DEMYSTIFYING A PERSONAL BEST PERFORMANCE
Many athletes have a skewed and outdated perception of what constitutes a personal best (PB), which has been fed to them by coaches who lack understanding of the definition. Most athletes would consider a PB performance to require them to perform better than they have historically, measured using a quantitative metric such as time (if you’re a swimmer) or kilograms (if you’re a powerlifter) for example.
Now, the first thing to remember is that a PB is a ‘PERSONAL BEST’. Let that sink in for a moment. You’re hoping for a performance that is the BEST you have done to date.
How many things need to align and go right, for you to even have an environment where this record-breaking performance is capable?
What Factors Outside of Performance Influence a PB?
There are numerous things that can occur in the build-up to and on competition day. All of which contribute to your ability to perform. However, a PB is not restricted to those competitions where you have had perfect preparation and environment. You can have PBs for a variety of contexts that consider your preparation and the environment you’re competing in. Where an ‘IDEAL PB’ would be 100%, you may only be able to achieve 80% of this due to poor sleep the night before, for example. However, you can strive to achieve 100% of this 80% context and environment you find yourself in, thus putting in a personal best performance.
Let's take this a step further, how many things do you need to execute for that performance as a whole to warrant a PB?
What Components add up to a PB?
If the outcome of a competition is 100%, this is your PB. However, in order to make up this 100% we need to execute a number of things to the best of our ability. Let's say that there are 10 things that make up a perfect performance for you, all contributing 10% towards the outcome. Within these 10 components, you need to perform 100% in each of these to achieve 100% overall, and thus PB. In our attempts to strive for this outcome, we forget to acknowledge our achievements in these 10 components. When in one of those components you may have PB’d, achieving 100% of the respective 10% that component makes up of performance.
HOW CAN PB THINKING BE DAMAGING?
If we are using the strict, inflexible, and outdated approach to attain a PB, our athletes will have a heavy focus on the outcome of a performance, setting themselves high standards, which if they do not meet will lead to a cascade of negative emotions.
These negative emotions can result in the following occurring:
Negative self-talk
Depleted confidence
Decreased motivation
Increased chance of dropout
Higher chance of performing badly on subsequent events/lifts, which will compound the issue leading to a vicious cycle.
Most importantly, striving for PBs that are measured quantitatively, will result in the athlete identifying themselves and their performance with a statistic. This is an unhealthy way for the athlete to approach the sport, as they are only gaining confidence, happiness, and motivation from one facet of their sport. When, as we know as coaches, our sports can be extremely complex.
Using only a singular source for our athlete's confidence, happiness, and motivation will inevitably lead to burnout. The same reason that we will program different blocks of training with a variety of exercises and different outcome goals, we know that a program (or source) only has a limited shelf life for it to be effective. We then need to adapt and switch things up to keep our athletes focused, confident, happy, and motivated.
Therefore, why are we only relying on one source to measure their performance?
When our athletes are performing, we need them to be able to draw upon various different measures of PB, to keep them confident, happy, and motivated to compete.
3 TIPS TO IMPROVE PB THINKING
If we do not educate our athletes on how to expand their PB thinking, then we increase the chance of our athletes performing badly and potentially dropping out. Here are 3 tips to help you improve your athlete’s approach to personal bests:
Rating of Perceived Exertion – RPE is an effective measure of intensity in an athlete's performance. However, we tend to reserve them for use in training. Granted, in a competition, we should be performing at RPE 10, although, in sports such as powerlifting you would only be at RPE 10 for the last lift. If you do not make this lift, then you could begin the negative cycle outlined above. It is in these moments that we can refer to lifts 1 and 2 which may have been scheduled to be RPE 6 and 8 respectively, to look for a PB. If your second lift felt like an RPE 7 when it was previously an RPE 8, then this is a PERSONAL BEST!
Athletes' Battery Levels – A simple technique, but incredibly effective. If your athlete is beating themselves up over not getting a PB then run through with them what their battery levels were before competing. If fully charged, 100%, was a PB, what were your actual levels, and did you have a personal best for the energy capacity you could expend? This means that we start to view performance more holistically, considering factors over than the lift/swim for example.
PB Measurement – Work with your athlete to develop a variety of ways in which you can measure performance. Instead of focusing on the statistical measure of a PB, categorise performance into the components that, when done well and added together, will result in a PB performance.
It is your job as a coach to ensure that your athlete is monitoring their performances effectively. If you’re using the outdated method of chasing PBs, then you’re not giving your athlete the advantage. I would love to hear you measure PBs with your athletes, so please feel free to share them in the comments! If you would like help to develop an approach that will boost your athlete's performance in the pursuit of PBs, then please get in contact with me at robin@autonomypsychology.com
Best Wishes
Robin Hughes
Mental Performance Coach and Sports Counsellor located near Chelmsford, Essex, UK supporting athletes, exercisers, and coaches worldwide with Online Sports Psychology Services. Specialising in working within the fitness industry.
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