Sport Psychology Tactics - How to Improve Your Athletic Performance By Focusing on the Process, Not the Outcome
About the Author
Ben Foodman is a licensed psychotherapist & performance specialist. He owns his private practice located in Charlotte North Carolina where he specializes in working with athletes to help them overcome mental blocks (the yips), PTSD, ADD / ADHD and achieve flow states through the techniques of Brainspotting & Neurofeedback. If you are interested in services, use the link here! Enjoy the article below!
Exploring Why Sport Psychologists Have Athletes Focus On Process
Back in January of 2020, I was afforded a rare opportunity to observe flight operations aboard the the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. I was able to arrive on the carrier via a COD airplane, experience an arrested landing, stand nearly fifteen feet away from FA-18 Super Hornets launching off the flight deck, tour the ship to learn about the carrier’s operations, and then leave via a catapult launch the next day. I have written about this in previous Training Reports.
While I was aboard the Nimitz, I was also able to see how Naval Aviators prepare and evaluate their performances. This was an invaluable experience to be able to watch some of the world’s most elite warfighters prepare for their ‘sport’. One of the most interesting observations was how focused these tactical athletes are on ‘the process’. For this training report I want to explore what it means to for athletes to be process focused, and how they can be accomplish this.
Defining The Elite Performer’s Process
Many athletes, even in the professional and Olympic ranks are susceptible to the long-term negative side effects of chronic pressure. For instance, the daily grind of training and competing can oftentimes lead athletes to shifting their focus to what happened at the end of the performance. This is completely understandable and a natural progression for most athletes to take after having competed in their sport for so long. The problem is that having a ‘outcome’ focused mindset eventually takes your focus away from the things that made you successful, those things being your process.
Naval aviators are no different than any other athlete population. There are advanced technical skills that they have to execute on a routine basis that require top-tier mind and body focus in order to create an outcome. Those outcomes can range from patrolling the open sea, to targeting enemy personnel, or landing their plane on an aircraft in the pitch black darkness of the ocean. But there are nuances to executing these skills, and the more often they focus on the nuances then the more often they are successful.
How a Process-Oriented Focus Can Help Athletes Improve Their Performance
The outcome of a sport performance event is like a shape, and the structure of the shape is formed by the many processes that occur within that performance. A Naval aviator is given a mission to go carry out a strike against enemy targets, they go through a catapult launch, fly to their destination, and return via an arrested landing. The total summary of maneuvers and efficiency of technical execution is what produces the result. If athletes are always living in the future and not focused on what is happening now, they will miss out on what they should be doing in the moment.
Athletes that take a process-oriented approach are more likely to improve their performance and stay focused on the cues that are crucial for their performance outcomes. We have even seen this in research that supports the approach that athletes should emphasize this approach in their training. Athletes that adopt this mindset are also less likely to try and recreate previous successful performances. This is a common mistake that even high level performers make. You can never ‘recreate’ a previous peak performance outcome because the dynamics of that event will NEVER be the same. All you can do is put yourself in the best position to create a new and different performance outcome.
Sport Psychology Strategies Athletes Can Use To Enhance The Process Focus
So what are the different mental strategies that athletes can take to create a process-oriented focus? I like to categorize this in two ways: philosophical approaches & psychosomatic approaches. From a philosophical approach, one strategy that athletes can use is by establishing what their understanding is in regards to the differences between competition and practice is. I have written about this in previous Training Reports, but athletes that can create healthy expectations in regards to the differences in training outcomes versus performance outcomes will usually develop a healthier relationship with whatever happens during competition. Athletes spend countless hours practicing and practicing because they are trying to create a reflexive response. An athlete’s only job is to get out of their own way as best as they can during competition. Because there are too many variables that affect performance outcomes, all athletes can do is grade how well they ‘stuck to their process’. Which leads us to the next strategy of psychosomatic approaches.
For those that read the Training Report, I frequently discuss the benefits of a technique known as Brainspotting. Brainspotting is a brain-based psychotherapy technique that was developed by Dr. David Grand. Brainspotting is an advanced technique that evolved from Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). In Brainspotting we say ‘where you look, affects how you feel’, and this physiological approach can produce optimal psychological results. This technique is psychosomatic focused because it helps athletes process the emotional and physical sensations felt in their body during complex psychological processing. This approach has both in office and out of office application, meaning that many of the skills learned in Brainspotting can also help athletes in the field of performance, and furthermore can help athletes develop a process oriented approach! If you are interested in learning more about Brainspotting, use the link here to find out more!
Note To Reader:
If you are an athlete reading this segment of the TRAINING REPORT, hopefully this content was helpful! I put the Training Report together because I felt like many of the discussions on issues such as the Yips/mental blocks, strength training & other subject matter on athlete performance concepts were really missing the mark on these ideas (e.g. how trauma is the direct cause of the Yips). If you are interested in learning more, make sure to subscribe below for when I put out new content on issues related to sport psychology & athlete performance! Also, if you are looking to work with a mental performance specialist, you are in the right place! USE THIS LINK to reach out to me to see if my services are the right fit for your goals!
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