| Photo credit: Arron Bartz |
Author: Christopher Ayer, Corona De Tucson Fire Department
Personally, December through February are the hardest part of the year. It’s cold, dark, and rain, probably snow, in other places (not so much in Region 3) – not the most ideal combustion conditions for restarts or IA responses. My solution to the problem is to watch fire videos on YouTube, namely WFSTAR and documentaries. If the video contains wildfire content, chances are I saw it in February. There are a few new documentaries on the origins of the smoke jumpers and the old fire watch system from the early 1930s that have been extremely motivating. Wanting to go to IA, I came up with an idea that I would like to share from my time as a professional athlete.
An IA response is amazing; it is the “Friday Night Lights” or playing on “Sunday” or “Big Monday” of our profession. It is the high stakes of our work and personally one of the most exciting. Playing on national television or ESPN is much the same as the first bout, the same adrenaline and the same excitement. The reactions people have in the back of the bike/buggy are the same as you have in the locker room or while shooting. That freshman point guard who just got the chance to start or the firefighter in the backseat from the first season is going through the same emotions and excitement. We’ve all watched that newbie (said with compassion) bounce off the walls and fall asleep 45 minutes later, with nothing left to give when we get on site to work. In basketball, they run through shooting drills at 100 miles per hour, sprinting and nerding out; and surprisingly they crash about 20 minutes into the game that night.
The sport has spent years and tons of money implementing and using psychology to better prepare athletes for big competitions and complex decision-making under pressure. Yet we don’t really talk about or apply those same tactics to firefighting. I was guided by a coach in reading a book, Inner tennis game by Timothy Gallwey, that wasn’t even about basketball. I was shocked that he would even suggest it. Tennis? Real! But what other sport offers such a mental aspect of a game that is based on your own mental abilities, completely challenged by an opponent who has to go through the exact same struggles. If you have to get up and serve another person, knowing he or she will come back just to start the game, then it’s a back and forth of trying to earn a point, especially if someone makes a mistake. There is no time to think and the moments when you do; it is of utmost importance to be focused, confident and positive. A slip-up can turn into a snowball as you descend a mountain from which you will never recover. The play is one mistake after another, with the turnover resulting in a momentum swing that ends the game. Sounds familiar to many IA reactions, some seem to flow smoothly and effortlessly, while others are doomed from the start.
For me, Inner tennis game has clarified 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 what is their effect on two or three decisions afterwards? Are we setting ourselves up for failure by the way we mentally apply ourselves to the task? If we say this openly when a subordinate or a colleague makes a mistake, are we building a winning team or are we doomed to being a championship-winning program or a tight-knit motorcycle crew. When people are mentally engaged and focused on a common goal, they achieve more.
I realize that sports and firefighting seem extremely far apart, and that the stakes are very different, but how different is the mental preparation? Confidence, calm, action-oriented, and determined are all descriptions of any high-level competitive athlete, and most describe ideal personality traits we all want in a firefighter or IC. So if the qualities are the same, why not look for alternative ways to gain understanding and grow those around us? In that respect I recommend the Inner tennis game as an easy start. I’m sure there are other lessons to be learned, but for me that intermonologue did wonders and made me more skilled at my job.
Christopher Ayer is a firefighter/firefighter trainee/paramedic for the Corona De Tucson Fire Department in Tucson, Arizona. The statements and views expressed are those of the author.
