Reflecting on the summer and what is coming......winter training!
Focus
So, the summer has sadly come to a close and the winter is on its way. From a rowing perspective, for me this means winter training, LOTS of ergo/land training and freezing early mornings on the river. Now, the summer for me consisted of a few regattas, the highlight being Stourport in August. We came very very close to winning, in both a mens coxless quad and a mixed 8, however no novices were lost for me but my jove they were exciting races.
The one I want to focus on a bit here is the quad, as something rather interesting happened. We were against a fairly evenly matched crew, who had a small head start on us, about 4 seconds i think (we were on average a bit younger). We started ok, catching up on them fairly swiftly. From my own perspective I was so hyped up (high psychological arousal; Moran, 2012) that technique went out of the window initially, then I settled (using simple focusing strategies, on specific key words linked to to solid technique i.e. keep it long, sit tall etc). Then we were really on top of them and the red mist descended.....the whole crew picked up, giving it everything. Which, did result in us passing them but alas not before we had encroached in their lane and also clashed blades.
Whoops.
I remember vividly, as we were approaching the finish, a call from bow to go for it, saying to myself...'we have won this' and I suspect the whole crew were thinking similar things (as well as dying of course, trying to take out of the air the impossible amounts of oxygen needed for our burning lungs, legs etc). It was at this point I lost real focus and my technique went pear shaped (I may be being a little harsh on myself here, its a team sport after all) and in part this is down to shifting everything from the process - rowing well, to the desired outcome - winning my first race.
Sport psychologists have been making the distinction between process and outcome goals for years (Moran, 2012) and I know this better than most people, but when it became personal, on the cusp of success, I couldn't quite stay in the moment. I think thats a lesson I will take into the winter season and beyond.
Take home points
1) Keep your head, stay in the moment
2) The process gets you the to the outcome, it might be a long road but it will happen
3) Pain and suffering is inevitable - it will hurt but you can take it! (and the more you do it the more you will truly believe this)
Pain
The final thing I wanted to mention is related to this experience and the increase in ergo sessions for the squad this winter (started this week in fact) and the issue of pain and suffering. As a bit of an ergo geek I have been getting on the 'blackboat' consistently for a couple of years (at least). Its from these thousands and thousands of meters I have found the erg to be such an interesting psychological phenomenon. I think one of the significant challenges with it is the feeling it engenders in us, in particular during those really hard pieces - the 5ks, 2 k.s etc. I talked in a previous post about setting goals for the erg, I think another crucial factor is the ability to take the pain and discomfort.
Lets be honest it is seriously unpleasant sometimes, pushing yourself to your maximum, its not a nice place to be and it makes evolutionary sense we want to run away not toward such challenges. BUT if you can do it, even for a short time, get yourself to that ragged edge, that red line, you will be amazed at what you can achieve. The sense of achievement, knowing you put everything in, I think is truly amazing. The sense of achievement, the sense of doing all you could at that moment. My own sense of this ability to take the discomfort has certainly increased over all the meters, and in psychology speak we would call this a pain specific increase in my self-efficacy (a key concept in psychology, introduced by Bandura in 1977), the belief in myself that I can do it, can do just one more 500m interval even though I feel rather 'tired' and a bit emotional.
Now sometimes you dont feel it, and I am certainly not suggesting every session would be like this (for us mortals anyway) but pushing yourself physically, I think, can be very psychologically healthy. Especially if you can do it with some buddies (one of my favourite things about winter training is I do it with other people....suffering together doesn't feel quite so bad to me as compared to being on my own, in my garage, facing a spade)
A recent study by Atkinson (2008) showed how a group of triathletes came together as a 'pain community', and how they learnt to relish the physical and metal suffering in their sport! Psychologists have also found that the more you experience a particular painful/uncomfortable experience you can become desensitised to it (Raudenbush et al, 2012), putting it simply the more you do it the less it will hurt....a bit less anyway.
To my fellow ergo' geeks, suffers and reluctant heroes.....you can do it, it will be tough, but you will get through it together...., it wont get any easier.....but you WILL be able to take a bit more and you WILL get faster : )
Refs
Atkinson, M. (2008). Triathlon, suffering and exciting significance. Leisure Studies, 27(2), 165-180
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191-215.
Moran, A. (2012). Sport and Exercise psychology: a critical introduction. Routledge.
Raudenbush, B., Canter, R. J., Corley, N., Grayhem, R., Koon, J., Lilley, S., & ... Wilson, I. (2012). Pain threshold and tolerance differences among intercollegiate athletes: Implication of past sports injuries and willingness to compete among sports teams. North American Journal Of Psychology, 14(1), 85-94.
So, the summer has sadly come to a close and the winter is on its way. From a rowing perspective, for me this means winter training, LOTS of ergo/land training and freezing early mornings on the river. Now, the summer for me consisted of a few regattas, the highlight being Stourport in August. We came very very close to winning, in both a mens coxless quad and a mixed 8, however no novices were lost for me but my jove they were exciting races.
The one I want to focus on a bit here is the quad, as something rather interesting happened. We were against a fairly evenly matched crew, who had a small head start on us, about 4 seconds i think (we were on average a bit younger). We started ok, catching up on them fairly swiftly. From my own perspective I was so hyped up (high psychological arousal; Moran, 2012) that technique went out of the window initially, then I settled (using simple focusing strategies, on specific key words linked to to solid technique i.e. keep it long, sit tall etc). Then we were really on top of them and the red mist descended.....the whole crew picked up, giving it everything. Which, did result in us passing them but alas not before we had encroached in their lane and also clashed blades.
Whoops.
I remember vividly, as we were approaching the finish, a call from bow to go for it, saying to myself...'we have won this' and I suspect the whole crew were thinking similar things (as well as dying of course, trying to take out of the air the impossible amounts of oxygen needed for our burning lungs, legs etc). It was at this point I lost real focus and my technique went pear shaped (I may be being a little harsh on myself here, its a team sport after all) and in part this is down to shifting everything from the process - rowing well, to the desired outcome - winning my first race.
Sport psychologists have been making the distinction between process and outcome goals for years (Moran, 2012) and I know this better than most people, but when it became personal, on the cusp of success, I couldn't quite stay in the moment. I think thats a lesson I will take into the winter season and beyond.
Take home points
1) Keep your head, stay in the moment
2) The process gets you the to the outcome, it might be a long road but it will happen
3) Pain and suffering is inevitable - it will hurt but you can take it! (and the more you do it the more you will truly believe this)
Pain
The final thing I wanted to mention is related to this experience and the increase in ergo sessions for the squad this winter (started this week in fact) and the issue of pain and suffering. As a bit of an ergo geek I have been getting on the 'blackboat' consistently for a couple of years (at least). Its from these thousands and thousands of meters I have found the erg to be such an interesting psychological phenomenon. I think one of the significant challenges with it is the feeling it engenders in us, in particular during those really hard pieces - the 5ks, 2 k.s etc. I talked in a previous post about setting goals for the erg, I think another crucial factor is the ability to take the pain and discomfort.
Lets be honest it is seriously unpleasant sometimes, pushing yourself to your maximum, its not a nice place to be and it makes evolutionary sense we want to run away not toward such challenges. BUT if you can do it, even for a short time, get yourself to that ragged edge, that red line, you will be amazed at what you can achieve. The sense of achievement, knowing you put everything in, I think is truly amazing. The sense of achievement, the sense of doing all you could at that moment. My own sense of this ability to take the discomfort has certainly increased over all the meters, and in psychology speak we would call this a pain specific increase in my self-efficacy (a key concept in psychology, introduced by Bandura in 1977), the belief in myself that I can do it, can do just one more 500m interval even though I feel rather 'tired' and a bit emotional.
Now sometimes you dont feel it, and I am certainly not suggesting every session would be like this (for us mortals anyway) but pushing yourself physically, I think, can be very psychologically healthy. Especially if you can do it with some buddies (one of my favourite things about winter training is I do it with other people....suffering together doesn't feel quite so bad to me as compared to being on my own, in my garage, facing a spade)
A recent study by Atkinson (2008) showed how a group of triathletes came together as a 'pain community', and how they learnt to relish the physical and metal suffering in their sport! Psychologists have also found that the more you experience a particular painful/uncomfortable experience you can become desensitised to it (Raudenbush et al, 2012), putting it simply the more you do it the less it will hurt....a bit less anyway.
To my fellow ergo' geeks, suffers and reluctant heroes.....you can do it, it will be tough, but you will get through it together...., it wont get any easier.....but you WILL be able to take a bit more and you WILL get faster : )
Refs
Atkinson, M. (2008). Triathlon, suffering and exciting significance. Leisure Studies, 27(2), 165-180
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191-215.
Moran, A. (2012). Sport and Exercise psychology: a critical introduction. Routledge.
Raudenbush, B., Canter, R. J., Corley, N., Grayhem, R., Koon, J., Lilley, S., & ... Wilson, I. (2012). Pain threshold and tolerance differences among intercollegiate athletes: Implication of past sports injuries and willingness to compete among sports teams. North American Journal Of Psychology, 14(1), 85-94.
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