In the week after the CrossFit Games I’ve undergone some reflections and thought I would share my thoughts on what I experienced as a coach. The CrossFit Games a mental game. I was originally going to write a summary of the games (which I will do next week) but this is more to tie in with what I wrote last week about mentality and how your mind affects your performance. With the athletes I coached the state of their mental game had a direct correlation to the placing they achieved overall at the end of the weekend.

The two OPEN individual athletes (Brent and James) I coached at the games had very different mindsets from the start of the weekend. They both had been training for many years to reach this point and in my opinion both are probably better “overall athletes” than they are “CrossFit athletes” They both wanted to do extremely well but it seemed to me that they had a different mindsets between their ears. Now this comparison is just my thoughts. I have discussed this with both of them and I am just presenting this to you so you can see how different outlooks on performance and reflection on events can affect performance.

The CrossFit Games: A Mental Game.

Day 1

At the Ranch. Involved the 7km run, 1rm deadlift and wallball, GHD hill sprint. During that day BOTH athletes were pushed to their mental and physical limits. After the event Brent reflected saying he did not want to run one step further than he had to after crossing the finish line and sought help from the medical aid tent as he thought he had pushed his body beyond what it was capable. Throughout the run James said he stopped 3 times. Not just to walk BUT actually stopped hands on knees and stationary, sometimes asking himself “why am I even doing this?” Brent mentioned that stopping or quitting never entered his mind. Brent finished at the top of the pack and James finished mid pack.

The deadlift ladder was next, neither athlete PR’d. Brent finished near the bottom of the pack and James finished more towards the middle. James was dissppointed with his effort thinking he could have and SHOULD have done better. Brent took the outlook of I did my best, it is what it is and switched his focus to the next event.

The Hill sprint. Brent dominated and James did fantastic as well. At the end of day 1 in the old scoring system Brent and James were only separated by 1 point however in the current point scoring system James was mid pack and Brent was top 5.

Even though Brent finished near last for the 1RM deadlift he was quoted as saying “that for me today was three from three” Some might take that to mean three wins from three events. For him that meant he did as best as he could on each event and was satisfied. I could tell James was a bit bummed after day one particularly with the deadlift.

Day 2

The Swim. Both athletes were very sore. Brent had more experience in the water  having played water polo. The aggression at the start from some of the athletes was new to James and caught him off guard. James did not do as well as expected BUT Brent excelled. At the end of day 2 it was clear that Brent was loving life and James was a little in the dumps thinking he had again underachieved.

Day 3

Murph, squat clean ladder, double DT

This was probably the worst day for both athletes. The athletes and myself included thought they would do a lot better in Murph than they did. They then both came last and second last in the squat clean ladder. Regardless of position, Brent didn’t seem to care. He knew the event was not great for him, it was damage control in regards to the placings BUT James expected to finish. HOWEVER it was after Murph that I saw the BIGGEST difference between these two athletes. James was very disappointed in his effort. The pain and soreness in his legs and body was getting him down. He seemed vacant and non responsive almost like he was day dreaming for a good portion of the day. Even though Brent did not fair any better in Murph he was bright, had already made peace with his placing, knew the squat clean ladder was going to be hard and was keen to just give it a go.

Double DT was next, James did very well, his grip failing towards the end and he was NOT in a great head space on Friday night. It was my job to keep him chirpy, I focused on the positives and tried to pull him out of the dumps. I changed Brent’s DT strategy in the tunnel as he walked out and I am glad he had faith in me (with co coach Mitch Barnard J ) to change the plan.

Day 4

The snail, the ring HSPU Separator and the 100%. This was a GREAT day for both athletes. It was AMAZING to see how one great performance picked up James’ mood, he had his self belief back, he seemed untouchable, it was back to being game on. James crushed his heat of the snail which filled him with confidence on the HSPU workout. The HSPU workout was NOT going to be great for either James or Brent. James crushed the event again and after the workout came to the warm up area stating “ I have no idea how I did that” he was flying. I was so happy for him and again confidence was high.

Brent had an event win in the snail and had a terrible result in the HSPU workout. He was not phased. He said HSPU were a weakness anyway so despite MANY people telling him his judge was bad and his movements were getting called when others were not HE just brushed it off his back and said “You know what I don’t even care, I am going to win the next event.” He didn’t even know what the next even was!!!! This mindset was amazing and to me was the biggest difference between James and Brent all weekend. James MAY have been focusing on his overall performance and placing where as Brent just focused on the next event. As soon as an event was done he forgot about it. Whether he had done great or not. It did not matter. It was only the next event that mattered. Sure enough Brent came out and won the 100% box jump dead ball workout finishing the day with two event wins. James riding high on a GREAT earlier two events also crushed the 100%er and both had amazing scores for day 4 and both climbed the leaderboard

Day 5

The final day, both were keen to get amongst the events after a good previous day.  Both had HIGH levels of confidence and it showed through out the day. They both competed to their capacity and both excelled my expectations. The rope pull workout was a highlight of my weekend with Brent crushing it for his 4^th event win. Going into the last workout Brent had an option to try and hold a top 6 position or try and chase down 3^rd. Initially we were going to pace and stay in top 6 BUT then a new game plan thought F$%k it we are at the CrossFit Games, lets take 3^rd. We had not come this whole weekend to pace the last workout. James gave Brent some great tips with peg placement and Brent did the rest taking out 3^rd overall in the event – 4th overall for the weekend. Nothing was left, and Brent was satisfied.

I guess my take on this whole weekend and the difference between these two athletes was their mindset and nothing else. On day 3 in particular, James in his mind (no one elses) had underperformed. Brent on the other hand seemed like he loved the competition and didn’t want it to end. Not once did one negative thing come out of Brent’s mouth all weekend. Not once did I think one negative thought entered his mind the whole weekend. James let a few bad thoughts enter his head and it affected the event and then the event after. When James had some good events it was a whole different ball game.

Brent’s mindset was to embrace the experience, do his best and the outcome would be the outcome. As long as he did his best that is all that mattered and his best would either be good enough or not. He rarely focused on the outcome of an event and never did he regret or even look back at a single workout as what is done is done and only cared about the next event. This is a champion mindset – champions love to win but are not afraid of failure – it is part of the process.

As a coach it was really interesting to see the psychology of what was going on in these two amzing athletes heads’ and how much personal mind games can turn into demons on the competition floor. How approaching each workout as a clean slate is what is needed to succeed. Focus on the process and not the outcome.