Mind Shift

A dose of inspiration often appears after an unexpected turn. For Canadian long track speed skater Ted-Jan Bloemen, it came after injuring his wrist in a bike crash during a training ride that left him training on a stationary bike in his living room for a couple of weeks. Fortunately, this break led to plenty of time to take in the 2016 Olympic Games on television.

“It was great to have the inspiration of the Games at that moment,” says Bloemen, current world record holder and 2015 world championship silver medalist in the 10,000m. “I remember thinking, “Ok, this is what I’m doing this for.” A timely and powerful reminder for one of the best speed skaters in the world.

As the sport world now shifts focus from summer to winter sport, with the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang fast approaching, winter athletes like Bloemen are preparing to compete in their pre-Olympic season and Olympic test events.

Concurrently, winter athletes are also shifting from summer training to competition mode, a progression that doesn’t happen overnight or by accident. In long track speed skating, the transition is a deliberate effort to refocus the mind from training to competing.

This effort has been spearheaded by Derek Robinson, CSI Calgary Mental Performance Consultant and the Mental Performance Lead for Speed Skating Canada. Along with the Integrated Support Team (IST), he has spent the last several years developing a series of mental exercises and events that are integrated into each coach’s yearly training program, which serve to develop specific competition skills.

“It’s very deliberate, purposeful, planned and debriefed,” says Robinson. The idea is that the athletes are presented opportunities throughout the season to help them improve competition focus. Robinson says they also measure how the athletes are doing, like evaluating how well they are embracing a particular challenge or responding to a debriefed message, which helps both the coaches and athletes understand how they are improving.

Within this framework, athletes also progress through the transition to competition in their own, more organic way. Bloemen says he shifts his mind to competitive mode by focusing on short term and daily goals. “I have a hard time focusing on far away goals,” he says. “I’m more focused on what I can do now; the first race of the season.”

He gains confidence from the progression of hard summer training to getting back on the ice to feeling the speed in fast laps. Eventually, the excitement returns and he thinks, “Oh yeah, I want to race again.”

This is the kind of attitude that the IST is looking for. “We took them through competition simulations throughout the summer to remind them of that part of their mental performance. We’re now taking that from a general to specific focus,” says Scott Maw, CSI Calgary Sport Physiologist and IST Lead at Speed Skating Canada.

That entails everything from the summer of training, to technical and tactical work, and mental and physical training. According to Maw, a lot of it is about them trusting what they did physically – it plays a big role in what they can do mentally.

This blend of planned, deliberate preparation within the program and performance focused preparation is ultimately what enables higher level performance. Robinson’s key message – athletes have to learn to manage a fierce competitive desire with grit and race IQ. For Maw, it’s all about performance. “Performance is the true measure of how the program is working,” he says.

This pre-Olympic season, Bloemen no doubt has his work cut out for him, but rest assured he is well prepared – freshly inspired, well-trained and ready to race.

Canadian Sport Institute Calgary: @csicalgary
Written by Kristina Groves: @kngrover
Photo by Dave Holland: @csicalgaryphoto
21/09/16