How often have you had an amazing performance in training, only to fall short when it was time to perform in the ‘real world’? I was a huge culprit of this. When I was an athlete, I didn’t understand how to develop, let alone maintain, consistency. It’s the same plight that plagues the crews I work with – at every level. And, it’s the same problem that could hold you back in Henley.
You often hear people saying, “well, hopefully, today will go well” or “good luck”. I’m not a huge fan of these statements; they don’t teach you what you’re doing well or how you can reproduce it.
Athletes relying on luck, ‘it’ll be fine’, or ‘hopefully, it will go well’, could be selling themselves short.
All the athletes I work with are decent enough at reflecting on what they are doing, how hard they can push themselves, and then – most of the time – apply that when needed. However, rarely do they ever stand back far enough to look at the bigger picture.
Let’s look at how you can break this trend.
Your emotions, thoughts, and behaviour are all linked to how consistent you can be when performing.
Once you realise this, it’s akin to developing a superpower. It’s something few athletes spend the time conditioning: after all, we usually only try to fix something after it’s broken or not working so well.
As much as you can condition the body through exercise, you can condition yourself to think a certain way. The more you notice the impact this has, the more you’ll begin to see a shift in your consistency.
Once you get perspective on what you’re doing and how you’re doing it, you can adapt.
A great quote by Epictetus is, “It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.” So, in a nutshell, you must accept your lack of knowledge before learning a new model.
I notice the athletes and teams that want to learn to excel: they develop consistency which positively impacts performance. Athletes that think they already know it all will fall short of what they are capable of.
The thing with our brain and thinking is that it can continuously develop. It doesn’t matter who you are or what level you’re at; things can always move forward in the way you think and how you apply yourself.
This happens by:
- Assessing how you thought, behaved and acted each day.
- Understanding what you can do to improve the next day.
- Continually examining how your emotions, thoughts and actions are impacting you and your crew.
You can’t control anything outside of your own head. In there you always have a choice. Although we do get led by our emotions most of the time, you can manage it! Learning to hit the pause button and see what you’re doing is a valuable tool to have. It will ultimately bring out the best in you.
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