Psychological intensification is used to guard against incurring the detrimental effects of fatigue. It stops complacency, loss of control, and loss of focus by requiring thought content and the intensity of thinking to gradually increase as fatigue develops. The main aim should be to keep in control of the performance and execute strategy content. With most athletes, there is a stage in a contest where it is realized that extra effort is needed to continue. There are many ways of intensifying one's thoughts.
Some athletes like to introduce a variety of stages of intensification during a competition.
At certain times they increase the manner of intensifying their thoughts so that their thinking progressively becomes more intense as the potential for distraction increases. For example, in rowing races some elite rowers go from normal thinking to stage 1 intensification, then to stage 2, stage 3, and finally stage 4. At each stage they introduce more elements and methods for increasing the thought intensity that is required for controlling their sporting efficiency. For very long competitions, stages for recommitment to intensified thinking are useful. Figure 8.8.1 illustrates a simplified graph of the relationship between thinking, thought content, and fatigue.