Race Day Mental Preparations are Critical For Maximal Performance
By Ryan Sederquist
Athletes should use November time-trials and early-season races to hone their physical and mental pre-race routines
Perched high above Park City in their fall training camp abode, the Bridger Ski Foundation pro team remained at the fall camp dinner table, blank faces and worn eyes staring at empty plates, as the question hung for an extra second. “What is one reason these time-trials are important?” coach Andy Newell asked as his athletes, all of whom would be racing a 10k and 15k interval start classic race at the Soldier Hollow rollerski track the next morning, silently pondered an answer beyond the obvious - or maybe pondered the possibility of grabbing another helping of food. Finally, Simon Zink, a Denver University product, chimed in: “To help us dial in our routines.” Nodding with approval, Coach Newell launched into a litany of reminders regarding nutrition timing, warm-ups, and other physical elements to the pre-race routine.
Beyond simply testing fitness, October and November intervals, time trials, and even early season races serve another purpose: perfecting pre-race routines. As Zink alluded to, this means testing out and solidifying what we eat and drink - and when - as well as how and when we stretch and warm-up. Sports psychologists have established that the mind controls the body when it comes to athletic performance. “The two - physical and mental - are equal partners,” Dr. Andrew Jacobs says. “The design of a mental game plan is preparing your psyche for what you want to do physically.” The mind is the only button capable of activating the physical priming necessary for peak performance. The mental pre-race routine - incorporating visualization, self-confidence, and managing expectations - gives direction in pushing it.
If the key to syphoning out the fitness and strength we’ve built up over the summer and fall is likewise able to unlock our full potential via management of race day emotions and mental demands, it goes without saying that it is critical for athletes to consider what they do mentally - just as much as physically - to prepare for competition.
Mental Preparation Starts in the Summer
In the week leading up to the race - or earlier, depending on the importance of the event - it is a good idea to get a map of the course to begin the visualization process. Some venues, such as the Birkie trails, Canmore, Lake Placid, or Soldier Hollow, are visited repeatedly through a season and career. This can be helpful in terms of visualization because, if a prominent event is held there, you can easily image yourself at key points on the course during your summer and fall training. As you grind up a long and relentless climb in Yellowstone, Colorado, or Idaho, you can picture yourself doing the same at Soldier Hollow. See yourself controlling your breathing, staying relaxed and fast, passing other athletes, and succeeding. Even practice mantras - short, 2-3 word sayings you will repeat to yourself to anchor your flow state - so that when you are in the actual race, they are ready to be utilized.
In this sense, the visualization and imagery process is something that never really goes into storage. Athletes should be constantly imaging on a macro and micro level. “Before the Olympic trials, I was doing a lot of visualization, and I think that helped me to get a feel of what it was going to be like when I got there,” said Michael Phelps after his famous 8-gold haul in Beijing in 2008. All-time golf great Jack Nicklaus once said that hitting a good golf shot is 10% swing, 40% stance, and 50% mental picture of how the swing should occur.
For skiers, the bare minimum is to get familiar, mentally at a minimum, of the course. As someone who has tried to race as many different venues as possible, I’m often racing 50k’s “blind,” which is not ideal! The ability to gather as much detail from course maps, race reviews/blog posts, and weather reports has saved me from many hiccups and allowed me to race aggressively despite a lack of course experience. For those who are revisiting a venue, watching yourself take all of the turns along a route before competition, in your mind, is critical. Imagine the various points of a race and what you expect to be thinking and feeling then - as well as cues to help you to ‘think rightly’ as sport psychologists say, when it’s easy to ‘think wrongly.’ If you know you struggle with dealing with pain, you might visualize yourself being tempted to think ‘wrongly,’ which is why you must rehearse the moment and prepare yourself with a cue, word, or action to get you thinking ‘rightly.’
For example, the uphill at the 12k mark in a 20k race might be a point where you know you are going to be hurting. Visualize this moment and see yourself being mentally tough, staying relaxed and fast, and utilizing your self-talk to power through. It has been shown that when athletes make mental decisions before a race, they are more likely to execute them during the race.
I found this incredibly helpful as a cross-country runner. I would pick out a spot 1.2k from the finish and decide that no matter how I felt when I hit there, I would make a surge. Undoubtedly, everyone is hurting in an 8k race when they are at that point, and it is the area where the body screams, “We have nothing left to give!” Determining before the race to surge at that point triggered my body to actually do it when I was in the race; it enabled my mind to overcome the physical pain. The same can be used for skiing.
Chris Evert, one of the most dominant tennis players of all-time, touches on this point of making pre-competition decisions:
“Before I play a match, I try to carefully rehearse what is likely to happen and how I will react in certain situations. I visualize myself playing typical points based on my opponent’s style of play. I see myself hitting crips, deep shots from the baseline and coming to the net if I get a weak return. This helps me mentally prepare for a match, and I feel like I’ve already played the match before I even walk on the court.” (Tarshis, 1977)
A lot of visualization is done in the days leading up to the race. If it’s possible to set aside a time the night before the race to go through the imaging process again, I believe that is beneficial.
Sometimes, the nature of skiing means bags are being packed, flights are being caught, and skis are being waxed. Instead of seeing these things as barriers to establishing a routine, integrate them into your routine. Perhaps as you’re scraping and brushing, you are mentally running through scenarios or trying out self-talk cues. Each time you run your hands the length of a ski, ingrain a positive thought or message into your psyche!
Dialing in your pre-race mental routine
In the same way successful athletes test out and find the nutritional practices or warm-up regimen that works best for them, they also find a mental routine that jump starts it all.
In my experience, most athletes miss the boat right at the start of their race day. How many athletes begin their warm-up by strapping on their drink belt and going out for an easy jog or ski? While this is fine for a standard interval session (and one could argue we should be honing our mental preparation strategies in these contexts as well), for a race I find it a bit careless. Not because it isn’t physiologically incorrect, but because it eliminates a massive window of opportunity to maximize performance. Dr. Jacobs talks about how athletes who ignore a pre-race mental routine sometimes find themselves two quarters into a game before they’ve “realized” they are competing. In a similar way, skiers do not want to find themselves 3k into an interval start before their body and mind “wakes up.” When coaches have to say, “Get your head in the game,” this is what they are talking about! He suggests athletes “take some time, 20-25 minutes before the event, to relax and prepare themselves for what is about to happen.”
While my personal mental preparation routine is not backed by a specific, published study, as I’ve grown into my knowledge of applied sport psychology, I’ve gradually realized many elements of it are directly tied to well-established mental strength principles. I hope my detailed inclusion is edifying to the reader, and I would encourage them to focus on the principles they highlight.
The first action I make on ‘game day’ is to find a quiet spot to read. It may seem odd, but this practice is all about reminding my psyche of my fundamental “why” or purpose, a practice supported by experts. Jacobs says, “Pre-competition strategy also involves taking the time to come to grips with why you’re competing in the first place.” I have a passage from the Old Testament that I’ve read before every major race I’ve done since I was 19 years old: chapter 8 of Deuteronomy. Even if you aren’t a Christian, you can appreciate the sport psychology element with this text, as the parallels and imagery are integral to the concept of identity - the mental skill which supplies self-confidence, defines success, and fuels our “why.” Here is my brief exegesis of the text.
As the Israelites stand ready to enter the promised land, the Lord their God is reminding them of all of the power he displayed in freeing them from Egypt and overcoming insurmountable barriers to bring the nation to this point. He reminds them to obey his commands in order that it will go well with them. Finally, he says that, when they’ve entered the land ‘flowing with milk and honey,’ to not be tempted to think that THEY were the ones who got themselves there. They may be tempted to say, “By the power and strength of my own hands have I produced this wealth,” but they ought not to.
The athletic metaphor is profound as it relates to identity and self-confidence. As athletes, we obey the commands of disciplined training plains week after week, month after month, and year after year. We grind and gradually improve, working through injuries, climbing barriers, feeling failure, and sometimes, benefiting from miracles. We hopefully see, off in the distance, the land flowing with milk and honey (our long term goals) - maybe it is a PR at the local course, maybe it is a nomination to a World Cup start, or maybe it is standing on a podium - any podium - whether it be a citizen’s race or an Olympics. Either way, when we reach it, the call to remember that ultimately, even though we actively trained, suffered, and were disciplined, don’t reach these places by our strength. Anyone who has experienced a ‘freak’ accident or injury which takes them out of competition understands just how fickle sports are and how little sovereignty we actually have over anything, even our own bodies! This is a stark reminder that as athletes, we should keep our head to the plow, give everything we have, and have peace with ourselves, knowing all we can do is give 100% effort. No matter what the outcome may be, we determine, even before the race, to establish our identity foundation not in the surface level ‘work of our hands’ but in a deeper source, whatever that may be.
The reason I read this before my races is that it centers my mind on where my identity is based, and it is directly connected to my overall sport philosophy. Ultimately, no outcome - victory or epic defeat - can change my identity because my value as a person is rooted in who I am as an image-bearer of Christ. He sets the course and gets the glory, no matter how little or great it may be, and this text is a heartfelt, and now, personal (since I’ve been doing it a long time) ritual which gets me refocused on these fundamental concepts. Now, you may not have the same religious beliefs as I do, but the practice of centering your mind on the most foundational aspect of who you are as an athlete is critical.
“Why?” you say?
Self-confidence.
Self-confidence is destroyed by a fear of failure. Fear of failure is rooted in an unstable identity.
This is why fear of failure often is birthed in childhood athletic incidents where a youngster makes a mistake, gets berated by a coach or parent, and never really recovers (unless they work through the reality later on). When an athlete reminds themselves of the source of their identity, and how it is not directly tied to outcome in the race, fear of failure has no bearing on them. It can’t! Confidence grows because they are free to simply focus on effort, focus on enjoying the competition, and focus on process - instead of focusing on outcome, a sure way to disaster and defeat. You’ve probably heard coaches say to focus on process and not results, but now you can see the underlying presuppositions behind such a claim.
Fully Focus on the Task at Hand
This idea of focus is also important to any pre-race mental routine. As a Minnesota Viking’s fan, I’m all too familiar with kickers destroying my Sundays. Kickers, perhaps more than any other athlete, have to practice mental rehearsal strategies which keep them both focused on the present instead of the past AND preparing for what might happen in the very near future. “If I’m worrying too much about the miss in the first quarter, then I won’t be as focused on the current one, which decreases my chances of making it,” said a former professional kicker. Mental preparation before competition plays a role in how well we are able to concentrate and focus on the present moment once we are in the competition.
In skiing, it does us no good to dwell on a past result before or during the race. Similarly, if we are racing well but aren’t standing at the finish line, it isn’t helpful to begin celebrating the fruits of a victory either! Fully connected focus on the present task at hand is what the most successful athletes are known for (Orlick, In Pursuit of Excellence).
One strategy to remain focused in a race is to use goal cues. Jacobs argues that goals are motivators. Simple phrases said during competition can keep you focused on those goals and help you achieve them. “As a result, it’s important to honestly understand what your goals are before beginning a project,” he says. This is perhaps why athletes with a “chip on their shoulder” heading into a competition often have breakthrough performances. Their focus is very singular, and they are honed in on it constantly throughout the race or game. In essence, their self-talk is taken care of. Their mantras are simple and focused on a clear goal.
Everyone has goals, but athletes often lack clarity in communicating them - even internally. Having a very firm, clear goal and combining it with a focused cue enables athletes to enter into a highly focused state in competition and refocuses them when circumstances throw them off. All of this increases their chance of success.
After reading my pre-race devotional, as I call it, which often coincides with the early morning pre-race meal, I take care of logistics. Packing, double checking equipment, etc. The next part of my pre-race routine comes right before I head out to warm up - the vital moment right before I start to raise the heart rate. This goes back to the start of the article, when criticized athletes for simply heading out for their pre-race jog.
As a 10th grader, I learned a valuable focusing exercise from a class I took with our renowned theatre department. It included laying on my back, totally relaxed, with my hand on my stomach. I would push my diaphragm up, moving my hand, as I breathed in for ten counts and then out for ten counts. My focus was solely on the act of breathing deeply, controlled, and with an open, relaxed throat. All of these are critical for performance (for trumpet, skiing, basketball, and running - which were my main things!) so it served as my baseline warm up, effectively uniting the mental component with the physical element of my engine. This was me “pressing the button” so to speak, of the physical priming process I lead off with.
I would go to a very quiet place, all by myself, and do this simple exercise. It probably took five minutes. Not only did it physically prepare my breathing, more importantly, it was a cue to my body that it was “go time.” I was sending an important message: “This isn’t just another workout, another day.” This was the signal to my body that I was about to require 110% effort out of it. Every cell is on deck and on board with the ensuing task. I don’t care what happened last week, what argument I got into, what I have for class or for work coming up, or who is in the venue. We are getting ready to do battle, and nothing is going to interrupt or interfere with my focus.
The cementing of the mental state is critical for peak performance. If the groundwork has been laid by the visual preparations in the weeks or months before the event, and the day-of physical/nutrition stuff is taken care of, then the nail on the coffin is this pre-race mental routine.
In summary, some principles to think about:
- - Use fall time trials and key workouts as chances to practice the nutritional, warm-up, and mental pre-race routines.
- - Mental pre-race routines are important because they cue the physical side of the body, letting every cell know that it is ‘race day.’
- - Imagery and visualization is an ongoing mental preparation strategy. It takes place months before races - even in training - but also in the weeks and days leading up to a race. Months before races, you can incorporate imagery by visualizing yourself conquering parts of a course while you are doing dryland workouts. This builds up a “base” of training which enables your pre-race imagery to be that much more effective (similar to how base endurance work helps your speed sessions have more meaning physiologically the closer you get to competition).
- - Image yourself going through the whole course in the week before your competition. Rehearse your cues, mental strategies, and mantras so that you are mentally prepared for anything to happen in a race (even things you’d rather not have happen, like a broken pole, bad skis, no kick, cold hands/feet, etc.)
- - Connect your race day preparations to foundational aspects of your sport philosophy. Go to the source of your identity and hone in on that. This will give you supreme confidence as you step up to the starting line .... And, perhaps more importantly, will allow you to simply ski and have fun. :)
