Optimal Training

Molly Ringwald on John Hughes and Belief

When I heard that John Hughes died, I thought, "Never heard of him."  Then it came to light (for me) that he was the director of Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Pretty in Pink, etc.  I still don't know that much about him or his life--he apparently became pretty reclusive--but it's been interesting reading the reaction from those who knew him.

One such reaction was captured in a NYT Op-Ed by Molly Ringwald.  It's a great read, and captures a hint of the man that was John Hughes.  (The best, however, was this piece by a former pen pal of his.)  One paragraph in Ringwald's piece caught my eye, however:

John saw something in me that I didn’t even see in myself. He had complete confidence in me as an actor, which was an extraordinary and heady sensation for anyone, let alone a 16-year-old girl. I did some of my best work with him. How could I not? He continually told me that I was the best, and because of my undying respect for him and his judgment, how could I have not believed him?

This is probably the best description of the power of "Social Persuasion" to affect an individual's self-efficacy that I've ever read.  As I wrote in my last article Belief and Breakthroughs, there are four ways to increase a person's self-efficacy (aka Belief), and one of them is being told you can do something by someone you trust and respect.

Belief is an important, almost essential aspect of success.  The fact that it can be so easily influenced by feedback from others is both a blessing and a curse.  Choose who you receive feedback from wisely, and when you think someone can use a positive boost, don't be afraid to tell them you believe in them.

(Photo nydailynews.com)

Belief and Breakthroughs

My latest column, Belief and Breakthroughs, is up at Runner's Tribe.  It's a very Optimal Training-esque look at the connection between a runner's belief and their ability to "break through" to another level. 

I had been toying with writing a column on Belief for a few weeks when I read this great post called Magic of the Mind by Ryan at Flotrack.  Ryan did a great job of using the current crop of women's distance runners to draw the connection between an athlete's belief and their performances.  I didn't think I would do any better so instead I decided to write a kind of follow-up to his, where I looked at just how that connection happens and how athletes can strengthen it.

The article looks at three types of Belief, how one can build Belief, how Belief is tied to breakthrough performances, and then a short look at what we can expect in Berlin given what we've seen in Europe thus far.  A snippet:

The mind really does seem magical when it comes to its effect on performances.  Unlike the body, the mind seems to be able to switch from off to on in a blink, and its impact is disproportionate to the amount of time we pay attention to it.  Ryan's comparison to magic is apropos.  For many, even athletes competing at an elite level, it might as well be magic.

With that said, there's really nothing magical about Belief, or the mind in general, when it comes to success.  The mind is equally as trainable as the body, and like an athlete's fitness, their Belief will go through similar ups and downs and plateaus.  Great coaches train bodies to perform, but they also train minds to allow bodies to perform, and often it's the latter that's the difficult task.  So let's take a look at the mechanics behind the magic.

Click here to read the full column.

Self-efficacy and the Olympic 800m champ

Spikes Magazine has an interview with Olympic 800m champion Wilfred Bungei, where they discuss a range of topics pertaining to the success of Kenyan athletes.  It's a nice, quick read, and two quotes stood out to me as they pertain directly to self-efficacy (the belief in what you can achieve given the effort you put into an activity).  Wilfred says:

"Seeing what they [Wilson Kipketer, etc] were doing [made] you believe you can be a world-class athlete." 

This is a classic example of self-efficacy built through vicarious experience.

"[My sports teacher] said I had the potential to run.  I wasn’t the best [runner] in school and I went home and thought, 'why did he think that I had the potential? Maybe he has seen something in me and this is a reminder to me that you can make it, you can make it'." 

This is a perfect example of self-efficacy built through social persuasion. 

I've written more about self-efficacy here and here.

It's about fitness AND confidence

I read a Runner's World interview with Washington Huskies cross country runner Anita Campbell in which she discusses the amazing season they've been having.  She stresses the importance of doing all the little things:

Mentally, Metcalf has been telling us all season "this is the time when we’re working hard, this is the time when we’ve got to make sure we do all the little things." We made sure that each and every one of us was doing everything that we needed to do early on at the season so that when we get to this point where we are now we can look and say "you know what, we did everything we were supposed to do." And we have fill [sic] confidence that Metcalf told us the right things to do. That’s something that I learned over the four years, that it’s so important to [do] all those things so your confidence at this point in the season is so high. And now you can say "my taper is going to be of benefit because all that was done and everything is going to work the way it should work, and in a week, I’m going to be the best that I’m supposed to be." [italics mine]

All the strides, drills, stretching, weight training, diet management, sleeping, and lifestyle management has a physical benefit.  Though that physical benefit might not show in a day, a week, or even a season, it is there.  The mental benefit, however, is incalculable.

Stepping to the line in a championship race is as much about mental preparation as physical preparation.  Self-doubt will derail your chances of success, faster even than many physical ailments.  And the best way to eliminate self-doubt is to know that at every point leading up to the race, you made a choice to do the extra.  You are as prepared as you can be, and there is nothing holding you back from your best performance.

Most coaches stress this.  Many athletes try to comply.  A few consistently do.  Championship teams have built up a culture around doing the little things, the extra.  Washington is going to roll on Monday, and everyone on their team knows it.  And knows why.

Success and 'that mental edge'

There was an interview at TrackShark with Illinois runner Angela Bizzarri, runner-up in last year's NCAA 5k (15:46!).  She addressed the topic of success breeding pressure vs success breeding confidence:

Does your past success put pressure on you to perform or does it fuel your confidence for upcoming races?

AB: It definitely helps build my confidence.  You can get in really good shape and have great workouts but a lot more of it is mental.  You have to know you can hang with that top pack.  Seeing that you can gives you that mental edge that you can do it again.

The hardest dip to get through as an elite runner (or a pre-elite runner, I should say) is having that confidence that you can, in fact, hang with your competition.  I imagine it's the same for a fresh lawyer entering the court before his first high profile case, or a doctor performing some complicated new surgery before the eyes of his fellow surgeons.  Doing it the first time is terribly difficult, but after that, it gets easier and easier.

There are ways to gain that confidence that don't involve having that experience, though.  The first is to work with people who've done it.  That demystifies it and demythifies it.  This is why people who apprentice under an artist or who join a team with a senior champion on it tend to excel.  The illusion that success comes from talent is shattered when the work ethic of the expert is laid bare.

Another way to gain in confidence is to frame the challenge in the terms of your previous success.  For example, I'm studying Italian right now.  I don't know any Italian, but I do know Japanese.  The simple fact that I made it through the dip in Japanese gives me the confidence to know I can do the same with Italian.  Finishing third in my league in cross country gave me the same kind of confidence when I started running track that next spring.  Sure, they're different.  But it was the similarities that mattered.

The last way you can improve your confidence is to simply take a risk and have it pay off.  This can be tough, though.  Taking a risk in running generally means executing a strategy that will put you through increased pain with increased probability that you will not succeed.  And if you are mentally ready for that potential failure, it can be much worse than simply playing it safe.  But when you do succeed, it can completely change your perspective on what you can do. 

Or maybe you just need to prepare differently

Asafa Powell said something I found interesting today in his pre-race interview at the Memorial Van Damme meet in Brussels, Belgium.

“I don’t know how to explain (his form in Beijing), maybe I’m just a guy for the circuit. I just don’t know how to explain it,” said Powell.

“At the Olympics, I went back into the relay and ran really well, I said to myself ‘why didn’t I feel like that in the final (of the individual 100m)’. Perhaps it’s running the rounds (at a championships) where as on the circuit you are just running once on the track. That’s all I could come up with.” (emphasis mine)

Asafa Powell has been pegged as an underachiever, given that he has run such amazingly fast times yet never won a major championship.  To be fair, he wasn't going to beat Usain Bolt in Beijing.  But he arguably should have been second instead of fifth.  And that's the crux of the argument against Powell.  It's not just that he's never won.  It's that relative to his abilities, he under-performs in championship situations.

Personally, I think the above is a telling quote.  Long-time readers of Optimal Training will know how often I talk about how high achievers and low achievers attribute their successes and failures.  At the risk of oversimplifying, high achievers attribute success to hard work and painstaking preparation.  They attribute failure to being lazy or underestimating the difficulty of the challenge.  In sum, they focus on qualities that they have some measure of control over.

Low achievers, on the other hand, tend to attribute success to luck or the relative ease of the challenge.  Yet they attribute failures to their lack of talent.  Essentially, they take no credit for their successes and blame that which is internal and unchangeable for failure.

Now take a look at that quote and tell me which group you'd put Asafa Powell into, if you only had that quote to go by.  (This is why I love reading athlete interviews...it's the only chance you get to see how they think!)  With only that quote, you'd have to put him into the "low achiever" group, wouldn't you?  He's essentially saying he doesn't have the "innate talent" for championship racing.

I'm not saying Asafa Powell is a failure or a low achiever.  He's obviously not.  He obviously believes in hard work, or he'd never have become this fast.  But equally obvious to me is that psychologically, Asafa Powell's mindset is not 100% aligned with high achievement.  He gives himself an out by blaming things outside his control when he fails.  If he really believes this (and I expect he does), then how hard will he work to change it?  (Answer: he won't, it's unchangeable!)

I don't expect Asafa Powell to win any major championships until he addresses this issue.  His problems have nothing to do with talent or being "just a guy for the circuit."  That's ridiculous.  The simple fact about his championship record is that he hasn't won because he hasn't prepared appropriately.  He may or may not have done the physical work, but he obviously hasn't done the mental work necessary to succeed. 

It's not too late--it's never too late--but it's ultimately up to him.  Is he ready to do the hard work to change his mindset?

Update: I meant to tip Jimmie at 400 Meter Oval for finding this story.  He is aggregating all the news--literally, all of it--about running over at his site.  If you're looking for a good running article, 400 Meter Oval is a great place to start.

The source of Muna Lee's confidence

Muna Lee qualified for Beijing in the 100m and 200m at the US Olympic Trials, the only runner to do so.  This was particularly impressive given that she'd had a period of injuries for the years prior.  This is her take on her renewed confidence.

"My coach told me that he believed in me. When he told me that, I began believing it."

Social persuasion is one of the four ways in which a person increases their self-efficacy.  Someone you respect tells you they believe in you, and your confidence increases as a result.  It's uncanny how often it plays a role in helping a struggling athlete overcome that adversity and begin to excel again.

The Transmutable Property of Self-Efficacy

Sara Hall has had a rough season.  In the four or five races I've seen her run she's struggled in the middle and finished well behind many of her competition.  Most runners go through these experiences at some point or another, when the workouts are good but the results just aren't matching them.  You can see the same thing with Alan Webb right now.

In an Olympic year, when expectations are highest and lifelong dreams are on the line, it's even more difficult to handle these struggles.  Especially on an emotional level.  So I was interested to read how Sara is coping by going back to the last time she struggled before an opportunity to realize a lifelong dream: her senior year before winning the Footlocker National Championship.

As Sara writes here, prior to the State Championships and the Footlocker Nationals, she wasn't even winning her local races.  (Of course, it didn't help to have one of the best runners in the country, Amber Trotter, in her area...)  As Sara writes, though, she focused on improving and on winning those two races exclusively.  She says:

"I don't think I was the most physically prepared person on either day, but I showed up confident that it was possible, having visualized myself doing it all season, and brought my A-game."

Now she's trying to take the same approach to the Olympic Trials.  This struck me for two reasons.  First, she's actively choosing to focus on how she performed 8 years ago instead of 8 weeks ago.  And she's right to do so.  When you are struggling to perform, the best thing to do is focus on a time when you overcame adversity, even if it was in the distant past.  Heck, even if it was in a different aspect of your life!  Call it the "Transmutable Property of Self-Efficacy": It doesn't matter where or how you overcame adversity in the past, the experience can help you overcome adversity today.  (For more on self-efficacy, read here and here)

Second, Sara may very well be a dangerous person to have in that race.  Others will almost certainly write her off a little based on her recent performances.  They'll doubt her strength, both physical and mental.  But with her past experiences to draw from, she may be just as ready mentally as anyone in the field.  So if she's made up some ground physically, she could be ready to surprise some people.

I guess we'll see in a couple weeks.

Ryan Hall on dealing with disappointment

I find myself more and more writing about self-efficacy.  It's one of my Optimal Training Principles, and it is at the core of achieving greatness in any endeavor.  Self-efficacy is developed through one's ability to persist in the face of adversity.

Ryan Hall is gradually becoming one of my favorite runners.  It's not because he runs fast, though.  It's because he has persisted in the face of adversity, discovered his strengths as a runner and competitor, and been willing to take big risks in search of big rewards.  And he blogs.

Here's a couple quotes from a recent blog entry:

"No matter how bad I have been beaten, my competitors will know that I will always show up to the starting line with fire in my eyes, ready for war, with a spirit that cannot be defeated."

"With every poor performance I have grown stronger as I have picked myself up and gotten back up."

"Knowing now, that I can deal with whatever is thrown my way gives me the courage I need to be bold and courageous out on the race course and to "take my swing", because I know that in my heart of hearts I can deal with the disappointment of coming up short and I know that, though it may take me awhile to collect myself, I will be back out there with fire in my eyes."

Sometimes it is simply the fear of failure that stops a runner from taking the big risk necessary to win.  In the heat of the moment, they settle for good.  Not because they are particularly happy with good.  Just because they can't imagine how they will deal with terrible.  The result is they never risk enough to be great.

I don't think that will be the case with Ryan in Beijing.  I think we're going to get one of two outcomes: great or terrible.  And that's the way it should be.  Nobody should go to the Olympics to get 10th, unless that's the best possible place they can finish.  But Ryan's good enough to win gold.  And as he says:

"I am going to "take my swing" at some point in the Olympic Marathon, and it might result in gold and it might result in a lot of suffering and pain over the later stages of the race, but one thing I know for sure: I will walk away from the finish line satisfied that I wasn't, and will never be, defeated."

To learn more about Ryan, click here.

Champion = workaholic

The Colorado Daily has a nice article about Jenny Barringer and the hard work she puts into the sport (and the rest of her life).  The article's title is "The Buff's blue-collar runner". 

I was particularly struck by the fact that, perhaps for the first time in the history of printed journalism, the discussion didn't start with Jenny's "talent", "natural gifts", or "God-given abilities".  Rather, the entire discussion of Jenny's past successes and future possibilities was centered around "hard work".  Someone needs to tell the author that that's just not how these types of articles are written!

On second thought, don't tell him.  He can be the one journalist who actually focuses on what really makes athletes like Jenny champions: their work ethics.  The funny thing is, in running, "blue-collar" has no meaning.  Because there is no such thing as a "white-collar" runner.  All runners, and particularly great runners, have gotten where they are through ridiculous amounts of physical labor.  Not by making Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations, that's for sure!

And no, hard work alone won't get you to the top.  But it is the foundation from which success is built.  Not talent.  That may sound odd, but it's true.  The only thing that comes from focusing on talent is self-imposed limitations.  Quite frankly, champions don't even think about their talent until and unless other people ask them about it.  They know they have it to some degree, but they have a singular focus on hard work.

That's why I'm convinced the difference between champions and everyone else is primarily mental.  Champions not only understand that hard work can make them great, they have the self-efficacy to actually try.  And by attributing their future success or failure to their hard work, they never impose limitations on how good they can become.

There are probably hundreds of Jenny Barringers out there.  And that's no knock on her.  There are hundreds of Ryan Halls and Alan Webbs and Shalane Flanagans, too.  Some of them are never introduced to the sport, others are passionate about other pursuits, and a few are no doubt convinced that if they aren't beating someone now, they never will, so they give up. 

And I've no doubt there are a couple we will hear about soon, because something will click and they will start working as hard as Jenny does and with as much engagement, discipline and pride.  At which point some journalist will no doubt credit their amazing talent for their success.

And who knows, maybe that person will be you.  So here's a question to get you started: are you working as hard as Jenny Barringer is?