![]() "Once I hit that hill, it's going to hurt like crazy." Productive positive thoughts Sports psychologists say that rather than deny defeatist thoughts, young runners should acknowledge them, analyze them, and learn to convert them into affirmations such as: 1. "That guy on the other team has already beaten me twice this season. "I never run well when the temperature's above 70." 3. "Routine gets the body/mind working in synergy, and good thoughts tend to follow." Familiar negative thoughts But even the most ironclad rituals won't completely stem the flow of negative thoughts, such as: 1. "Everything from their seat on the bus to how they fold their warm-up suits to the brand of energy bar they're carrying is part of the ritual," Arbogast says. Runners at Bingham High, for instance, follow meticulous premeet rituals, leaving little to chance. To think in a positive, orderly fashion, try acting that way. The physical feeds the mental, and vice versa. How can you make friends with your psyche, turning it into an ally rather than foe? First, understand that all your thoughts are products of a body-mind continuum. Udewitz found that the latter group ran faster and, more importantly, said they enjoyed the sport more. ![]() A second group of runners, meanwhile, focused on their pain and stress, working through the rough patches with the help of guided positive thinking. He studied a high school cross-country team, asking certain runners to try to distract themselves during painful and stressful moments in competition. Rob Udewitz, a clinical psychologist practicing in New York City and an avid runner, wrote his doctoral dissertation on the thought processes of high school runners. But another successful strategy is to accept your thoughts, even the negative ones, and convert them into positive energy. So in those anxious moments before a race, when that bad angel's singing in full voice, our kids tell him, right out loud, to stop." Accept your thoughts, but make them better Derailing self-destructive thoughts just before competition is sometimes necessary. "The idea is to listen to the good angel, and shut out the bad angel. "Every runner has a good angel whispering in one ear, telling her that she's strong and confident, and a bad angel whispering in the other ear, saying she's weak and unworthy," explains Jeff Arbogast, Bingham's head track and cross-country coach. He knows that the runner doesn't want the bus to stop she's commanding her own negative thoughts to cease and desist. Then, suddenly, from the back of the bus, an athlete hollers: "Stop!" The driver doesn't even flinch toward the brake pedal. As a team bus rolls away from the South Jordan, Utah, campus, heading toward a meet, the runners are quietly immersed in their prerace thoughts. Bus drivers transporting Bingham High School's track and cross-country teams have learned to ignore the outbursts that regularly punctuate their trips.
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