The effect of psychological skills training (PST) on self-regulation behavior, self-efficacy, and psychological skill use in military pilot-trainees.

Well it has been donkey's years since I last blogged. Forgive me for the absence. For those of you that know me well, will appreciate why I have been creating a void in the Mental Skills area. I have had to take time to actively employ those same skills to myself. That has been challenging, and it has also created many new opportunities.

Anyone interested in academid research, I would ask you to provide some feedback on the attached link. 

http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2013-16862-005

If any of you are still connected to the RAF, please share with the key influencers, the findings of this report.

Look forward to hearing from you.

KRs

Peter

Transitions - Who needs the help?

I have just returned this evening from a highly entertaining game of Conference League football (soccer) between Lincoln City and Braintree Town. Now, I figure that some of you reading this post in other continents may not have heard of either team, and no they are not in the same league as Manchester Utd, but they are very passionate players. And that makes for a good game.  

Just 3 weeks ago I had the privilege of being introduced to the manager of Lincoln City and to all the players. And it wasn't simply for the good of my, or their, health. Rather, I had been asked to present to the players on mental toughness in sport, how to develop it, and what makes people mentally tough.  I delivered to a captivated audience on what it might take for the players to be mentally tough, great leaders and followers on the pitch, demonstrate resilience, and have the belief that they could outperform on any given day. I relied on a rich blend of current scientific research and practical experience of personally developing mental skills with a range of people, to deliver a powerful message. 

After the Q&A, a couple of players approached me and asked some questions about the types of strategies they could use to help them to cope with a particular transition through which they were going. I noticed that the conversation with them covered a myriad of topics. During that chat, one of my prescribed suggestions was that the players actually write down what they are experiencing.  And as I described one of the strategies to them, I could not help but think that I ought to take a drop of my own medicine. Without going into specifics, the players were asking me about coping strategies. I could not help but think of circumstances a little closer at heart, and whether the advice that I was giving could help me! 

Sacre bleu (!!!) I thought, how revolutionary!!! Here I am struggling to cope with a significant life transition, yet I am offering advice on how others may wish to cope with transitions. How ironic is that? One of the pieces of advice that I gave to the players was how they should cope with emotions, and the advice was to keep a written log of emotions they experienced, and the associated self-talk. Self-talk being the conversations we have in our heads.

I also recalled my good friend and collaborator, Dr Jon Finn, who once suggested the works of James W. Pannebaker to me.  Pannebaker has conducted and devoted significant amounts of time, effort, energy and his career, to research the benefits of coping with emotional events by writing about them. 'Simply writing about them?', you might say, 'how could that make a difference?'. Well Pannebaker, his collaborators and other academics have been able to demonstrate significantly that the simple act of writing about events, no matter how trivial they may seem, can actually result in mental and physical benefits for the writer. 

Indeed, Pannebaker describes the natural response of many individuals when they receive some news. Typically, the response is to want to share that news be it good or bad, because ultimately that release makes the person communicating the message feel better. Being a psychologist, Pannebaker flips this on its head (excuse any pun), and has investigated the effects on people who actively hold back information, or inhibit the sharing of information and its associated emotions or thoughts. What is more startling, is that Pannebaker has linked inhibition, and its associated stressors, to a decline in the immune function, the action of the heart and lungs, and to a deterioration of the brain and nervous system. 'WOW!', you might say.

So, as I write these lines and I reflect on my own experience, my own health and how that could be back to where it was when I was racing hard. I share my thoughts and emotions with close friends about my own transition, and to all of you I am very grateful. You are the best!! 

Writing this blog also feels like I am not inhibiting myself; I can share some thoughts with you. Maybe not all of them....Meanwhile, I wonder about the two football players and I wonder how much they are writing....as for the rest of the team.....well they have yet to lose a game since I spoke with them...they are coping and they believe....if they wrote things down, would they go on to meet the Manchester Uniteds of this world? ;)

Mental Focus - what happens when you lose it?

So there seems to be a lot of material in the World Wide Web on mental focus, how to earn it, gain it, find it (like it's just hiding close by), or be given it through someone else's gift following their success. So you do the research, experience how to get the focus you want in whatever sport you do, and then you start to notice that you are losing it. What happens next? Do you bounce back with ease and ultimately improve your resilience through 'failure'. If there comes a point when the proverbial 'wheels fall off the bus' and you notice that you can't focus like you used to do, what then?

Well I did extensive research on helping people get focused thanks to the great work of Sports Psych Terry Orlick. But when an athlete approached me recently and told me that they had 'lost it' then I really had to think about the reasons why? Some of the skills that I used to gain success with those athletes in my research certainly came in useful, but then I discovered a unique way of re-gaining focus using other techniques, leading to a 5-step plan of action and ultimately a return to peak performance for that athlete. That 5-step plan of action will soon be available via eboo,k and via a new website that I am developing onThe Sport Theory, soon to be released. Stay tuned...

Bouncing back - Marathon des Sables

I am acutely aware that I have been somewhat quiet on the blogging front for some time. Those that know me will understand and perhaps forgive my absence, and my lack of contributions to this small part of the web-o-sphere. Nevertheless I have made a return to the UK having been living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for 17 months, and I am bouncing back!

I have been doing a lot of self-administration of a lot of the mental toughness, coping techniques, and health and wellbeing improvement skills as I find myself re-establishing myself from some significant life events. As I have transitioned through these live events, and I have chatted to people who have found themselves in similar circumstances, is that our ability, as individuals, to recover from setbacks is extremely individualistic and powerful. We often rely on previous life experiences to find the tools and techniques to deal with a particular phase of this recovery.  Sometimes these past experiences give us what we need, sometimes we need to look for external help. When I went looking for help, I met an incredibly inspiring lady from Nigeria who coached me to deal with the tough times and to help me see that I am capable of being as resilient as the next person, and that I CAN bounce back.  I learned and often recited a simple mantra that helped me. It helped me cope with the self-talk that would debate the pros and cons, and often err on the side of the cons! Isn't it incredible that we have this supercomputer between our ears, that is running our lives and the majority of the time it wants to focus on the negative aspects of our lives rather than the positive ones! Changing the proverbial 'tapes' that we run is so so important. If 80% of the 60-80,000 thoughts we have each day are almost the same as the previous day, is it any wonder we are creatures of habit? What do you think about regularly, and did you think about it yesterday, the day before, the day before that.....?

During my sport psychological work and business coaching work I often discuss self-talk with clients and athletes. It is a fundamental construct which shapes, and can determine, the outcome for many aspects of our lives, and also what success looks like for us individually.  How often can we hear ourselves saying "I want to quit", "I can't carry on", "why am I doing this", "why? why? why?" to name but a few of the commonly featured citations. I have raced in long and short distance triathlon, and I have even raced from one coast to the other across the USA. Did I ask myself these questions? Of course I did. And what got me through were the people around me, the recollection of the 'why' I was doing this, and previous life experiences. As I embark on a new chapter in many respects, I want to thank those that have helped me to build my resilience, to help me bounce back from adversity, that have believed in me when I did not believe in myself, and who have cajoled me in to doing what I believed was the right thing. Riding my bike has certainly helped. People from Speed Theory are owed a huge debt of gratitude, for their regular dishing out of the 'suffer fests' during the turbo sessions throughout the cold Calgary winter; those rolling pain sessions south of Highway 22X, and those long bike sessions to Elbow Falls where the only thing I could focus on was the wheel in front of me and sticking to it! Did I want to quit? Mais oui!! But I am not a quitter and as I bounce back from my travels, I am looking forward to new adventures on and off the bike. The mantra I learned from that very wise Nigerian Lady stays with me.

There are rumours afoot of appearances at the Marathon des Sables Expo where I will be delivering workshops on Mental Toughness, resilience and coping with adversity. I believe RAAM equipped me for that appropriately. I will be discussing how to deal with dysfunctional self-talk when we are on the verge of mental and physical exhaustion. And I will be talking about other mental skills that we can use to improve our performance.

So stay tuned for updates on the MdS Expo in London in October 2012, it will be a real privilege to play a part in the success of some inspiring athletes as they take on the challenges of the toughest foot race in the world. Or feel free to contact me directly.

Truly Inspirational

This was sent to me by a very good friend. A good reminder that we can live our lives and dreams will come to us, and we can have lots of fun along the way!

The Challenges of Part-Time Study

Well and truly into data analysis and it is the stuff of dreams!!! NOT!!! Almost finished accumulating categorized interview responses from 30 interviews!! Yawn Yawn!! And yes I will wake you when my rant is over.

ANyway just a quick couple of lines to thank the family for being so supportive. I almost 'threw in the towel' post-RAAM but now I am glad I did not. The end is close and I can hear the turbo, the long miles on the roads, the running tracks, and the races all beckoning me to get back into a structured training programme.

The Challenge Fuerteventura looms ever closer, and our team of 3 is now just two. I can see a pattern emerging, my dear Holmes!!

A Great Training Tool

It has been some time since I blogged. Lots has been going on since the RAAM 2010 and we are moving into new territory with some really exciting new projects and challenges. Maybe more on that later....

In the meantime, I saw the Copenhagen Wheel, fairly topical given the recent success of the Challenge Copenhagen Iron Distance Triathlon, where www.Trips4Tri.com went to attend the Expo and have some very productive meetings with key people in the Copenhagen Tri scene.

So what is this the Copenhagen Wheel....can the UK embrace it...can the infrastructure finally be configured, re-designed, and laid out so that cyclists have access to cycle lanes, and can use the training devices appropriately.

Havng spent a weekend in Copenhagen, I was amazed at the accessibility to bike lanes, in fact bikes probably outnumber cars in the capital city of a country, who charge 3xtimes the price that we brits would pay, the result of which is people don't buy 2, or 3 cars per family!! They just can't afford it, and people are literally forced to look for alternatives. Also the public transport system is very good, and well-used. The bike lanes are extremely popluar, proving the point that if you give people a choice to use their bike, and make it safe to do so, the will use the bike paths. The Sustrans in Lincolnshire is a case in point. It is a fantastic way to move around the county. If it were linked up to other networks and towns that had integrated bike paths, we would be in a much better position than we are now. Still consumer behaviour is not going to change dramatically in this country, unless the Chancellor triples the cost of a car!! Come on Mr Chancellor, do us cycliest a favour!!!

Rant complete.......for now ;-)

Speaking of training devices, I was delighted to see the other day that Polar and Look have collaborated to produce a set of pedals which measures Power and gives feedback to the rider! Hallalujah!! We have been faced with so many options for so long now, each of which offered a compromise in one form or another. Get a glimpse at the new pedals here

Signing off now. I will be back soon with more exciting news about Trips4Tri and also the latest Challenges for yours truly.