Mental Fitness:

“The Fifth Cornerstone”

Presented By:

Jesse Kropelnicki

Founder & Head Coach

QT2 Systems, LLC

February 1st

, 2012

The Five Corner Stones

• I. Training

• II. Nutrition/Rest

• III. Race Fueling

• IV. Pacing

• V. Mental Fitness

Race Outcome

Preparation

Execution

What is Mental Fitness?

• Competition is commonly defined as: “comparing oneself to others

and putting your ego on the line in a setting bound by rules.”

– Many athletes are afraid to find out that they are not as fast as they think they are

• How the athlete lets the setting they are presented with make them

feel is the key to mental fitness.

– How the situation actually IS, has little relevance

• Athletes that are mentally fit, have the ability to make any setting

advantageous to them, allowing their physical fitness to show.

Mental Fitness vs Mental Health

• Mental health is clinical in nature (e.g. clinical depression)

• Mental fitness is a sport related term

• These two can influence each other

– Mental health before mental fitness like physical health before physical fitness

– You must create health FIRST!

• Once mental health is achieved, the athlete can work on their mental

fitness

Identifying Mental Fitness as a Limiter

• The first four QT2 cornerstones have been covered and well executed

– Training, restoration, fueling, and pacing

• Series of races where race performances do not match expected outcome based on training metrics

Why Focus on Mental Fitness?

• Limiters in triathlon can occur in series and/or in parallel with one-another.

• Parallel limiters enhance race performance and other aspects of race day.

• Athletes should always focus on the first of a series of limiters

– Without solution to the first, others have no consequence

• Mental fitness can be the first in the series and render available fitness useless on race day

• Very difficult situation for both athletes and coaches.

Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic Motivation

• An athlete’s desire to be competent and be self determined which is typically fueled by their “love for the game”.

• Most triathletes have no trouble with this

• When this begins to wane, there is typically a bigger picture issue related to physical health (overtraining), or mental health (depression as an example).

• Athletes can be intrinsically motivated but lack mental fitness. These two can be mutually exclusive in nature.

Extrinsic Motivation

• Reward based and more influenced by athlete

Optimal Mental Fitness

• No fear of failure during activity

• No thinking about performance (outcomes)

• Narrow focus on activity

• Ability to have an involuntary experience (“it just happens”)

• A sense of personal control on race day

• Ability to control arousal level

Thinking of task relevant items only!

Athlete Excitement Level

• Find that arousal medium where it’s not over, or underdone.

• When athletes are under aroused, many times they are not able to

push themselves to new physical bests on race day

• When over aroused, athletes can begin focusing on task irrelevant

items, and make mistakes.

• Harnessing your ability to ramp up or ramp down this characteristic

is important to mental fitness

• “Inverted U” Concept:

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Arousal Level

Two Types of Athletes • Generally two types of athletes when it comes to competitive

athletics:

1. Those who are motivated by the avoidance of failure (MAF), and

2. Those who are motivated by the achievement of success (MAS).

• Very few athletes are 100% one of these, but fall somewhere in

between.

• Taking the same approach for all athletes, like training itself, is not

the most successful approach.

The MAF Athlete

• These athletes are motivated by the avoidance of failure (MAF athlete).

• Typically do best if the event they are preparing for is perceived to be very easy or very hard.

– Perform well at a local sprint when the competition is very week,

– Perform well in Kona where they perceive the competition to be very difficult

– Racing for a Kona slot at an average Ironman where they perceive it as a 50/50, they do not perform to expectations.

The MAF Athlete (cont)

• Can easily become over aroused on race day and begin focusing on task irrelevant items such as “my coach will kill me if this doesn’t go well”, “my sponsors are going to drop me if this doesn’t go well”.

• They very quickly revert to the following thought process:

– The environment to be a threat to self-esteem.

– A disconnect between ability level and what is required for perceived success

– Fear of consequence from coach, sponsors, or peer group.

The MAS Athlete • These athletes are motivated by the achievement of success

(MAS athlete).

• They do very well when they perceive the environment as a 50/50 shot; they rise to the occasion, and take it as a challenge.

• These athletes when faced with a 50/50, strike an optimal arousal level for competition that leaves them focused, and motivated to perform at the level their fitness suggests.

Again, always consider how the athlete perceives the

race, not what the reality actually is!

The MAS Athlete (cont) • MAS athletes tend to respond very well to detail in their

program.

– They are up for the challenge, and don’t perceive “failure” of a missed item as detrimental.

– They have perspective, and better perceive the reality of each situation.

– If they miss their race breakfast timing by 5 minutes, they know it won’t be a big deal!

Caffeine

• The use of caffeine for enhancement of mental fitness on race day.

• Can undermine the ability to perform on race day from a mental perspective it needs to be considered.

• The addition of caffeine for the MAF athlete can overshoot the arousal medium on race day, and create a negative spiral.

• For the MAS athlete, caffeine may help in situations where they are under-aroused because they perceive the race to be too easy, or too hard.

• Think about the type of athlete you are & how you may perceive the event.

Support Environments

• Coaches and family support systems typically fall into two categories:

1. Those that use positive reinforcement to motivate their athletes, and

2. Those that use punishment.

• In general, for 99% of the situations the positive reinforcement model is the most productive approach with the punishment model used sparingly.

• Method number #2 can be more applicable to the MAS athlete, and devastating to the MAF athlete.

Strategies

The MAF Athlete:

• Be cautious of applying too much detail/structure in daily program

– Can always come back and “sharpen the pencil” later

• Only use caffeine when the environment is perceived to be way easier than a 50/50.

• Encourage use of positive reinforcement from your support systems.

• Always revert thoughts back to task relevant items!

• Review training successes.

Strategies (cont)

The MAS Athlete:

• Focus on getting arousal up for non 50/50 races

– Find what motivates you in the event

– Use caffeine

• Detail in the training program is a good thing in most cases

• Some use of punishment can be extrinsically motivating

*A good sports psychologist can be a solution*

Managing Thoughts

• Goals - examples here are:

– I am going to be tough, I’m not going to give up no matter how hard things get, I’m going to follow my pacing plan, I’m going to follow my fueling plan.

– These are best described as those items in which you have 100 percent control over.

• Targets - examples here are:

– I’m going to average 250 watts, I’m going to run 7:45 pace on the run.

– These are items you have a bit less control over but are directly related to your training and therefore can be predicted very closely.

• Outcomes - examples here are:

– Age group or overall placing, race time, Kona slot qualification, etc.

– These items are those items that you have the least control over and are really just an outcome of the previous two buckets.

Primary focus should be at the top of this list!

5 Areas of Practice to Master Mental Fitness

• Confidence

– Think and act confidently – eventually becomes reality

– Think about your pressures and separate self imposed pressures

– Learn from bad days.

• Use of Imagery

– Coping imagery, best performance imagery, and success imagery

• Self Talk

– Develop a script, and use cue words for different scenarios

• Energy Control

– Use cue words to control energy level

• Focus

– Review your focus following the race, and attempt to access covert thinking – “what were you thinking when….?”

THIS Is The Goal!!!

Your Turn!

Jesse Kropelnicki

www.QT2Systems.com www.TheCoreDiet.com

services@qt2systems.com

Questions?