Preparation
Chapter Four: Creating a psychological tackle box
Every successful competitive angler has a large, well-stocked tackle box. We sort our baits by size, color and function. Prior to tournaments and after each competition day, we spend time “doing our tackle.” Few of us would feel confident going into a tournament with our tackle boxes empty or in disarray. But what about a similar collection of mental techniques, a psychological tackle box of sorts?
As tournament fishermen, we have lures from several major categories; so, too, should we have psychological techniques from different areas of performance psychology. In this column we will suggest putting mental rehearsal, peak intensity and crisis management into your psychological tackle box. To be sure, it would be most beneficial to work out specific applications for each area with a sports psychologist. For now, here are some general principles to help you get started.
Mental rehearsal
Mental rehearsal has consistently been shown to improve performance in competitive activities. There is strong evidence to suggest that 15 minutes of mental practice three or four times a week can increase overall effectiveness.
You might review Chapter 11 from last year on visualization and mental rehearsal before you tackle this exercise. You could also discuss specific mental-rehearsal techniques with a psychologist or with another tournament angler who uses them. Similar to creating a savings or investment account for yourself, however, the time to start using this technique is now.
Begin by envisioning your best performance in the last year or two. Spend time picturing specifically what you did. Let yourself feel the positive feelings that are associated with you at your best. Then spend a few minutes thinking about how you could transfer this experience and these feeling to other circumstances where you were somewhat less successful. If this leads you to feeling discouraged, return to your original success image and refocus on that.
As you do this exercise, you will be transferring positive emotional feelings to performance circumstances beyond your best effort.
We have all had those frustrating days when nothing went right, where the only reasonable solution was to go to a lake where we knew we could catch fish as a way to restore our confidence. Mentally reviewing our successes and combining them with other fishing scenarios works the same way.
In addition to increasing our positive feelings in the moment, regularly practicing this exercise can have powerful cumulative effects. We can eventually build positive associations and expectations of success across an ever-expanding set of competitive circumstances.
Peak intensity
Recognizing, monitoring and managing our optimal level of emotional intensity is certainly a challenge, though the rewards for doing so can be great. We have all experienced being “in the zone” when we were alert, attentive and focused. We have also had moments when we were distracted, lethargic or overly excited, and our performance suffered.
Each of us has a unique level of emotional intensity within which we perform best. A sports psychologist may be helpful as you discover your peak intensity level. If you find your optimal intensity is fairly high, your psychologist can provide techniques to make sure you are “up” for each event. Similarly, if your optimal level is moderate to low, you will need specific tactics to keep your intensity level within that range.
As with mental rehearsal, there are also long-term benefits to actively managing your peak intensity. With repeated practice, it will become easier and easier for you to rise to, and remain at, the level of emotional intensity where your performance is most effective. In other words, you can actively set yourself up to be in the zone.
Crisis management
No matter how well prepared we are, we are going to encounter crises and setbacks during competition. Tournament fishermen who are psychologically prepared, however, will be able to constructively adapt to difficult circumstances rather than be defeated by them.
For starters, a sports psychologist can help you understand your usual or customary response to crisis settings. For example, how have you reacted in the past when you lost a big fish in a crucial moment? Once you recognize what you typically do, your psychologist will provide mental techniques which minimize disruptions to your mood, concentration or focus that typically accompany frustrating experiences.
As you build comfort and familiarity with your sports psychologist, you will probably continue to expand your tackle box of mental techniques. A large and varied assortment of lures and baits allows the competitive fisherman to adapt to whatever fishing circumstances he encounters. Similarly, a mental tackle box will help you constructively cope with the emotional elements of competition.
Jay T. McNamara, Ph.D., L.P., is a psychologist, who is also an avid bass and walleye angler. With more than 25 years of professional experience complemented by participation in competitive fishing at local and national levels, he is uniquely qualified to illustrate how performance psychology principles apply to tournament fishing.