Before the Olympic 200-meter final, Noah Lyles came out of the tunnel, bouncing around like a maniac. Given that Lyles was sick at the time, and ended up finishing in third place, he got some flack for his energetic stunt.
But here’s the thing: sick or not, his pre-race antics were probably the right thing to do.
I love watching the starting line of sprints. It gives you a glimpse into one of the most important aspects of performing well: getting your mind and body in the right place to perform. And here’s the secret it unveils: there is no universally optimal way to do that.
You have the Noah Lyles archetype, who looks like he should be entering the ring of a staged wrestling event. Then you have athletes showing fierce determination, like they could rip the heads off their competitors. A few lanes over is the guy who looks oblivious to the world, he’s so focused on his lane that nothing else seems to matter. Then you have the jokers, the Usain Bolt’s of the world, who are dapping up the kids helping with the blocks, before destroying everyone. And the thing is, all of these approaches work.
In short: you have to figure out what works for you given the demands you are facing.
Maybe you’ve heard about being in the zone, or the inverted-U relationship between stress and performance, where you need to find that sweet spot to perform well. But what is often missed is that context of an event shifts where that optimal level of stress occurs.
Research shows that if the task is simple versus complex, that inverted-U shifts to more a linear relationship. The more hyped we get, the better we perform. It’s why a powerlifter might slap themself in the face before trying a lift, while a chess player isn’t screaming before he moves the rook. Higher levels of stress tend to require more cognitive resources to deal with the consequences of it.
But it’s also our own individual variation. Some people need the rush of adrenaline. Others prefer to be calm, cool, and collected. And some need the downright crazy, as novelist Kelsey McKinney detailed in her approach, “I get a lot of Buc-ee’s sour strawberry belts… Then I put on the Gone Girl soundtrack: Produced by Trent Reznor, very high tension… I start the soundtrack, and I have to type the whole time that it’s playing. If I’m not typing, I have to eat sour candy. This works because the sour candy gives me a sugar high, so I have adrenaline to write. Once I have, like, four pieces of candy, my mouth hurts and I don’t want to eat it anymore. So I have to type.” The crazy sometimes puts us in a place to perform. In decades of working with elite performers, what I’ve discovered is that you have to prepare for the variation. You don’t imitate your favorite performer or fall in line with whatever the popular podcaster’s preferred protocol is. You’ve got to:
1. Find what works for you.
Think about all of the sprinters lined up. Some are having fun; others are putting on a game face to perform. The only way you figure out what works for you is by experimenting. Try out different approaches, note how they make you feel and perform.
2. Identify what the event demands.
When I watched strength coach Dan John work with an elite heptathlete, before each event he asked her a simple question. What level of intensity do you need to be at, 1 through 10? For some events, like the shot put, she’d reply that she needed an 8 or 9. But for others, like the Javelin or 800m, it was more of a 6. The point is that every event requires a different level of emotional arousal. As you increase arousal, there’s a tradeoff, a balance between rapidity of action and thoughtful deliberation, between scanning the environment and locked-in focus.
3. Develop as many tools as you can.
Learn how to turn the dial in as many ways as possible. Let’s briefly go through some of the tools at our disposal. It’s important to note that we can get at stress, intensity, or arousal from a number of different paths. We can use ‘physiological tricks’ to activate our sympathetic nervous system to amp us up, or our parasympathetic nervous system to calm us down. We can shift our mindsets and inner psychology, which changes our brain’s predictive calculus on whether we’re going to get flooded with fight-or-flight hormones such as testosterone, adrenaline, cortisol, or more calming hormones such as oxytocin.
To simplify, think of it like this: To turn the intensity up or down, you need to alter the information flow. Are you sending the message to your brain that you need to get amped up or calm down, that you need to be on the lookout for an escape path or to be able to push ahead?
Some tools to turn up the volume:
- A few quick breaths, from your chest instead of lower abdomen.
- Hype music or videos. Especially those demonstrating success in the arena.
- Explosive movements or actions. A big hop on the starting line, a slap in the face before the lift.
- Large sensory experience that can cause a rush (i.e. jump into an ice bath).
- Make the pursuit seem personal.
- Amplify emotions that are intensifiers (i.e. controlled anger or aggression).
- Narrowing your focus on the goal or outcome.
Some tools to turn the volume down:
- Slowed breathing, from the abdomen instead of the chest.
- Closing your eyes.
- Listening to calming music.
- Broaden your perspective. Put the task into context that shows it’s not the end of the world.
- Putting your face in cold water. (Activates diving reflex, slows heart rate.)
- Mentally time travel. Imagine that you are looking back at this performance from the future. What would you tell yourself?
- Using self-talk that is psychologically distancing (use 3rd person instead of 1st person).
- Soften your vision to put it in explore mode.
- Shifting your goals to be process orientated.
- Pick an external focus (i.e. where you want to kick the ball, or the next mile marker).
- Smile, laugh, joke around.
- Be with teammates or friends.
We’re simplifying things a bit by classifying all of these into turning the volume up or down. The underlying context and direction matters as well. For example, if the intensity is driven by fear or desire, anger or controlled aggression, and so on. Regardless, it’s a good framework for understanding how to get your body and mind in the right place. Find what works for you, develop the tools to fine tune, and then stick that routine when you need it most!
— Steve
