Match, Set, Point: What Do You Tell Yourself

 

Photo Credit: Arron Bartz

Author: Christopher Ayer, Corona De Tucson Fire Department

Personally, December through about February is the hardest part of the year. It’s cold, dark, and there is rain, probably snow, in other places (not so much in Region 3)—not the most ideal burn conditions for new starts or IA responses. My fix for the problem is watching fire videos on YouTube, namely WFSTAR and documentaries. If the video contains wildfire content, there is a good chance I’ve seen it by February. There are a couple of new documentaries about the origins of the smokejumpers and old fire watch system from the early 1930s that were extremely motivational. Wanting to be headed to IA brought up an idea that I would like to share from my time playing sports professionally.  

An IA response is amazing; it is the “Friday Night Lights” or playing on “Sunday” or “Big Monday” of our profession. It’s the high stakes of our job and personally some of the most exciting. Playing on national TV or ESPN is much the same as initial attack, the same adrenaline, and the same excitement. The reactions that people have in the back of the engine/buggy is the same as you have in locker room or at shoot around. That freshman point guard who just got the opportunity to start or the first season back seat firefighter is going through the same emotions and excitement. We have all watched that newbie (said with compassion) who is bouncing off the walls falling asleep 45 minutes later, having nothing left to give when we get on scene to work. In basketball, they speed through shoot around drills going a 100 miles per hour, sprinting and geeked up; and surprise, they crash about 20 minutes into the game that night.

Sports has spent years and tons of money implementing and utilizing psychology to better prepare athletes for big games and complex decision making under pressure. Yet we don’t really talk about or apply any of those same tactics to firefighting. I was guided by a coach to read a book, Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey, that wasn’t even about basketball. I was appalled he would even suggest it. Tennis? Really! But what other sport offers such a mental aspect of a game based around your own mental ability completely challenged by an opponent having to go through the exact same struggles. Having to step up and serve to another person knowing that they going to return just to start the game, then it’s a back and forth just to try and earn a point, mainly by someone making a mistake. There is no time to think and the moments that you do; it is paramount to be focused, confident, positive. A slipup can turn into a snowball down a mountain from which you aren’t going to recover. The game is one mistake after another, turnovers resulting in a momentum swing that ends the game. Sounds familiar to a lot of IA response, some seem to be smooth and effortless while others are doomed from the start.

For me, Inner Game of Tennis hammered home the concepts of internal self-talk and not allowing mistakes to multiply. How often do you get caught up after a simple mistake? “Why did you do that?” or “What were you thinking?” These simple mental monologues seem harmless enough, but how large an affect do they have two or three decisions down the line? Are we setting ourselves up for failure with the way we are mentally applying ourselves to our task? If we are openly saying this when a subordinate or a co-worker make a mistake, are we building a winning team or are we dooming ourselves from being a championship winning program or cohesive engine crew. When people are dialed in mentally and focused on a common goal, they are more accomplished.

I realize that sports and firefighting seem extremely far apart, and the stakes are much different but how much different is the mental preparation? Confidence, calm, action driven, determined, are all descriptions of any high-level competitive athlete, and most describe ideal personality traits that we all want in a firefighter or IC. So, if the traits are the same, why not looking for alternative avenues to gain understanding and growing the people around us. On that note, I recommend the Inner Game of Tennis as an easy start. I’m sure there are other lessons that can be taken from it, but for me that inter monologue has done wonders to make me more proficient at my job.

 

Christopher Ayer is a Firefighter/Firefighter Engine Boss Trainee/Paramedic for Corona De Tucson Fire Department in Tucson, Arizona. The expressions and views are those of the author.