Thomas Jefferson said, "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal, nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong attitude." The team who wins Sabah 2000 is the team that resolves not to be beat by other teams or the natural obstacles they will encounter throughout the week to come. Any one of a dozen teams have the physical capability to win this event, but only one can take possession of the "right of the champion.� What, then, are the mental characteristics of the team that will win it all in Sabah?

In the early 1970s, the great Russian super heavyweight lifter, Alexeyev, freely admitted that his great Belgian rival, the extremely powerful and quick Serge Reding was much stronger than he was, but would NEVER defeat him, because, as he said: "When we are competing, Alexeyev is aware of Alexeyev, and Reding is aware of Alexeyev!" Reding often would toy in training with weights that exceeded Alexeyev's best, but when it came to a direct encounter with Alexeyev, he very rarely defeated him.[1] Athletes spend much of their time physically training for duration and rate of pace, only to overlook forging an attitude of resolve to win, leaving it all on the course. What is it from physical avenues that may test to the endpoint of compromising a team's mental resolve?

On the Sabah Eco-Challenge course, top competitors will force their physical capacities to do without sleep and push their bodies� fuel metabolism to literally "live" off body fat stores in a state of constant exhaustion. Imagine the lure for a mere moment of relief away from the constant agony of fatigue, the ever-present sticky, sweltering sauna-induced heat, rain when already soaked with sweat, pack strap friction, foot-borne blisters, constant bug bites, thirst unquenched, hunger seldom filled, the dirt, the mud, the blood, and the grime � each inducing an ever-present, ever-increasing desire for rest or respite. The complex interrelationship between mind and body makes it clear that in order to win, a champion team must prepare to use both mind and body to overcome extraordinary obstacles.

TWO FOUNDATIONAL FACTORS THAT MAKE FOR THE MINDSET OF A CHAMPION
Psychologically athletic performance has 2 major factors: a multiplicative function of INTRAPERSONAL (for example, intrinsic motivation) and INTERPERSONAL (for example, social support) factors. It is theorized that the layer immediately surrounding an athlete's inner core of psychological functioning consists of four intrapersonal factors: self-motivation, cognitive capacity and coping skills, affective orientation and mental training skills. The layer surrounding these factors is comprised of interpersonal factors, such as social support and the athlete-coach relationship. A theoretical model shows that competition-generated intrinsic motivation predisposition and social support are the two main properties of the athletic competition context that buffer against increased athletic and life stress. If such buffering effects occur, athletes' physical and psychological capacity is likely enhanced. Maximization of psychological conditions for successful performance requires that athletes' intrapersonal and interpersonal psychosocial resources serve as consistent regular facilitators of their autonomous self-regulation rather than as controllers of their goals and behaviors.[2] A champion's need for social support is a mandatory compliment to having an inordinate desire to win.

�WHY� IS A MAJOR FACTOR, NOT EVERYONE HAS THE SAME MOTIVE!
Why anyone chooses to participate in sport or exercise identifies how a motive will predict sport performance. One research study named the three most commonly endorsed motives were to: (a) maintain health, (b) develop physical fitness, and (c) aid relaxation. A factor analysis with oblique rotation revealed four factors from each of the former motives:
1-assertive achievement
2-physical well-being
3-socio-psychological well-being
4-sports mastery and performance.

Discriminate analysis showed males were more motivated to participate for sports mastery and performance and assertive achievement than females. Older subjects were more motivated by socio-psychological well-being than younger subjects. Sport enjoyment was best predicted by socio-psychological well-being, sports mastery and performance, and sports importance. These results confirm other research on age differences in exercise and mental health, as well as gender differences for participant motive.[3] The standout-and-grab-you factoid "Motive of Champions" (not to be confused with "Breakfast of Champions") is an intense, aggressive desire to succeed that breeds the competitive fuel to go beyond simply participating in or merely finishing the event. Oddly enough, the lack of having this "fire in the belly" can also enhance injury risk status. The average personality profile in one stress fracture group study showed low scores in achievement, low training intensity, poor dominance and exhibition traits.[4] Not having positive nature of a winner's mental attitude may predispose a competitor to injury as opposed to the same fit athlete who has a mindset determined to overcome all sorts of physical obstacles.

SOMETHING MAY BE MISSING IN THE MINDSET OF A CHAMPION: THEY MAY NOT BE NORMAL!
Dr. James Councilman, Ph.D., former Olympic swimmer, and former Olympic coach, (likely the greatest swimming coach who ever lived,) was asked what he looked for in swimmers he recruited for his unprecedented 10-consecutive NCAA championship Indiana University program. "I look for an athlete who has great physical talent who has something missing,� said Councilman, �a link in their personality which creates a restless unsatisfaction."[5]

The same "mysterious missing factor" was observed in a research analysis of mountain climbers� personal psychopathology motives. On the basis of an interview and the Cattell personality questionnaire, two types of personalities were distinguished: the schizoid-psychasthenic type (53 persons, i.e. 66%) and the asthenic-neurotic type (23 persons, i.e. 30%). As regards the motivation for mountain climbing, situational and personality factors were described, among them, the need to experience "powerful situations" and compensating for an inferiority complex. A so-called integrational fear which mobilizes the psychophysical capabilities to overcome the hardships of the climb, was described as characteristic of the alpinists.[6] Mountain climbing is one of the events in Sabah 2000. Is there any wonder why conjecture regarding the general sanity of these extreme athletes is brought to question? And how much more in the front runners, epitomized in the winner...?

MENTAL STRATEGY IS ASSOCIATED WITH A "GIFTED" SENSORY CAPACITY
Mental strategy success in football has been associated with major sensory capacity. The most successful starting players for each position on a college football team were assessed through observation of eye movement patterns and players' usage of sensory-based words. Both offensive and defensive winners have a high visual lead. The auditory sensory modality is LEAST utilized. Creativity and decision making are dominated by the visual sense. Mental strategies for motivation, belief, and memory are balanced between visual and kinesthetic sensory modalities.[7] It is well-established that mental imagery protocols improve motor skills, but performance efficiency depends on many factors: the main one being individual differences.

Volleyball players "receiving serve" affords researchers as an experimental paradigm. Subjects were required to pass an opponent's serve to a given team mate. The receiver's performance was evaluated from the accuracy of "pass" to a targeted teammate. From the first test results, subjects were divided into two equivalent groups: imagers and controls. After mental practice the two groups were submitted to a post-test similar to the first. During the pretest, post-test, actual practice as well as the last session of corresponding mental rehearsal, six autonomic parameters were recorded. A grade obtained from four different aspects of this response permitted a qualitative evaluation of each subject's mental imagery. This estimation, based on the well-established link between performance and autonomic response, was validated by the fact that a good correlation was obtained between this grade and the performance improvement of each of the "imager" group subjects.[8] What the great Eco-Challenge teams do is mentally rehearse their response to each negative distractions from the expected and unexpected sources: hurt, pain and agony encountered with an automatic aggressive positive "power-through" response. Anything less may exaggerate panic, anxiety, and a negative compromise that inhibits performance resulting in defeat or the worst of all to DNF [did not finish].

THE MINDSET CHARACTERISTICS OF A REAL ECO-CHALLENGE CHAMPION
The base for winning an extreme endurance event such as the Eco-Challenge Sabah 2000 is practicing both the work ethic and the mindset during intense training. Ohio State�s great football coach, Woody Hayes said, "My secret has always been to outwork everyone and anyone on our schedule, there is no substitute for hard work!" The great basketball coach at UCLA, John Wooden, listed among his secrets of success the principle of repetition, "If you repeat it enough you will eventually get it right, if you repeat it more after getting it right, it will become automatic or second nature." Both of these mantras are affirmations for winning � something each of these coaches did like few others in their respective fields. After all the sacrifice is made during intense training protocols, mindset is determined largely by an inordinate passion to win, with sincere social and emotional support from family and friends.

An ideal to skewing the model of champion is to wrest their personality to create a restless void that produces a characteristic dissatisfaction typical of a slightly schizoid-psychasthenic asthenic-neurotic personality that needs to experience powerful situations and compensating for an inferiority complex in going beyond themselves. Add to each of former vivid, repetitive mental-imagery rehearsals so that the response will always be positive to either the worst nightmare or best of dreams-come-true scenarios, enabling the Eco-Challenge athlete to generate the rate of pace required for a first place finish. The mindset of the champion of this year's Eco-Challenge Sabah 2000 may be well off the normal scale psychological profile surnamed "average,� but room at the top of the podium is severely limited with remarkably thin air which only few are meant to breathe.

REFERENCE [1]-Reprinted by permission of Author, Dr. Mel C. Siff, Ph.D.* Sports Scientist, Denver, USA[[email protected]] *[Siff personally trained with Serge Reding] [2]-Intrapersonal and interpersonal factors in athletic performance. Iso-Ahola SE, Scand J Med Sci Sports 1995 Aug 5:4 191-9. [3]-Participation in community sports centres: motives and predictors of enjoyment. Ashford B, Biddle S, Goudas M, J Sports Sci 1993 Jun 11:3 249-56. [4]-Stress injury proneness: a prospective study during a physical training program. Taimela S, Kujala UM, Osterman K, Int J Sports Med 1990 Apr 11:2 162-5. [5]-Paraphrase from direct communication at Indiana University in 1960 & 1961. [6]-Psychopathology in mountaineering--mental disturbances under high-altitude stress. Ryn Z, Int J Sports Med 1988 Apr 9:2 163-9. [7]-Predicting success in football, Daus AT, Wilson J, Freeman WM, J Sports Med Phys Fitness 1989 Jun 29:2 209-12. [8]-Imagery quality estimated by autonomic response is correlated to sporting performance enhancement, Roure R, Collet C, Deschaumes-Molinaro C, Delhomme G, Dittmar A, Vernet-Maury E Physiol Behav 1999 Mar 66:1 63-72.