Controlling Your Energy Level
Charles Barkley, NBA star, thinks of his children immediately before he shoots his foul shots. This practice calms him and lowers his energy level so he can elevate his chance of success. Barkley has discovered that the amount of energy flowing through his body can be altered by his thoughts. So, when less energy is required for successful completion, he has developed a strategy that works for him.
Altering energy level has also become a device of accomplished golfers. More energy is required to drive off of the tee than to putt on the green. Successful golfers have learned how to alter their breathing, and thoughts, to stroke the winning putt. This ability to control breathing steadies their hands and makes their stroke smooth. The novice often falls victim to the “yips” — too much nervous tension in the putting golfer’s swing.
However, there is no sport where altering energy level is as applicable to success as gymnastics. When the gymnast is racing down the runway, preparing to explode into the vault, she needs to be powered on all cylinders. This is an event of great power. Yet, often moments later, she will mount the beam and must be as calm as a steel worker with 50 stories of empty space below his feet.
What Champions Have Figured Out
Gymnastics champions have discovered how to alter energy level and focus. Recall Keri Strug’s historic vault. Her painful injury could have, and should have, occupied her complete focus. Yet, she channeled her energy into the task, overcoming the discomfort and the thought of further pain at the end of the vault.
Only adrenaline, consciously activated, could have allowed her to successfully achieve that monumental feat. There is also the “classic” performance of the Olympic gymnast who broke his leg while mounting the iron rings, only to successfully complete his routine, dismount and present to the judges, then collapse in pain.
Similar to typing messages into a personal computer, a winning gymnast must send commands to his or her body via thoughts to enable it to perform certain functions and, most specifically, alter energy level for successful performance. This level of success is achieved through self-assessment.
In the gymnastic teams at West Virginia University and the University of Pittsburgh, the gymnasts would close their eyes and visualize a time when they performed at their highest level. Then, on a scale of one to 10, they would note how “aroused” they were, one being the lowest and 10 being the highest. They would repeat this procedure for every competitive event.
Later, during the course of the actual meet, the gymnasts would use self-talk — statements they would silently think to themselves — to adjust their arousal levels. When a gymnast was preparing to mount the beam and she was “too high,” she would use self-talk statements such as, “Breath,” “Slow,” “One foot in front of the other,” or other calming statements. If a gymnast planned to mount the vault and was not “high” enough, he would often employ self-talk such as, “All I’ve got,” “Fast,” “Power,” or similar statements to elevate his energy level.
Breathing to “Fire the Engine”
These gymnasts would also increase and decrease the speed and intensity of their breathing to change energy levels. Fast breathing can increase the energy level while slow deep breathing can act as a relaxation technique. Sometimes simply listening to his or her own breathing gives the gymnast a chance to clear his or her mind — another calming device for the revved-up performer.
When the West Virginia University gymnastic team competed at the University of Florida, a gymnast grabbed my hand and started to walk with me. She looked at the few thousand people in the stands and said, “I am getting sick. I can’t do this.” She was, obviously, “too high.” I realized this when she attempted to walk me into the women’s bathroom with her.
She sat and listened to her breathing for about 10 minutes. Then, she began her self-talk. Her statement was something like, “I am going to take this energy and channel it into my first event.” She repeated the statement to herself and focused on her breathing until she vaulted and won the event.
As the saying goes, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail.” The winning gymnast needs tools to compete. The fact is practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice gives the athlete options. Athletes devise tools during practice to determine their options when obstacles occur during competition. The wise athlete and coach explore the bumps in the road during competition and then develop tools, such as altering energy demands, to navigate those bumps.
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