Getting Past the Mental Blocks
by Steve McGill
The mental side of track and field is where the greatest challenges lie. Being good enough to compete isn’t enough if you don’t believe yourself to be. Focusing on what could go wrong can sabotage a race before it even starts. Focusing on how good everybody else is instead of focusing on your own lane can have the same effect. Putting pressure on yourself, reminding yourself of certain cues, giving yourself a peptalk—all of that can have the opposite of the intended effect. Thoughts are weight; that’s what I always say. Thoughts weigh you down, slow you down. Any thinking in the minutes leading up to a race is too much thinking; it doesn’t matter if the thoughts are positive.
[am4show not_have=’g5;’]
[/am4show][am4guest]
[/am4guest][am4show have=’g5;’]
But getting past the mental blocks isn’t as easy as simply deciding to and then doing it. No, not at all. Instead, it requires seeing yourself in your totality as a person, understanding your inner workings, and being honest with yourself regarding your fears and anxieties. We have to recognize how who we are as a person comes out in all aspects of our lives, and from there, accept ourselves without judging ourselves, but while also acknowledging where our fears and anxieties are holding us back.
I met with a college athlete last weekend named Sophia for two lengthy sessions, and she was having some issues with her stride pattern as we worked on her approach to the first hurdle in the 400 hurdles. She takes 26 steps to the first hurdle, and I was trying to get her down to 24 strides. We did a lot of work on opening up her stride, applying more force to the track, etc. That helped her get down to 25 steps pretty easily, and then, in the next session on the next day, she was able to 24-step three times in a row. As we were talking after the reps, I asked her a question that I’m sure sounded weird from her vantage point: “What are you majoring in? Are you planning to be a therapist of some sort?” She answered that she was pre-med, and planned on becoming a doctor, specializing in osteopathy. “So I wasn’t too far off,” I said, “you want to help people; you have a big heart.” She gave me a kind of how could you tell look, so I continued by saying, “It all comes out when you hurdle. Who you are comes out when you hurdle. I can see it.”
I don’t really know how I could see into her soul like that myself, except to say what I said to her—that I could see it in how she hurdled. Seeing it enabled me to stay patient with her on the reps where she veered to the left, or when she lowered her hands and added two choppy strides when she didn’t need to.
Later in the second session, we switched from the full-speed stuff to drilling the opposite leg. She has never cleared hurdles with her left leg leading, so this was a totally new experiment for her. But as I told her, “if you were to race today, your ideal stride pattern would be 25 to the first hurdle and 18 to the second. So if you want to drop time, you’re gonna need to learn to use the opposite leg.”
I started her off with 27-inch hurdles, with just a high-knee jogging approach to the first hurdle. Before her first rep, she kept reminding me that she hadn’t ever done it before. My response was, “do it.” She did it and then I said, “now you did it.”
I then told her a story about a YouTube video I had recently seen. The video was a podcast hosted by former Los Angeles Laker Byron Scott, and his guest on this episode was the Lakers’ former longtime trainer, Gary Vitti. Vitti told a story about a time the team had landed in Washington for an away game, and the plane didn’t touch down until 2 am. So, the hotel they would be staying at was going to be a long drive from the arena, so they would need to find a venue closer to the hotel. The Lakers’ head coach, Pat Riley, instructed Vitti to make some phone calls and see if he could find a gym where they could practice in the morning that would preclude the need for a long drive. Vitti, like any rational person would, told Riley that he wouldn’t be able to find an alternate place to practice at 2 o’clock in the morning; anybody he’d call would be asleep. Riley’s response was, “Did you try?”
Vitti ended up calling the trainer at Georgetown University, who arranged for the Lakers to practice there the next morning.
In my conversation with Sophia, I emphasized the “did you try?” part. I said, “You told me you couldn’t lead with the opposite leg, but then you tried, and you did it.” She went on to complete several reps over three hurdles, seven-stepping at first, then five-stepping, and then three-stepping. Even when we raised the hurdles to 30 inches, she was able to keep the three-step going (it was a drill, so the hurdles were very close together, but still, she did it). When we finished the session I said to her, “Those hurdles were at race height. Now all you gotta do is gradually increase the spacing and increase the speed. You’ll be able to lead with the other leg by the time the season starts.”
Two years ago, NFL running back Saquon Barkley of the Philadelphia Eagles blew the minds of football fans across the United States when he jumped over a defender backwards. Even his own teammates were going nuts on the sidelines, shocked by what they had just witnessed. Months later, when asked about the play, and how he was able to do it, he gave an interesting, revealing response. He pointed out that he had just signed a multi-year contract that provided him and his family with financial security, and that he was running behind a great offensive line, with teammates and coaches who believed in him. He said that under those conditions, he felt free. His answer made sense to me. He wasn’t thinking “Oh I might get hurt” or worrying about getting body-slammed if the leap over the opponent were to be unsuccessful.
When I think about that play, and his explanation for how he was able to pull it off, it makes me think about track athletes and how so many tracksters don’t reach their potential, don’t run as fast as they are capable of, because of mental weight that’s holding them down. During the first session with Sophia, my former athlete, Janie, who just completed her first year in college, came by to train. The two of them got to talking, and they both agreed that the girls in college are a lot more intimidating than anybody they ran against in high school.
I cut in on their conversation and explained to them both that, firstly, yes, they’re right—college track is a whole different universe from high school track. There are no scrubs in college. But I also explained to them that the more intense competition means needing to shift the mindset. I was watching the NCAA Division I Nationals last weekend, and there were dudes running sub-9.90 in the 100 meters finishing 5th and 6th. There were dudes running sub-13.30 in the 110 hurdles finishing fifth or sixth. So it’s like, no matter how good you are, you gotta face the reality that losing is part of the experience, and that feeling like you’re not nearly as good as you thought you were is also part of the experience. All you can do, I told Janie and Sophia, is run your race in your lane. None of these girls out here running blazing fast times can prevent you from running your race in your lane. If you look at the big picture for too long it’ll swallow you whole.
All you can do is focus on getting better every day in practice, and trust that the hard work will result in faster times. Nothing else in this sport is guaranteed.
[/am4show]
