The 2022 indoor season was the return to much of what we love about the sport. Fast action, great meets, and cheering fans abound while podium stalwarts continue to make headlines and new faces enter the conversation as the future of track and field. Enter Trevor Bassitt.
Following his senior season at Ashland University, Bassitt, a 400m Hurdles specialist outdoors, earned a spot in the Olympic Trials Final. An 8th place finish in Eugene left him wanting more. It was shortly thereafter that Trevor sought the council of a sports psychologist through the YourNextSuccess program at AthleteBiz (abyournextsuccess.com).
With the experience of competing on the biggest stages coupled with mental skills training, Bassitt entered the 2022 season with lofty goals. At this point, we have all seen the payoff. Focusing on the 400 meters indoors, he brought home the win at the USA Championships and followed it up with a World Championships Silver Medal in Belgrade.
We recently connected with both Trevor and YourNextSuccess Certified Mental Performance Consultant Kacey Gibson to discuss his growth, successes, and how upping the mental aspect of athletics was a gamechanger.
Trevor Bassitt
Fan Hub: Ashland University is a Division 2 school with less than 7000 students, but boasts extraordinary track and field alumni like Katie Nageotte, Drew Windle, and yourself. An Olympic Gold Medalist and two World Championship silver medalists! Wow. What’s the Ashland secret!?!
Trevor Bassitt: Ashland has just always had an incredible culture. Jud Logan created a culture of family, hard work, and grit from his very first day as coach. That culture only grew from year to year. Then he brought in Ernie Clark to run the sprints and hurdles and he helped grow that culture. We ran on a 147-meter banked track from the 1960s for our indoor facility but it never mattered because we were just going to out-work people and then compete. The Ashland Secret is the people in our program.
FH: You are known as a 400 meter hurdler, so your 400 meter success this indoor season has opened some eyes, but your high school and college track results suggest that you’ve always been versatile with impressive results from the 60 meter dash through the 800 meters. Do you still consider the 400 meter hurdles to be your primary focus?
Trevor: Yes I do. The main reason I run the 400m indoors is just to get conditioning and 400m sprint work in since I can’t do the 400 Hurdles indoors. I’ve always viewed myself as an athlete that can do whatever I’m asked. Coming into college I wanted to make myself as valuable as possible and the best way to be valuable is to have the ability to play a bunch of different roles.
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FH: By anyone’s measure you had a strong 2021, including making it to the final of the Olympic Trials 400m hurdles (finishing 8th) despite a lengthy injury layoff, but clearly you seem to be at a whole new level physically and mentally in 2022. Back in September you were the first athlete to access the YourNextSuccess* sports psychology services offering. What made you first interested in seeking this kind of support?
Trevor: The whole experience of making the Olympic Trials, having to fight through that injury, and being able to fight through just to get 8th taught me a lot about myself mentally. I’ve always had good resilience but I realized I needed to take a more proactive approach to the mental aspect of track and field.
FH: What are some of the biggest differences you have seen, from a mindset perspective, since working with Kacey**?
Trevor: Some of the biggest differences I’ve seen is that I’m able to find a state of calm and relaxation going into my races that I’ve never really had before. Kacey has helped me learn techniques to help me stay focused and sharp going into each and every race. She has also helped me find a state of self-confidence that isn’t dependent on being healthy, having good training, or anything else. I have found self-confidence that comes from just being myself.
Kacey Gibson
FH: What is your background in our sport and in sport psychology?
Kacey Gibson: I started running in middle school and was lucky to have a really great coach, David Antognoli throughout high school. He was an extremely accomplished runner (multi-time National Champion for Edinboro University and ran in the Olympic Trials) and truly developed me as an athlete. In high school I won the Pennsylvania State Championship in cross country and earned a 12th Place All-American finish at the Foot Locker National Championship. I went to Florida State University where I ran on two ACC Championship teams, NCAA Southeast Championship team, and a third place NCAA Championship team. I transferred to Edinboro University my junior year and earned All-American honors in cross country for Coach Doug Watts.
During my time at FSU, I worked with a sports psychology consultant. I immediately saw the impact of focusing on the mental side of my sport. I decided to go to Adler University to pursue a Master’s in Clinical Psychology: Specialization in Sport and Health Psychology. Since graduating, I have been working with U.S. Army Soldiers for seven years on the mental side of their performances as well as developing resiliency. In addition, I work with athletes and performers in our company, The Performance Pursuit. I also teach graduate level sport psychology classes for Holy Names University.
FH: What are the considerations you take into account when creating a mental skills training program?
Kacey: Every athlete is so different. When I first start working with an athlete, I want to understand their challenges and where they would like to excel. High achieving runners are notorious for being highly motivated, extremely disciplined, goal-oriented, and perfectionists in their preparation. All of these characteristics are extremely helpful, however, they can also be detrimental on performance day. High drive and perfectionism can cause increased nerves, high levels of worry, self-doubt, challenging self-talk, comparison to athletes around you, and a sense that they don’t belong on track’s biggest stages.
I take the time to listen to the athlete’s experience with their mental challenges. I want us to be a team and I look at myself as their mental coach. I want us to have a great working relationship, just as they would with their track coach. Together, we collaboratively work on different skills and techniques to help them alleviate the challenges they are experiencing so they can reach their potential more consistently. Each week, I will give them something to work on in practice from a mental standpoint and then expect feedback from the athlete in our next session. Often mental skills training programs are built around building confidence, visualization and imagery techniques, goal setting and motivation, attention control techniques, energy management, pre-performance routines, and overall mindset.
FH: What are the strengths you have seen in Trevor from a mental standpoint?
Kacey: Trevor is an exceptional athlete in many ways. What has continued to impress me about Trevor is just how resilient he truly is. He’s experienced many challenges and adversities this past year that were out of his control (his head coach passing away, multiple coaching changes, injury, travel issues, a track not being measured correctly!!) and he never once used any of them as an excuse.
Through my time working with Trevor, his self-belief has just increased exponentially. He has an unwavering belief in himself and his abilities that make him so mentally tough. He has incredible self-awareness into what works for him and what doesn’t and is willing to be uncomfortable for the best change. I don’t think he has even scratched the surface for what is to come. His career has shown a steady increase in performance. His unshakeable self-belief will continue to guide him towards even more PR’s and world stages.
*YourNextSucess is a career development and personal growth program designed specifically for Track & Field athletes and avid runners. Over 100 elite athletes have accessed the YNS career coaching, skills/interests assessments, mentoring, money management support and sports psychology services, which are now available to athletes of all levels. https://www.abyournextsuccess.com/
**Kacey Gibson is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) with The Performance Pursuit (https://theperformancepursuitconsulting.com/) who earned All-American status as a cross country runner for Florida State University. Kacey uses her past sport experiences as a guiding force in her sport psychology consulting services. She has partnered with the AthleteBiz YourNextSuccess program to offer her services to Track & Field athletes.
