1pm, CET on Sunday the 16th September, I find myself laid out on a makeshift bed in the medical tent by the finishing line of the Berlin marathon. An hour and a half earlier, Eliud Kipchoge crossed the same finish line covering the 26.2 mile distance quicker than any other human in history in 2:01:39. I’m a good 3300 places behind him.

Where he jumped for joy into the arms of his coach and manager, I crossed the line, stopped my Garmin, then had to lay on my back on the same spot as the searing pain of cramp hit my calves like knives stabbing into the belly of each one.

I’d just completed my first marathon in 5 years. Having stopped, it took over half an hour to limit the pain that had accumulated from halfway to the finish below each knee. I’d taken over 2 and a half minutes off my personal best, but for me, the story of the race was less about performing better than previously and instead how I managed to keep my concentration and confidence levels up for over 13 miles to nurse it around.

Reflecting a week after the event, I have no complaints about my performance. The opposite is the case. As Peter Bromka eloquently wrote in the week before the Berlin race:

“…the marathon will take from you everything you brought, and more…The delay without the guarantee of gratification…Racing 26.2 miles will break you. And that’s the point. To see where you stand when you are exposed.”

Background

In the day job, I’m a sport and performance psych who helps athletes work at their ‘inner game.’ To prepare their mind to be psychologically ‘fitter’ (and smarter) for life and the challenge they face in their craft.

I’ve been privileged enough to work at Olympic and Premiership level. Currently, I’m developing my craft to specialise in endurance sport, working as a performance psych for Asics and the Manchester Institute for Sport and Performance. I’ve found that being part of sports science teams, the folk on the sidelines have an insatiable competitive and curious energy that needs to be expressed, pushing our own capacities and limits to the test.

As far as challenges go, I’d lost touch with how much running a marathon can be an intense experience, whether you’re Eliud Kipchoge or the guy dressed in a jester’s outfit. My relationship with the distance has changed having cut out marathons after doing 6 in 6 years (2008–2013) before I got a job that involved a lot of travel and limited my opportunities to train. I didn’t want to do a half-arsed job, so took the opportunity since to get quicker over shorter distances and was very happy doing so.

But the marathon is a different mistress altogether. One that deserves the utmost respect as you try to navigate through 3+ months of training unscathed, always knowing that there’s no guarantee that all that effort will translate into your target time. It’s probably this anomaly that is the perverse part of its appeal! You feel the highs and lows, even in a race when things go ‘right’. The margin for error in a marathon is exemplified because of it’s distance and the fact that our bodies aren’t designed to run that far as fast as we want them to cover the ground!

So what’s your point Mr “Expert”?

So why am I writing this? Is it a reflection? Is it to offer something new to the wealth of marathon writing anyone can find on blogs and websites across the web? Not specifically. It’s to try and make sense of what happened and how someone armed with a bunch of tools they teach others, how well they managed to follow their own instructions! (and whether that was successful…).

I won’t go into the minute race reports you’ve read countless times already. Take it as read that I had done a really solid training block (possibly my best ever); I’d done everything right nutritionally and went out with a plan. I got to halfway (in 1:31) knowing that the calves were seriously not where I wanted them or had felt them in training at that point.

Post-race, I’ve asked a friend to ask me what questions he’d want to ask someone in my position. These are what he asked and what my honest answers are…

Given what you do for a living, did you feel under pressure? I didn’t feel pressure as it was my first time out in 5 years and I’d had a hernia operation 18 weeks before. I’d quietly gone about my training this summer as I wanted my comeback to the distance to feel easier than some of the previous efforts where I’d poured all my energies into training when I first started ‘going the distance.’ But obviously, you get pre-race adrenaline and managing that out over the first 5 or 6 miles was novel given I’d normally have finished a 10k by that point!

Did I practice what I preach in training? (i.e. did you train psych skills).
I was already meditating frequently. During training, I’d been using some skills in my rehab, including imagery and having a periodized plan that upped my mileage and speed without running the risk of injury. For long runs I mentally prepared before going out and how to manage fatigue and pain for the tougher end of those where I was both going longer than I had in 5 years and was also trying to turn up the pace on progression runs. Coping with the hot weather this summer and taking on fluids proved a challenge that I faced on race day too.

What was my training regime like? (both physically and mentally).
I loved getting back into shape during the summer. Having a structure for training was good as I lead a freelance work life. During training, I hit PBs in 5k, 10k and placed 2nd vet at a local fell race. During the races, I was working at my mental game and pushing myself away from being ‘a runner’ to actually ‘racing’ the distance and competing. I loved that.

How did I feel the pressure come race day? The weather looked like it would be warm from the start and I don’t cope well with heat (185 cm tall and 78ish kg). But given I’d trained in sunshine over the summer, I was more confident than when I’ve been caught out in hot spring marathons after training through cold winters previously.

I was excited on the start line and didn’t know what to expect from the legs when I headed out with a pacing team. The pace was rapid and in the future I need to either train to a slightly faster level or have got the miles and consistency in the legs to trust my own race management — I take it as read my race craft will continue to develop.

Did you come unstuck with anything in the race and failed to implement best practice? My legs (more specifically my calves!) became ‘stuck’ whilst the rest of me was fine. The effect this had was that I knew I’d have to pour more mental energy into the second half in concentrating to stay on for a PB. Thankfully, I’d got a solid strategy to switch quickly to running as smooth as possible and “run the fastest race you can” — with the hope that I’d still PB in the process.

Was I able to use the skills in the field that I spend all day cultivating in others? (Or did you wing it and go off plan?) Thankfully, due to working out various strategies, I could take my mind away from an outcome focus in training to being more process focused (arms, feet turnover and posture in particular). That was what I was doing in training over the summer but still have room to get better at it.

Could I get any better or am I at my peak? At the end of the race, I was emotionally and physically spent. Everything had been given but I had still PBd. Even though my times for shorter distances would suggest a quicker marathon time, for my comeback race post-surgery, I was stoked. I’d had a strategy for how to work through the last 6 miles that I’d tested in training.

Though I was straining to get to the finish, using that strategy meant I completed the race and was a whisker outside a BQT. That I had a bank of skills to switch focus mid-race when I hadn’t planned for calf pain to strike and I had to adjust, I was more than pleased.

Given the effort and tiredness, my last few miles were fugly and no coach would have praised my form! I couldn’t help in the second half not to dream of ‘just finishing’ and yes, I did think about quitting 2 or 3 times. That thought didn’t last long though.

Lessons have been learned to take to training but the bounce from ‘going the distance’ and training for the last 18 weeks will pass over to the next block of running I take on. So I persevere. There’s been no complaints and a lot of smiles for completing the job with the conditions I got on the day with my fitness and legs being where they were. I’m super proud of myself as both a runner and a practitioner who did (mostly) adhere to best practice. :-)

So no. I’ve not reached my peak and there’s more capacity for me to test and fill. In the words of Des Linden, I need to keep showing up. The rest will take care of itself.

Like all good intentions, I’m sure they come from a good place, but I want to help people achieve them! Only about 8% of people who make resolutions actually keep them! I don’t want you to be in the 92%!

Why do so few resolutions work?

Well, what can I offer with my psych knowledge is some guidance about how to make that good intention realistically stick and limit your chances of self-sabotage along the way!

We’ve all joked about people who join the gym on January the 1st only to see their new membership lapse by February the 1st. But are you following your own direction and advice and not making the same mistake?

Resolutions often have a long-term goal in mind and whilst the idea gets you a fired up after the excesses of Christmas, that initial enthusiasm can wear thin very quickly. You’re looking to change everyday habits to reach a bigger target to succeed and people underestimate who much long embedded habits are to alter. So there are 3 great bits of advice in an article that caught my eye and resonated with my professional training.

1. Figure out what you want to achieve and where you are in the journey, and then match your resolution to that.

2. Aim for the goodies along the way instead of the one at the destination.

3. To achieve more, aim for less.

These are all self-explanatory in terms of how you should structure your planning for your goal/s, but I would also recommend keeping a weekly tracker (whether a habit tracker app, diary, an online journal or chart on your fridge!) so you can see the progress and stick to the process to achieve your target.

THE BIG ADVICE!
Underpinning all of the advice and why people don’t maintain their habits, is the lack of accounting for their emotions in the planning! Our emotions are the engine of our existence. They get you out of bed in the morning (not your legs). They shape your habits, your beliefs and capabilities. So as well as having an exercise plan which you can tick off each day, you must have an emotional plan that legislates for your emotional needs.

On those cold days when you have a run or cycle and another hour in bed seems more appealing, what is the specific reward that will talk to your emotions that will bring them onside to power you to January 31st? You effectively need to ‘talk’ to that side of your personality, know it’s foibles and character in order for it to buy in as much as you in order to succeed!

Don’t underestimate the strength of your existing emotions and habits — your emotions want an easy life and a quick win and want all of the reward with none of the effort! How easy will it be at the end of the first week back at work for you not to reach for the glass of wine when you’ve had a tough 4 days back in the office? (but you’re wanting to keep off the grog!). Whether your motivation is to fundraise for Dry January, get up earlier on Saturday to go for a long walk in the country or just to feel better about yourself and your ability for self-control (and not have a pang of regret the next morning for breaking your resolution!), you need to plan a little bit for the what-ifs of emotional hijacking and come up with an answer to the little voice in your head that will be the thing that stops you. Seriously, think about what the voice will say and come up with a retort that will stop it dead!

Practical Solutions

As well as mapping your journey through an online or fridge door planner/training buddy, take a few minutes to work out what you’ll say to yourself to stay on target when the temptation is to quit. Only you will know what kind of prize (or punishment!) will stop you in you in your tracks and stick to the bigger prize so you have to be the one to take the time to think through what the ‘answer’ should be. Then rehearse it daily.

Make sure you are being emotionally smart. Give yourself a bit of a weekly pep talk or take a few minutes to review progress and see how well you’re making and celebrate the small landmarks.

If you have someone else you can hold yourself accountable to, then that’s a solid way in which you can avoid breaking resolutions. That way your emotions will more likely be contained as evidence shows us we don’t like letting people down — even if its at our own cost!

If you’re really struggling to stay on course to whatever challenge you’ve set and you want a boost or chat to someone who can listen (and if necessary provide a reality check!), then you can always drop me a line! I can be found at: focusedmindcoaching at gmail.com.

Whatever you do this year, whether a resolution this month or big plans further down the line, have a great 2018, be mindful and keep your brain healthy and fit through the year.

It’s Sunday morning. 11.30am, and an hour beforehand I had finished the Manchester half marathon in 88 minutes. I’m sat on my foam roller, forcing down a bacon roll my girlfriend has kindly made me. Excuse the swearing, but I’m fucked off to high heaven. My legs sting, ache and are tight. I’m emotionally drained as well. Feeling under pressure at work for the past month, the one thing that is ‘mine’ and I thought I was in control of, has slapped me on the arse in no uncertain terms and told me otherwise.

Ok. Let’s get to the first reason why I am writing this piece. I had — for me — a ‘sucky’ race. I’d trained hard for 12 weeks, getting myself into seriously decent shape. It was my target race for the Autumn after injury earlier in the year.

I realise I’d lost perspective. Was my annoyance about the ‘poor’ result or other things? It doesn’t matter. Either way, I’ve given myself a reality check. After all, 297th out of 16000ish is good by anyone’s stretch. And I’m not injured anymore. I’m a pretty good specimen for a 41 year old. Full stop. So stop being such a bloody perfectionist Holliday!

So by stepping back from times, outcomes and achievement, I hope to fall in love! “Fall in love?” I hear you say? Yes! I’m hoping that if I spend just a short bit of time working out more clearly why I run I might be:

A) A more fun version of me
B) Stop being a mardy bum
C) How I can approach the rest of this years running and racing with a better, adaptive attitude.

And fall back in love with the sport I spend more time doing than any other.

To help, I read this fantastic article by Amy Marxors on why she runs. Her humour and attitude burst my Chimp’s self centred and self important bubble of ‘not fair!’ quickly. From one of Amy’s humourous reasons that

‘I run because I’ve never really been a fan of my IT band anyway,’ to her final passionate statement:

“I run because we’re human, darnit, and our bodies were made to move, our arms were made to pump, our quads were made to burn, our calves were made to contract, our feet were made to fly, our noses were made to drip, our eyes were made to water, our guts were made to spill, our cheeks were made to turn bright cherry red, our lungs were made to explode, our hearts were made to pump blood with frenzy and passion and single-minded obsession until we come as close to possible to unassisted flight…”

So what is the reason (or reasons) why I run? I’ll caveat that I run for pleasure but I also race — That’s for another time.

I run because it makes me feel happy and alive. The feeling of a good runners high puts a smile on my face and makes me (temporarily at least) for a bit, forget about any troubles in the World.

I run because I made a vow to myself about 10 years ago that I would work harder at my health to be more active and look after my body better. Some critics would argue ‘running damages your knees’ or puts strain on other parts of your body. A lot of evidence would dispute this, but I’d rather have a dodgy hamstring through running and a shorter rehab time than have to be losing weight or deal with other conditions I may have inflicted on myself. I saw in my own family people not caring so well for their wellbeing or health and I didn’t want to be like that.

I run because I want to live as long as possible and squeeze the most out of life. When I started running it was to help a then girlfriend train for a race. I found I was pretty good at it. When we parted I joined a local running club and improved, but as a by product made some good friends and ended up with a career in the industry! But fundamentally, regular running means I have to make better lifestyle choices that I hope improve my chances of living not just a longer life, but have better quality health along the way.

I run because I love going abroad to new countries and cities and having the ability to scale more of the area by donning my trainers and exploring streets, hills, trails and other parts that most visitors would miss. I’ve trained for my first marathon in the rural hills in Syria. The only time I went to Christ the Redeemer in Rio was by racing to it from the city centre! I want to run the entire edge of an island or straight across it so I can see what I pass along the way.

I run because I love going to other cities or countries, and either running with different training groups or in races with people from that place. It’s fun to have running as a way to connect with people about something we all have in common. There’s so much division and negativity in the world, its great to be part of a wider community without borders that share the excitement of going out together to participate in an activity that our species has been doing since it started! There’s a knowing glint in the eye of fellow runners that all good communities and subcultures have: “I’m like you,” the glint says.

I run because at the beginning of the year (I was 40), I wanted to max out on my strength and capability as a runner for the next 2 years. Why 2 years? Completely arbitrary my dear Watson! but I wanted to give 2 more years to road running to see how far I can push my body to it’s capabilities. I’m a good runner, but not as fast as some I know. I know I will never run a 2:45 Championship time in a marathon. If I ever got close to a 36 minute road 10k I’d probably want to quit running (once I’d drunk my body weight in Champagne). But for what I am — a good club runner — I want to take it seriously for the next 18 months and see what I can squeeze out of the genetics I’ve been blessed (or cursed) with, and see if I can improve both over the timed distance, but also in my form, gait and weight to see what my optimum looks like. So one day, I can look my kids in the eye and say:

“I didn’t have much, but I had a little talent for running. For a short period of time I absolutely went for it and this is what happened.” In the words of my hero Steve Prefontaine for now I buy into the ethos: “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

I run because I read an article a few years ago with a (now) paraplegic lady who previously ran before her life changing accident. She said something that stung about how people who are able bodied don’t always realise what they’ve got and take their health for granted. I want to honour that. My girlfriend with a load of plates in her knee also can’t run at present.

I run because after I’ve done my time on the roads to my absolute best for 2 years, I want to ease back, run more for pleasure and shift my focus on to hills, trails and alternative places to flex my running muscles.

And like Amy Marxkors I too run so I’m able to ‘earn my pancakes’ and yes dammit, have that second piece of cake!

Thanks for reading the slight ranting but more positive ramblings of a running work in progress. I hope my girlfriend also feels a bit more relieved as well. :-)

Originally this article was written for Mental Health Awareness week in 2017, but the lessons within are universal all the time. Hope the guidance comes in handy.

In the U.K. there is currently a lot of media coverage for Mental Health Awareness week (8th to 14th May 2017). In the last few months there has been more media attention on improving the nation’s mental health, from the Royal Prince’s Heads Together campaign, to the Conservative party pledging 10,000 more NHS staff in their General Election campaign.

Dealing with everyday and chronic stress

The advice here is that though we ordinarily think that ‘stress is bad’, but stress is actually a normal and good thing! If we didn’t have stress to prod us, we’d sit around and do nothing! Acute (or every day) stress is stuff that happens in front of us and we adjust to.
Chronic stress is more dangerous as this is where stress has become a normal mental state for an individual and they are incapable of functioning without it. We’re all susceptible to experiencing this at times, and the World can feel overwhelming.

Some common symptoms of chronic stress to be aware of are:
- A continual feeling of tiredness
- More frequent irritability
- Poor sleep
- Lower self-esteem
- Feelings of low confidence and feeling undervalued.

Know your triggers!
One of the problems people often repeat is that they know the things that can set them off, but do little about identifying and stopping the beginnings of a negative spiral! Monday mornings, not going to bed early enough, overdoing it on the sherry, comfort eating (or skipping meals), ignoring pressing emails or deadlines — I bet you can second guess most of them! But before you get dragged down the possible whirlpool of negative feelings and emotions these can cause, take some time to know what can set off the red mist, and begin to formulate a better plan for how you’re going to deal with the things that might set you off!

Coping strategies: One way to deal with feelings of frequent stress are to list your troubles and come up with a plan of how you are going to deal with the feelings you experience along with the triggers that set off your stress levels. When we are stressed, we are more likely to just react, and so you have to be the expert at recognising your negative reactions and don’t accept them as normal.

If you don’t know how to help yourself or struggle with enacting this advice, it might be worth considering seeking support and guidance from a professional.

Creating Happiness Lists
Another tool to deal with stress once you have a better handle on managing those unhelpful reactions is to work at your happiness levels. From experience, I have met a lot of people who experience unhappiness from time to time but struggle as they aren’t being proactive in getting themselves into a happier place. You can’t ‘think yourself happy’, that’s just unrealistic, particularly if you’re going through a tough time.

But if you work at doing things that make you happier, the better, more positive feelings come from you taking the time to help yourself. Ideally, this reduces the amount of cortisol (stress hormone) you experience allowing better, more helpful hormones to flow

Short term (immediate) lists
Sit down with a piece of paper or your ‘notes’ app on your phone and answering the question: “What things make me happy?”
In the short term, this might be something like ‘Going to the gym or having a run,’ or as he says, ‘Taking the time for a coffee’ (and not feeling guilty for doing so!).

When you’ve written the 4 or 5 things out that you know are your happiness factors, ask yourself honestly, how recently you did those 4 or 5 things! If you haven’t in the past fortnight, put plans in place to do them!

Long term list
As well as doing things for immediate gratification, our emotional minds like to know what we have lined up and have things to look forward to. If having quality times with friends is important to you, reach out to those friends and set up a meal, a night out or an activity you think you’ll all enjoy. Holidays and timeout are important for us to look forward to and help us cope with short-term periods of intense work or projects we have to deliver. But think about the particular things that your mind and emotions will look forward most to.

Overall
These are just a few tips to get you thinking about taking ownership of stress management and increasing your overall well being. If you like what I’ve said here but you want more structure with some tools you can actually implement, Connecting with People have provided the following on this link: http://www.connectingwithpeople.org/content/mhaw17

- Worksheets for coping
- A self-care maintenance plan
- An Emergency Self-care stress plan

I see a lot of people being ‘human doings’ rather than ‘human beings’ — In the modern ‘always connected’, fast-paced World, I meet a lot of clients who see taking time for themselves as self-indulgent or another task for their to-do list that they don’t want to face.

But your mental well being is ultimately your responsibility and if you want to feel fully in charge, it is worth the investment to help you best manage yourself and ultimately be more like the real you. Have a good week and I hope you continue to make your mental well being an ongoing habit so you thrive not just survive! #mentalhealth

If you want any support for the issues I’ve raised in this article, you can find out more about me at: https://wakelet.com/@stuholliday
Email me: focusedmindcoaching at gmail.com
Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/focusedmindcoaching/
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/focusedmindcoaching/

How to help manage stress more effectively was originally published in Vunela on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I read a great piece from this week’s Independent, which tried to address and dispel the myths about going to therapy: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/therapy-expectations-outcomes-myths-want-know-questions-faqs-cbt-ocd-anxiety-depression-a7641376.html

I’m really impressed. It sums up well why I recommend people should seek support in developing their thinking, emotions or behaviour. I do live by the adage that ‘You’re never the finished product’, and so whilst almost everyone I know is happy to get physically fit if required, I don’t find the mental side of life is addressed with the same enthusiasm — or crucially- understanding.

Don’t get me wrong. I know plenty of people who have been for treatment for specific mental health or well being issues. Or self-help book/app/podcast aficionados who either tend to push themselves in life or are just naturally curious about enhancing their mental World.

Points from the article

As a practitioner, I’ve tried to save you the effort of reading and put my own spin on how therapy/psych support and Performance coaching can benefit you. I recommend reading both the piece, and my notes (below).

2017 — Over a quarter of people have seen a therapist in the UK (Up from a fifth in 2010). The typical, but not only, reason to go to therapy, is to tackle negative thoughts that debilitate your life. This is the main point of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

However! It is normal to feel that you might need some support at different points in your life…. like the odd repair or a service on your car perhaps.

For some, the thought of talking to a stranger is scary — again this is normal — those in a bad psychological place might feel they don’t need help or that to open up to someone makes them ‘weak’ somehow. Equally, someone who is doing well in life might feel that they don’t need or want any psychological or emotional skill development. Of those I meet, particularly in business, are often very ambitious and driven and want any tool that can give them an advantage. In business, people don’t want to be ‘the same as everyone else’ and developing and cultivating the mind is a skill they want to embrace.

In the article, William Pullen, a London based Psychotherapist says:
“Never settle for a therapist who doesn’t feel right just because you think that’s how it should be. Bring your doubts into the room with your therapist and explore them together.”

What we’re helping people do in therapeutic work is how to introject new ways of thinking into their psyche. What does this mean in plain English?

Introjection
Working with your therapist to incorporate a new way of seeing the world via improved thinking and feeling in a more healthy, helpful way than being experienced presently.

Learn to notice the quality of your inner dialogue. What are you saying? What are you hearing?

When we have bad habits we can think dreadful or unhelpful thoughts of ourselves.

How do I know if my thinking isn’t as I want?

A helpful way of making the decision as to whether you want to receive help to modify your thinking, ask:
“Do you want to hear the same old record again?” So listen for when it comes on and decide what to play (or what you want to do) instead.”

When you go to get support, try and think about what it is you want to do or get out of seeing a professional. But this isn’t essential to starting the work. It might be you just want a “tune up” or “tinker” to enhance your overall (mental) fitness. Whichever is more relevant to your, I personally do believe that investing in your well being is worth the effort.

When I’ve taken the time to think about what my why is; Where the body coach has a mission is “to get the World… fitter, leaner and healthier,” I want to do the same for brains. However well you’re functioning, I think it is possible to enhance your thinking and emotions to better thrive than survive.

Words of warning:

• The therapeutic process can be as tiring as doing physical exercise
• It’s not for everyone.
• You can do just fine without a ‘shrink’, ’performance or life coach’, ‘psychologist’ or ‘therapist’ — Self aware and balanced individuals may recoil from the idea of going for sessions unless they believe it is really needed, or see it as an indulgence.
• Others around you (family, friends, work colleagues) may think the same, i.e. that it is an indulgence or not understand the process fully. As the stats from this year show though, more people than you think are ‘on the couch’

Benefits

• Catch things sooner and it’ll be easier to cope and move on in life.
• Grow your ability to think well about the World and you can flourish (see the likes of positive psychology and the growth mindset).
• People who have given talking cures/therapy/emotional skill development a good go often say that it has been very beneficial and they are glad they’ve used it. I’ve seen this on the ground with people going through problems or change and in elite environments such as Sport and Business where well functioning people have kicked on and achieved more with themselves than they may have thought was possible. We live in a fast paced World which can be disorientating regardless of who you are, so finding ‘the space’ to think can be very beneficial to you succeeding at your endeavours.
• It can be a painful process (not always) but it can bring a change in honesty with your (authentic) self and help you think more clearly about you, your world and the people around you.

So yesterday I posted up a great article by Sarah Robb O’Hagan on ‘How athletes beat failure’ — the essence of the article being how to overcome disappointing results in a chosen activity (e.g. a race, triathlon, a match) by using such setbacks as mental fuel to take more risks in preparing for future endeavours and reaching for greater goals in order to put extra effort into your training and preparation to avoid such disappointments again.

The honesty that Sarah advocates (and personally includes in the article!) is key to putting more effective and specific plans in place to give yourself a better probability of achieving your goals. As she says:

“In the end, it’s not about the failure; it’s about how you react.”

One of the guarantees, or truths of sport and competition, is that you will have bad days. Everyone will. Even those at the pinnacle of their field. That’s the reality check that our emotional selves fail to see sometimes, which can lead to many hours lost in feeling like crap after not achieving what you set out to do. I recommend you read the article as it doesn’t show anything ‘weak’ in Sarah’s thinking. If anything, I think it shows her (mental) strength and resilience in how she has pushed herself on in her endeavours to be stronger and get more of the results she wants.

But this pre-supposes that you’ve had a sucky race/swim/Tri! What about if you’ve spent the past few months waking in the early hours and hitting the road, track, pool and been living on mung beans?! What if you have that target race or event coming up and you’re beginning to get a little bit of (healthy) fear about how you’ll do on the day?

I thought about this more yesterday as I saw a post by my S & C trainer, Tony Everitt on instagram as he prepares for this month’s Barcelona Marathon. We talk a lot — in the gym, on runs, in the cafe, about preparing athletes for upcoming events and their attitude during training. We both try and ‘eat our own dog food’ and apply the same discipline to our training — whilst realising we’ll never make an Olympic games, what things can you do to benefit the mind as well as the body come the start line?

How have you been preparing? REALLY?

So I throw this out there, as I would for any athlete I work with…
How have you been recording your training? Do you keep a journal to get not just your times down, but how you felt? to praise yourself when you’ve done a tough set or session and achieved what you wanted? To make adjustments to training if you’ve been a bit off pace or colour, or injured?

As Sarah says in her earlier article about overcoming failure, the point of these journals/training logs, is to be wholly honest before your event to get past what you might feel and actually look at the facts, truth and evidence about how you’ve trained and what condition you’re in. Occasionally it is possible to wing it fitness wise and still achieve what you want, but often, the best results have happened because you’ve taken the harder choices and put the extra 5% in here and there.

Being realistic — but still ambitious

Having gone over your journal/history, have you put in place a mental strategy for race day? Be optimistic and adventurous by all means — we don’t want to kill the dream, but you also want to have a back up or two for different eventualities. I’ve seen far too many athletes who were in good condition for events, be thrown by small details that were out of their control but that threw their process on the day. Or they took their eye off the ball in the day or days leading up to competition. That McDonalds in the Olympic village has been the undoing of one or two folks. That’s all I’m saying…

When you’ve also thought about your upcoming performance, it’s important not to go too conservative. Whilst I’m not a keen advocate of the ‘shit or bust’ school of racing, I’ve talked to a lot of people who limit their ambition when they’ve done amazing training and are capable of more than their think they are currently thinking about.

So, get your training diary out as Tony has, go back over your times/splits/feelings — I’m hoping you’ve done some truly horrific sessions that make you feel terrible, this again is awesome race fuel! — be honest and then run your thoughts by a friend, coach or mentor. Get them to sanity check whether you’re being too ambitious or conservative. Ideally they won’t *tell you* what they think, but allow you to come to the clarity in your thinking that your target is spot on in your mind. If you really trust that person and they suggest for instance that you are capable of more, reflect and adjust your plans accordingly — we often surprise (and limit) ourselves by our ambition and the need to ‘play safe’.

Preparing for the tough stuff

Predominantly I’m someone who believes that ‘aim for the moon and you’ll hit the stars’ — meaning that set ambitious targets, strive for them in your prep, and that should mean that you give yourself the best chance of succeeding come the event you’re training for. As Tony said, one area he’s working on is later in his marathon, an expectation of the ‘pain train’ making an appearance. Ideally you’ve had some test races or sessions where you’ve been in the red or on the limit, to help you come your target event.

If he goes through and plans for this in his body and mind, he will be better prepared to cope with any discomfort (if it does turn up). As Prof Andy Lane talked about on this week’s Marathon Talk (minute 43:45), if we engage with our emotions in a race, and have a rehearsed coping strategy, we are more likely to overcome possible detractors from your target. What we call this in the psych game, is emotional regulation. Being emotionally skilled enough in pressure situations to know our own emotions in order to effectively cope with them.

Managing the chimp before the big day

Finally, having spent so much time training for something significant, it is natural for our emotional brains to start going off down possible avenues of ‘what if?’ — perfectly natural and healthy, but not very helpful for delivering that result you may want. Again, accept brain wandering (and possible ambition or catastrophization!) as likely and have some fuel to feed that fire. Keep steadfast in your thinking that your brain will keep giving you these helpful ‘offers’ as race day nears — in fact you’ll get offered even more of them in race week! But go logical and make the decision that you want to rely on the bank of 12–16 weeks worth of evidence in your training log and say to yourself (assuming you’ve trained your ass off!):

“Yeah, my body is ready and trained to race this distance”

Take pride and confidence from that and work smartly to preserve your freshness, not get distracted by a wandering brain, other people’s ‘worries’ or suggestions and go for it!

And if you have been honest with yourself and you haven’t trained as fully as you’d have liked for an event, remember, ‘you can’t kid a kidder’ but max out on whatever you have got in the locker and see what you can squeeze out — you might just surprise yourself! ;-)
Happy racing, running, cycling, swimming or whatever your bent is.

focusedmindcoaching @ gmail.com
http://www.focusedmindcoaching.co.uk
https://wakelet.com/@stuholliday
9/3/2017

If you work as a Performance Coach and Psych, for professional development, you are required to maintain the quality of your work by getting it reviewed by a Supervisor. In my case, I’m fortunate that my Supervisor is Professor Steve Peters. We’ve worked together for coming up to 4 years now and along with a number of other mentors in the field (Caroline Marlow, Matt Buman, and Dave Alcock spring to mind), through the supervision process, I’ve developed as a practitioner to better understand human behaviour, how to be more empathic and effective as a practitioner and how to take different perspectives on situations where your focus might be locked in one position at the risk of missing other important details. Through this process you get some awesome and inspiring insights — often so simple you afterwards think “why didn’t I think of that?!”

Although I couldn’t publish the details of a client’s case or specific problem here, I want to share an insight from my last session with the Prof, as that really left an impression. We were talking about the effects of trauma on individuals, whether through an accident, or say divorce or grief at the loss of a loved one and what effect that has on the brain and how people cope.

Steve explained that: “Trauma leaves an emotional scar on the brain. But to then progress, two things need to happen. First of all the individual needs to lead a new life with a new image of themselves in a new setting. This might be the same geographical location a person lives in, but they have to be able to at least imagine themselves anew there.”

“Secondly, the scar has to go with them. It won’t ever disappear and will shape them and their subsequent behaviour, but the process of coping will mean the person can live with their scar. The role of a therapist or counsellor is to then help the individual adjust and recognise that the scar will hit that individual again on the backside — possibly when they least expect it. At first they’ll need TLC and support for the bad days but eventually they will need to develop a strategy to cope when the scar ‘opens’ and hits them emotionally. To have an understanding that the pain could hit them at any time is useful, something like: ‘My scar will bite me now and again.’ But recognise that it’ll be painful, take as long as it takes to overcome, but that you’ll be OK long term.”

It seems so simple in its eloquence, but when you apply it to painful memories from your life, try and see how your brilliant brain machinery has adapted to the initial pain or trauma you’ve experienced and how you can better cope with that situation now.

Enjoy your weekend.

Where does the experience of Elite Sport transfer to the Business environment?

In the World of business in the 21st Century, companies are looking to embrace novel approaches in order to gain competitive and performance enhancement over rivals in their field. We’ve heard about how tech companies motivate and reward employees from providing free breakfasts and lunches, pool and fuss ball tables, to the ‘Friday fridge,’ and lunch and learn sessions. As well as aiming to provide a happier workplace, such perks and work environment inducements can help entice and retain staff.

Cynical or a well thought out approach?
A cynic might suggest that such perks also help keep staff on site to work longer hours and be more productive for the same salary cost without the need to leave the premises. But from organisational psychology research, as well as cold hard economics, such investments in staff can assist overall staff wellbeing and engender greater team building and cohesion. Similarly, the environment’s offered at elite sport organisations are often designed to try and afford athlete’s the platform to perform at their optimum (see for instance the new GB Taekwondo centre or Manchester City’s Sport City complex).

Why am I drawing attention to environments so important? Well, the surroundings we exist and work in have a greater impact on our sense of well being and mental health than we realise. Environmental Psychology is even a branch of Psychology that aims to improve people’s behaviour and how they feel in relation to their physical environment. Systemic work in Psychology that focuses on both this and how this can influence how groups of people interact, relate and collaborate has shown that if it is done right, the need for individual one to one work is often lessened.

In a previous life as Digital Project Manager at the likes of the BBC and Skype, I was privileged enough to benefit from the perks mentioned, including an electric bucking bronco(!?) Unlimited high grade coffee and even Ashton Kutcher (The picture at the top was from Skype in London, 2008) talking to us about his role as a tech investor and innovator (For the record he really challenged my preconception of him as Mr Demi Moore! He has a very shrewd business and tech brain as well his acting knowledge).

Since changing career into Performance Coaching as a mentor working with Olympic/Paralympic sport and the Liverpool FC Academy; I have a bank of insight and knowledge I can bring to my working relationships with people in both Worlds at a personal and professional level. As we know, knowledge is only as useful as it is applied. Where I was tasked with delivering projects on time, to high quality standards in my old life, I’m now asked to deliver support, change and improvement to individuals and teams thinking, emotions and behaviour in the high pressure Worlds of both sport and business. But it is my clients who are now the people tasked with delivering the goods!

Key lessons
What are the key lessons I’ve learnt alongside the qualifications and best practice beyond the standard work that post-graduate psychs and practitioners have to complete? I personally believe this is important, as it is these more nuanced and untaught skills and lessons that are the crucial difference in my practice in being able to be effective and help people succeed at their own personal goals, dreams and objectives. That’s not to say mine are better than other practitioners. More that whether you take my approach or another Performance Coach or Psych’s guidance, I recommend looking beyond the mere qualifications and work experience, and delve deeper into their philosophy, approach and other non-taught skills to find what you need most to help on your journey.

Firstly, in relation to this piece, having worked in a variety of work environments before moving into Performance coaching and mentoring, I understand the different pressures people experience in their life. I still argue that the best work discipline I ever had was working in the kitchens of a restaurant starting as the pot washer then moving up to assist the chef.

I’ve done some work in event management which was great, and then had 10 years working in Digital tech which has also been invaluable. Having to adapt to different environments, personalities, schedules and working practices has helped my understanding of people, how they operate and thrive!

Secondly, how I have been professionally trained differs to other practitioners. As well as receiving undergraduate Psychology training, for the past 4 years, using the Chimp model (an approach based on neuroscience and a combination of existing therapies), I’ve helped people take greater ownership of themselves to better understand their triggers and emotions for mind management across all types of performance. The way in which I’ve been taught by Professor Peters, has been via his experience teaching medical and trainee psychiatry students — please note, I’m not saying I’m trained to a medical or psychiatrist level! But it’s been a different way of problem based learning that has positively helped change the way I understand human behaviour and conduct my practice.

In collaborating with individuals and teams (whether in Sport, Business, Education or life), I’m seeking more detailed information to help build a unique picture of you, how you function in your environment/s in order to give you specific insight and apply skills to better work with your expectations, consequences and control of your circumstances.

From scientific and experience in the field, I know that as a species, we actively do things against our wishes — whether consciously or not. My job is to help you better understand your emotional working. By so doing, it can be incredibly powerful to make sense of both rational and emotional (head versus heart) thinking; which in business and sport is crucial given internal and external pressure results driven deadlines and for critical decision making. From my experience as a PM, then as a Psych, I have first hand knowledge that that successful people plan. But as a Performance Coach and Psychologist, I know that to successfully deliver, you have to ask the question:

“Do you also have an emotional or mental plan to help keep you on track and stick with the logical rational choices that are required, when emotions so often arise and hijack us away from the end goal?”

I trust that if you’re at the higher end of business or sport, you do the meat and potatoes work required — whether that’s planning, training, developing plans, holding meetings or check ins, and working to a methodology. But going back to the beginning of this piece, if you’re in a tech or modern organisation, with a firm providing you and your team with a better physical environment, do you have a richer, clearer emotional and mental environment (see the growth of mindfulness practice in firms like Google for instance) as a differentiating factor in the fast paced, permanently connected World in which you operate? We aren’t emotionally built to be able to be pushing at that pace and my work is to help people and organisations recognise where they are working smart and where there are opportunities to take time to plan, reflect and alter their thinking World to get the extra 10% required to be successful.

So the key differentiators to collaborating with me are:

Assuming you have your own personal plan for delivery and success, what are the things that could limit you achieving your success?

• How well do you know both your rational and emotional thinking and decision making in pressure situations?
• What are your ways of coping under pressure in order to stay on track?
• What do you do to get the best out of yourself and your team?
• Is your working environment set up optimally for you and your team’s success?
• How well set is the emotional environment and culture within your World for you and your team to thrive?
• How do you stay motivated in a manner that keeps your energy levels and emotions at optimum for the tasks you’re doing?
• If you feel you’re doing well already, what would it take to make you even more productive, successful and take you to the next level? And do you have a plan to take you there?
• Do you know who your ‘A Team’ is around you that can assist you be successful and are you maximising those relationships to help you and be successful on your terms?

I’ll be following this article up with some practical, real World ways in which individuals and teams I’ve worked with legislate for the ‘What ifs?’ in high performance that you might find useful or beneficial.

However, if you feel there are any specific parts of your answers to those questions that could be worked on, then I would work with you to teach you the insights I’ve learnt from business, sport and my psychological training to apply specific skills to you and your World. So to paraphrase the programme just mentioned: If you have a problem, if no one else can help, I can work with you! Contact:

stuartholliday at gmail.com or call on +44 7956 382936. :-)

FC Athletic Psychologist María Ruiz de Oña & my colleague Carlos Taboas Lorenzo at Lezama discussing Academy team preparation.

In yesterday’s post, I wrote about how Athletic Bilbao aim to generate and live an ideal ‘learning environment’ for their players and coaches. I wrote about how the restrictions at the club (both self imposed via their ‘La Cantera’ policy and by the lack of riches to be found at the likes of Barcelona and the 2 Madrid clubs) enable the Academy to breed a philosophy of trying to improve their players ‘inner game.’

What to me appears unique about the approach taken by the institution is how the club implement a process of continual improvement of their emotional skill development from the top down — with all of the coaches having to work at understanding themselves, their emotions and communication style as much as the players being trained to be more self-aware in order to help them become more autonomous and responsible for their thinking, behaviour and emotional conduct on and off the pitch. A week after my time at Lezama, I’ve been reflecting on what the lessons are that I learnt that I feel are most useful from my time there.

First of all, I’m interested in how people learn. I’m also interested in what the best environments are that allow people to develop in. As with business, sport can be a tough, pressurised place in which to develop. Despite the ethos mentioned in my previous piece about how the players are required to ‘find their personality’ and have a ‘victorious attitude,’ ultimately these desires will be hollow if the players aren’t able to step up to the first team and be competitive against the best players and teams in la liga. Effectively, Maria and Jose-Mari are breeding a coping and resilience culture within the organisation that allows the players to better regulate their emotions to achieve success. So this isn’t just a piece that applies solely to football. It has resonance for anyone who is:

• A coach or psychologist
• A teacher, lecturer or educator
• A business person or trainer
• Anyone trying to enhance their team or colleagues within an organisational setting

What specifically happens in the work done at the club from a physical and tactical perspective is as important as the psychological aspect in terms of impact (this article from IBWM from 2014 neatly sums up how the methodology works holistically). But, given my interest in optimal psychological learning environments, the rest of this piece will relate to the psychological methods implemented.

Maria sums the core principles for each individual in the Academy to be:
- Non-conformity
- Self Questioning
- Ability to seek out feedback, question, listen and implement emotional skill advice.

The coaches at Athletic, as at all Academies, spend time getting to know the players from a young age to build a solid relationship of trust and awareness of the emotional distance between themselves and each individual. The ideal relationship they are taught is one of equality, not being either over friendly or conversely authoritarian in style. Coaches are challenged by the players verbally, and it is expected of them that they don’t react or dismiss the players view. In reviews of previous and upcoming training sessions, the players are led by their coach to run and facilitate the session themselves. Even in the U15s and U12s sessions I sat in on, the coaches spoke very little, with the players leading conversations themselves of how they had felt and experienced the training, using the tactics board to demonstrate understanding and detail of what was expected of them in their position on the pitch.

The coaches are trained in the art of Socratic questioning, so as not to give answers to the players, but in order to force the players to think of the answers themselves and to talk in the first person about their feelings and to demonstrate that learning has occurred.
The process by which the development of learning is structured is thus:

i) Coach and players jointly understand the reason for learning co-create ‘What is learning?’ based around the club’s principles.

ii) The relationship between player and coach develops so both learn.

iii) Coach and player have to learn and accommodate their emotional blind spots.

iv) Coach and player have to push their limits to develop

v) The various possible threats (deficiencies if you like) that have to be identified in a player, admitted to in order to be worked on.

So players are emotionally exposed in the safety of the Lezama environment. Coaches are encouraged not to focus on opposition players, but their own brood. Maria said the hardest barrier she finds from working with coaches is the need to develop active, thinking players who are capable of taking responsibility and handle self-criticism. Naturally some coaches and players are better at it than others. But in the preparation for drills and the process that follows via in depth reflection (even with young age groups these can go on for 45 minutes) knowledge, development and application of emotional skills can occur.

It isn’t always perfect. There are some coaches who buy in less than others to the process. There are some reflective and planning sessions where the coach will lead more autocratically and directionally. So Lezama isn’t a Utopia, and it hasn’t always been plain sailing. The process has changed over the 20 years that Maria has lead it. She often incorporates new ideas and thinking to the way in which the coaches and system will work (she went to a course in Barcelona on Transactional Analysis the day after I left). But the fundamentals of the system remain and are backed by the Director. In driving the work in the fashion explained here, the number of players coming through the Lezama Academy to the Athletic 1st team is the highest of Academy graduates in Spain. The one thing I was expecting would be more play on the identity of the Basque culture and what playing for the team might mean — as a way of enhancing team spirit. But less is made of that within the system, and as the players are already at the club and are of Basque heritage, that aspect is left more to the individual and their families to incorporate into their development.

It was a privilege to experience of working at the club for 2 days and observing the players and coaches working together and how they played in the training sessions after their player led sessions.

If there are any questions or reflections you may have after reading this, please feel free to ask. As the people of the Basque country would say themselves: Eskerrik Asko! :-)

Last week I was lucky enough to be a guest for 2 days of María Ruiz de Oña, the Psychologist based at Athletic Bilbao FC Academy in Spain. She calls herself “responsible for the personal and professional development of players” in the Athletic set up in Lezama, their training ground about 5 miles outside the centre of the city, set in green rolling Basque countryside. The Academy is also the training base for the Athletic first team, but she mainly focuses on work with the Coaches in the Academy system from 11 years old up to the first team.

From my work life in the Digital industry as a Project Manager and as a Psychologist for Chimp Management, there are hugely valuable lessons for both sporting and business organisations learnt. I’ve been given carte blanche to be honest about what I found. This is the first of two posts on my experience of my time there. This post is angled towards the practicalities of Maria’s 20 years of work in the club. In the second post I will write more about how the kind of work implemented in the club and how it relates to organisational psychology.

Athletic (never called Athletic Bilbao by their fans) are unique in La Liga. Along with Barcelona and Real Madrid, they have never been relegated from the top flight. All this achieved whilst only allowing themselves to take from a pool of around 2.5 million local players (A process called ‘La Cantera’). They are possibly the World’s most locally sustainable club! They are almost unable to field any foreign players (Aymeric Laporte — their one French first team player, has Basque Great Grandparents which allowed him to be signed as a youngster; Bixente Lizarazu was also once an Athletic player). Currently they are sitting 7th in La Liga. They are an anomaly in World football. I was keen to understand how they achieve ‘success’ and remain competitive in what is one of the World’s richest leagues using such a small pool of talent and how the work that Maria and the team do facilitates and helps individuals reach these standards. I’d heard they ‘do things differently over there.’

Given their self-imposed restrictions, they are forced to compete in a different fashion. Under the leadership of Academy Director, Jose Mari Amorrortu (a former player), the main vision of the Academy is that ‘The player is the value.’ Speaking with both him and Maria separately, they emphasised that the most important work they feel they have to do in the players development is to educate them to be fully ‘responsible and autonomous.’ I will return to this point in more detail later.

For context, in the past year I was fortunate enough to work at Liverpool FC’s Academy. A huge operation and one delivering the goods in the Premier league in terms of first team players (for instance Ben Woodburn and Trent Alexander-Arnold have both featured in league and cup games this season) and in selling on players (such as Jordan Ibe and Brad Smith to Bournemouth last summer). Liverpool take a lot of pride in their Academy both from the players who have graduated to the first team (Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Steve MacManaman amongst many other legends) to the ethos and identity it gives the club and the local area. Fans take pride in local lads coming through the ranks and in these days of vast commercialisation of the game, feel it connects their club to them in a way that a big money signing maybe can’t quite match. But that could be seen as a bit of an oversimplification and possible rose tinted view of players and fans with their clubs in the 21st Century. My friend and colleague; a Sports Presenter on Al-Jazeera recently gave me a reality check of just how huge the Premier league and La Liga globally in 2017. Ultimately, fans old and new, whether at home or in India, the States, or Nigeria all want to see their teams win and be successful. Football is a results business after all.

But without the leading teams huge resources behind them, teams such as Athletic need to take a position, have a strategy and work hard at delivering against their standards. For the past 20 years, Maria has worked within the Academy setting under different Academy Directors, first team managers and many different coaches. Whilst her practice of coach and player development has evolved, some of the core principles have remained to stay front and centre of the work they do with the players.

To achieve this, the Academy aims to develop players to take responsibility and become autonomous by coaches creating a true learning environment (italicisation deliberate). Not all learning environments generate development, and it is the responsibility of the senior people — the staff and the coaches — within Lezama to afford this. Time is spent by Maria and the senior staff to train the Coaches to be truly reflective in how to understand themselves, emotionally and intellectually, before working with the players. As well as providing technical and tactical football skills, the main role coaches are instructed to provide is to help players ‘find their personality’ in order to develop a ‘victorious attitude.’ A victorious attitude being defined as one where constant improvement, not winning is the key goal.

The Psychological training of players is seen as the most important tool to train players via individual improvement within the team environment.
The reason for this is to help players better cope with emotions and mistakes, and the challenges of growing up as teenagers in an institution. From the start of the player development, each player is taught how to work on their ‘inner game.’

Responsibility comes from the player-coach relationship via development of self knowledge by each individual via the teaching of emotional and verbal skills. The coaches and Academy try to develop more insight by making players aware of their own thinking, actions and behaviour.

With limited access time to players (those in the Academy only play in the evening after full school days), Maria instead almost purely works developing the coaches through a robust process that makes them effectively mini-psychologists. Each one of the seven Academy coaches has to spend time with Maria working and understanding their personal limitations and are challenged to be open to pushing their own psychological capabilities and be open to feedback and criticism from all angles (including from the players themselves). Some coaches who come to work at the Academy have not been able to adapt to this way of working and their stays have generally been shorter than other more psychologically minded or adaptable coaches.

Looking at the stats from the past eight seasons, Jose Mari showed that the majority of First team players at Athletic have on average spent six years at the Academy, living the values and the system of working, thinking and managing their emotions. In the first team, most graduates stay longer than in other La Liga teams, on average, at least three seasons or more.

Training has special value within the Academy, with it being the most important thing in the eyes of the Director and staff (4 sessions per week compared to 1 match). For a lot of clubs, priority is placed on the matches to be played as the most important output in the Academy setting. The Athletic ethos is that training is the medium in which to learn, and as I’ll write more in part 2, the review of each session and preview to the next session are in depth, detailed and reflective to get the players out of their psychological and social comfort zone to help them all improve their inner game. So it is a growth model of psychology, required by all to participate in ‘success’ in the eyes of the club. In the eyes of Jose-Mari and Maria, the development of the relationship between the coach and the player that follows in the learning environment are the true markers of success in player development and the subsequent success along the conveyer belt to first team (and La Liga) status.

Tomorrow’s post — the methods employed in the learning environment and what is required of the players and coaches to develop.