Sports Psychology for Endurance Athletes: The Ball of Power
In any ultra endurance event we have low points where we feel tired, weak and even have thoughts of giving up. The Ball of Power is a great psychological tool to use to help you maintain your strength and endurance in longer events. It can help boost your confidence before and during your event and improve your mood when you start to feel broken.
What is the Ball of Power?
The Ball of Power is a Neuro-Linguistic Programming technique where you use your imagination to develop your own ball of power that help you feel stronger and more powerful.
How does it work?
It works on the premise that our thoughts can be attached to strong emotions with practice which can then impact us physiologically as well as emotionally (if you think about lemons enough your mouth will start to water as your tastebuds anticipate the tart sharp flavour).
Practising the technique in training will make the connection between the image and feelings of power as though you truly are recharging your batteries.
How Can I Learn this Technique?
The technique has 5 steps:
1) Find a quiet personal space where you won't be disturbed and relax; you may wish to close your eyes.
2) Imagine a ball of power floating in front of you. Think about
- It's colour
- How it feels when you touch it; it's texture and temperature.
- The slight movements it makes which tell you it is filled with power and energy
- It's density
- The sound it makes
3) Imagine yourself reaching out and grabbing hold of your ball of power and absorbing it into your body. As you absorb it into your body think about:
- How it fills your lungs with powerful energy
- How that energy courses your arteries and into your muscles making them tingle with power and energy
- How it fills your brain with energy causing your nerves to fire into movement in your muscles
As you do this notice how this influences how powerful and energised your body feels and how you feel ready to move forward with purpose knowing you have the energy to do anything you put your mind to.
4) Identify a physical action (anchor) you can do which will remind you that you always have your ball of power with you to use and absorb when you need to feel its power and energy.
This could be a deep breath, crossing your fingers, rubbing your stomach, swallowing, anything that works with you and your ball of power.
Practise the physical action and bringing out your ball of power to absorb up to 5 times so that you get good at finding your ball of power and using it whenever you need it.
5) Practise doing this daily for 5 minutes until you get good at it. Then try using it during your training sessions 2-3 times per week. You can start with some easy sessions and then as you get good at it use it during harder sessions and see what a difference it makes.
This technique is often best learnt during a guided session with a qualified professional. If you would like to find out more about how we can help you with psychological techniques you can book a free 20 minute consultation with no commitment to see how we can help you.
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