If you want to squeeze the most out of your training, your concentration needs to be spot on. High performance coach Dominic Keohane explains how to make the most of your mind.
A runner's ability to move between levels of concentration is paramount and can be what makes the difference between success and failure.
Only the most successful athletes combine mental training with physical training - yet the benefits can be huge at any level. Mind and body are agents of the same system and when trained together, no obstacle is too big.
One of the keys is flexibility in concentration; both depth and length of. The ability to respond to the event, the environment and other competitors and to concentrate your efforts can produce results beyond what you'd expect from your training hours.
Concentration is at the heart of your ability to achieve; if your mind wanders, so do your results.
During a race you are bombarded with information from mile markers to the blister forming on your foot. These affect your concentration by either enhancing or weakening your existing depth and length of concentration
Most athletes believe they have a natural ability to concentrate and believe this ability is fixed in both time and depth. By improving your concentration, you will improve your physical training and your ability to compete.
DIFFERENT LEVELS OF CONCENTRATION
We all have a perception of how we concentrate. This perceived natural level of concentration is a trick of the mind - you don't have a natural level or depth of concentration - you have just become practiced in a certain way of concentrating and therefore slip into it with ease.
This is fine for some areas of your life, but when you're running you must adapt your level of concentration to suit. Consider where you are now on the concentration pyramid:
Training and/or competing on different terrain will improve your abilities to move up and down the scale above and will create flexibility in concentration.
If you train and compete on the road then you will probably be very adept at long and shallow concentration. This is fit for the task of racing on the road and will serve you well as long as everything goes to plan. Reality is never totally to plan, however.
A niggling injury distracts you, a collision ahead puts you off your rhythm or you simply drift away, only to find that so has your speed! At these times you can find it difficult to employ the most effective level of concentration; you know that you would get back in the zone quicker if you focused solely on the task and yet your mind will apply pressure and chatter, a strange but natural phenomenon.
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR CONCENTRATION
A low-cost way of improving your concentration flexibility is to train and compete on rough, off-road hills in open environments.
This creates a very different focus as you are required to be more 'in the moment'. It forces a deep and short concentration. Short meaning that it will require you to be very present and aware by concentrating on each foot fall. However, this process happens over and over again, very literally training your depth of concentration. This is a very natural way of developing the ability to move effectively between short-deep concentration and long-shallow concentration.
When you are next on the road and you meet a challenge you'll then be able to switch very naturally to a short and deep level of concentration. When you look at your heart monitor and realise you've dropped out of the zone, without further analysis or internal chatter you'll simply and effectively respond.
Your senses and your awareness will be heightened and you''ll cut those vital seconds off your times and make the best out of your efforts.
Training the muscle without training the mind is like spending all your money on a custom bike frame and then borrowing the gears from a shopping bike. Be connected, be elite!
Dominic Keohane is the Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) trainer and High Performance Coach at Care for Health.
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