Part 1: A little round up of summer work here at The Sports Counsel.

This summer has felt new and different for me. July and August will often be race focus months for the athletes I work with. This season two of my clients had medical reasons not to race mid-season and this meant that much of our work has centred around dealing with the impact of not racing. Both completed challenging events earlier in the summer and while I’ll continue to encourage them to write race reports to post here, their main focus is recovery, acceptance and adaptation to change. The events they completed were The Roc (Wales) and Challenge Cagnes sur Mer. Take a look at these events if something a bit different piques your interest.

In equal measure, their change is my change. I began working with new clients specialising in competitive sports I know nothing about; sailing and equestrian dressage. My work with these clients has focussed on using sport psychology and counselling tools and methods to improve their experiences and build confidence. As I learn new techniques and interventions in my Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Diploma course, the support I can offer you broadens and develops.

To explain more about this we have worked on changing unhelpful thinking habits, practicing unconditional positive regard towards others, pre-event planning and understanding self-determination in context.

How did these topics arise and how did we begin to work with them?

PRE-COMPETITION ANXIETY LEADING TO POOR RESULTS. Unhelpful thinking styles or habits are very common. They are punctuated by statements and thoughts like, “I’ll never be…”, “I’m not that kind of…”, “Everyone knows I’m not good at..” Finding yourself saying these types of things before an event, or training and practice often leads to exactly the negative outcome you predicted. This is linked to what you believe in (or believe about yourself) and the assumptions you make about situations or other people. Beginning to understand, notice and recognise your (negative) thinking habits will help you be better prepared for them in future.

MAKING JUDGEMENTS ABOUT OTHERS. We make judgements about other people when meet them. This is normal. However, persistently making judgements that lead you to believe others see you in ways they don’t can be problematic. For example, thinking an event referee is always singling you out, then compounding this thought by thinking every event referee is always out to get you might lead you to stop competing. Counsellors are taught to meet clients with unconditional positive regard, and whilst it might seem that as a concept this sits best with the therapist, I have found it immensely helpful in life in general. Take the example above, there is no way every referee will be singling you out. Why would they? Adjust your thinking to see them as you might want to be seen, i.e. with unconditional positive regard, and suddenly they become a neutral referee who has turned up to the match/event to do their job. They don’t want to make your day rubbish anymore than you want your day to be rubbish.

(AVOIDING) PRE-EVENT PLANNING? Taking a step back from the all-encompassing focus of your future event and living in the process of getting to the event is incredibly important to your success; be part of your pre-event planning and accept responsibility for your decisions, choices, activities, rules & boundaries, limitations, relationships and failures. Make a plan with The Sports Counsel.

BITTEN OFF MORE THAN YOU CAN CHEW? In the moment when you feel overwhelmed by your challenge, it might help to consider how you got to where you are and how you can go on to succeed. Self-determination theory and how self-determined you are is linked to your motivation. Why do you do what you? Probably because you have a level of COMPETENCE in doing it. How do you know you are good at what you do? Possibly because others tell you are good at it, you can compare yourself to others and you feel a strong sense of RELATIONSHIP and connection to them and the activity as a result. What gives you strength to do what you do? The combined effect of acknowledging your competence and feeling supported in your activities builds a feeling of AUTONOMY. A belief that you are in the right place, doing the right thing and feeling at one with yourself in that belief, i.e. you don’t have any doubts.

In short, over the summer have felt at times as though I ought to have been doing more (though I’m not sure what..). In reality, I have learned to work with new clients bringing new challenges and continued to work with established clients bringing new challenges!