Mental Strength Skills Of The Olympians For Peak Performance
With the 2012 Summer Olympics less than a year away I wanted to take a look back at the 2008 Olympics and some of the highlights and peak performances.
As an athlete, you were, without a doubt, one of the 4 billion people who watched 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. People across the globe tuned in to witness amazing athletic performances from a wide variety of sports.
I don’t know about you, but couldn’t help but be “awed” by the physical and technical ability of those athletes and how they were able to do things most of us do not even dream about.
Let me ask you, what performance stands out for you?
- For many they will immediately think of Michael Phelps and how he won eight gold medals, setting seven world records in the process. The commentators talked many time of his physique that is so suited to swimming and his amazing technical skills. And all the food he ate!
- For some, it may be the marathoners who run sub five-minute miles for 26.2 miles.
- Others may remember the gymnasts who have phenomenal body control and awareness. They perform athletic feats that seem beyond the realm of the physically possible, often times seeming to defy gravity.
- All the sports; shooting, wrestling, badminton, equestrian, soccer, volleyball, fencing, etc offered examples of phenomenal physical feats.
The physical, physiological, and technical abilities of the Olympians are quite obvious.
But, what else separates these athletes?
Are there other skills or characteristics that they possess?
I’d like to offer a few examples of and let you determine what physical and/or mental strength skills that enabled such astounding performances:
Diving
Chen Ruolin, a 15-year-old diver competing in her first Olympic Games, stood on the 10-meter platform getting ready for her last dive. She needed 9.5’s and 10’s to win the gold.
In preparation for the dive, her movements indicated she was going through her dive in her head then she walked to the edge of the platform, she didn’t hesitate, and dove. She nailed the dive and won the event, scoring four perfect 10s and three 9.5s, despite the pressure-filled internal and external environment.
Volleyball
Unexpected tragedy struck the US men’s volleyball team. The father-in-law of head coach Hugh McCutcheon was stabbed and killed in a random act of violence while visiting a Beijing landmark just day before the start of the Games.
As a result, the team was without their head coach for several matches and had to deal with the emotional turmoil of losing someone who had been very close to the team. The assistant coaches and athletes had to manage their emotions and maintain focus on the task at hand.
The end result, they won gold, beating Brazil in four sets. Additionally, in the process of getting to the gold medal game, the US team had to fight through a number of 5-set matches where in any one of them it would have been very easy just to “throw in the towel.” However, they consistently rose to meet the challenge. Talk about maintaining focus through an emotional roller coaster.
Swimming
Michael Phelps’ drive for 8 gold medals could have ended very early were it not for the performance of his teammates on the 4×100 meter relay.
Jason Lezak was the last swimmer on the relay team and entered the water 0.6 seconds behind the world record holder in the 100 meter freestyle; Frenchman Alain Bernard had an insurmountable lead for all intents and purposes.
Lezak lost another 0.2 seconds to the French swimmer over the first 50 meters of the race, only to swim nearly a second faster over the final 50 meters—turning in the fastest relay split every recorded (46.07 seconds) while leading the US to victory by 0.08 seconds.
How spectacular was this athletic performance and how much did the mental strength component comes into play?
In the individual 100 meter freestyle, Lezak won the bronze with a time of 47.67 —a full 1.7 seconds slower than his relay performance.
While swimmers definitely benefit from the relay start, swimmers typically only swim several tenths of a second faster in the relay compared to the individual event.
Clearly something else played into this phenomenal relay performance.
Yes, mental strength skills certainly played a big factor in this peak performance.
Mental Strength Characteristics
In their pursuit of excellence, the athletes used mental strength skills to manage their emotions, to deal with the environment, to maintain an effective focus, to enhance their performance.
- How well do you manage performance expectations?
- Are you able to deal with distractions?
- Do you have a strong determination and commitment?
The above are just a few examples to illustrate the psychological aspect of performance and research indicates this point further.
Numerous studies have evaluated the psychological and mental strength characteristics of successful versus less successful athletes. A summary of this research (1) suggests that more successful athletes are characterized by:
- Higher confidence
- Greater management of arousal
- Better concentration and focus
- An in-control attitude
- Positive thoughts
- Imagery
- Greater determination
- Commitment
- The use of mental skills such
- Goal setting
- Imagery
- Coping strategies
- Mental preparation plans
Some of these mental strength skills were evident, directly or indirectly, in the athletes competing in the Olympic Games. Other skills are more difficult to observe, but you could pick them up by listening to the athlete’s interview.
The physical and technical strengths of elite athlete are often obvious and as an athlete you can learn from them and “model” them to reach your peak performance. You can borrow these mental strength skills and develop your own physical and technical mental strengths.
At the surface, mental strength skills of elite athletes may be less apparent but closer “inspection” reveals they exist.
Now it’s your turn:
- Are you working to develop your mental strength skills?
- Or are you just making excuses?
- Are you equipping yourself with the mental strength skills to manage the challenges in your sport so that you can achieve peak performance?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
References
- Williams, JM and Krane, V. Psychological characteristics of peak performance. In: Applied sport psychology: Personal growth to peak performance. J.M. Williams (Ed.), Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
