If we take a look at the sports news, we can see how often athletes' wins and losses are put down to psychological factors. Comments like “they couldn't read the race”, “they lacked focus”, “they were braver than their rival” or “they were really dialed in” shape the way many competitions are read. And yet, paradoxically, even though we understand that both our physical and our psychological state determine our performance, we only train our fitness, hoping our “intuitive” psychology will do its job when we need it. In a way, it's as if we left it up to a muse to bring us the inspiration we need to run a good race.
In line with the famous Pablo Picasso quote, in which he said he didn't believe in muses, but if they came, they had better find him working, leaving our mental preparation to chance means risking going into a race in excellent physical shape but with no guarantee of making the most of it, because of poor mental management. After all, just as with artists, finding that psychophysical state where execution and performance come together so that running feels easy, takes minimal effort and even leads us to a pleasant state of well-being and fun requires preparation that has little to do with chance or inspiration.
I don't believe in muses, but if they show up, I hope they catch me in my running shoes! #running
Most of us can probably remember a training session or a race where, without really knowing why, we not only performed really well but also felt completely focused and had a sense of flow despite the intensity we were holding. When you look back on it and talk it over with other runners, the conclusion you reach is that “I was totally in the zone today”. This is what's known as a state of flow. The concept of flow was defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who carried out several studies observing people doing different activities (such as climbers, dancers, musicians and amateur athletes) who were able to do things with great intensity without expecting any external reward in return. Building on this, in later work applied to sport, Jackson and Csikszentmihalyi (1999) pointed out that to reach this state of flow, the task must include the following elements:
- Balance between your skills and the challenge you're facing.
- Complete concentration on the activity.
- Clear goals.
- Merging of action and awareness.
- Total absorption in the task.
- Loss of self-consciousness.
- Sense of control over the activity.
- Not expecting extrinsic rewards from the activity.
- Transformation of time.
- Effortless movement.
Obviously, being in good physical shape and knowing we've trained hard gives us confidence and self-belief when we take on a race.
If you want to flow rather than just run, don't forget to train your mind