The former fastest woman in Finland found a new role – doubles champion Hanna-Maari Päkki has an important role in the World Athletics Championship team

When an athlete is preparing for their performance in competitions, it doesn’t matter how they talk to themselves. If everything does not go as desired, the message and tone of the inner speech become even more important.

You know this well Hanna-Maari Päkk (b Latvala), who works as the mental coach of the Finnish athletics World Cup team and who many remember as the 11-time Finnish sprint champion. In his own sports career, Päkk experienced the great value of mentally preparing for competitions.

– In the same way that you prepare for the competition physically, it would be crazy not to prepare mentally. It has a huge impact on what kind of state of mind and confidence you go into a competition situation with, says Päkk.

– Especially what you think has a huge impact on your own performance and success in a competitive situation.

Päkk became interested in sports psychology during his racing career, when he wanted to be a better athlete all the time and didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

– I wanted to turn over all the stones. I wanted to make sure I was ready and had the necessary skills.

During his sports career, Päkk started his studies at the University of Jyväskylä’s sports science department with sports planning and management studies, but the situation changed during his exchange studies in Sweden.

Päkk did a minor in sports psychology and the spark was ignited. When he found an international program where he studied not only at the University of Jyväskylä but also in Sweden and Germany, he quickly changed his major. Now Päkk has a double master’s degree in sports psychology.

Although Päkk was successful in his own career, he had to work a lot especially in competitive situations. He wanted to be more ready and confident. With his own inner speech, he was able to regulate his tension and state of alertness.

– I was quite an enthusiastic competitor myself, but still quite insecure and on some level raw, he admits.

– I think that the majority of athletes today understand that this is not something that should be left to chance. It is worth influencing it when you can influence it.

Mental training and sports psychology are important blocks in elite sports today. In Päkki’s opinion, we are currently living in a favorable time for psychological coaching, and the attitude towards it has changed over the past few years.

During his racing career, Päkk paid attention to his own inner speech. He thought it was important to plan what he wanted to hear during the Games and what was useful to hear, for example, when he was nervous before the competition.

Often, when things are going well, the athlete knows how to be cheerful and positive about himself, but in the case of adversity and uncertainty, positivity can turn into self-criticism and doubt.

– The more you learn the skill of inner speech, the better prepared you are for pressured and different competition situations.

The world around elite sports has also changed since the days when Päkk cleared his way to the top of Finland. Among other things, social media has come into play and the amount of information has increased exponentially. How an athlete can focus on what is essential is an important question.

– If, for example, you sensitively compare what others are doing or sensitively absorb what is written in the newspapers. Then it is a skill not to read them or to be able to shut them out of one’s mind – especially in this way during the Games.

According to Päkki, it is very individual what is a distraction for someone. Athletes need skills that allow them to cut off what is not useful. According to him, the athletes of the Finnish team have not had any major problems, but he has given a few tips.

– These things seem to be well under control. However, we are in the World Cup. Here, the athletes mostly know what they are doing. Many already know themselves very well and also know what works for them.

There are 36 athletes in the Finnish team, some of whom are experienced fighters and some are young first-timers. Päkk praises the more experienced competition visitors, such as Wilma Murron, Kristiina Mäkelän and Tuomas Seppänen brought example. They have shown how you can be yourself in a team.

Päkki has been busy enough at the World Championships in Oregon, but not necessarily as a mental coach. Päkk has tried to influence practical matters, allowing athletes to focus on sports as smoothly as possible. Sometimes it has meant hustling, sometimes watering athletes or playing with cold vests.

– There was a lot of such general upheaval. In terms of mental coaching, I have tried to create a safe atmosphere and environment where the athletes could enjoy themselves and be themselves and, on the other hand, perform as well as possible.

The Finnish team’s preparation camp in Creswell went well. Päkk has noticed that the closer the athlete’s competition performance has become, the more there is a need for discussion support. But it has also been individual.

– It has been quite busy days. But then you also have to have the skill to stay out of the way when you don’t need to.

Päkk represented Finland in the EC and WC Indoor Championships as well as the EC and WC Championships on outdoor tracks. However, the World Championships in Oregon are only the second competitions for him as a mental coach. For the first time, he was in this role with the Finnish team in the Nordic country match.

Päkk admits that he was a little nervous about how long the journey would be in his new role. However, everything has gone well so far. According to Päkki, the team is full of good guys in the team management, athletes and maintenance. When necessary, Päkk has also received emotional support from the team.

– We all give each other a little support as needed so that I don’t end up alone, he laughed.

Updated at 23:14. Korjattu Päkki was named the team’s psychological coach. Earlier, the title of sports psychologist was used in the story.