s racial barrier because he was the most physically talented; he was chosen because his extraordinary mental toughness enabled him to excel under pressure, bounce back from adversity and use his emotions to play baseball in a way that changed the National Pastime forever.

To help you create the refocusing plan that’s best for you, make a list of the times when you have trouble recovering after a mistake so you can recognize when you need to use the plan. List how you typically react to these situations. How do you feel? What do you say to yourself? What do you do? Do these things help you perform better? If not, try including The Four R’s in your refocusing plan:

• Step 1: RELEASE – It’s normal and expected to feel disappointed or angry after you make a mistake. It’s not realistic to think that you could make a mistake and have no feelings about it. The challenge, however, is how to express the feelings appropriately and then move on without beating yourself up. Hanging on to a mistake will only take your head out of the game and make it more likely that you’ll make another mistake. Think of how you’d like to express your frustration quickly and constructively so you can get it out and get on with it.

• Step 2: RETHINK – The body follows the mind; that is, if your head is full of negative thoughts, your performance is going to suffer. Recognize the negative thoughts that you have after making a mistake, and use a stop signal to interrupt them (e.g., saying “STOP!” to yourself; imagining a stop sign; hearing a referee’s whistle blowing). Make a list of positive, realistic, instructional, or motivational thoughts – the kind of things a good friend would say to you. Replace the negative thoughts with these positive thoughts after a mistake.

• Step 3: RELAX – Take a slow, deep breath for four seconds, filling your lungs from the bottom to the top. Slowly exhale for eight seconds, emptying your lungs from the top to the bottom, while saying a word like “relax” or “let it go.” This will help you release some of the physical tension that can keep you from begin quick and agile.

• Step 4: REFOCUS – The last step will help you let go of the past and focus on the present. Think of what you want to accomplish right now. It’s helpful to use a cue phrase or action (e.g., saying “Reboot” to yourself or adjusting your hat) as a way to remind yourself to refocus. Set a short-term goal for what you want to do next. What do you have to do right now to reach this goal? Avoid "outcome goals" after a mistake; that is, goals about what you want the outcome of the game to be. Instead, focus on the things you can control and strategies you can use to accomplish them.

Rehearse you plan in your imagination, and then try it in practices. You’ll probably need to make some adjustments to the plan to make it work best for you. Once it becomes second nature, you’ll be ready to use it in competitions to help you stay focused, confident, and relaxed.

I’ve been doing some radio spots for WRNL, Sports Radio 910 here in Richmond. Since the Richmond Marathon is coming up soon, I thought I’d give you a preview of some of the upcoming spots that are most relevant to the race, although they apply to athletes of all sports. By the way, you can tune into The Extra Gear’s Sports-Minded Minute Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7:58am.

Here are the tips:

Tip 1 – Keeping Your Motivation High:. One of the biggest mental challenges in sport is keeping your motivation up throughout an entire competition. To help you maintain your motivation, think back to why you are competing in the first place. What gets you excited and passionate about it? Next, think of a word or phrase that represents this passion and helps you reconnect with it. On competition day, write this word or phrase on your hand. When the going gets tough, read the phrase to help you reconnect with your passion, remind you of why you're competing, and help you refocus.

Tip 2 – Talk to Yourself Like a Good Coach: Good coaches know that athletes will need support and encouragement to help them compete at their peak. No athlete is helped by being demeaned or insulted, but this is how many athletes talk to themselves when they don’t perform the way the think they should. In order to compete at your peak you need to stay positive by talking to yourself like a good coach would talk to you. Do you ever insult yourself for being too slow, or tell yourself you’re no good at your sport? Would a good coach talk to you this way? To help you stay positive when things get tough, make a list of what a good coach would say to you at these times, and start talking to yourself like a good coach would talk to you.

Tip 3 – Focus on What You Can Control: You’ve trained hard for your sport, but what happens if something goes wrong? What if it rains? What if it’s really hot? Even the most obsessively well-prepared athletes face situations they can’t control. If you respond to these situations with negative thinking, your performance will suffer. For peak performance in less than peak conditions, focus on the things that you can control. Instead of thinking, "This is so unfair” or “I can't compete in the rain,” focus on more positive thoughts like, "This is tough, but it's raining on everyone." Remember, you can't control the heat, the rain, or what anyone else does, but you can stay loose, maintain good technique, and always give 100%!

Tip 4 – Set the Right Kind of Goals: Most athletes only set goals that have to do with how they want to perform compared to others. Achieving these “outcome goals” depend not only on how well you do, but also on how your competitors perform. Outcome goals are important motivators, but they do nothing to build the confidence you’ll need to achieve them. To build your confidence, think of your dream goal for this year, and then create goals that focus on what you alone can do to reach it, (like getting a personal best in a race, or improving your free-throw percentage by 10%), as well as on the strategies you’ll need to get there, (like running up hills three times a week or shooting 50 extra free-throws after each practice). Focusing on these types of goals will help remind you of what you need to do to reach your dream goal this year.

Tip 5 – Get More Tips: Subscribe to The Extra Gear Podcast at http://www.theextragear.com/podcast.

I just uploaded the second of a two-part podcast on how to find your peak performance state. If you haven’t subscribed to the podcast yet (and you’re undoubtedly experiencing a cavernous void in your soul if you haven’t) you can listen to the podcasts here. They're Episodes 9 and 10.

Everyone has a different peak mental state for their sport. You can see this by watching athletes before they compete. Some athletes will keep to themselves, trying to relax and stay focused. Others will be jumping around and getting fired up with teammates. Every one of these athletes are trying to find their optimal levels of focus, energy, intensity and other mental characteristics that comprise their peak mental state, but the characteristics of this state are different for everyone. The challenge is to know what your peak mental state is, and then to learn what to do to get closer to it. I describe this process in more detail in the podcasts, but I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version here. You can discover some of the most important factors of your peak mental state by contrasting one of your best performances and one of your worst performances. Here’s how to do it:

First, think of one of your best performances ever. Choose a time when you really felt in the zone, like everything came easily, like you could do no wrong. Take about three minutes to imagine the details of this performance as vividly as you can. Really focus on all the sights and sounds around you. Try to re-experience what your body felt like as it moved and what your thoughts and feelings were at the time.

Next, recall one of your worst performances ever. A performance when it felt like everything was tough, like you just didn’t have it, like you just couldn’t do anything right. Just like you did before, take about three minutes to imagine this performance as vividly as you can. Use all your senses to see the sights, hear the sounds, feel the muscle movements, and experience the thoughts and feelings you had at the time.

The next step is to rate these two performances. I’ve adapted an instrument called the Checklist of Performance States created by sport psychology consultants Robert Weinberg and Daniel Gould for this purpose. I've included a link to this rating form here. Print out the form and follow the instructions.

Compare the ratings you made for your best and worst performances. Some of the ratings might be quite similar. For instance, you may have rated your level of effort a 6 for your best performance and a 7 for your worst performance. Ratings that are similar suggest that this mental skill may not be a very important characteristic of your peak performance state. The more important ratings will be the ones that are very different between your best and worst performances. These are the mental skills that may be the most important components of your peak mental state. For instance, if you rated your self-talk a 2 for your best performance and a 6 for your worst performance, this may mean that what you say to yourself is an especially important part of your peak performance state.

Feel free to print additional copies of these rating scales. If you fill one out after several practices and competitions, you’ll get even more information about the mental state that will help you perform at your peak.

Many athletes are familiar with it: They train hard, but their performance declines. They try training harder, but their performance only gets worse. They become frustrated, unmotivated, and demoralized. Finally, one day they hear themselves say it – "Am I burnt out?"

In my most recent podcast I discussed some of the ways to recognize, manage and prevent burnout, so I’ll only give you the Reader's Digest version here. Briefly, burnout in sports begins when athletes train intensely over time without adequate rest and recovery. This condition, called "overtraining" is an increasingly prevalent problem, partially due to increased training demands for many athletes. For instance, a study done in 2000 estimated that physical training loads on athletes increased by 20% in the previous decade. Burnout is a chronic problem that’s caused by both the physical stress of overtraining as well as the emotional stresses inside and outside of one's sport. Over a third of athletes surveyed in a 2001 study indicated that they had experienced the early signs of burnout at least once. If left untreated, these athletes not only suffer from decreased sports performance, they are also at risk for dropping out of their sport altogether. In my podcast I described 10 ways to prevent burnout, but in this newsletter I want to expand on one of the most important ones: Recognizing the early stages of burnout.

One of the best ways to recognize that you're on the road to burnout is to pay attention to your mood, your stress level, and the quality of your performances. While the early signs of burnout vary from one athlete to the next, common reactions often include both physical symptoms (e.g., decreased sport performance, sleep problems, or increased muscle soreness or weakness) and psychological symptoms (e.g., prolonged negative mood, feelings of irritability, disappointment and frustration, concentration problems, decreased commitment to training, low motivation, poor self-confidence, or a feeling of isolation and lack of support from others). Athletes who get burnt out can also become critical of their sport and their teammates. For instance, they might start making devaluing comments about their teammates, their coaches, or their training activities.

I often recommend to the athletes I work with at The Extra Gear that they make daily ratings of their mood, stress level, and quality of their sport performance. Although many athletes get turned off by the thought of keeping records, making these three ratings is a quick, easy and effective way to help you recognize the early stages of burnout. All you need to do is make these three ratings on a 1 to 10 scale in your calendar every time you train or compete. Your entry may look like this: M-5, S-3, P-8, meaning that your mood was average, your stress level was below average, and your performance was above average on that particular day. If you see your mood and performance numbers decreasing and your stress number increasing over time, you may need to start paying attention to your rest and recovery.

Finally, in 1999 researchers Michael Kellmann, Cal Botterill and Clare Wilson developed a brief questionnaire called the Recovery-Cue that can help athletes and coaches detect the early signs of burnout. Taking this 7-item questionnaire, which is copied below, at the same day and time each week, can help you monitor your perceived exertion and rest and recovery efforts. The lower your scores get on an item over time, the more you need to pay attention to that aspect of your rest and recovery.

How much effort was required to complete my workouts last week?
(1= Excessive effort to 5= Hardly any effort)

How recovered did I feel prior to the workouts last week?
(1= Still not recovered to 5=Feel energized and recharged)

How successful was I at rest and recovery activities last week?
(1= Not successful to 5=Successful)

How well did I recover physically last week?
(1=Never to 5=Always)

How satisfied and relaxed was I as I fell asleep in the last week?
(1=Never to 5=Always)

How much fun did I have last week?
(1=Never to 5=Always)

How convinced was I that I could achieve my goals during performance last week?
(1=Never to 5=Always)

Many athletes know that listening to high energy music while they train or prepare for a competition helps them feel energized. But most athletes don’t take full advantage of what music can do for them before and during competitions. I help many of the athletes I work with create specific playlists for their iPod or mp3 player, not only to help them mentally prepare before a competition, but also to help them get quick energy while they’re competing. Here’s how you do it:

Think about what drives you to play your sport. How do you feel when you’re really passionate about it? Recalling one of your greatest performances, re-experiencing what it’s like when you’re “in the zone” or recalling the feelings you get watching a great performance by an athlete you admire will help you do this. Your goal here is to connect to what you love about your sport and to what motivates you to compete in it. Next, think of the music that goes with these feelings. What songs would best capture and express your passion? If you made a movie depicting the intensity that you have for your sport, what songs would make up the soundtrack? You’ll want to come up with songs that make you feel focused, motivated and energized; these songs should make you want to spring out of your chair and compete every time you hear them.

After you’ve thought of as many songs as you can that really express the energy you have for your sport, make a playlist of them on your iPod or mp3 player. Listen to the playlist regularly to see which songs get you psyched up the most. Add or delete songs based on how they make you feel until you create the most energizing playlist possible. Once you have your playlist set, start listening to it before you train. This will give you the experience you’ll need to make adjustments before you use it in a competition. After you discover the best ways to use your playlist in your practices, begin listening to it before a competition to get mentally prepared to compete at your peak. Even more importantly, recall these songs from memory during your competitions when you feel drained, need quick energy or have to refocus after making a mistake.

With practice you’ll get better at recognizing the kinds of music that works best for you. Some of your psych up songs will undoubtedly change over time, but you’re likely to keep a few old favorites. It’s embarrassing to admit it, but the theme to the movie “Rocky” still does it for me. But, this only goes to show you that developing a psyching up playlist is a very personal thing. If you take your time and put thought into it, you’ll end up with a well-stocked arsenal of musical motivators to get you psyched up and keep you going strong!

Three researchers, Lysann Damisch, Barbara Stoberock and Thomas Mussweiler, published their research on superstition and performance in the May, 2010 issue of Psychological Science . In one experiment, the researchers asked two groups of subjects to putt a golf ball. One group of subjects was told that they were using a "lucky ball” and the other group of subjects was not. The group putting the lucky balls sank one third more putts! In three other experiments the researchers asked subjects to do a memory test, perform a test of motor dexterity or solve anagrams (identifying words from their mixed up letters). In each experiment, one group of subjects was given a "lucky charm," or told to perform a superstitious act, like crossing their fingers. In all three of these experiments, the group with the superstitious ritual or lucky charm significantly outperformed the other group.

So, the obvious question is, "What in the world is going on here?" Well, according to the researchers, these superstitious behaviors increased the subjects’ self-efficacy (that is, their self-confidence) as well as their persistence on the tasks. As Damisch and her colleagues put it, the experiments "demonstrate that these performance benefits are produced by changes in perceived self-efficacy. Activating a superstition boosts participants’ confidence in mastering upcoming tasks, which in turn improves performance. [The experiments also showed] that increased task persistence constitutes one means by which self-efficacy, enhanced by superstition, improves performance.”

What does this mean for you? It means that if you don't have a pre-competition ritual already, maybe it's time to start thinking about getting one. The best rituals are things that are simple, easy to do, and don't rely on anything or anyone else. That way you will always be able to perform your ritual regardless of where you are, who you are with, or what you have with you.

So next time you're heading to a competition, take a good superstition with you. Just don't walk under a ladder on the way!

To appreciate the mental toughness necessary for Robinson to play at that time, consider his circumstances: In 1947 several southern states continued to deny African-Americans the right to vote. Lynchings still occurred from time to time. Blacks were not allowed to sit in the same bus seats, use the same bathrooms, go to the same schools or eat at the same lunch counters as whites. When the news broke that Robinson would play for the Brooklyn Dodgers, several of his own teammates threatened to quit. As the season progressed, Robinson received countless death threats. He endured endless racial slurs from fans and opposing players. There were constant rumors about opposing players planning to hit him in the head with a pitch or slash him with their spikes to take him out of the game. And in addition to all the threats, Robinson also carried the hopes and expectations of an entire race on his shoulders; the dreams African-Americans had that he would play well enough to show that blacks were equal to whites.

Yet Jackie Robinson not only played baseball under these excruciating circumstances, he excelled under them. He batted .297, was voted Rookie of the Year, won the hearts of all but the most bigoted fans and players, and led his team to within one game of winning the World Series.

That Robinson was both scared and infuriated at the treatment he received is well documented. What is less talked about is the incredible mental toughness he demonstrated throughout that season. Of all the mental skills required to thrive under such adversity, two stand out. First, Robinson had an incredible ability to focus. Imagine the skill it must have taken to focus in the batter’s box without being distracted by the taunts, the threats and the enormous expectations. Second, Robinson had an uncanny ability to redirect his emotions. He was able to channel his rage and use it to energize himself to perform at his peak.

Most baseball historians agree that Jackie Robinson was not the most physically talented African-American baseball player in 1947. He had a mediocre throwing arm, a bad ankle and, at age 28, he was a little old to be a rookie. But he wasn’t chosen to break baseball’s racial barrier because he was the most physically talented; he was chosen because his extraordinary mental toughness enabled him to excel under pressure, bounce back from adversity and use his emotions to play baseball in a way that changed the National Pastime forever.

Mental Toughness Training Camp For Rising 7th – 12th graders – I will be doing a week-long mental skills training camp at Collegiate School in Richmond, VA from July 26 – 30. Click here for a description of the camp and registration information.

When an athlete's performance goes south, the mental process often goes like this: First, a mistake is made. Second, the mistake leads the athlete to think negatively, become self-critical and feel nervous or angry. Third, these thoughts and feelings distract the athlete and produce physical tension which interferes with their ability to focus on what's important and move in a fluid and coordinated way. This sets up a situation where it's more likely another mistake will be made, causing the cycle to start all over again.

To break this cycle and reboot your brain, follow these three simple steps:

• Step 1 – Think of a "stop signal" to interrupt the cycle of negative thinking. For example, try saying "Stop!" To yourself, visualize a stop sign or imagine a police officer’s whistle blowing.
• Step 2 – Take a slow, deep breath and exhale to release your excess physical tension.
• Step 3 – Tell yourself to "Reboot" and use this as your cue to let go of the mistake, refocus your attention, and think about what you need to do next.

Rehearse this procedure in your practices and training to make it an automatic response to making a mistake. Before long rebooting your brain will become as automatic as rebooting your computer.

Want more information? Try The Extra Gear’s FREE 4-week training plan, “How to Stay Positive When Things Go Wrong.” Each training plan will give you day-by-day tips and tools on using imagery, thought-control strategies and other mental skills to bounce back when things go wrong.

A mental plan is routine made up of mental skills like imagery, intensity regulation, focusing exercises, and thought control procedures to help you achieve your peak mental state. You probably already have a physical routine you use before training and competitions. Maybe you stretch, check your equipment, eat and drink something in particular the morning of a big event. Preparing in this way not only gives you time to get yourself in the best physical state possible, it also gives you a routine that feels familiar, and can help keep your nerves in check. It is just as important to have a mental plan for competitions, although many athletes neglect this portion of their preparation, often because they don't know what sort of things should go into a mental plan, or how to practice mental skills. Everyone's mental plan will differ, but each one is designed to help athletes get their optimal level of intensity, keep or maintain their focus, mentally rehearse their game plan, work through exertion pain, and stay on track to do their best.

To develop your own mental plan, think of the things you’ve done before some of your best performances. Do you do things to psych up or psych down? Do you listen to a particular kind of music? Do you visualize a successful performance? Are there things that you say to yourself that help you get into the proper state of mind?

Olympic athletes make good mental plans because they are an effective way to bring their best when it the pressure is on. But these plans don’t happen by accident. To get your plan together, write down a list of the things you want to do, both physically and mentally, before a competition. Then test them out in practices and training to tweak what works best for you. Once your plan becomes automatic, you’ll be ready to use it in when it really counts.  For more information on mental planning, and the mental skills used in mental plans, see the Training Article on mental planning on this page.

Set Goals – Write down your ultimate goals for this season, and then list all the things you have to do now to reach them. Post your list on the refrigerator or bathroom mirror.

Remember Your Passion – Think hard about why you compete, what you love about it, what really gets you psyched up. Get as vivid an image of this in your head as you can and call it up anytime you need a little push to go out and train.

Get A Partner – It’s more difficult to miss a training session if you’ve planned to train with someone else. Get a training partner or do group training to keep one another motivated.

Sing A Song – Music can be very motivating. Find a high-octane song that gets your heart pounding, and then set your alarm to play the song in the morning to get you pumped up when you’re feeling flat. 

Think Positive – Think of an inspiring phrase that goes along with your music and the image you created that represents your passion about your sport. Repeat this phrase to yourself whenever the couch looks more inviting than the gym.

Goal-setting can be an important part of your training plan, whether your goal is to improve your physical skills, mental skills, or just get more enjoyment from your sport.  Setting goals can help you focus on what’s most important, motivate you to stick with your plan and help you track your progress. 

There are, however, two big problems with goal-setting:

• Many people think goal-setting takes too much time, and
• Most people don’t know how to set the right kind of goals.

Setting goals does take some time, at least in the beginning.  Once you’ve put in the initial investment, however, goal-setting pays off and actually saves you time because it helps you stay focused and motivated.  

Additionally, many well-intentioned people mistakenly set the wrong kind of goals.  Because they don’t know how to set effective goals, they end up abandoning them in frustration. 

The good news is that effective goal-setting can be learned in a short time!  Here are some tips that will help you set goals for a New You this New Year:

Set the Right Kind of Goals

One of the most common mistakes in goal-setting is creating too many goals about how you perform compared to others.  Attaining goals like winning or beating a rival depend, not only on your performance, but also on the performance of others.  These are called “outcome goals.”  Outcome goals can be motivating, but relying solely on them can make it difficult for you to get motivated in the short-term.  They can also end up making you frustrated if, for reasons out of your control, your opponent just happens to be better than you that day.

Instead of relying on just outcome goals, set goals for your personal performance independent of others.  Obtaining a personal best or playing your position well are examples of “progress goals.”  Additionally, set goals for what you have to do during a race to perform your best.  Improving a specific technical skill  or decreasing your pre-race anxiety level from an 8 out of 10 to a 5 out of 10 are examples of “process goals.”  Setting a combination of outcome, progress, and process goals will help you stay focused, increase your motivation, and help you structure your training.

Climb the Alpe d’Huez to Your Goal

This 10,924 foot high mountain has twenty-one switchbacks, and each one has a sign counting them down to the top.  When cyclits climb Alpe d’Huez, passing each sign is an indication that they have reached another sub-goal on the way to their ultimate goal.

Keeping the image of Alpe d’Huez in mind is a good way to think about how to map the road to your ultimate sport goal of the year.  Here’s what you do:  Take a pad of paper and draw a mountain on the top half of the page.  At the top of the mountain write the goal you wish to achieve for this year – your ultimate goal.  Make the goal moderately difficult, but attainable.  You should be 60% to 80% sure that you can reach this goal.  After this, write some short-term goals that you need to reach on your climb toward your ultimate goal.  These might include some of the progress and process goals described above.  Structure these sub-goals so that they can be reached in 2 to 4 weeks each.  After this, write these sub-goals next to a switchback of the mountain, and draw a road up through every switchback to your ultimate goal at the summit. 

The next step in crucial.  Underneath your mountain, write down each sub-goal on the left side of the page.  Next to each sub-goal list what strategies you will use to attain each one.  For example, if one of your sub-goals is to improve your free throw percentage by 5%, a strategy to attain this goal might be to practice 100 extra free throws after each practice.  If one of your sub-goals is to increase your confidence, you could use the strategies of practicing imagery and thought-control techniques during your warm-ups and training rides.

After you’ve listed your strategies for reaching each sub-goal, hang your masterpiece on the refrigerator where you will see it every day.  Publicly displaying your goals will help keep you focused, enlist the support of your family or roommates, and might even keep you away from those late-night raids of the refrigerator.

Use Your SMARTS

The “SMARTS” acronym was created by time-management consultant Hyrum W. Smith to help people remember some of the most important aspects of effective goal-setting.  Keep these things in mind as you create each of your goals:

S – Specific.

Run faster is too vague.  Finishing a marathon in less than 4 1/2 hours is specific.

M – Measurable.

Quantify your goals.  Use numbers to describe how often, how many, how much.

A – Action – Oriented.

Goals should imply actions that you need to take.

R – Realistic.

Make your goals moderately difficult, but reachable.

T – Timely.

Create goals that you can reach in a reasonable time.

S – Self-Determined.

Set your own goals, ones that are meaningful to you.

Goal-setting works best when you focus on one goal at a time.  Many people get bogged down by working on too many goals at once.  Also, remember to be flexible.  Sometimes goals need to be modified, especially if you’re new at goal-setting. 

Follow these principles of effective goal-setting and you won’t become one of those people who just sets goals this year – you’ll reach them!

What’s this mean for you? The study suggests that mental fatigue can limit your endurance, and therefore can decrease your sport performance. So, the next time you’re tapering your physical training before a big competition, consider giving your mind a rest, too!

Imagery works to improve athletic performance in several ways.  One way is by improving your muscle memory.  Basically, if you think of performing a motor movement, the nerves controlling those muscles will fire just as they would if you were actually performing the movement (although at a much lower intensity).   So, for example, if you imagine yourself running the Marathon using good technique, you will improve your muscle memory for this.  Imagery also works by giving you a “mental blueprint” of an activity; that is, the more you imagine your performance, the more familiarity you will have with carrying out your plans at the event. 

Imagery can be used to improve sport performance in many ways, from helping athletes recover from injury to improving confidence and motivation.  In this newsletter, I’ll give you some tips on how to use imagery to prepare for a competition and to get you through the rough spots in a race (like between mile 20 and the finish of the Marathon).  Before that, however, I want to mention two things you should know that will help your imagery be more effective.

In all the research done on imagery (and there’s been quite a lot of it), two factors have been consistently related to higher imagery effectiveness: vividness and controllability.  Vividness refers to how clearly you use all your senses to imagine the scene you create in your mind.  When you practice imagery, make sure you use not only your visual sense, but also include what you hear and feel in your images.  The kinesthetic sense, that is, the feeling of your body as it moves through space, is particularly helpful in improving imagery effectiveness.  Additionally, try to imagine your thoughts and feelings as vividly as you can.  Controllability refers to getting your images to do what you want them to do.  Consistent practice is the best remedy for problems controlling your images.  Don’t be too concerned if you have problems in one of these areas; everyone has imagery strengths and weaknesses, and your weaknesses will improve with practice.

When you practice imagery, begin in a quiet place free of distractions.  Start by taking a few deeps breaths to help you relax.  Imagine the time before your race, for instance, imagine that you are arriving at the starting line of the Marathon.  Visualize what you will look like, how you will feel, what the crowd looks and sounds like.  Imagine yourself going through your pre-race routine – warming up, stretching, and so forth.  Now imagine the beginning of the race.  Feel yourself settling into a good rhythm.  Imagine yourself excited but not anxious, confident, and ready to race.  Playing this scene over in your mind will help you solidify your pre-race routine and get you in the best frame of mind for the start of the race.

Of course, completing a long race like the marathon is tough.  It would be unrealistic to imagine yourself completing it without effort or fatigue.  You can, however, use imagery to help you anticipate and cope with these challenges.  As you imagine yourself at different sections of the race, practice imagining yourself getting tired, cramping up, or having any other problem that you have had in the past.  Imagine as vividly as you can what you are thinking and feeling, what your body feels like, and what you see and hear around you.  Now (and this is the important part), imagine yourself successfully working through this time.  Maybe you will imagine saying things to yourself at this time to get you through.  Maybe you will imagine refocusing your attention on your technique rather than on your pain.  Maybe you will imagine yourself using energizing imagery to get you back on track.

The effectiveness of imagery improves with practice, so begin practicing today.  Spent just three to five minutes practicing imagery several times a week (you can always find time at night when you go to sleep), and by the time you arrive at the starting line, your body and your mind will be in the best shape possible.

Here’s what you do: After each competition take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle.  On the left side, list all the things that you enjoyed and all the things that you believe you did right.  Realize that even in your poorest performances there are positive things that you can focus on.  Even if you came in last in a race or your team got hammered, you can reward yourself if you tried your best and didn’t give up.  On the right side of the paper, list the things you think went badly and how you would like to do them differently in the future.  After you do this, tear the paper down the middle and put your negative comments in an envelope, put it in a drawer, and forget about what you’ve written for the next week.  Keep the list of all your positive things where you can see them every day.

Yes, this may seem somewhat juvenile, but it really works.  It’s important for you to learn from your mistakes, but especially when you’re competing in one event after another, it’s critical that you don’t get bogged down by ruminating over them.  This technique is a ritual that will give you the opportunity to learn from your mistakes after the racing is over while keeping you focused on what you’ve been doing right so that you can maintain a positive attitude for the rest of the week.

To develop a post-competition plan, think about the things that you normally do after your competition that you have found helpful in the past.  Perhaps you’ve reviewed the competition with a coach or teammate, used imagery to review what you did right and wrong, or kept a journal of your performance (I’ll talk more about using a sport journal for performance-enhancement in my next newsletter).  Make a list of all the physical and mental things you find most valuable.  Think about what to do and the order in which to do them.  Try your plan out after a training ride.  Adjust it so it works best for you.  Practice the plan during your training until it becomes second nature.  By the time you get to a competition your plan will be developed well enough to help you review the competition, learn from your mistakes, and most importantly, put things aside and move onto the next competition.

To help you psych down, begin practicing relaxation techniques now.  If you have ever used progressive relaxation, meditation, or other relaxation procedures, take some time now to knock the rust off of these skills so that you can use them effectively when you need them the most.  If you have never used relaxation training before, try this out for several nights when you go to sleep:

Lie comfortably in bed with your eyes closed.  Take several slow, deep breaths, and as you slowly exhale say the word “relax” to yourself.  Release the tension in your body, and clear your mind of everything but your breathing.  If you find yourself getting distracted by your thoughts, just let them float in to your mind and float out again.  Don’t force it; just let it happen.  Having this passive attitude is one of the most important components in relaxation training.  As you continue breathing slowly and deeply, take a mental inventory of your body, and pay particular attention to the muscle groups that tend to hold your tension, such as your neck and shoulders.  If you enjoy imagery, you might also try imagining a peaceful place in your mind, like the ocean or a mountain meadow.  Use all your senses to imagine this scene as vividly as possible, and as you do so, let yourself relax completely. 

As a heavy schedule or training week rolls on, you might find that you have the opposite problem:  Your limbs might feel heavy, you might care less about what happens, and you might even have thoughts of quitting.  These are signs that you need psyching up.  To increase your energy, try taking several quick, deep breaths.  As simple as this seems, rapid breathing activates you nervous system and can help you feel more energized.  If you listen to music before a competition, consider making a new playlist of fast-paced, motivating music to listen to.  Also, think of some cue words or phrases that help you get energized.  Make these meaningful and personal to you.  If saying, “Cowboy up!” makes you feel like a dork, then think of other things you can tell yourself when you need to get psyched up before or during a competition.  Using imagery can also be very helpful. 

Practice your psyching up routine in training and your psyching down technique each night for a week.  Tweak your techniques so that they work best for you, and you will be able to manage your intensity and compete at your peak when it really counts.

If you’re injured, ask your physician to give you a description of what the injury looks like, and what will happen during the healing process. Using an anatomical model can help you form a more vivid image. Practice healing imagery for a few minutes each day, and let your mind help “speed-heal” your body.

Our normal response to pain is to tense the muscles around the injured area. But excessive muscle tension can not only slow the healing process, it can also impair sport performance by decreasing muscular coordination and speed.

Relaxation training can help you reduce pain, speed recovery, and improve performance. Of course, relaxing through pain is easier said than done, but it’s a skill that improves with practice. Try taking a slow, deep breath, and then slowly exhale while saying “relax” to yourself and imagining your muscles becoming comfortably loose. Do this several times a day for a week and you’ll notice an improvement in your ability to relax.

It’s been estimated that up to 17 million sport injuries occur each year in the United States.  This not only occurs among elite athletes, but among weekend warriors as well.  In the 1990s, sport-related emergency room visits increased 33% for persons between 35 and 54 years old and 54% for persons 65 years and older.

It was once thought that sports injuries were not only caused, but also cured, solely by physical processes; the mental aspects of injuries were largely ignored.  This was exemplified in the “old school” mentality when athletes were expected to fight through their pain regardless of its source and coaches treated injured athletes as worthless because they were not contributing.  These antiquated attitudes, however, began to change in the 1970s when physicians began to recognize that behavioral and psychological factors played a significant role in putting athletes at risk for injury as well as in injury rehabilitation.

Research has demonstrated that increased stress and coping difficulties increase the risk of injury.  For example, a study conducted on the University of Washington football team found that only 9% of the players with low life stress experienced injuries compared to 50% of the players with high life stress.

Stress increases the risk of injury in three ways.  First, when individuals experience stress they become physically tense.  When muscles are tense, coordination and motor speed decrease.  If you’ve ever tried to navigate through a mass sprint at the end of a race while maintaining a death grip on your handlebars, you might have first-hand knowledge of how muscle tension can affect coordination. 

Secondly, when people feel tense their focus narrows.  It’s as if they are looking through a camera with a telephoto lens: They focus only on a few details, but can miss other important things happening around them.  If anxiety leads a quarterback to glue his eyes in the middle of the field and he doesn’t notice the outside blitz, he could be in for a very long day. 

Thirdly, anxiety can cause a person to have difficulty maintaining their focus.  They can become so distracted by their anxiety that they miss something important.  This can lead not only to a poor performance, but can also increase the risk of injury.

Psychological factors are also important in the injury recovery process.  A 1996 survey revealed that about half of 482 certified athletic trainers believe that every injured athlete suffers negative psychological effects.  The most common of these effects were stress and anxiety, anger, non-compliance with treatment, and problems with concentration and attention.

The good news is that this same body of research has clearly shown that athletes can use mental skills to cope with or control these psychological factors.  For example, a study with collegiate athletes who were taught relaxation training showed a 52% decrease in injury rates among swimmers and a 33% injury rate decrease among football players.  Additionally, several studies have shown that injured athletes who practiced such mental skills as a goal-setting, relaxation training and positive self-talk experienced increases in attention and decreases in stress, subjective pain and recovery time.

Okay, so what does all this data mean?  What should you do to minimize your risk of injury and to maximize your recovery after an injury?  Here are some tips to consider:

Learn stress management techniques.  Strategies to help you relax both physically and mentally can help you cope more effectively with life stress to avoid injury and to decrease anxiety and facilitate recovery after an injury.

Avoid risks when you are stressed.  When you are stressed your coordination and concentration suffer, leading you to be more vulnerable to injury.  For example, if you’re a cyclist, practicing tricky technical mountain descents at 50 miles an hour right after your heartthrob dumps you is a bad idea!

Know the difference between “good” and “bad” pain.  Don’t get the idea that I’m suggesting that you be so careful that you don’t train hard.  No one ever performed their best with their mother running along side them screaming, “Be careful!  Don’t go so fast! You’ll poke an eye out!”  What I am suggesting is that you learn to distinguish the kind of pain that comes with hard training from the pain that tells you something is wrong.  This largely comes from experience and paying attention to how your body feels.  When in doubt, consult your physician.

Use thought-stopping and thought-replacement.  After an injury it’s easy to catastrophize and tell yourself that your season is over or that you will never return to your previous form.  These thoughts may not be true, but they definitely will not help you recover.  To cope with this, become more aware of what you say to yourself by making a list of your negative self-talk.  Then think of a word or image that commands you to stop this type of thinking and use it every time you notice yourself having a negative thought.  Next, make a list of more positive and realistic thoughts that you can use in place of the negative ones, such as, “Yes this stinks, but if I stick to it and work hard I can make progress.”

Use imagery.  Imagery is a powerful tool, and can be used in two ways during injury rehabilitation.  First, you can use imagery to mentally rehearse technical skills and competative strategies.  This will improve your muscle memory and strengthen your mental blueprint to keep you sharp while your body heals.  Secondly, you can use imagery to facilitate the healing process by imagining such things as diminished the swelling and increasing the blood flow to the injured area.  It helps if you have your physician show you a model or picture of your injury.  I know, this sounds hokey, but believe it or not research clearly indicates that it works.

Use goal-setting.  One of the worst things after an injury is the realization that you can’t do nearly as much as you used to.  This can add to your feelings of helplessness and despair.  To cope with this, it’s important to establish clear goals for your rehabilitation.  Start by thinking of your ultimate dream goal, and then make a list of the things that you need to do that can get you there. Determining realistic short-term goals and strategies to accomplish them will help you feel more confident, in more control, and assist you in complying with the treatment prescribed to you by your physician, physical therapist, or athletic trainer.

Changing your perception of pain can be learned, but it takes practice. During your next hard training block, be aware of what you say to yourself when you start to feel exertion pain. Practice changing negative thoughts to more positive ones, like "The pain means I'm getting stronger" or "Keep pushing; this is where my training pays off." Feel the pride and excitement of rising to the challenge. These positive thoughts and feelings will help you make friends with your pain, and help your pain make you better.

In the next few newsletters I’ll give you some tips on dealing with another type of pain – pain from injury. There are several mental skills that can help you minimize your chance of being injured as well as to speed your recovery when you’re hurt. Stay tuned!

Using imagery to mentally rehearse a race is a powerful and effective mental skill. The more vivid your imagery, the more effective it is. You can make your imagery more vivid by visiting the course before the race. Even better, take your camera along and take a few snapshots along the way. Put the pictures on your refrigerator or make them a screen saver on your computer. The more you look at them, the more vividly you’ll be able to imagine yourself performing at your best in the race.

Sit down with your team before the season begins and discuss how you have worked together as a team in the past and how you hope to do so in the future.  I’m not suggesting you get all warm and fuzzy, talk about caring and sharing, or end the meeting in a group hug; I’m suggesting that you talk about any issues that might come up during the season that could be a problem or how others on the team can help you.  If you perform better by spending some time alone before a competition rather than getting too worked up at the team pep talk, you should make your team aware of this too.  If you have any concerns about your role on the team or being ready for a competition, let your team know how they could help you out.  Deal with this stuff now and you won’t have to deal with it later after something has become a problem.