The Psychology of Racing

September 5

The first race of the season is just around the corner, and we had our weekly, pre-race pep talk today. I am not a firm believer in sports psychology; while I truly understand why a focused athlete is a successful athlete, I’ve never found any success by visualizing myself being successful before a contest. Today’s meeting had a lot more practical application, and was a question I think all athletes might want to address with their teammates.

Our head coach, James McCowan, asked us, “How do you want to be treated during a hard workout? How about after a great race? Or a bad race?” I immediately knew how I would answer this question. When I was a Nordic skier in high school, I used to beg my teammates not to cheer for me. It wasn’t because I was embarrassed about being slow (which I was), it was because I’d likely get distracted and trip over my poles.

Basically, I find encouragement and cheering during most endurance sports to be counterproductive. Unless I’m at mile 20 of the Boston Marathon, I’m probably with it enough to know whether I’m having a good or a bad day, and I don’t need anyone to encourage me to pass the next few runners. I’m aware that the idea behind racing is to beat as many people as possible, and that kind of advice always seemed a little too obvious. Also, it takes a different breed of athlete to be a good runner. What we lack in ball skills, we more than make up for in eccentricity and self-criticism. I, like most runners, know when I haven’t performed to my potential, and the last thing I want to hear from a coach or a teammate is either an affirmation of my disappointment, or someone trying to tell me that “it wasn’t so bad.”

I know that I need about 15 minutes to calm down. In that time period, I’ve been known to do things ranging from 100 meter wind sprints to assaulting a trash can like Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano might after giving up a few too many homers. Either way, I can take care of myself, and I’ll be fine in a few minutes. Now, my teammates know this, and more importantly, I know which teammates like being yelled at for motivation, and which ones need some quiet time to process things in the wake of success or failure.