How is fear transmitted amongst athletes before an endurance event?
At some recent events, we have overheard athletes talking about their concerns and have been intrigued by how their fears have rippled out. In this latest article, Coach Philip explores how fear is spread and how it can impact athletes. More importantly, he also identifies how athletes can mitigate this group-social effect and rise above this group phenomenon.
How can other’s fear impact us before a race?
Seeing others acting scared makes us scared. This is evolutionary in social creatures. If one herd member sees danger, everyone can benefit by responding to their actions.
Within the brain, the amygdala responds to threats, receives information from our senses, and coordinates a response: Fight, flight or freeze. One example would be a herd of animals on the African planes. One herd member’s fear alerts everyone, and everyone is saved.
Our brains have a structure called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). When we watch other people experience fear, our ACC ignites, and the message travels to the amygdala to set off defence responses. This form of fear contagion is helpful for the human race to survive and also works effectively between species. Dan Kahneman talks about this in his book Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow, where observing multiple sources, including other species’ responses, helps speed up decision-making to allow us to move to action faster.
There are several amusing videos online (you can try this on on your partner if you want or are brave enough) where someone starts screaming as if in response to something. Other people near them also jump and scream in the same manner even though there is no actual threat, and they can’t see it even if there is one.
Therefore, if other people are concerned and focused on something, we will also respond to it the same way unless we are aware of that response and actively try to do something differently.
Can we pick up on other people’s pre-race anxiety?
Fear can also trigger a chemical release in humans, which others can pick up. Along with emotional and physical indicators, this can spread through a crowd, and high-arousal emotions (like fear or excitement) can spread more quickly. This emotional contagion can be counteracted by removing yourself from the crowd (physically or psychologically). Try not to go with the flow.
In triathlon or other significant endurance races, we can see that easily when athletes are faced with challenging conditions or technical courses. In fact, this can perpetuate, like with media reports about terrifying things ‘in real life’, which exacerbates fear. The fear of shark attacks is significantly higher than the fear of being hit by a car, partly because of how we report them rather than based on the facts and probability of being attacked by a shark! Or in triathlon life, articles talking about the “brutal winds from Hawi” or how “there is a terrifying descent in Nice” can only intensify or prolong any fears the herd have experienced without physically experiencing them. In other words, the group start discussing something and any fear we experience is a result of the fear we observe instead of the actual fear. Think about the videos. You may be a fantastic descender, but if you hear everyone worrying about a technical descent, you join that herd mentality instead of seeing it as an opportunity.
How do you overcome group anxiety before a significant endurance?
These responses are evolutionary and automatic, making them very difficult to overcome. Even the strongest of individuals will start questioning if they should be concerned. Being the outlier makes you feel uncomfortable. As a result, it will be impossible to ignore them completely; instead, minimising them through reason can help and looking to a calm individual – this could be other athletes or a coach. Therefore, if you find yourself in a herd responding to fear, looking for a more relaxed person will be one of your best options.
I first saw an example of this at IRONMAN Austria, where a TTH athlete was with a group of club mates. I didn’t coach her, but I knew her from camps, and a TTH Coach coached her. A friend was racing, and we bumped into her and her club mates. I could tell she was anxious. Inviting her to sit with us and let her clubmates discuss the course, expectations and race away from her ears was how she was able to remove herself from the herd anxiety and focus on what she could do really well rather than listen to what other people felt that they couldn’t do.
Contagion of fear ahead of an event can prey on your own self-confidence around preparation or play against an imposter’s syndrome-style response. For example, you begin comparing yourself to the projection of the people you can see. You see muscular bodies, expensive bikes and all the gear; you compare that to the training you missed, your body image insecurities, and the bike you don’t have! These comparisons are unfair as everyone will have confidence issues about themselves but will unlikely broadcast them. Comparing your inner self to your competitor’s outer self is not counting apples with apples. Or, to put it like one of our athletes, ‘I would be intimidated by myself if I saw me out and about!”. Don’t let your reflection scare you or knock you off your pace. Focus on your own outer shell and try to rise above the herd mentality. Purely recognising it as being a herd approach can help you there.
Finally, you can also begin to play mind games with this too. Playing to people’s fears helps to exacerbate the fear and resulting chaos. If people complain about the extreme heat in a race, remind them: “Apparently, it is meant to be one of the hottest years ever"!”. If people are worrying about the race, talk to people about it. After all, you recognise that you are playing the games, you can rise above it, and you are already starting to beat some of your competitors. However, pick and choose the people you want to play these games with – it is a brutal approach, so talking to the first-timers is pretty ruthless! Whatever you don, don’t let others play this game with you.
If you start finding yourself going with the flow and building anxiety ahead of an event. Try to take the time to remove yourself from that environment, physically or mentally. If you can’t – like the few minutes before a swim start – try to take a third-person view of the location and rise above it. Think about what that calming person would say to you, and remember you are ready, and you can. All you must do now is just “get on with it!”.
Philip is the founder of Tri Training Harder LLP. He’s a British Triathlon Level 3 coach, and has been coaching for over a decade and is involved with mentoring and developing other coaches.
Philip has coached athletes to European and World AG wins, elite racing, many Kona qualifications, IRONMAN podiums and AG wins.
Alongside the conventional development through many CPD courses, he has also been fortunate enough to work alongside experts in the fields of Physiotherapy, Strength and Conditioning, Nutrition, Psychology, Biomechanics, Sports Medicine. Putting this knowledge into practice he has worked with thousands of athletes to various degrees, from training camps in Portugal and around Europe, clinics in the UK and online coaching.
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