LEARNING FROM AN ELITE RIDER
By Sabrina Rodríguez
In an exclusive interview, I had the privilege of entering the Mental Empire of Portuguese Olympic Dressage rider, Gonçalo Carvalho. Gonçalo participated in the London Olympic Games (2012), the World Equestrian Games (2010) and has 3 European Dressage Championships on his back (2011, 2013 and 2015). Here he shares some of the secrets of how an elite rider trains his psychological abilities to conquer the so called “Mental Game”.
The "Mental Game" is nothing more than the management of psychological abilities and is appreciated in the valuable attribute of mental resistance. Analyzing the results of various studies comparing the psychological abilities and characteristics of athletes with different levels of performance, Williams and Kane (2001) concluded that the most successful athletes were characterized by greater self-confidence, goal setting, concentration and focus, self-control, self-confidence, commitment, activation or arousal management, coping strategies, positive thoughts, positive self-dialogue, use of visualization or imagery, resilience, the ability to cope with pressure, the determination to persist in the face of adversity and fortitude.
Mental skills are not innate but they can be learned and developed to improve our athletic and personal performance. For this, nothing better than learning from the best.
Gonçalo tells us how real champions do it ...
1) How is your mental preparation for a competition?
"An interesting question. It all depends on the type of competition, the importance it has.
It is important to realize the optimal pressure level for a good performance of the athlete. These optimal levels are very personal, they vary from person to person. There are tests that are not very important but that mentally we have to be motivated, and give importance to our performance. As we also have evidence of a very high level of pressure such as an Olympic Game or a European Championship, and then my preparation is more demanding, spending more time with that mental training. Personally, I read and react better with very high pressure levels, but at that moment my focus is only on what I am going to do, what I want to feel on the horse, the importance I give to the situation in question, the focus of creating my "cloud" with the horse in the ring without letting the opinion of those who see or judge us affect me, creating a clear objective if I get there (to the competition) and execute / achieve my objective within the limits of that horse and without thinking about anything else, I have to leave everything else out of my thoughts. ”
2) What strategies do you use to manage stress during a competition?
“In these situations I like to isolate myself, be alone, have a few moments with my family / team, but mainly I like to be alone, sit next to my horse and focus on what we are going to do in the ring. Create a very specific "focus" and abstract myself from everything else that is not relevant at that moment.
When we are in a competition, we are there to compete, not to socialize, many banal conversations with colleagues or friends can influence our performance, many times these conversations happen on purpose to throw us out of our ”game” or “zone”. Hence, in that moment I like to isolate myself with my horse and nothing else.
3) How does your mentality affect your "rideability"?
It can greatly affect our rideability. There has to be a lot of internal work to be able to control those situations. For this, it is important that the athlete does not have too many problems, that he/she goes to the competition and that he does not worry if the groom treated the horse well or not, if the owner will pay the expenses or not, if the veterinarian is looking well after the horse and knows what he is doing, if the child or wife has this or that problem, etc. This is essential for us to have psychological availability. With my Olympic horse it was vital for me to control my breathing and the way I would indicate the exercises only on a mental level. The work of a high performance athlete is huge, there are many things to work on, most of us have to discover these situations a bit by personal instinct, unfortunately, it was my case. Later on, I had some "lights" on sports psychology and discovered that what I did instinctively, after all was part of many techniques used by sports psychologists. I also learned to detect some signs in my body or attitude that showed that I was absorbing that pressure.
I have been publicly criticized for isolating myself and not spending time with my team when we were in a European or World Championship. Even at the level of federations and who runs them, there should be greater training and awareness in this regard, that they learn all these factors that an athlete needs and in which he needs to work on, the space he needs to prepare and achieve in those 6 minutes your best result. I have already competed in team sports, which seemed much easier to handle the pressure, and then I had to learn that in the sport I practice today, it is an individual sport in which it is just me and my horse, and, at the same time, everyone can compete for a team result for one country.
An athlete must have a lot of self-confidence and in his/her team in order to have a top performance, and then each athlete has her own way of preparation, which varies from athlete to athlete. The important thing is to have this space so that this preparation can be carried out at all levels and thus achieve the best possible results. In that sense, I have been happy.
In those moments I focus on what I have to do, what I want to achieve and how I am going to prepare and things have worked. For this it is important that the athlete does not give importance to the rest or what they say, if this is your way of preparation, then do it and do not waste energy on things that will not help you to perform well in the ring.
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