Tips for divers to stay motivated during uncertainty

British Diving and EIS Sports Psychologist Laura Cosgrove has created some fantastic resources and tips for divers to stay motivated and maintain some normality during this coronavirus outbreak.

Tips for divers to stay motivated

Divers could try these three tips to stay motivated during this temporary break from training and normality.

• Keep your head in the game.
  The season has paused, not finished! We know the pools will open again at some point – don’t let the hard work you’ve already done be for nothing.
• Visualisation
  Keep your motor pathways myelinated by imaging dives or specific details (e.g inward take-off, reverse come-out) to decrease the time of ‘finding them’ upon return to training.
• Physical Self-Care
  Keep up with prehab, rehab and mobility exercises (tip: put them into your daily routine).

Downloadable resources

The wheel of improvement features general different areas to help divers brainstorm ideas on improvements they would like to see. The goal-setting sheet walks athletes through how to break down their ideal outcome into manageable and controllable tasks. Divers will be able to review the wheel, thinking holistically about their new daily routines and life at home which will then help them complete the goal setting sheet.

These tools will be really useful at a time when divers have a break from a usually busy competition calendar, meaning they can step back and focus what they really would like to work on and improve.

Athletes often go straight to ‘technique’ when doing goal-setting, but any personal or other performance-related aspect is just as important. This is an opportunity athletes to do the wheel first to get them thinking holistically about their diving/life.

Tips for everyone

Ambiguity can make us feel anxious. Our brains are ‘problem solvers’ and don’t like uncertainty, so it can catastrophise to get an answer (e.g. “This will never end”).

It can also cause you to ruminate and provide an endless loop of concerns, issues, problems and outcomes.

Instead, return to the facts and look at what is within your control (cliché, but necessary at a time like this).

Click or tap the buttons below, then scroll down to find out how you can stay positive in the face of uncertainty.