Too many athletes mistakenly believe that your focus needs to be on the competition and what they’re doing when you compete. There is no better example of this than watching Phelp’s semi-final and final races in the 200 M Butterfly against South African swimmer, Chad le Clos.
le Clos had stung Phelps in 2012 at the London Olympics by beating him in this race, delivering one of the more emotionally painful blows the decorated Olympian had ever experienced in his swimming life. Being the intense competitor that he is, we can only assume how Phelps used the pain of this defeat daily over the last four years to fuel him to work even harder than ever in his training.
Before the semi-final race, le Clos stood directly in front of Phelps, staring him down and shadow boxing in his face. It was an obvious attempt by the South African to distract and intimidate his famous opponent. What le Clos didn’t realize at the time, was that he was making a fatal concentration mistake that would ultimately cost him a medal.
If you want to really beat an opponent, then you need to focus on YOU and what YOU are doing, and NOT on your opponent. Attempts to intimidate your competition are not only poor sportsmanship but will ultimately set you up to fail!
As Phelps did, it’s fine to use an opponent and thoughts of them in practice to motivate you to work harder and focus even more on what you need to do. However, when you do this at race/game/competition time, you distract yourself from your event and sabotage your own performance.
Le Clos even looked over at Phelps DURING the race in the semi-final race (you can see a close-up photo in the comments here), which is a huge performance “NO NO” for swimmers that will slow them down every time! Phelps, both before the semi’s and finals, didn’t even acknowledge his opponent and instead, controlled his focus of concentration. Behind the blocks before the finals, he deliberately turned away from le Close as he was mentally prepared for HIS race, while the South African tried to stare him down once more.
The race results speak for themselves! Phelps, at 31 years old, won his 20th gold medal and le Clos finished fourth! Phelps taught us all a very important lesson:
ONLY USE YOUR COMPETITION TO MOTIVATE YOU TO WORK HARDER IN PRACTICE! TO PERFORM YOUR BEST WHEN IT COUNTS THE MOST, YOU MUST STAY FOCUSED ON YOUR GAME AND WHAT YOU ARE DOING!
