Thursday 28 May 2015

The Importance of Finishing What You Start


Whether it is a race, a workout or even just a piece within a workout, I believe that it is really important to finish what you start.  After two World Cup regattas, the biggest SUP race so far this year, and three months of training I’ve seen enough to remind me how extremely important it is to avoid quitting in a race or any part of a workout. 

When I was racing canoe I was extremely competitive and driven and rarely quit in a race, especially in the early stages of my international career.  I must confess that in the late stages of my career, when for the first time I faced a real challenge in domestic races, I quit a couple of times when I fell behind in races and it looked like I wouldn’t win.  I felt like shit immediately after for doing it.  Even to this day, 20 years later, it bothers me when I think about it.  I’m certainly not haunted by it, but when I’m reminded of it or think about those races for some particular reason, it eats at me. 

The most important reason you should never quit is that it is habit forming.  Once you’ve done it the first time it becomes easier to do the second time.  And if you’ve done it a couple of times it becomes a lot more likely you’ll do it again. It doesn’t mater whether it is in a race or a workout. 

I’ve seen talented athletes in both sprint and SUP fall into the trap of quitting in races once they start to face a little adversity.  It’s so easy to do, especially when they’ve already done it once or twice before and a pattern develops.  When you consider that most races, whether they are 1000m sprint races or 12 mile SUP races, are anything but easy and there are lots of moments in races where you have to face challenges, you can see that it can be a constant struggle to keep yourself going if you are weak enough to let the thought of giving in to them cross your mind.  These tough moments taunt you and dare you to keep going.  They tell you it’d just be easier if you quit.  And if you’ve become weak and have succumbed to them once, you’re more likely to do it again.  

The best way to protect yourself from falling victim to these tough moments is to make yourself bulletproof to them by developing the mental strength to keep any negative self-talk during races at bay.  You can practice this by immediately replacing a negative thought with a positive one every time you realize you’re thinking negatively.  I’ve also found it particularly useful to remember that when you’re hurting in a race, or having trouble facing a particular challenge, the people you are racing are hurting just as much and are struggling to face the same challenge as well.  The adversity you feel you are facing is actually not unique to you.  If you consider that, and then challenge yourself to hang on and make the others you’re racing against crack first, you pretty quickly find yourself in the right mindset to paddle right through the tough times.  Fortunately, just like quitting is easier to do the second time, so too is paddling through any adversity.  When you’ve done it really well once and actually realize what you’ve done, it does wonders for your confidence.  You feel like you are unbreakable and mentally strong enough to face anything, and that confidence makes the next time easier. 

To a large extent my experience has shown me that the concept of self-fulfilling prophecies is true in a sport sense.  If you are worried before you start your race about the challenges you’ll face, they are likely to seem like big, difficult challenges for you to overcome when they arise.  What you fear might happen actually tends to happen.  If you have a positive outlook and are full of confidence that you can face any challenges, you are more likely to have less problems dealing with them and everything is more likely to unfold favourably. 

It isn’t just in your races that it is important to never quit, but also in your training.  You should have a training plan and so you should know what your workout is going to be well before you push off the beach and start paddling.  This should allow you to be mentally prepared to deal with the challenges, pain and discomfort you’ll face in the workout.  If you’re mentally ready there should be no excuse for stopping part way though and deciding that you’ll do something easier because your heart isn’t into doing the hard workout you started. 

If you do stop in your training session and either head back to shore or do something easier, you’re doing something that you’ll be more likely to do in the future because you’ve already done it once.  You’ll be surprised how quickly a pattern forms and it suddenly becomes acceptable for you to do something that is certain to prevent you from achieving success.  Let’s face it.  If you are always taking the easy path in training you aren’t going to be very good on race day.   

Even quitting an individual piece in an interval workout is bad.  In my opinion intervals should be done with a similar mental intensity as a race.  While they aren’t often done at physical race intensity, there are always things to concentrate and focus on in a mental sense.  If you practice training with the focus you need in a race then it comes to you naturally when you are actually racing and need that intense focus.  Conversely, if your focus is so weak in training that you let that negative voice in your head get too loud and it convinces you to quit, then you are more likely to quit in a race as well.   

Certainly there are exceptions to the “never quit rule”.  If you suffer an injury it is often foolish to try to go on.  You could be dealing with a protracted period of time away from training if you try to fight through it and make the injury worse than it might have otherwise been.  Inclement weather may be another intelligent reason to quit.  If there is an electrical storm the last place you want to be is on the water.  Or if conditions are getting way beyond your ability it might well be prudent to cut your workout short and head in, or at least find calmer water.  If you limit yourself to quitting only in these exceptional circumstances you should be in no danger of developing any bad habits. 

If I reflect back on my own career, I was at my strongest as a racer when I was my strongest and toughest mentally.  If I reflect back on all the athletes I have seen perform up close, the ones who have done the best most consistently are the ones who have always fought hard in races and respected their training plans no matter what.  They know no other way.   

If you don’t think you are up to a hard workout, or if your heart really isn’t into a race, then you are better off not even getting on your board and trying.  Do something else entirely rather than risk stopping part way though the workout or race.  If you’re not into it you shouldn’t be out there in the first place.  Another thing you can do is cut down your workout before you go out so you won’t have to bail on all or part of it once you’ve started.   At least this way you won’t end up doing something that can quickly form a terrible pattern. 

In my opinion quitting in a race isn’t just harmful to you, it’s also disrespectful to your fellow competitors and to sport in general.  The essence of sport is to try your best.  When you don’t you not only cheat yourself, you also cheat the other athletes who were looking forward to racing you.  And if you’re in an event for which you had to qualify, you’re cheating the athlete who just missed qualifying and would have given anything to have a chance to race hard in that race.   

So this week’s Tip of the Week is simple.  Finish what you start.