In this blog, we’ve talked a whole lot about emotions and their influence on athletic performance. However, I feel the need to take a step back and look at the role that our thought patterns might be playing in all this. In this article, I’ll talk about thought patterns, thinking errors and we can fix those.
It all begins with perception
Two individuals won’t perceive a certain situation the same way (newsflash!). Although this may seem obvious, the truth is we usually overlook this fact when interacting with out environment. Why? Ah, because our brain is wise – maybe too wise – and, in efforts of saving us time and resources, it organizes our thoughts into patterns.
When I perceive a situation, I use language to provide appraisal; this appraisal includes an emotional component and a causal explanation. After prolonged exposure to certain situations, these thought patterns come into play to speed things up but they have their own percent error. Every situation has its own singularities and we can’t really depend on a general thought pattern to adapt to all of them.
This is where thinking errors (Ellis, 1973) crash the party. The thing is that sometimes the way I explain an event and the language I use to express the emotions derived from said event can cause unfavorable consequences: emotional disorders, interpersonal conflict, avoidance and passive coping strategies, and in relation to sports, a decrease in performance.
What are the most common thinking errors?
1. Focusing on a portion of the situation
Example:
You sign up for 6 p.m. class to join a friend you haven’t seen in a while. Today’s WOD is Nancy (5 rounds of 400 m & 15 overhead squats) and, although you love running, you’re not too confident in your overhead positioning. When you load the barbell, you manage 5 reps with excellent mechanics, breaking parallel (something you’ve never done before). 3,2,1, go… and on the initial run you settle into a great running pace you manage to hold for the entire workout. When fatigue kicks in, you’re having to break the squats into sets of 5. Your pace on the fun allows you to keep up with the leading pack even though you’re breaking up your squats. On the last round you’re on of the first to get to the barbell but you break 5 times. You miss the final rep two times in a row but you finally manage to complete the workout.
As we can see, there’s been ups and downs during class but when faced with an individual whose thought pattern usually focuses on the negative, they’ll probably say they did terrible, that they performed the worst overhead squats known to man and that they even failed the last rep twice. How’s that gonna feel? Neither satisfied with performance nor happy about the class. However, this athlete got to throwdown with a friend after a long while; their mobility work is starting to show on those squatting mechanics; and their running pace was one of the best in the class.
Careful now… these thinking errors also take into consideration an excess in positive thinking. The emotions derived from addressing negative events will notify me of a problem; if I disregard these emotions and leave these events unaddressed, I won’t work on finding solutions for them. Meaning, I won’t adapt to my circumstances.
How do I fix it?
Proper emotional balance necessarily implies trying to value both the good and the bad using the same measuring (Huete, 1997). Positive aspects will reinforce my self-esteem and perceived self-efficacy while the negative will help identify problems and find solutions to cope with them.
If you ever catch yourself looking at just a portion of your reality, focus on being as objective as possible. Look at everything that happened and put it on a scale. If somethings calls for action, implement problem-solving strategies; if something went well, focus on that too and celebrate that victory.
2. Magnification and minimization
In this case, we’re able to identify both the positive and the negative in a situation but we don’t value them with the same measure. Positive aspects receive minimal worth while the negative is “amplified”. Therefore, the resulting emotional state is mainly influenced by this negative evaluation.
This is one of thinking errors is mostly seen in perfectionists who concede more relevance to their mistakes and rarely value their success. That’s why they usually find themselves in a generalized state of dissatisfaction (Huete, 1997). In the most extreme cases, these individuals tend to abandon tasks if they feel they won’t reach their standard.
How do I fix it?
Again, we’ll have to consider both the positive and the negative using the same measure. It’d also be interesting to re-evaluate the nature of our perfection standard. If our perfectionism leads us to implementing effective solutions for my faults and weaknesses, it’ll be functional; meanwhile, if it brings frustration upon me to the point I feel like giving up, then I should reconsider the importance I’m giving to this standard.
3. Overexageration
We normally use adjectives to describe the emotional impact of a situation. Burpees are “horrible”, Murph is “insufferable”, and learning double-unders is “terrible”. This can become an issue if this thinking error becomes a habit and we cause an amplified emotional distress on our bodies for no good reason.
Frustration when learning double-unders comes in high doses not only because it requires highly-coordinated moving patterns but also because missing is painful. Literally. That whiplash that comes with every failed double-under adds a physical discomfort that leads to dreading the movement altogether.
If this is sustained for a long period of time, only reading “double-unders” in the WOD will elicit a negative emotional response. If its too intense, I might forever scale to single unders or I’ll just quit that class. Doesn’t seem too functional, right?
How do I fix it?
We should try to describe situations using a well-adjusted adjective that actually represents its emotional consequences. Yeah, double-unders are inconvenient but are they really “terrible” or “horrible”? Probably not.
Next time you’re trying to learn a new fancy movement, try it. When you miss the double-under several times and you hear that negative loophole in your (this sucks, I hate double unders), your body will respond with a heart rate increase because it senses a problem. This does not go well with coordination efforts and double-unders will only get worse.
However, if I’m able to consider these mistakes mere “inconveniences” or “mishaps”, without the added emotional load provided by curse words, my body will also sense a problem but it’ll manage it in a more controlled way. It’s not about tricking myself into thinking life’s amazing after getting smacked by the rope 20 times, but trying to keep emotions at a manageable intensity so they don’t interfere with coping tasks.
4. Overgeneralization
This is can easily be identified as the excessive use of words like “never”, “always”, “impossible”… and, ultimately, this impedes a correct identification of problematic situations. If I think I can’t learn double-unders because it’s impossible, facing that situation will be at an exaggerated emotional cost and, as a consequence, my efforts will be diminshed (Huete, 1997).
The message provided by that heightened emotional response is that, no matter how hard I try to reach the goal, I won’t make it. So, again, we’re faced with a non-functional response to an environmental task; if I never learn double-unders there’s a hole in my fitness. Luckily, this hole was generated by thinking errors that can be fixed.
How do I fix it?
Double-unders, just like any other physical task, takes time and practice. They’re not impossible. It’s not like some of us are gifted at birth and others just don’t have that gift. Find the actual reasons you’re not managing to learn the movement.
Change the time domain for your assessment of the situation. Trade the “I’m never going to do this” for “I can’t do it for now“. Sit down with your coach so they can help identifying mistakes and providing the right progression drills to correct them. It’ll happen sooner or later, it’s a matter of time and effort.
5. Musts and shoulds
In life we’re faced a series of professional, social and personal “obligations”. Problem is, that sometimes we look at those obligations as undesirable, unwarranted and unavoidable. It’s like we don’t enjoy any of these things.
“I should work on my pullups”. “I should sign up for the 6 AM class”. “I should stop binging on junk food”. The way these thoughts are phrased, suggest there will be a negative consequence if I don’t do these things (I won’t get my first strict pullup; I won’t be able to train because I have work later on; my performance will take a hit, etc.)
How do I fix it?
In a recent interview I did with Tim Paulson, he illustrated a perfect example of correcting thinking errors. He talked about weakness work on his legless rope climbs. He was doing them 3x a week and this could become frustrating since he’s not very good at them. So, it’s not the most enjoyable thing to be doing so often.
Nonetheless, when he thinks about why he’s doing it, he realizes it’s because in 2019 he was cut from the Games because he was bad at legless rope climbs. That generated such a negative emotional state that he decided he never wanted to feel like that again. That’s why he works on them 3 times a week and he does’t think of it as something dreadful but something that’ll help him improve as a professional athlete.
Analyze the why behind each and every one of your “musts” and “shoulds” and discover the pros and cons. If they actually provide you with benefits, then change the way you look at it by focusing on those; and if they’re not advantageous for you in any way, then just stop doing them.
6. Anticipatory thinking (emotions without situations)
The best example of this can be seen in competitive settings. Before going into a competition, we generate expectations. These are very useful because they provide us with valuable information but in the case of negative anticipation, we can run into a problem. There’s two kinds:
- The “what ifs”, which express probability
- The “gonnas”, which is considered an absolute truth
It can get even worse if these negative anticipations form a chain and it ends with a catastrophic conclusion (Ellis, 1973). For example: what if I miss my first snatch? They’re all gonna outlift me. What if I miss all my lifts? I’m gonna get cut from the competition. They’re gonna kick me out and this will all be a waste of time.
If it ends up happening (that you miss all your lifts and are cut from the competition) you’ll say “I knew it” and you’ll fall into the self-fulfilling prophecy. Many times, these situations are brought upon us precisely because of inadequate emotional management. There’s another reason to learn how to control our thought patterns.
How do I fix it?
We can’t censor expectations altogether because, as I’ve said, they’re useful when it comes to foreseeing possible setbacks and preparing to either prevent them from happening or fix it once it shows up. Identify those possible problems and answer two questions (following the previous example):
- Is there any chance you might complete all 3 snatches and remain in the competition? Well, if we take into consideration the work you’ve probably put into the olympic lifts and strategizing, there’s a good chance.
- If there’s a chance that I miss every snatch and get cut, how can I prevent it from happening? I could start off with a conservative lift to get something on the board and avoid getting cut.
PRACTICE EVERY DAY
Catching yourself making one of these thinking errors is just like learning double-unders… it takes time! Everyone has their own due to individual differences and they’re so ingrained in our thought processes that it takes a lot of effort to bring them into the light. Once you detect them, brace yourself with alternative arguments and try finding effective coping strategies.
“Mood depends on the situations that trigger them but more importantly on the perceptions we have about them.”
From the book “Aprender a pensar bien” (Huete, 1997)
- Ellis, A. (1973). Rational-emotive therapy (pp. 32-44). Big Sur Recordings. - Huete, E. G., (1997). Aprender a pensar bien, España, Madrid: Aguilar.