Several years ago I met with a coach in northern Florida who helps athletes improve their sprinting speed with a seemingly unique “mind method.”
You’d think he would get the athletes on a track, stretch them out and then begin running a series of sprints as hard as they can.
That’s the way so many of us would have done it when we were in high school or college.
But this coach, he’s a bit different than what we probably had.
First thing he does is have you sit on the ground with your legs outstretched. From this position you are told to run in place.
No, you don’t stand up first.
You run with your buttocks and hips – which you cannot do UNLESS you change your focus and mentally pretend that you can… and then, you discover that you can simulate running, even without your legs.
After this drill is finished the coach brings you to your feet and gives you other drills that you may think have NOTHING to do with running, much less running faster.
On and on it goes for an hour.
When you finally get to sprint for the first time – you run up a sandy hill rather than on flat ground.
And on the day you ran your first sprints on flat ground, you were amazed at how much faster you could run.
One of the key takeaways from this coach was hearing him yell the following as his athletes sprinted:
FOCUS ON THE FINISH.
That’s correct.
Focus on being DONE.
Focus on completion.
Focus on the celebration.
Focus on taking that final step – as well as the first – and the current one.
Start from the ground up.
Start from your buttocks. Now go.
Don’t tell me you can’t sprint from your buttocks.
Imagine what you think you cannot do – and do so.
When an athlete is sprinting, he’s already focused on where he is in space and time. When you add “the finish” to the equation, you increase creative tension, which helps catapult you forward.
Think of anything you want to do.
Come up with simple bite-size exercises that lead you to the goal.
Build momentum each day by knowing where you are as well as where you want to be.
For short-term goals (short sprints), focusing on the finish is powerful.
What’s your short-term goal?
Good.
Now go get it.
Matt Furey
P.S. Long-term goals are not exactly the same as short-term when it comes to focusing on the finish. Much more on this in my Theatre of the Mind audio program.
