The power of words

As endurance athletes (yes, I am finally comfortable calling myself an athlete) we are constantly measuring ourselves by numbers: how many hours we have trained this week; what kilometre pace we have done; what average speed we achieved; what our splits are; how fast our transition was; how much we weigh; etc; etc. However, our performance relies on the power of words.


A lot has been written on the power of words and I am fully aware of the value associated with being a good wordsmith – after all I earn a living from words. But, it has only really been the last couple of months that I have realised the true power of words.

Words impact on an athlete’s performance in so many ways. At the Challenge Wanaka training camp in October, for example, Sam Warriner reiterated several times the mantras that she uses to power her through a race: ‘Long and Strong’ for her swim; ‘In the Box’ (and others) on her ride, and; ‘Quick Feet’ on her run. She repeats these simple expressions over and over to sharpen her focus. Geoff has also given me words to focus on while training and in the race and several of the websites that I have used (especially those relating to swimming – like Swim Smooth) have discussed the value of simple expressions that help improve and maintain good technique.

Recently I have also read that researchers in the UK found that athletes who used the swear words of their choice during training performed better than those who were forbidden from using any bad language. I tried this on my long ride the other day and I have to say, even if I didn’t perform any better, it made me feel better to swear at the top of my lungs as I battled my way into the gale force winds. I yelled the word five or six times and then just got on with it.

Conversely, words can be extremely distracting. I frequently have conversations with myself in my head when I am training, especially on long easy sessions. My mind will flip from one topic to the next in an instant. This became very clear to me on a run through Hagley Park when I was at a conference in Christchurch in November. Often the different strands of the conversation would overlap or one part would abruptly interrupt another. A typical 30 second section of the run went something like this:

Quick feet, quick feet. Shit it’s hot. Man I feel like crap today. Quick feet. Quick fe. She looks hot. I’m quicker than him. This surface is difficult to run on. Quick fee. Ahh, that shade is good. I wonder what the earth quake really felt like. Get out of the road you bloody idiot. I really have to concentrate better. There is a great blog post in all of this. Quick feet. Quick feet. I could start it like. I am gonna call it the power of words. Quick f. Shit my foot hurts.

This went on for the entire 30 minutes of the run and it was one of my worst of the year. The conversation just would not stop and I could not focus. I guess that is one of the things that sets top athletes apart from the rest. They can concentrate on a very narrow set of objectives and use simple mantras to become totally and utterly focussed on the task at hand. My problem is that I can only do this for very short periods of time (a few minutes, maximum) before my mind starts to wander. On my better training sessions and races, I am able to bring my mind back to focus relatively quickly by using those few key words, but I can never maintain it for an entire session or race.

I have also begun to reflect on when words become truly powerful. For me, words without action are vacuous and hollow. They lack meaning and passion. Perhaps that is why Challenge Wanaka is so meaningful for me. It allows me to put my words into action. Words that are simple, potent and powerful. This contrasts with the words that I use in my academic life, which are often complicated, convoluted and impotent. When I use words in training and racing their effect is immediately evident and gratifying, but when I lecture or publish even though I hope that my words have an impact, I may never see the impact that they have.

When and how words are delivered also has a huge impact on their potency. Even though Coach Geoff can tend to give me too much information at times (sorry Geoff, sometimes it’s overload for a rank amateur like me), the timing and use of words is brilliant at motivating me. Everything from a simple photocopied certificate posted to my home address that read ‘Congratulations on completing the first 20 weeks of training’. To a text that I received last night from Geoff, after I had informed him of the details of my latest training session, that read:

Jeez ur getting really fit. U are humming along nicely which is exactly what I worked out for ur training schedule. Get excited for the 15th because Richard Mitchell is fit and fast and ready to race.

Those words make all the pain and effort worth it and I will remember them on race day. When the going gets tough they will mean so much to me.