Controlling the Controllables - Controlling Sport Performance.

Sport is a dynamic and consistently changing environment, throwing us unpredictable fast balls which we have to perceive and adapt to perform in. One minute you’re on top of the world, the next you are second best or begin to feel like the world is crashing down on you. So the idea of controlling what you can to try to minimalize tectonic shifts in performance is both appealing and vital for us.

Within the realms of Psychology, and indeed more so in the domain of Sport Psychology, Psychologists promote the philosophy of “controlling the controllables”. In brief, this is one of the building blocks of the athletes’ mental toughness; the idea that we are mentally tough and don’t break under pressure in competition. Emphasising that performers invest time and effort into many aspects of the performance they control, this allows us to prioritise what exactly it is that we need to control, over aspects we cannot control, in order to be best at our performance. In psychology we normally call this “autonomy” so what we’re looking at here is control (autonomous) vs no control (none- autonomous).

Let look at all those things you can control:

1) Attitude – Everything starts and ends with your attitude and if you get it right, all other elements with begin to fall into line it with it. A positive and winning attitude will help you to success and this impact will be seen by those around you. You can control what attitude you want to take into your sporting life and this will have a lasting effect. For example, honestly, respectfulness, Intrinsic motivation (doing it for you), Self-determination and self-reflection are a few key attitudes for success. For equestrian athletes, a positive and open attitude is essential for successful partnerships.

2) You’re preparation for the competition – Writing up a plan of action in your training is key to ensuring that you are fully prepared, able to expect and control all the elements and quirks on competition day. Stick to your plan and make it progressive and with good time. In essence, you’re able to control all those controllables. By failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

3) Effort- Following up from preparation, how hard you work is up to you and you alone. If you give up on that control, you are giving away one key element that sets you apart from the rest. The effort you put in must also be smart and reflected in your work rate in practice and games. Indeed winning is not something built in a day; it is constructed from hard effort and year-round. It comes down to progressive and consistent effort with a view toward a long range goal.

4) Focus- What is focus? I would argue it is relaxed concentration, it becomes exponentially important in sports where outside distractions can keep you from performing your best. Your focus must be on there here and now, on each time you play, one at a time. For riders, I always advocate my focus saying to remember “you, your horse and your course”. If you remember to stay in the moment, you’re not only controlling your mental focus, but you’re

also indirectly regulating your body in remaining calm and flexible.

5) Body Language - Although you can class this a communication, it is the most visible and easiest thing you can change. If you portray a confident body language and remain that way under situations of pressure, it will send a clear and powerful message to your teammates, coach and other competitors. The key here is to be confident, not over or under as these will hamper your performance and reputation as an athlete.

That is all well and good, but how can I measure this?

Turner & Meijen developed a model named “The Control Triangle”, this asks athlete what they are focusing on before performance. The triangle itself is equilateral with three factors, one at each tip. At the highest point, there is “Performance Environment” which relates to factors such as the crowd, surface, teammates etc. At the bottom right tip we have “Opposition” which is self- explanatory and could relate to team or individual. Finally and most importantly, at the bottom left tip we have “Your Performance” which refers to anything that is under your control such as abilities, skills, feelings, thoughts; it is essentially the pure focus on the task at hand. The higher you score, the more focus you have on that tip. So we’re looking at focus, but are providing the context of control to understand whether the athlete is spending time focusing on factors they cannot control (Opposition and Performance Environment) or factors they can control (Your Performance).

Control vs Influence

We have to recognize while technically nothing external to us is controllable, it is possible to influence those external factors. Therefore, in the days leading up to performance we expect to see athletes “visiting” all three areas of the triangle. It is necessary for an athlete to spend some time focusing on the opposition to analyse what they are up against. It is acceptable for an athlete to think about the performance environment, how this may impact their performance and how they would want to deal with this. But directly prior to a competition, sitting in the changing rooms ready to perform, it is much more useful to focus on only that which is under your direct control in that moment i.e. your performance (or the processes that will lead to effective performance). At this stage, spending too much time on trying to control other aspects means that you are directing your energy away from the task at hand.

The difference here is between “control” and “influence”. Most (if not all) internal factors (thoughts, behaviours, emotions, decisions) are completely controllable. It may be difficult to control these internal factors at times, but usually they are 100% controllable. External factors are not controllable. You can have a huge influence on them, but ultimately they are not within our grasp. For example, we can influence the opposition with our movement on and off the ball, but we can’t control the opposition’s responses to our actions. We can influence the performance environment by getting the crowd on our side, but we can’t control the crowd or their behaviour.

So these uncontrollable factors are important because we can influence them to an extent. Visiting those areas on the triangle should be part of an athlete’s preparation for performance. But when performance looms and its time to switch on to the competition, a laser-like focus should be fixed on the controllables for that performance. Sitting in the changing rooms ready to perform, the athlete should be focused on what they can do in this moment to ensure effective performance. In other words, they should be a “bottom left thinker”, scoring highly on the bottom left tip of The Control Triangle, compared to the other two tips. The athlete should ask “what can I do NOW to perform effectively?” rather than “what have I controlled and what have I not controlled for this performance?” Here is example of a “bottom left thinker’s” profile.

Conclusion

Don’t get me wrong, controlling the controllables is vital as a part of an athlete’s daily routines. They should strive to bring those uncontrollables within their sphere of influence to make sure conditions are optimal for success. But there is a time and a place for this and sitting in the changing rooms directly before performance is not the time to be thinking about anything uncontrollable. The Control Triangle can help athletes to be aware of where their focus is prior to performance, whether that focus is on controllable factors or uncontrollable factors, and how often in the build up to a competition they want to “visit” the uncontrollables. This is also important for coaches and sport science support staff to be aware off, so they can help athletes to redirect their attention to their performance, especially in the face of imminent competition.