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What do these guys have
in common?
Jeff Gross/Getty Images
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The overall classification of this briefing is:
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What is Mental
Toughness?
• Control over stress under adversity
• Your ability to understand and use your
stress reactions to optimize your
performance
• Sharper focus, confidence, and resilience
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Four Techniques to Learn
and Practice
• Focus on your performance objectives
through goal setting.
• Manage stress through arousal control.
• Create and use experiences in your mind
through visualization.
• Use your awareness of your beliefs and
their consequences through self talk.
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Can the Big Four be
Learned?
• Scientific research says, “YES!”
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Cold-water Breath-hold
Study
• Two groups were immersed to measure breathhold.
• After measuring, one group was taught to use
and practice the “big four.”
• Both groups immersed and measured again.
• The “big four” group outperformed by 80
percent.
• The big four mental techniques helped control
the cold-shock physical reflex!
“Breath-Hold Performance During Cold Water Immersion: Effects of Psychological Skills Training” (Bartwood, Dalzell, Datta,
Thelwell & Tipton, 2006) from Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, Vol 77, No. 11, November 2006
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Tough starts here.
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Human Stress Response
• Fight or Flight:
• Body’s primitive and automatic response
to perceived danger
• Starts HPA (Hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal) axis
 Releases hormones , like adrenaline
Control the HPA and you can control
performance!
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Physiological Reactions
to Stress
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Heart rate and blood pressure increase
Blood vessels constrict (get smaller)
Blood migrates from extremities
Muscles tense
Breathing (respiration) increases
Pupils dilate
Palms get clammy
Tears and sweat decreases
Adrenaline released
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Cognitive Reactions to
Stress
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Memory, concentration, and judgment suffer
Inability to concentrate
Confusion
Repetitive or racing thoughts
Anger and resentment
Sense of being overwhelmed
Lack of confidence
Desire to escape or run away
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P
E
R
F
O
R
M
A
N
C
E
High
Stress Response and
Performance
An
“optimal”
level of
arousal
Low
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AROUSAL
High
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Big Four
• Goal Setting
• Arousal Control
• Visualization
• Self-Talk
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Goal Setting
Focusing on your future skills and achievement
Process Goals
• Focus on the “how”
 Essential skills
 Things you can control
Outcome Goals
• Focus on achievement
 Milestones
 Progress
 Attainment
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Why Goal Setting Works
• Directs attention to important elements of
a skill to be performed
• Mobilizes effort
• Enhances and prolongs persistence
• Fosters development of new learning
strategies
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Goal Setting Principles
• Segmenting
• The technique of arranging and focusing
upon smaller goals as manageable parts
of a larger goal.
• Breaking things into smaller periods of
time or activities
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Goal Setting Principles
Eat the elephant one bite at a time.
Eat the elephant one bite at a time.
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Goal Setting Principles
• Make sure goals are:
 specific and measurable
 difficult but realistic
 both long and short term
• Set PROCESS goals
• WRITE DOWN goals
• Develop goal achievement STRATEGIES
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Effective Goals: The
SMART Approach
•
•
•
•
•
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely
I will complete the 500 yard swim in 13:00 min.
by the end of the third week of Prep.
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Goal Setting Pitfalls
•
•
•
•
•
•
Fuzzy goals
Setting too many goals too soon
Inflexible goals: failure to adjust
Lack of PROCESS goals
No follow-up and evaluation
Failing to recognize individual differences
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Arousal Control
P
E
R
F
O
R
M
A
N
C
E
High
Low
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An “optimal” level
of arousal!
AROUSAL
High
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Arousal Control
• Controlling the human stress response
• Theory of Fours: Breath Control
 Inhale: 4 seconds
 Exhale: 4 seconds
 Continue 4-6 minutes
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Theory of Fours: Why it
works
• Normalizes human stress response
(controls stress symptoms)
• Forces people to focus on breathing vice
stressor
• “Centered-breathing”
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What is Visualization?
• Creating or recreating an experience in the
mind
• AKA: visualization, mental rehearsal /
practice
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Why Visualization Works
• Vividly imagined events stimulate muscles
like actually practicing a movement
• Visualization creates a motor program in
the central nervous system
• Visualization improves concentration,
reduces anxiety, builds confidence
• If visualized properly, the first time you see
the “real” event is actually the second time
your mind has seen it.
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Involve all of the Senses:
• Visualize (70%) see yourself do a perfect
sidestroke cycle into the glide
• Hear (20%) the bubbles as you exhale
during the bobbing
• Smell (5%) the air on your breathing cycle
/ clean air vs. fumes / odors
• Touch/Feel (4%) water flow over your
body
• Taste (1%) the chlorine
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Does Visualization Work?
• Anecdotal reports, case studies, and
scientific experiments suggests that it
improves performance
 90% of Olympic athletes use some form of
visualization; 97% of them felt it helped
 94% of Olympic coaches used visualization
during training, with 100% of them noting it
enhances performance
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Uses of Visualization
•
•
•
•
•
•
20% everyday
40% 3-5 days a week
80% for competitive event preparation
48% for technical errors
44% for new skills
40% for relaxation
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Uses of Visualization
•
•
•
•
•
•
Improve concentration
Build confidence
Control emotional responses
Practice sport / tactical skills
Practice strategy
Cope with pain and injury
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Types of Visualization
• INTERNAL Visualization: imagining
execution of a skill from your own vantage
point ( as if you have a camera on your
head)
• EXTERNAL Visualization: view yourself
from the perspective of an external viewer
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Basics of Visualization
Training
VIVIDNESS
CONTROL
• Use all of your senses • Manipulate your
images
• Create or recreate as
closely as possible
the actual experience
• Make them do what
you want them to
• Include emotions and
thoughts
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What is Self-Talk?
• Your internal dialog and beliefs affect your
performance.




Past experiences
Biases
Prejudices
Stereotypes
• ABC Model:
• Activating Event  Belief 
Consequence
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Relationship Between
Beliefs and Reactions
• Negative symptoms / consequences
• Identify your own patterns
 ID negative beliefs that lead to negative
outcomes
 ID positive beliefs that lead to positive
outcomes
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ABC - Control / Results
Activating Event
(Little to No Control)
A
Drown-proofing
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Beliefs
(Total Control)
B
Consequences
(Human Stress Response)
C
Negative Belief:
I’ll sink and not be able to
hold my breath
Negative Result:
Panic, DOR
Positive Belief:
I can adapt to my body’s
buoyancy and adjust my
breathing, with practice
Positive Result:
Overcome anxiety quickly
and drown-proof
successfully
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How Self-Talk Works
• Thoughts influence emotional /
physiological responses
• Events themselves do not lead to
emotional / physiological responses
• Self-talk plays a key role in our reactions
to situations
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Technique to Improve
Self-Talk
Activating Event
(Little to No Control)
A
I failed 500 yd
swim
Beliefs
(Total Control)
B
Negative belief:
I’m not a natural
swimmer
Thought
Replacement
Consequences
(Human Stress
Response)
C
I can practice
harder to pass the
swim
Improve
confidencefewer stress
symptoms
Pass the swim
Understand your personal belief system
Use thought replacement!
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When to Use the Techniques:
Timing is Everything!
Goal Setting
Self-Talk
Self-Talk
Arousal Control
Arousal Control?
Goal Setting?
Visualization
Goal Setting?
Self-Talk
Note: Arousal control and
goal setting may have
minimal impact during the
event
Note: After the event,
goals can be modified
before the next event
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Mental Toughness
Summary
• The “Big Four” techniques




Goal setting
Arousal control
Visualization
Self-talk (ABC theory)
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