Ace surfer is no Wally
Mind games help Isabella keep calm and make the right decisions under pressure
Where’s Wally and weight gain aren’t your typical key ingredients for athletic excellence but surfing star Isabella Nichols believes they are exactly what will take her to the next level.
The 25-year-old Queenslander, with the help of sports psychologists, is incorporating unique methods into her training as she prepares for the 2024 season. “I’ve been doing a lot of pressure drills because I’ve found that my weakness is making decisions under duress, stress and pressure,” Nichols said. “Especially in the heat, as time ticks on, I just have to make a decision, not even the right decision, just a decision.
“I’ve been putting myself in those situations more often where I have made the stakes a lot harder and a lot higher, adding challenges along the way, so if I do make a decision there are consequences.”
So Nichols, who won the 2022 Margaret River Pro in the WSL series, has turned to the world’s favourite hidden redand-white-striped figure.
“We’ve done some Where’s Wally things or some Scrabble games where you have to think on your feet really quickly, and then run back out and continue the heat,” she said.
“We’ll have a 15-minute heat and the consequence would be if you take off on a wave you will have to come and do a physically or mentally draining activity so it gives you the stimulus that, ‘If I make a decision there are consequences’.
“Even if it’s a good decision, you still have to come in and run around a pole.
“Those are things we’ve been doing to drill down that you do need to make a decision, and there are consequences and rewards for every action.
“But being decisive in any way, shape or form is better than being indecisive.
“They are 15-minute heats, so with the Where’s Wally test you really have to calm your mind down and find out where he is, and it makes it a lot harder if you’re thinking about getting your next wave. You have to learn how to focus on your breath and slow it down. Same with the Scrabble, the longer you spend on those tasks, the less time you get in the water, so it’s regulating.
“I’m doing that through Surfing Australia. They have a couple of sports psychs there who have been helping me, to put myself in those situations more often. A lot of the time I fail, there are times I get it. Hopefully the more I do, the better I’ll get at it.
“Even learning how to make a decision in general life, like what I want for dinner, what I want to do that day, all correlate to being a better performer in the water.
“It gives me the ability to make a decision quickly and confidently.”
Nichols finished 15th overall in the women’s series last year, having made the second round in the first three events, placing third at Bells Beach and then bombing at Margaret River to be knocked out in the first round and cut mid-year.
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