WRITING / JOURNALISM
Over the last 7 years I have been writing as a freelancer for a range of sports related media including Triathlon Plus magazine, 220 Triathlon magazine, Cycling Plus, tri247.com, HumanRace, British Triathlon online and duathlon247.com to name a few.
I'm passionate about writing and have written articles about training and competing as well as race reports, 'how to...' guides, product reviews and inspirational fiction.
If you feel like I could write for you then please just email me at jez@howgoodcouldibe.com
On this page I will share some of my recent work, starting with a recent Sports Psychology article which I am still in the process of writing.
Do feel free to have a read and if you like what you read you can either ask me to write for you or if it's the subject matter which has you intrigued then do have a look at www.howgoodcouldibe.com for more information on my sports psychology work with individuals and teams.
How to use Pressure to your advantage. Jez Cox 2011
'Installing your own Optimism force-field'
What alternatives does an athlete have when under pressure?
When under pressure, the athlete is (whether they know it or not) able to be in control of their reaction to pressure. With that in mind the informed athlete who is tuned in to their ‘mental radio station' is then able to decide if they want recognise and credit an awareness of the pressure in the first place. If they do, they are then faced with the empowered choice of how to use that pressure. Do they let it guide them into a state ruled by the fear of failure or do they at least try to use it as an accelerant, something to inspire them to an even more effective performance? In doing so the aim is to get beyond fear and negativity by entering a state of 'Flow'. Of course there is also the option to simply try to ignore it and maintain the status quo as if the stimulus had not occurred but it is widely accepted that the recognition and acceptance of stimuli leads to a more empowered and centred athlete.
So what is the result of a positive response to pressure?
The athlete who responds positively to pressure is then empowered by the recognition that these feelings of 'pressure' are merely a thought process stimulated by an external event. The recognition that the event is often nowhere near as bad as the effect of the negative thought processes is the first step towards the athlete being able to ‘disengage’ from those thoughts and re-focus their mind on the component parts of performing their skills correctly with optimistic enthusiasm.
The successful athlete who has been able to do this repeatedly over a long period of time should start to find that those stimuli which were originally stressors actually start to serve as accelerators which shift the athlete into the autonomous state of 'flow'. As always, it sounds so easy but like all elements of training, it takes time and the perseverance to turn persistent behaviour into habitual behaviour.
How can an athlete face the choices they have when under pressure?
The athlete that courageously faces their choices will become empowered through the knowledge that they were able to effect a decision over what they had previously thought was ‘not up to us'. That empowerment through initial courage and then the resilient behaviour in the face of challenging stimuli should begin the process of setting the athlete free from both the pressure of fear and the fear of pressure.
When does that progress stop?
The athlete who is unable to recognise or train their ability to take over their 'mental radio station' and start broadcasting their own messages when faced with a pressurising stimulus is likely to be unable to progress further and keep improving in their field. It may even prevent them from being able to finish what they are doing at that key moment. So often, the manifestation of the negative thoughts generated by the stressor cease to be a manifestation and instead become an infestation which clouds the judgement and ultimately, can simply halt progress and indeed execution altogether. An example might be the batsman in a game of cricket who first comes out to bat in front of hundreds of people, if that person is only tuned into the negative ‘pre-played message’ that “the audience will jeer you if you are out first ball” then, without being able to rationalise the possibility of that happening (based on past positive experience) and then not being able to chose to refocus on executing the skills perfectly as they have in training they face the crippling grip of pressure where they feel powerless and remain focussed only on that negative possibility.
In some, this becomes too much to handle and it may even result in them withdrawing from the game altogether. Of course, this action merely provides another negative experience which is to be re-played at the next pressure spike in the next game. (That's if they return for the next game!) It's a viscous cycle that can only be broken by the athlete themselves taking ownership of their own reactions.
What can occur as long as you accept pressure?
The recognition and subsequent acceptance of pressure should, with time, lead to the athlete feeling positive about upcoming challenges and motivated to see what they will be capable of even with the pressure that they will feel. The athlete who recognises and accepts pressure will be able to return to the situation where they feel that pressure and continue to operate progressively in that environment.
Another positive by-product of that acceptance is the empathy that comes with accepting that all athletes and team are affected by pressure and the reactions to it are part of the fascinating physiological testing ground that is ‘sport’.
How should the athlete proceed once they start to accept pressure?
Every performer would benefit from working wholeheartedly to make the positive response to pressure habitual. It has long been said that the performer who performs a skill with the same technique 7 times in close succession will have planted the seeds of habitual behaviour. Of course these seeds need to be watered with practice and then monitored to ensure they are growing (developing / improving) in the desired way. A massive part of this concerted effort to habitualise positive responses will come from exposure to the stressor when the performer(s) have the calm, measured use of specific goals as a means to deal with that pressure. Some of that testing ground may well come in lower ranking tournaments and events where the athlete feels that the stakes are not as high. It is widely acknowledged that those who compete regularly generally have a more positive reaction to pressure at events simply because they have become partially anaesthetised and numb to the feeling. Of course, this can be dangerous in some performers because once the buffering of pressure has become partially subconscious the athlete may well lose some of the positive and motivating effects that come with arousal through pressure. Therefore, paramount throughout this habit forming phase must be an objective awareness of the process and feelings associated with it.
What is the most important ingredient for success on top of physical attributes and 'talent'?
How the athlete feels about pressure is often cited as the most important ingredient for success regardless of the athlete's perceived level of 'talent' or physiological attributes. Basic statistics would point to the fact that some of the world’s most gifted athletes and performers never made it through to being successful senior athletes. The biggest step for any young performer is making the jump from settled junior athlete to progressively adjusting senior athlete and this is complicated still further when the athlete or team has developed a habit of winning prior to that jump. The best coaches and managers will find competitive opportunities to put those performers into competitive arenas where they are exposed to that 'next level' with the minimum of pressure (in a light hearted practice session perhaps) so as to build resilience to pressure and an understanding of the 'pressure processor' concept. Without the tools and habits needed to deal with that pressure then the talent may well be wasted as is so often the case.
What can pressure be converted into?
The athlete that is aware of their 'pressure processing' powers has two options when it comes to processing that pressure. It can be converted into positive, achieve-orientated and productive tensions which drive the athlete to shift up a gear in performance ( think Jonny Wilkinson's last second drop goal to win the Rugby World Cup). It can however be converted, most commonly under subconscious processing into negative, limiting and destructive tensions which will inevitably lead to sub-optimal performance or even the destruction of the process entirely (Think David Beckham's world cup sending off for kicking the player that was continually getting the better of him under pressure)
A powerful and effective way to avoid the destructive effect of dwelling on potential negative occurrences is to build such a powerful armoury of positive images and resilience of positive spirit that as the negative occurrences arise those feelings or thoughts themselves become obscure in the athletes own inner sea of positivity and optimistic self-imagery. Of course, as has been the common starting point for all the positivity in this discussion, the athlete should not ignore those negative or destructive thoughts because the stimuli that affect them will still be there. In effect, the recognition of those feelings as they start to be felt should allow the athlete to view them objectively and then enable a process of detachment, where the athlete feels empowered to conceptually 'unplug' the negative thought pathway to their ‘superego’ (as defined by Sigmund Freud in his 1933 Psychodynamic Theory).
In recognising and then detaching the thought it effectively becomes 'emotionally quarantined' and, just like ‘spam’ mail it is ready to be sent to the recycle bin. Of course, the 'force field' which allows this detachment and quarantining of thought does not actually exist but it's cloud of positivity and the resilient shield of optimism is visceral for everyone else to see and it is highly effective too.
It all sounds so easy doesn’t it? Of course, both stimuli and responses as well as those experiencing them are equally complex and multi-faceted. When some of that negativity is getting through and adversely affecting the athlete a more structured quarantining approach might be needed. One such technique is for the performer to write down the negative thoughts on paper and then dispose of them. An extended version of this would be to use the same paper to then annotate the negative quarantined thought with rationalising notes about why the thought or response is irrational or counter-productive. Different methods will work for different individuals.
So far I have only discussed the use of the 'optimism force field' as an individualised paradigm but its use can in fact be amplified through the institutionalised reinforcement of it. A team or training group who are immersed in that bubble of optimistic enthusiasm will stand an even greater chance of its individuals being able to avoid dwelling on the negative and this is due, in part to the infectious nature of that mind-set but also due to the individuals’ feeling that they are part of a bigger sporting machine. This 'ensemble' feeling is not normally something that independent sports people will have to fall back on and it does have to be said that the team environment is also something that can be extremely stressful for individuals who thrive in their sporting solitude.
Jez Cox 2011. www.howgoodcouldibe.com
