Last week several momentous things happened in my life. In no particular order, I accepted an offer of admission at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology’s doctorate program, I started working with a new personal trainer, Courtney Shelby, and I was honored to receive an appointment to umpire at the IMHA Masters World Cup in Barcelona this summer (shameless plug for my fundraising campaign here).  I mention these together because they represent both training and goals in my life. Physically, academically, and emotionally, I have changed in ways I couldn’t have predicted. Many of these changes have stemmed from setting specific goals for myself and training to get there.

I was speaking with a mentor about how much has changed in my life in the past three years and the anticipated changes forthcoming. He asked about the World Cup and how much physical work goes into each game. On average, we put in about 5 km (3 miles give or take) per game. At the World Cup, I will be umpiring two games a day at most. Just like the players on field, I need to be physically and mentally fit enough that the work rate required is well below my capacity for work. Inevitably, umpires make hundreds of decisions in a match and face pressures from many directions. The last pressure I need to feel is my lungs burning or my knees aching. In the world of “controlling the controllables” I can control my preparation. I want to be able to do several 75m sprints in a row and not be winded and put in 20 km of interval training in a day without being tapped at the end of the day or exhausted the next. Hopefully I won’t ever have to do that much in a game or tournament day but if my physical preparation is there, I can go into the tournament confident that my fitness is where it needs to be.

Similar to umpiring a high-level match, working in a consulting or clinical setting requires peak preparation. While we’re not running dozens of kilometers (usually) or addressing amped up athletes with sticks (often), it is not unusual to feel “on the spot” as a consultant, counselor, or clinician. We interact with the most unpredictable of creatures, the human being in vulnerable emotional states. Just as it is impossible to predict how a player is going to act when a decision goes against them, we can not know how a client is going to act or react in every situation. We can use our training to anticipate and be prepared for the surprising.

By participating in rigorous training, we prepare ourselves for the unexpected. With years of study, exams, role play (“real play”), and countless hours of supervised work, we train our minds, emotions, and bodies to be where they need to be when they need to be there. While every situation is different, if I train to the point of competency, I can feel confident that I am capable of encountering the challenges clients bring me. Just like I know I have my fitness, my experience, a partner on the field, a technical table, the rules, and umpire managers to support me; I have my training, supervisors, peer consulting groups, and experience to lean into as a consultant and clinician-in-training.

It’s not just similar styles of training, there are techniques which I use before, during, and after matches and sessions with clients. Mindful meditation, tactical breathing, performance readiness plans, evaluations, stretching, journaling, and walking meditation are just a few things which apply across all of my work. I know that I am not alone in these crossover activities.

After all, everyone is a performer and everything we do is a performance in some capacity or another. By training mentally, physically, technically, and tactically to be where we need to be when we need to be there, we are priming ourselves to perform at our peak.

~WHR 2 April, 2018, Denver, CO