(intense music)
- Even the most comprehensive plans
that seem to cover all eventualities
can sometimes go wrong.
Now learning how to cope in such a situation
and adapt and think on your feet under pressure
is a valuable skill to have.
But thankfully it's one that can be developed.
Now we spend hours training our bodies
but often neglect our minds
and that's crazy to think if you imagine
the impact that you brain can actually have
on a race outcome.
Well, I'm going to speak to some experts
in this field to find out just how we can train our brains.
To find out more I've come to San Diego
to talk with three-time XTERRA world champion
Lesley Paterson and her husband
performance psychologist Simon Marshall
about the intricacies of mental toughness.
Hey. - [Lesley] Hey, how's it going
welcome, welcome. - Nice to meet you.
- Yes and you, yay. (laughing)
- Thanks for coming out, lovely to meet you too.
- Don't hug him, he doesn't deserve it.
(laughs)
(cheery guitar music)
- Lesley, you've obviously talked very open in the past
about your nerves and how that's affected you.
Tell me a little bit about that. Just on a brief kind of.
- Yeah you know, I've really struggled with nerves
all of my athletic career, just getting
supremely anxious before races
and then feeling like I could really perform
in training and then I'd come to a race
and just completely lose it.
And I really think it was the expectation
of people around me, putting a lot of pressure on myself.
Yeah, and it just made me feel really
sort of weak and wobbly and terrified.
- So what were those actual feelings?
How did they kind of materialize?
- So, a lot of stomach issues,
I mean the classic butterflies in the stomach.
But just total dread, like why am I here?
Why am I doing this, I hate this.
Of course you get to the race and things tend to be fine.
But, going to the bathroom a million times before the race.
Yeah, I always have to have a spare bog roll with me.
(laughs)
- And have you got any coping before sort of
Simone really started working with you?
What were your coping strategies initially what did you do?
- So certainly when I was younger,
I've been in this sport for 25 years
and when I was younger I didn't have any coping strategies
and so I really did not perform to my potential.
And then I ended up retiring from the sport
for about six to eight years and I actually
went to drama school and studied acting.
And I think that allowed me to really
access my emotions, understand how I worked
and then when I came to sport the second time
I just had some slightly different approaches.
- And where Simon do you fit in with this pitch of
helping Lesley with her nerves.
- Well I met Lesley when she was
just coming to the end of her sort of ITU career
and we both were at university in Loughborough.
I was finishing my PhD in sports psychology
and then we met on the bike, I was a cyclist
and she was one of the few triathletes to come out.
And we started talking and it was interesting to see
at that point where many triathletes were started
to be coached in Britain by exercise physiologists
and sort of data science folks
and really treating her like a pair of legs and lungs
and not really much regard for her sort of humanness.
And so, the feedback they gave her
and the way that they talked to her,
we all talk about beheading the athlete right,
you don't really talk to them
as though that they have concerns
or things that might be worrying them
and how to get around those.
You're just like, if you're not performing that's it.
And so, when I met Lesley she was having this battle
and I was being trained to help athletes like Lesley
but I found that my training didn't really
prepare me that well either.
Because, if you're a psychologist you're taught
initially, primarily through textbooks
and do supervised hours but when you're in the trenches
and talking to athletes,
they don't often tell you the truth.
They don't tell you and that's not malicious,
it's just that they like to portray
that things are working or fine
or they're kind of stiff upper lip about it.
And so when I married a professional triathlete
you get to peek behind the curtain--
(laughing)
And then start to see a little bit more
and I learned probably more about how to do
sports psychology by sort of 24/7 being around them.
So that was interesting and then starting to encourage her
to use some techniques to say, look
what you're feeling is normal, most athletes feel like this.
- And on that way, what very quickly
what is happening with the science behind it?
- So, we all know of the fight or flight response.
It's happening in an area of our brain
called the limbic system and us and others
have called it a chimp brain.
Others call it a reptile brain and so on.
But, it is such a powerful part of our mindset
that really we have very little control
over the biology of it.
The feelings and the reactions it gives us.
The hormones that it kind of tells
the rest of our body to start working on
and so, you're trying to fight
this very large sort of power in your head
that has strong chemical weapons
from an evolution point of view
that you can't overcome that by simply trying
to look at yourself in the mirror
and saying, I'm strong, I'm confident, I know I can.
It doesn't work and there's been years
of sort of self-help psychology
that have really done us a disservice as athletes.
Because as any athlete knows all too well
on race morning, you can tell yourself
it's just a race it doesn't really matter.
That doesn't stop you still having
all those symptoms that Lesley has.
So we have to be a little bit more
careful and a little bit more
sort of clever about we sort of focus
and how we talk that part of our brain of the ledge
and bring to the floor some of the skills
that the rest of our brain has to be able to control that.
- [Lesley] So a huge part for me was actually
creating what I call an alter ego.
And a lot of top athletes, a lot of top performers do it.
Beyonce does it, she has Sasha Fierce.
But the science behind why that works is really interesting.
- Well we don't often think of ourselves
in the third person but in psychology
and psychotherapy it's got quite a long rich tradition
of what would you say to yourself if you were sat here?
And even on a sort of simplistic level like that.
And so, when you think of yourself in the third person
what you start doing, is you start to not use
your chimp brain, your limbic system as much.
You can really think about what you should do
or how you want to feel with more sort of facts and logic.
Your frontal cortex, the wrinkly part,
what we call the professor brain.
So it sort of almost like gives
the chimp brain a bit of a hole.
It's not really you that we're worried about.
Don't worry you're not under threat,
you're not being judged, evaluated or criticized.
And so we can start to think about it
much more in objective terms.
So when you actually start to think of yourself
as another person or another character
it frees you up from a lot of mental baggage
that your chimp is desperate for you to listen to.
That why you shouldn't try, everyone around you
is stronger or fitter.
They're gonna give you an ass kicking today
and all that sort of stuff.
Or what you look like physically.
And so when your able to create a character for yourself,
what are the traits and attributes
I would like to have as an athlete?
And they might be the exact opposite
of what you have currently.
And if there are characters that you know of
it might actually be real people who are like that
or it might be a fictitious character.
Some people have cartoon characters
or someone that you remember as being
really instrumental in your early career
and you admired them and how they tackled adversity
and how they were persistent.
And you try and channel that inside of you.
And one other way...
And it's not just dress up,
make believe which it sounds like.
It's kind of a way of getting into a,
psychologists call it embodied cognition.
Only psychologists could come up with a name like that.
Where you're really trying to embody
the cognition, the thinking patterns, that you want.
(intense music)
- My alter ego is called Paddy McGinty.
And Paddy's an Irish MME fighter
and I kinda liken him to Connor McGregor, so total bad ass.
What's most important about Paddy
is that he does not care what anyone thinks about him.
And that's been my biggest weakness
is worrying what other people think.
Always gets up after he's knocked down
and just has that air of confidence.
And so, because of my acting background
I started to put together kind of my alter ego race kit
which was, I would put on a costume
that helps me kind of transform.
Like an actor would when they're acting on a stage.
So every time I have my race suit
it has to be designed in a certain way.
I have to put it on in a certain way
and it's almost like ritualistic for me
to get into character.
I have certain poses for Paddy,
so I have this death stare that--
- I'm scared here. (laughing)
We're not racing. (laughing)
- People truly are scared of me
when they see Paddy come out on race day.
And I've had other professional athletes
think that I was just a total horrible person
before they actually met me
because they'd only ever met Paddy before.
So I have this stance and I clench my fists.
I have this stare.
I listen to certain music and in fact,
even before races I have videos
of Connor McGregor that I watch.
The way that he walks.
The way that he kind of saunters.
So I've put together this whole
sort of ritualistic set that people can do.
They can find that character that
suits the things that they don't have as a person.
They can find videos, they can find songs.
They can find behaviors and movements.
Pieces of clothing, a ring.
I even write things on my forearm
that are kind of triggers for me
to get into that zone of Paddy.
So, people actually shout me on though.
They're like, "Go Paddy" in a race.
- So you're very open about Paddy.
And interestingly Paddy being a man,
is that got something like, what's the reason behind that?
- Yeah I think for me it was,
men always come across as a lot more confident.
Even although we know that's not necessarily the case
but, there is more arrogance I think
in that male demeanor then there is a female one.
There's that more aggression and drive
which I feel I need personally.
So yeah, there were just some traits
like that, that I felt that I needed.
Before a race start I've got my music on,
I've got my death stare, I've got my hoodie,
I'm controlling everything around me
so my chimp doesn't go crazy.
And I scare the living bejesus out of people
which is kinda cool. - So it can also
not only helping you personally
but it could actually off-put your--
- Oh it totally does.
I know I've out-psyched so many of my competitors
because of that and I actually, I think now
I have the confidence to believe I'm good enough.
I buy into it.
I mean, I am Paddy come race day
and I'm like, get out my way.
And if you'd asked me that, I don't know,
15 years ago, there's no way.
I was like, oh no.
- And how does someone, I mean you've got that
acting background, but if someone doesn't,
how does a person actually start to build
their own alter ego. - Well I think it...
Yeah, it starts with thinking about somebody
that you would like to emulate
or they have the characteristics.
When you feel particularly vulnerable,
it might be late into the run or it might be the swim,
and you find an athlete or a character
has characteristics that you really feel
as though get to the heart of the opposite
of what you have and that you want.
So it might be a...
You might pick an athlete that you currently admire.
I mean some of our athletes that we coach,
now Leslie becomes their alter ego via Paddy
in this weird meta level.
And you look for inspiration but you have to search for it.
So we have a little ego development kit
that we have athletes go through like some homework.
Like think through some of the characteristics
that you'd like to have.
What are you achilles heel when it comes to racing?
Where is it that you'd like to be a little bit more
confident or have a little bit
more bravado that you don't and then
let's try and find a character to match that.
Just as you would be doing if you were an actor
preparing for a role.
- How do you cope with it if something
doesn't quite go to plan?
Like if someone has a superstition, superstitions are great
until that can't happen at that race.
How does one train to deal with that?
- So, one of the best ways to do it
is to develop a cast iron pre-performance routine.
You're probably familiar with these already.
It's like having a little ritual
that you go through that is immune to things
that happen around you that you can do
regardless of the circumstances.
So then you practice it.
This might be something that you just do
for maybe 15 minutes before the start.
It might be something that you even begin the night before.
But, you write it down, almost like
a list of steps that you're gonna do
and you try and practice it so that you
always do the exact same thing
in the exact same order before every single
event, race or even something as simple as training.
So, having a little routine takes the thinking out of it
and it stops you getting distracted as much.
So that's really the starting point.
- But then if something goes wrong
in that for me, I think one of the best things
is to be able to cope with adversity.
And again, Simon can talk a bit about the brain science
of why that is powerful, but when we have to cope
with an adversity, an actual part of our brain changes,
it's called neuroplasticity and it actually gets stronger
and grows more dense because of the adversity
that we've dealt with, which helps us then
deal with more adversity the next time through.
So, every time adversity comes my way
I welcome it, I don't get annoyed by it.
I'm like, great now I'm gonna get stronger.
Almost like you're lifting more weights in the gym.
That's how you imagine your brain changing.
So any time anything comes, like I've had
a million times my goggles have snapped
right before the start.
I'm like, okay good, this is gonna help me
the next time be even more prepared.
I'm gonna have two pairs of goggles,
so that I'm covering every eventuality in the future, yeah.
- But that's looking forwards, but how do you
deal with it at that moment?
'Cause yes, that makes you stronger in the future,
but at that moment you don't have a pair of goggles.
How does that affect this whole
routine you've got in your head
and how do you cope with it then?
- I think my alter ego is so strong
that again, can deal with anything.
So, if that does happen I don't get uptight,
I don't get all nervous and even if I do
that's a nice distraction from
the anxiety that I'm feeling about the race.
Sometimes those things can actually
pull you out and help you rather then hinder you.
And again, I guess it's just sort of changing the mindset
of it being a negative to it being a positive.
I mean, the day before a race I broke my shoulder.
I managed to compete the next day
in that race with one arm and win the race.
But that's helped me with any adversity
I've dealt with moving forward.
So, I think what it does is it helps you
create a plan for almost every eventuality
so that you're as prepared as you possibly can be
and then all you can focus on is being 100% committed
with effort and attitude.
And the stuff that's not within your control
is not within your control.
- Yeah exactly.
Was it Paddy who had the broken shoulder?
- Yes, 100%.
- And if Paddy hadn't, would you have still won that race?
- Ooh good question.
I don't think so, there was a lot of tears after it happened
and it was definitely Lesley there
that was like Negative Nora, why does
this always happen to me?
I knew I wasn't supposed to win here.
All of that self-doubt, so Paddy had to kick in
and say, it doesn't matter, let's just commit and go for it.
- And finally, how did you come up with the name Patty?
(laughing)
- It was actually my coach at the time,
he would see it in my eyes and he would say
you're getting you McGinty on.
Like your Paddy, your McGinty we'd call it.
So we ended up calling it that.
- But I mean you know, Scottish, Irish--
- I know. - I know, I know.
Ooh I know.
You feel like here in America it doesn't matter,
people are like oh well whatever, it's all the same.
- Amazing, well really fascinating stuff guys.
Thank you so much. - Thank you.
- Well I don't know about you but I found that fascinating.
So many take-home points.
I want to know if you guys have an alter ego
and if so, let us know about it
in the comments section below.
I think I'm gonna go and start developing mine now.
Well hopefully you enjoyed it as much as I did.
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