Cultivating Peak Performance
The Winter Olympics kicked off February 4th, 2022, where Olympians from all over the world will compete through February 20th, 2022, in Beijing. For many athletes, making it to the games has posed a challenge like no other. When the Tokyo Olympics were postponed until July 2021 because of the pandemic, athletes faced many challenges and setbacks that impacted their dreams of representing their respective countries on the Olympic stage. Similarly, Winter Games athletes have been tremendously impacted by the pandemic. Athletes of all sport types and levels had to contend with prolonged uncertainty, continuous disruption to training routines, and many other stressors which impacted their access to support and resources. While focusing their attention to performing to the best of their ability on the biggest stage of their lives, Olympians have had to navigate strict COVID protocols, all while competing in front of limited crowds of spectators.
Qualifying for the Olympic Games is the culmination of all the hard work and sacrifice the athlete has invested overtime, while an athlete’s life’s work can come down to a tenth of a second or tenth of a point. For any athlete, coming short of reaching your goals can be a devastating experience. All the physical strain and preparation you have completed is not useful when your brain constantly replays a mistake you may have made, or self-doubt hinders you from believing in oneself.
Many Olympians have been open about how their sports performance is directly impacted by their perceptions of themselves and striving to succeed. Additionally, Olympians are sharing the importance of mental health awareness and how their grit and determination has aided in their development as an elite athlete. Terms like “psych prep” have been used to describe the application of various cognitive, behavioral, and emotional techniques to promote peak performance. These psych prep tactics include relaxation, mindfulness, imagery, self-talk, cognitive diffusion and restructuring, journaling, goal setting, physiological awareness and control, and values anchoring.
The field of psychology developed these techniques for use in clinical settings. However, psych prep techniques are used by athletes in the Olympics as well as surgeons in the operating room, executives in the board room, or leaders inspiring an audience.
If you are interested in strengthening your own ability to prepare yourself for optimal performance, please reach out to CMA Global Inc.
By: Jordan Collins, M.S. & Zach Graham, M.Ed.
