"Association" in racing and training

[bc_hills]

Halfway through the article linked below, a sports psychologists contrasts mental "dissociation" with "association" in racing, saying that the latter is a more difficult but more effective way to push through a grueling effort.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/health/nutrition/19best.html

Has anyone heard of "association" in sports psychology and if so, could you summarize the concept? The article suggests its a kind of focus on what you're doing (in contrast to zoning out), but there must be more to it than that.

Thanks!

 

[forty four]

Halfway through the article linked below, a sports psychologists contrasts mental "dissociation" with "association" in racing, saying that the latter is a more difficult but more effective way to push through a grueling effort.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/health/nutrition/19best.html

Has anyone heard of "association" in sports psychology and if so, could you summarize the concept? The article suggests its a kind of focus on what you're doing (in contrast to zoning out), but there must be more to it than that.

Thanks!

i know exactly what they mean when in a race at full effort your focus is purely on the task at hand no other thoughts go through your mind at all. for me this happens only at very high intensity as without focus at this level you slow down. on very long races where you are not at full intensity all the time i tend to zone out.

 

[CoachFergie]

I used an associative strategy for racing. I had my ten levels of pain. I thought I had to go through the pain barrier at least ten times before I knew I was out of my league. In good races it would only happen three or four times. Bad races the whole ten and if it didn't happen I knew I was in too easy a grade.

Possibly a precursor to the power meter training concept of "burning a match" where you dip into your finite anaerobic energy sources.