Elite Learners Under Pressure

by Rebecca Lee 17.12.08

Whilst the training environment can prove intense and challenging, competitions and major events will undoubtedly increase the pressure surrounding athletes and coaches. Having the tools available to mentally prepare, control one’s reaction to pressure and actually use these to fuel performance can give the edge over those who are unprepared to deal with the challenge.

Combat sports are often unpredictable and fast paced, adding a complex dynamic which can increase the pressure experienced during a bout. English Institute of Sport (EIS) Performance Psychologist Pete Lindsay has been working with British Judo’s development athletes during training camps both in Dartford and at the English Institute of Sport - Sheffield, utilising pressure training as well as working on an ‘elite learners’ programme.

“Pressure training allows athletes to experience greater pressure during training to give them the chance to learn how to use pressure effectively and forge those processes which they may rely upon during competitions” explains Lindsay.

“Fundamentally, pressure training involves three key stages: (i) Performers raising their awareness about how they and others typically respond in pressure situations, (ii) Identifying their current coping skills and developing others which might be required, and (iii) Testing and refining these coping skills within pressure sessions. In order to recreate pressure during stage three, we might manipulate the demands the environment places on a player, place restrictions on the task (e.g fighting in a smaller area of the mat), or influence the player themselves (e.g via pre-fatiguing players).

“Using this approach, we now have a refined process to help athletes not only learn how to deal with pressure, but also systematically increase pressure in the training environment and reduce the gap between training and competition. Needless to say, if the only chance you have to experience the equivalent pressure of an Olympics in your own country is London 2012, you’re not giving yourself many opportunities to learn about it and thus perform to your potential” he adds.

Transferring experiences from training through to competition is something athletes, coaches and support staff must work upon in order to get the impact required. Lindsay has worked closely with coaches and other support staff to establish the philosophy of developing athletes as ‘elite learners’.

“Having a refined learning process based on continuous debriefing is fundamental to pressure training operating effectively, as the route from A to B is never a straight line!” says Lindsay. “As a result, we’re spending more time focusing on developing “elite learners” within Judo – the rationale behind this is that if we learn faster than the rest of the world we’ll improve faster than them. Understanding learning styles, creating effective learning environments and implementing learning contracts are all areas that the coaches and support team are currently working on. To do this, I work closely with EIS Performance Analyst Mike Bourne who has developed the Learning Contract concept.”

The learning contract about identifying the optimal conditions for a player to learn new skills. Using a framework drawing from coaching, skill acquisition, psychology and performance analysis we can qualify the essential components of the learning process. These components include: the performance improvement needed; player learning characteristics; best-practice interventions and formal review processes.

“Essentially it’s a written document which commits us all to helping a player gain the specific skills needed to win elite level judo contests” says Mike Bourne. “But the contract also provides us with a blueprint of how we can go about it in the most time efficient manner” he adds.

The philosophy of ‘elite learners’ isn’t limited to just the athletes and Lindsay has been working with coaches and support staff to ensure they develop the attributes of elite learners too, ensuring the whole programme is equipped to reach the levels of performance desired.

“As a result of working with athletes, coaches and support staff to enable them to all be elite learners, we’re already debriefing the results of utilising the pressure training framework and learning how we can make it even more effective by personalising many of the pressures”  says Lindsay.

“I work closely with the coaches to help them recognise the signs/influences on pressure both during training and competitions. This enables them to increase the pressure during some sessions and alleviate it during others and indeed during competition which is an important tool.”

Darren Warner, Development Squad Coach with British Judo began implementing the pressure training framework with the Development squad in preparation for the Junior European and World Championships. The squad won three medals at the Junior Europeans and had the most successful Junior World Championships in fourteen years, winning two bronze and a silver medal.

 “Applying the pressure training framework has helped to raise our athlete’s awareness of the stresses that they are under” says Warner. “On the mat our players are now able to recognise their own signs of stress, and identify how they can use this to their advantage – additionally, by understanding how stress and pressure arises, our players are beginning to recognise how they can increase the pressure on their opponent.

“Not only have we reduced the gap between the pressure experienced in competition and training, at times some of the training that we did prior to the Junior European and World Championships was actually more stressful than the competition itself.

“Looking forward, having reflected on the work done so far in this area, it’s exciting to think how we can increasingly personalise the stressors for each of our athletes to ensure that every individual is best conditioned to deal with the demands of competition” he adds.

The development athletes now look forward to the Under 20 British Trials on the 10^th January and a successful 2009.

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