USSA Sport Education Coaches Tip of the Week: Priming for Success

Priming For Competition
Jon Nolting, USSA Sport Education Director

The biggest competitions of the season are here and it is time for you as a coach to "prime" your athletes for success. Priming refers to putting athletes in a positive frame of mind for competition. One's belief in their ability to do something affects their abiliity to perform. Presumably, the entire season has been spent working on improving the ability of your athletes through technical and tactical training. To take advantage of this work, you must now put your primary focus on your athletes' belief in their abilities. Your feedback should now be directed at their strengths, helping them appreciate what they do well, and how that will help them at the big event.

U.S. Halfpipe Head Coach Mike Jankowski calls the final training block leading up to the championships a warm-up, implying that training is over, the work has been done, the athletes are ready. Training to achieve some last minute technical or tactical work likely won't become ingrained in time to be reliable for the upcoming event, and runs the risk of eroding confidence.

Think about your athletes as having their own confidence bank. Every criticism, even constructive feedback, is a withdrawal from the confidence bank. There is a time when it makes sense to make that withdrawal to invest in something for long-term gain, say skill development, but leading up to the championships is when the confidence bank should have its highest balance.

Fill the confidence bank account with specific praise. Former U.S. Ski Team men's head coach Bill Egan framed it this way: “If you belabor what the skier is deficient at too much you’re just going to neutralize the kid’s ability…you’re farting against thunder. One of the things you must do as a coach is you must get them to believe the things that they have that are really good are going to help them win.”

Think about these ideas leading up to major events to prime your athletes' mindset.

• Forego the traditional timed runs race rehearsal the day before the competition and set a dual course. It encourages a high intensity approach that mirrors what you want in the competition and often increases the number of athletes who feel the day is successful since there are more chances for wins.
• Make individual successes into team successes. Hannah Kearney's opening event gold medal in moguls at the 2010 Olympics primed the all the U.S. ski and snowboard teams for the successes they had the next two weeks. Kearney's success was a boost beyond just her freestyle teammates because all the skiers and riders were connected to her as Team USA athletes. Does your team atmosphere foster this type of connection and camaraderie across programs?
• For video review at training sessions just before the big event, rather than watching and critiquing the runs that day, do video sessions watching the skier's/rider's best past performances, or watch inspirational footage such as World Cup or World Championships winning runs.
• Make positive analogies during course inspection or before a competition run. For example, instead of saying "attack the course", say "attack the course like Ted Ligety". This connection with a successful person is important. It should invoke a powerful visual and positive state of mind. It is most effective if the athletes have a strong connection to that particular athlete. This can be fostered ahead of time by talking about things they have in common, whether it is their skiing or riding style, their interests, maybe even their birthday

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