Today my focus is on distractions and how they can interfere with my performance. To achieve my best performance, I have to eliminate distractions prior to competition and then put myself in my bubble for competition. Sounds simple, I wish it were.
Distractions are either controllable or uncontrollable. How I deal with both makes a big difference to my performance. The bigger the competition the bigger the distractions, or maybe that’s just how they make me feel.
I’m not saying I’m good at dealing with distractions, it’s a work in progress. When I was younger, they easily crept into my mind and my performance reflected that. But with training I have developed techniques that work for me and by extension, my team. I think I have to remind myself to stay in my bubble. I guess now is a good time to explain “The Bubble”.
You all know by now that I’m from a military family with my dad being a fighter pilot (super cool job right!). Flexibility in our family life was key; schedules could change in a moment. My dad could go to work one day, be deployed overseas and come back a few months later. My parents once planned a squadron family BBQ and 2 days before the party, my dad was sent away. The party still went on of course, just without my dad.
In late November we would find out my dad’s flying schedule for December. He was hardly ever home on the 25th. From that schedule we would pick a date to be our Christmas. I always remember Christmas feeling like Christmas no matter what day it was on. My parents managed this by putting our family in a bubble and controlling the distractions. The day before our designated Christmas, everything was shut off; no TV, cell phone, computer, radio … Christmas music was turned on and the illusion began. Now there were some uncontrollable distractions, like our church or our church pageant but we worked that in as best we could.
I love my Christmas memories no matter what day it happened to be; it was Christmas to us. I firmly believe if you control distractions, magical things can happen.
Now bringing this whole topic back to curling and going forward to the Olympic trials. How am I going to deal with those distractions to ensure my best performance?
It started at the Olympic Training Center where we were all given a briefing about the road to the Olympics and how it would all work. To hear it out loud was exciting stuff and a necessary briefing with so much info to take in. But I felt it right away, the excitement building inside of me. I knew I had to shut it down, try to minimize it, control it. This cannot and will not become a distraction for me. Focusing on the outcome instead of the process could be detrimental for me.
As a team we go over our plan to deal with all of it. We go over our controllables: family, friends, media, pregame routines, warm up, briefings.
Our uncontrollables can be anything from a change in game time to the weather outside creating challenging ice conditions. They might not happen but you still need a plan so you don’t lose focus. Plans are created, routines are set and we stick to them no matter what event we are playing in.
The sheer magnitude of the Olympics is something we have never experienced but I feel that if we stick to the plan and not focus on the outcome, we’ll see it thru. It’s my Christmas bubble all over again.
Curling season is about to start so from now until the Olympic trials we’ll work on perfecting our bubble so we are the best we can be. All part of the plan.