Athletes and coaches worldwide have recognised the importance of addressing the mental aspects of successful sports performance. The mental game has always been an integral part of pursuing performance, and the good news is that mental skills associated with peak performance can be learned; just like any skill, they improve with practise.

The mental characteristics that fuel success are neither mysterious nor exclusively innate. Rather, the skills to optimise sporting performance can be learned by YOU, start RIGHT NOW!

Many have believed that mental strength is an attribute one is born with, a gift as it were (you either have it, or you haven’t, end of story).Wrong, so wrong, the ability to learn is the gift, so use it wisely, use it now to move your game to the next level – to be the best you can be.

Through mental skills training you can gain a competitive advantage. Elite competitors know that their true battle is not so much on the track, pitch, ring or court, but inside their heads. However, given that mental strength is such a pivotal component of performance enhancement, it is at times alarming that it is often neglected within the training routines of many sports participants.

Think about the evolution of golf psychology for instance. For many years traditional coaching was almost exclusively centred on the golf mechanics, essential of course, but think about it for a moment. This focus on the mechanics of golf (the swing, grip, using up-to-date technology etc) was to cater for only about 50% of a round of golf. Actually hitting golf shots account for only 15% of the time golfers spend on the course during a round of golf.

But what about the other 85% of the time, the time when they are not hitting shots? Up until relatively recently, traditional coaching largely neglected the 85%. Almost 100% of coaching focussed on only 15% of the round of golf. Importantly, however, what golfers did with the remaining 85% of the time greatly influenced their performance during the 15%. This 85% is a breeding ground for ‘mental gremlins’, i.e. their thoughts, feelings, images and decisions that either make or break the effectiveness of the 15%.

With the emergence of sport psychology, pro golfers are now addressing, positively, the 85%, the down-time, the time in-between shots. This example from the golfing world is applicable to all areas of sporting performance. If you pay scant attention to the mental side you are yourself a serious disservice.

The sports psychology services at SINI will help athletes to learn a set of individually tailored mental skills that will allow their physical, technical and tactical prowess to produce excellent results, consistently.

Future articles will focus on the differing, though overlapping elements of mental skills training.

To book an appointment with Dr Mark Elliot athletes should ring 028 903 68295.

Dr. Mark Elliot
Sport Psychologist

Support service staff at SINI have just returned from the UK Sport High Performance Seminar at the Belfry. The High Performance Seminar programme is run on two occasions each year. Each has 3 core elements:

- High Performance issues
- Technical knowledge update
- Integrated systems

In the recent seminar high performance issues included best practice team working and ethical boundaries in elite sport. The technical knowledge sessions focused on short term recovery with examination of current thinking regarding psychological, nutritional, physiological, physiotherapy and technical modalities.

Regarding short term recovery

• Nutrition, hydration and sleep are the most important components of recovery, other interventions are unlikely to facilitate recovery unless these basic requirements are addressed first.

• Make recovery visible as part of a training programme and teach athletes to become comfortable with the concept of recovery and why it is included.

• Impact sport athletes may recover best with the following protocol within 24 hours of the game –wear skins (4 hours min.) hydration with water (3 litres min.) rest/sleep (8 hours min.).

• Recovery programmes are likely to become individually tailored to suit athlete needs and preferences.

• Recovery strategies need to be individualised as athletes/players can often respond differently to the same training stimulus.

• Compliance of recovery strategies can sometimes be increased by allowing athletes/players to select a particular intervention from a list of methods rather than instructing all players to perform the same recovery strategy.

• On the first two days following travel across multiple time zones, athletes should refrain from training around the time of “predicted lowest performance”, which corresponds to between 2-4.00am “home time”. The body will not be accustomed to training load at this time and ideally sessions should be planned for another time.

Peter McCabe

Last month SINI was delighted to facilitate a practical workshop, in which Adrian Faccioni, from GPSports (Canberra, Australia), demonstrated the utility of the Sport Performance Indicator (SPI) 10 tracking device. The SPI 10 uses performance information, transmitted from a series of orbital satellites at 1 Hz (every second), to determine speed, position, altitude and the distance travelled of players/athletes. A chest strap can also be used to simultaneously transmit heart rate information to the unit.

At SINI, Declan Gamble (physiologist) has conducted a number of projects over the last twelve months using the SPI 10 in various sports. For example, in Gaelic football, a pilot project was organised to investigate the movement profiles of referees during Ulster Championship games. The information obtained from the movement analysis was then used to prescribe training programmes for the referees that more accurately reflected the requirements of the modern game.

In hockey, the GPS system was used during the summer to analyse the work-rate profiles of the SINI based Irish players during their preparations for the European Championships. This information provided detailed analysis of the movement and intensity profiles of players participating in specific training drills and small sided games. In athletics, the system was used with middle distance runners to illustrate the speed and heart rate profile associated with prescribed interval training. The utility of the system has been welcomed by both the athletes and coaches and the training programmes have been enhanced as a direct consequence of this intervention.

During the workshop Adrian revealed that the SPI 10 units were used during approximately 200 Australian Rules Football games. Even in this extreme physical environment, the location of device (normally worn in a pouch located between the shoulder blades) ensured that no injury was caused to player’s wearing the devices or indeed to opponents. Moreover, there were no reported incidences of damage. These reports can be used to encourage coaches to embrace this technology to provide performance information from training and competitive game situations. Furthermore, the recent release of the SPI Elite Team System, which includes a new miniature case (8.5cm x 4cm x 2cm) and accelerometer (logging rate of >100 times/second), which can be used to measure 1) accurate changes in direction, 2) the physical impact/load imposed on athletes through G-forces, and 3) technical efficiency, strengthens the case to incorporate this technology into performance monitoring.

The workshop was attended by SINI high performance managers, strength and conditioning staff and invited coaches. The presentation and practical demonstration was extremely well received and it is envisaged that the purchase of this new technology could enhance the preparation of SINI athletes.

Declan Gamble

The SINI female hockey athletes received a major boost this month through the decision of the International Olympic Committee Executive Board to increase the number of teams competing in the women’s Olympic hockey competition from 10 to 12 teams. The decision comes into effect immediately bringing the women’s competition, introduced to the Olympic programme in 1980, into line with their male counterparts who have enjoyed a 12 team competition since 1988.

With the Irish Ladies team currently ranked 13th in the world this decision significantly increases the opportunity for SINI athletes to compete at what is widely considered THE event in the hockey calendar.

Stephen Watt

Hill Training is a fundamental session for all athletics disciplines, and can be used by recreational sportspeople with equal benefit.

Many of the principles of training can be manipulated with ease in this form of activity, and it is an excellent way of preventing tedium in training.

Key variables to take into account are:

Surface type: forest trails, road, grass, stadium steps and sand dunes.
Distance: 60m up to around 300m.
Gradient: the steepness of the hill.
Repetitions: number of runs up or down hill.
Recovery: walk back, walk half/ jog half, jog back.

Interestingly many of the best distance runners of the 1980's and 1990's used Hill running as a recovery session. It was thought that a better running action was achieved during a slow hill run (ie knee left, hip extension etc) than on a normal even surface, where the slow pace of a recovery run dictated a shortened stride length. Recovery hills included around 30-40 reps with a jog back recovery. Some stadiums in Eastern
Europe have remnants of previous training regimes where polyurethane surfaced hills have been used so that athletes can use spikes whilst doing the session!

The session described above would rely on aerobic system, but equally steep short hills with longer recoveries will stress the anaerobic pathway. Coaches can plan to mix use of the various pathways by using a variety of hills in an area as a fartlek type session depending on what the key goal of that session is. Progression during the cycle can begin to incorporate plyometric exercises into the session eg hopping and bounding exercises on the hills, or the use of steps in the area, doing single and double-legged exercises. Sand Dunes will obviously stress the cardiovascular system more thoroughly whilst also working on lower leg strength and power.

The key to planning the use of the hill work is to ensure that the session 'does exactly what it says on the tin'. Its counterproductive to work on speed endurance in a training cycle labelled 'maximum strength'. Hills can also be used as an overspeed session where running taking place on slight downhill gradients with good recoveries can help develop this area in the lead in to the competitive season.

As an injury preventative measure the more the sessions can take place on grass or other soft surfaces the better. However slightly uneven trails/ sand can also help place the lower limbs/ feet in areas that they are not used to and therefore strengthen weaknesses and help prevent injury.

David Reid