Wendel Abel

Congrats to all our athletes who are representing our country at the world games in Japan. Jamaica is undoubtedly 'the sprint factory' of the world and we must note and acknowledge our athletes for firstly, making it to the games and secondly, making it to many of the finals. They are national treasures!

Competing in sports today, however, demands a high level of preparation and practice. In order for athletes to execute and win their games they must possess technical skills, physical stamina and mental fortitude.

Our athletes carry an enormous burden and face many challenges. Apart from tracking their own personal expectations in a race, they also take the hopes and aspirations of their families, entire communities, country and the Caribbean region. This is an enormous responsibility.

In the mind of an athlete

In addition, they have to deal with the competition which includes, the psychological warfare waged byother includes, the psychological warfare waged by other competitors and sometimes, other countries. They also go into competition with their personal baggage, memories of past failures, and the fear of failure, personal disappointment and the negatives that persons, including the media, sometimes hurl at them.

The thought process

Athletes have their own personal thoughts to deal with. Sometimes, even the best of competitor is overcome by the thought of failing, the thought of being beaten or the thought of not measuring up despite having the technical skill and being physically ready for the race.

The emotional state

The emotional state of our athletes is also critical. Our thinking and beliefs affect our emotional state in practice and preparation and more so, on the day of competition. One's emotional state will, no doubt, affect one's performance. If an athlete is nervous,fearful or depressed and he or she is not able to control these negative emotions and replace them with positive ones such as joy, confidence and reassurance, then he or she is going to have problems winning his or her race.

More focus on mental development

Athletes have to develop 'a killer instinct'. This killer instinct is not one that will necessarily destroy your competitors but one that develops confidence in oneself, coping skills that enables an athletes to withstand the pressures of competition. The killer instinct fosters an unflagging belief in oneself by thinking 'I can do it' and 'I am the best'.

Let us learn from the Australians in cricket and the Americans in other sports; their competitors exude a high level of confidence, sometimes a bit excessive, even bordering on arrogance and they utilise a lot of positive affirmations.

The role of sports psychology

Sports psychology is an emerging discipline which enables individuals to achieve their peak performance by employing numerous techniques. These techniques include managing the environment and competition to reduce stress; helping a competitor to focus on and off the field; erasing negative thoughts and developing positive thinking and working on negative beliefs about oneself that are sometimes written in our personal scripts and carried around as personal baggage.

Jamaica has done well in developing the talents, technical skills and the physical prowess of our athletes but we have fallen behind in their psychological preparation. We need to employ more mental health personnel to work with our athletes and help them to develop their mental fortitude.

Sports are highly competitive activities and involve 'big money'. We cannot win on talents and physical prowess alone. Our competitors must be mentally prepared. I therefore encourage our sporting fraternity to take this matter of mental preparation more seriously; often, this is what stands between us and the gold.

Asafa Powell is undoubtedly one of our finest athletes. He has done this country proud and we all know that he will continue to make us proud. We expect him to take home the gold in the next Olympics. We admire his humility and gentlemanlike demeanour and clearly he has the technical skills to master his game. One of his comments on Sunday after his race at the World Athletics Chanpionships in Osaka, Japan, was "I panicked"; this clearly speaks to the fact that more attention needs to be placed on his mental preparation.