In a previous blog I have talked about the pressure that tennis players experience at Wimbledon and how this can be seen as a privilege as well as a burden. However, after watching the World Athletics Championships recently it occurred to me that the pressure that athletes face is different in nature. In sports such as tennis, football and rugby the participants are pitting themselves directly against their competitors. They can practice the skills and techniques required to give themselves a better chance of winning on the day. However when that day comes, the challenges they face (i.e. the opponent) will always be different. In contrast, sports like athletics seem more often to involve challenging and competing against oneself – and that requires a certain mental toughness.
Think about it – the arena doesn’t change and all of the behaviours involved are the same – it all comes back to the athlete and their mindset. Take one of the sprint events for example: Although the athlete is obviously racing against seven other people, he/she is also racing against his/her own times. When the athletes are at the starting line it should be possible to predict, based on previous performances, where each athlete will finish – but often this doesn’t happen. When an upset or surprising result occurs it can only be for one of two reasons – either an athlete puts in an amazing performance and runs a personal best, or someone else cracks under the pressure and makes a mistake or performs poorly.
So what causes some people to rise to the occasion whilst others underperform? There are plenty of examples of favourites coming into an athletics championship and not achieving the times, heights or lengths that we know they can. Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell is a perfect example of a favourite who has never ‘done it’ on the big stage. Despite breaking the world record for the 100 metres twice in his career, Powell still finds himself without an individual gold medal at one of the major championships. However, athletes such as Usain Bolt and more recently Jessica Ennis of Great Britain, have been able to convert their favourite status into world titles.
Jessica Ennis came into the World Championships as favourite to win the women’s heptathlon. Nonetheless, she still had to convert this promise into a winning performance. When the big stage arrived she ended up breaking her own personal best and coming away with the gold medal.
When any favourite comes into an event it goes without saying that they have the natural ability to succeed – they’ve proved that in the past. When they fail to reach these high levels something on a psychological level is holding them back. Jessica Ennis actually has a psychology degree, and one could argue that a self-awareness of how pressure affects her is her first step towards harnessing it. Awareness is a good start but it isn’t everything – indeed, Jessica has often cited the support of her family as a major reason behind her success. On top of this it seems that she, with the help of her coaching team, has built up a mental toughness that allows her to rise to the big occasion. She showed us last month that she is now able to focus on a clear goal and, with the support of those around her, compete with herself to achieve the ultimate standard in her chosen sport – winning gold medals.
