Mental Game During Covid
Written by GRP Rower Bridget Schodorf
I don’t think it comes as a shock to anyone when I say that COVID-19 was a hard blow to those of us who were gearing up for the 2020 Olympics. When I say gearing up, I mean fewer than 48 hours away from competing at Olympic trials for a spot at the Games. That’s what my teammates and I, on the Green Racing Project rowing team, were doing before we had to pack up and drive back to Vermont on March 15, the day we were to drive to the racecourse in Florida, where we had been training for a month. Fast forward eight months, and we are still working toward that goal, but this time it’s Tokyo 2021!
As athletes, we understand that we haven't been hit as hard as so many others, not by a long shot. We here on the GRP are still training, and we have been for months. But we also realize that as full-time athletes, this is our job, and it’s okay for us to be affected by the pandemic, as it has changed a lot for us. The mental changes can’t and shouldn't go unnoticed. Many of us have been affected by COVID differently; we have our own difficulties with it and our own ways to cope.
Coming back to Vermont, the lake was still frozen, so it was back to the Concept 2 ergs until we could return to the water. We started adding some new and creative strength training, as we didn’t have access to all of the gym equipment while in quarantine. After leaving Florida, we knew things were going to change, but we were unsure how the rest of the season was going to look until all racing was officially cancelled. Until we knew for sure that all races for the season were cancelled, we needed to keep training to be ready for racing. But we also needed to get back to a more sustainable training schedule. Training in those few weeks of unknown circumstances was mentally challenging for everyone. It also was hard to motivate yourself everyday. I’m speaking personally; however, if being a rower for 12 years has taught me anything, it’s that we as rowers and athletes in general think more similarly than not. We needed to go from a racing mentality back to a training mentality, while needing to be ready to change our plans at any time.
Over the last six months, we all have had ups and downs when it comes to training. This has included the mental and emotional side of training more than ever. My initial reaction to racing being cancelled was what you would expect; I was disappointed. However, this health crisis has given us extra time to hone things we might have overlooked before the pandemic hit. This includes, for example, the physical side of working on areas we might have pushed to the side because our focus was on racing or injuries we were dealing with. It also has given us a chance to focus more on the mental aspect of the sport.
A big step toward strengthening our mental game came from our coach’s initiative. Steve Whelpley, coach of the GRP rowers, scheduled some Zoom meetings with Aliyah Snyder, a clinical psychologist (and former rower) who focuses on sports neuropsychology and psychotherapy and is the founder and director of The Brain Learning Center. She talked with us about how we can use the knowledge of how our brains work. And she shared skills to learn how to work with our brains to be better athletes (and people in general). Learning these skills came at a great moment, as we have a lot more time on our hands to think. But by changing our perspective, we can use this time to our advantage to learn why we think the way we do and channel our thoughts in a more productive way.
Having a strong mental game in your sport is something that can’t be pushed to the side. But our minds are things we sometimes forget to train. This period during COVID has given us time to look inward at what we need to improve upon mentally in order to be better athletes and teammates.
