Key Concept 1: Physiological responses to exercise are filtered through perception before influencing our choices.

Dealing with our perceptions now becomes a goal of training and performing - equally important to increasing our fitness.

Increasing fitness lowers our perceived effort at higher outputs - this is a well documented and understood process.

A less understood process is how to train our perception.

There are a few mechanisms by which coaches and athletes can influence perception.

Key Concept 2: Training must provide the athlete with evidence that they are capable of excelling at the intended challenge.

If the training is too stressful, you risk breaking the athlete’s organism and their confidence.

James “Iron Cowboy” Lawrence completed 50 Ironman distance triathlons in 50 different states in 50 days. This is an example of overdosing stress, and would not be an optimal training prescription. By the end of the 30 days he was hypothermic among a host of other problems that made finishing the final triathlons a survival act.

On the other hand, if the training is not stressful enough, you risk the athlete not accumulating enough evidence upon which to base an authentic belief.

Examples of underdosing stress abound. Most individuals who have competed have experienced the nagging fear that their training was not as stressful as the imminent competition.

These are some of the psychological considerations of program design.