Competition Preparation
Learn | Practice | Flow
Great athletes do everything in their power to prepare for competition. They train the body, train the mind, recover, fuel, and compete. Mental training is an essential piece to the pro-athlete puzzle, that many amateurs neglect. Take control of your performance by learning about mental training. Choose strategies that work for you, practice them, and achieve mental "flow" during your competitions. Getting into the psychological "flow" will make you stronger, tougher, relentless, accurate, focused, and better as an athlete.Train What's Under the Armour
I. Learn
What is Flow?
"Flow" is a similar phenomenon to being "In the Zone." It is a term often used in sports psychology to define a figurative mental space where extreme focus and attention give athletes a tunnel-vision that improves athletic performance or productivity and changes perceptions of time.3 When you experience "flow," you are so focused on what you are doing and so present in the moment, it's as though you are in your own world. It's like being removed from the world around you. You don't notice the crowd cheering, you don't think about a school assignment you need to do later, you don't think of what you might look like on the court, you are absolutely and irrevocably absorbed in your game. Time flies by, and when you come out of the flow, you might be surprised by how much time has passed, because you didn't even notice. Csíkzentmihályi, the researcher who coined the term "flow," described flow as "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved and you're using your skill to the utmost." People are the happiest and most productive when they are in the flow. The terms "Flow" or "In the Zone" are often used to describe optimal experiences in sport performance. Mark Calcavecchia, 13 time PGA tour winner, described his experience on the golf course: "When I'm in the zone, I don't think about the shot, or the wind, or the distance, or the gallery, or anything. I just pull a club and swing."3Being in a flow happens at different times for everyone. Some people experience flow while doing a homework assignment, where a project is so fascinating and they are so focused, that the whole afternoon passes, and, looking out of the window, they are surprised that it's already dark. Flow can happen while reading a particularly engaging novel, where you can't put it down, you forget to eat, and the whole evening passes in the blink of an eye. Creators, such as painters, may become so absorbed in a project that they lose touch with reality, have no idea what time of day it is, and finish a whole painting in one sitting. These tend to be the most productive days.3 Getting into the flow for sports performance helps you perform better and enjoy the competition more. There are a number of methods we can use to get into a flow.
How to Enter the Flow State
The 9 Dimensions of Flow3
- Challenge-skill balance: A balance between the skillset the athlete has, and the sport's challenges. To reach a flow, the athlete needs to feel confident that they have the skills to complete the task while recognizing that completing the task would require their full concentration and attention on the present moment and the challenge at hand. If the task is too challenging, they will feel overwhelmed. If it's too easy, they may be thinking about what they're having for dinner instead of flowing.
- Action-awareness merging: Feeling "at one" with the task. When in a flow, the mind is completely present in the activity, undistracted by other life events or challenges that might cause pain or anxiety. All consciousness of the world outside of the activity fades away.
- Clear goals: we must be able to describe exactly what we're supposed to do before attempting to complete the task. That may be to score, run fastest, jump furthest, score the most points, etc. This is something that's woven into the framework of sports.
- Unambiguous feedback: we must receive positive feedback about our performance to stay in the flow. This may be internal or external. The feedback can come from a pat on the back from a teammate, cheering from the crowd, awareness of one's position on the track, scoring points, or meeting goals lined out before the competition.
- Total concentration on the task at hand: this is one of the key indicators of experiencing flow. The athlete needs complete focus to accomplish flow.
- Sense of control: this goes hand-in-hand with the challenge-skill-balance principle. A sense of control implies the perception that we have just enough skills to complete the task, if (and only if) we focus all our attention on what we're doing in the present moment. If our skill-set feels far below the challenge level, we may feel out of control and start to doubt our abilities, rendering us unable to achieve a flow.
- Loss of self-consciousness: Most of us live our lives evaluating and judging ourselves often, and worrying about judgment from others. Do I seem dorky? Can they tell I'm not listening? Do I look cool in these shoes? When we're self-conscious, we're not focused on the task at hand. We are distracted by thought, and out of touch with the present moment. Loss of self-consciousness is essential for flow.
- Transformation of time: This is a perception of time as faster or slower than reality. In a flow, we focus so intensely on the task that time loses significance in our minds, and we don't notice it. Depending on the sport, this dimension can look different for athletes than, for example, artists. Often, time is an important aspect of the game. You may not "lose yourself" for an entire afternoon like a painter might. However, you can "lose yourself" in the moment (you own it), in a 2-minute period, in a play, in a 50-second race, or in a 15-minute race, where for this task - time no longer matters.
- Autotelic experience: an autotelic experience is intrinsically rewarding. This means the activity is its own reward. Autotelic experiences are when the activity alone and in itself makes us feel good. Things like winning, money, fame, approval of others, etc., do not even matter at the moment. All that matters is this task, right now. We often do not even feel the joy the task brings us during the task, because we are too focused. We feel that joy later, and gravitate toward the activity for which we were able to focus completely, and that brought us so much intrinsic reward.3
II. Practice
Visualization, mindset, mindfulness, power posing, and breathing exercises are several options to prepare for competition mentally and achieve the ever-coveted psychological flow. Try these, pick one or more that work for you, and practice. Find a pre-competition routine that works for you, and apply it. If you would like more options and/or help to prepare mentally for competition, call or text Aaron Grusonik, the team psychologist, at 406-994-6373.
1. Visualization/Guided Imagery
Visualization is a clinical technique used to help athletes to overcome feelings of anxiety with performance.1 Doing a mental rehearsal of sport performance before it happens can sharpen focus and restore confidence in the ability to follow through. Previous research has found positive outcomes among athletes in all levels of play, across virtually all sports. Visualization practice moves activity from the left brain (logic) to the right brain (creative imagination), which enhances visual imagery and subsequent performance. Internal visualization of specific movements creates neural patterns in the brain, improving neuromuscular coordination. Because the brain tells the muscles how to move, stronger neural patterns thus result in "clearer, stronger movement." Results are then reinforced by gains made in actual practice, where real muscle activity occurs.1 Visualization can be done to prepare for practice, before a competition, or between matches/races/holes/quarters to prepare for the next one. Visualization can be used to leave past perceived failures behind, as a relaxation method to combat performance stress/anxiety or to mentally prepare for optimal performance. This may be picturing oneself skiing a course with optimal form, stamina, and focus. It may be picturing oneself making each free-throw deliberately, with focus, not even noticing the crowd's noises. Whatever it is that you need to prepare yourself to perform, that's what you will visualize.How to do a Visualization2
- Relax: you should feel relaxed while you begin a visualization, so get comfortable, close your eyes, and take a few slow, deep breaths before you begin. As you proceed with your visualization, take a few deep breaths throughout, to keep yourself centered in a calm state. Depending on the visualization, you may feel "pumped up" by the end. This is okay - your visualization just needs to feel real, and prepare you for what you need to do.
- Visualize the outcome you want: from a first-person perspective, see your performance in your mind as you want it to unfold. For example, if you tend to "choke" in the 3rd quarter, visualize yourself playing with confidence, accuracy, and focus in the 3rd quarter.
- Use all of your senses in a first-person perspective: sound, smell, touch, taste, sight. Use detail to fire up your imagination. For example, if you are picturing yourself on the football field, imagine the squish of the grass beneath your feet, the smell of the air, the feeling of your football gear on your skin, the soft breeze on your face, etc.
- Don't overthink it: let the images come to you and experience them with little mental process. If you can't conjure a perfect image of, for example, perfect running form, don't worry about it. Just do your best. This exercise should not cause feelings of anxiety, so don't overthink the things you are trying to visualize.
- Connect with emotion: allow yourself to notice and feel whatever feelings and emotions come up as you visualize without forcing it, as though the visualization is happening in real life. This will make it more real and impactful. For example, if you are picturing yourself passing a competitor in the 3rd lap of a 1600meter race and sprinting over the finish line with a personal record… let yourself feel the joy as though it were happening in real life.
- Make it real: the more real the visualization is in your mind, the more you will get out of it because you will begin to expect that this scenario can and will happen in real life. This is why making the visualization as detailed (with all of the senses) and connecting emotion to it is so important.
- Don't judge yourself if you get distracted: it is completely natural when we try to visualize, to get distracted. An itch, a car horn, a thought about the rent you need to pay, whatever it is. Just let the distractions come and go, bringing your awareness gently back to the visualization.
- Practice regularly: try to set aside 10 minutes per day to practice. The more you do visualizations, the better you will get at it, and the more benefits you will reap.2
Sample Visualizations:
You can make your own visualization, specific to your competition and the goals you have. You can write your visualization down, make a voice memo of it on your phone, and listen to it before practice and/or competitions. It would be best to plug in your headphones, find a comfortable space with few distractions (or close your eyes), and incorporate deep "belly" breaths into your script at least at the beginning and end.- Relaxation:
- Sports Performance:
2. Mindset
Finding your optimal mindset before competing is an important part of preparation. Before you compete, consider how you want to be as an athlete, rather than how many points you want to score or whether you want to win. Obviously, you want to win. How are you going to do that? Maybe you want to be confident, powerful, assertive, tough, precise, focused, a good leader, or show good sportsmanship. Choose how you want to be as an athlete during your competition, and get yourself into that mindset. Know your "why."Music:
We have all experienced the power of music for altering our mindset. Music can get us out of our seats and dancing, or it can relax us to the point of falling asleep. Music can energize, relax, calm, inspire, psych us up, and more, depending on the type of music. Some people listen to calming music before a competition because they feel more focused with reduced pre-game anxiety. Meanwhile, other athletes need upbeat music to get into an amped-up "fight" mode. Find pre-game sounds that work best for you, and add them to your pre-competition routine to help you get into an optimal competition mindset.
Positive Self-Talk:
Athletes' self-talk involves saying statements to themselves out loud, or nonverbal statements addressed to themself. Previous research shows that what athletes say to themselves changes their performance in sport settings. Self-talk has been shown to influence the learning of sports skills, the performance of sport accuracy tasks, the performance of tasks that involve strength and power, the performance in endurance sports.11 Research shows that believing in your capabilities, and telling yourself so, actually helps you compete better. Often, we tend to be our own worst critics. Some of the things we say to ourselves are mean. We would never say something that mean or critical to any of our friends, and yet we say those things to ourselves. It is time to treat yourself with kindness and believe in your capabilities. If you are having trouble thinking of something nice to say to yourself before a competition, talk to yourself as though you are encouraging a friend or teammate. Or, think of something nice you have said to a teammate in the past, and say it to yourself. You can say (aloud or in your head) something positive before the competition and during the competition when you need it. Positive self-talk can help you prepare to compete or recover from perceived failure during the competition so that you can continue to compete at your best.
Tips on Positive Self-Talk:12
- Think about what you want, not about what you do not want. Don't talk about what you want to avoid. Instead, what do you want to happen? Rather than saying "I am not weak," say, "I am strong."
- Use the present tense in your self-talk. You want to results in competition today, not "someday."
- Use positive and constructive words to describe what you want to achieve in your competition. Keep telling your brain that you are able to, and will, achieve it.
- Be specific. Tell your brain exactly what you want. For example, instead of saying, "I will have a good game," try "I can stay focused under pressure during this game."
- Keep your positive self-talk brief and easy to remember. This way, you can keep repeating it to yourself leading up to the competition.
- Do your best to emotionally connect with what you are saying. Try to feel and believe that is true. Emotions give life to your words and affect your subconscious mind more strongly than robotic repetition. It helps if your self-talk is realistic. For example, rather than saying, "I can make every shot I take today," say, "I am focused and ready to shoot with precision today."
- Repeat your self-talk. Repeat it when you feel anxious, worried, angry/upset, in a funk, or having difficulty focusing on the competition. Repeat it when you find yourself thinking negatively about yourself. Repeat it as part of your competition preparation routine the night before and/or the morning of. You can even add a positive self-talk statement to your morning alarm to get you in your desired mindset for the day.
- Replace your negative inner conversations with positive conversations and encouragement. Over time and with practice, the habit of negative inner conversations will be replaced with positive and constructive self-talk.
- I own this.
- This is going to be a good learning opportunity for me.
- I am a human, not a machine. (This can be helpful for recovery from perceived failure)
- I have the skills I need to compete today.
- I feel mentally strong, I can keep a positive attitude throughout this competition.
- I am a warrior.
- I can stay focused under pressure.
3. Meditation/Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the ability to be aware of moment-by-moment experiences (e.g., thoughts, smells, perceptions, moods, and physical sensations) in a nonjudgmental and nonreactive manner. Its roots are found in contemplative Buddhist practices and philosophy. Mindfulness can be a state of mind, practiced in meditation or mindfulness training, or a psychological trait linked to a tendency to be mindful in daily life.6 Mindfulness helps you tune into what you are sensing and experiencing in the present moment. When practicing mindfulness, you are paying careful attention to your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations, without judging them as good or bad. Mindfulness improves with practice, just like any other athletic skill. Research suggests that it can reduce stress and increase the experience of positive emotions.7 Mindfulness is useful for competition, because it facilitates psychological flow, or getting "In the Zone." The goal of mindfulness is to help athletes get into a flow, increase sport enjoyment, increase self-efficacy, and improve psychological well-being. Research has shown a positive association between mindfulness and achieving psychological flow.8 Mindfulness is something you can practice regularly to improve at. Mindfulness can help you reach your full potential as an athlete.
- YouTube: Benefits of Meditation for Athletes
- MSU Bobcats: Mindfulness
Mindfulness Exercises
Just like building strength or endurance, mindfulness takes practice. These exercises may feel silly at first, but they are very useful in familiarizing ourselves with the present moment. Doing only one meditation likely will not change your performance or wellness much; however, practicing mindfulness consistently can be very impactful. The more you practice, the better you will get at applying mindfulness practice to competition, academics, sports practice, and other areas of life. Here are some mindfulness exercises. More exercises can be found HERE
- The Raisin Meditation: This is a core mindfulness exercise and may be a good place to start. In this exercise, you will savor a raisin using mindfulness techniques. If you don't like raisins, you can choose another small piece of food such as a mint, piece of candy, or other dried fruits.
- The Walking Meditation: In this exercise, you practice mindfulness during a short, 10-minute walk. If you leave a bit early for class and walk alone, you can easily incorporate this one into your daily routine.
- Mindful Breathing: Spend 15 minutes paying attention to the sensations of your natural breath, without changing or judging it.
- Self-Compassion Break: Take 5 minutes to think of a situation causing your stress (performance anxiety, body composition, schoolwork, etc.), practice three main components in this exercise: mindfulness, a feeling of common humanity, and self-kindness.
- How Would You Treat A Friend?: This mindful self-compassion exercise can be helpful to manage situations of stress, guilt, anxiety, or fear. People often find it more natural to be compassionate toward others than to be compassionate toward themselves. So, in a challenging situation, one way to increase self-compassion is to imagine what one would say to a friend in a similar position, then direct those same sentiments toward oneself.
Having a mindfulness app can make mindfulness practice more accessible to you, and give you more options for mindfulness exercises. You can even set up a reminder alarm on your phone to do your mindfulness practice.
4. Power Poses
Power posing is when a person assumes a powerful and expansive pose, making the body look bigger, in order to improve mood and facilitate increased confidence. In both humans and primates, these expansive, open postures naturally reflect high power, while contractive, closed postures reflect low power.4 An example of a power pose is standing with legs wide, hands-on-hips, and chin raised. A contractive body posture, the opposite of a power pose, is a position that makes the body look smaller. For example, sitting hunched over with arms and legs crossed, looking down at the floor. Not only do expansive or "big" postures reflect power, they can also produce it. Adopting an expansive, high power pose increases explicit and implicit (or, implied) feelings of power and dominance, and increases risk-taking behavior, action orientation, pain tolerance, and testosterone (dominance hormone), while reducing stress, anxiety, and cortisol (stress hormone). Acquiring these feelings of power helps individuals to feel more positive, in control, and optimistic about the future, and to become more goal-oriented and likely to take action.4 Athletes can assume a power pose prior to competition in order to feel more confident, dominant, and powerful, and less anxious, submissive, and stressed. It is obvious that feeling powerful before going into a competition will help an athlete to compete at their best. TED Talk: Your body language shapes who you are
How to power pose:
- Assume one of the high-power poses before you compete, or use another expansive pose that makes you feel powerful. You can do this for a couple of minutes the morning of the competition (studies have had participants power pose for anywhere from 2 to 6 minutes), do it on the starting line, or while sitting on the bench waiting to play. These poses can help you feel more confident, powerful, and ready to compete.
More About Power Posing:
- Power Posing is Back
- Postural Feedback Research
- TED: Inside the debate about power posing, Q & A with Amy Cuddy
- YouTube: Amy Cuddy - Power Poser
5. Breathing
Diaphragmatic Breathing Relaxation (DBR), or "belly breathing," is a breathing technique that moves air downward into the body by using the contraction of the diaphragm muscle.9 Breathing is controlled by the autonomic nervous system, which is the system that we are not under conscious control of. This system keeps the heart beating, makes the pupils dilate/constrict with changes in the light, and keeps us breathing without needing to think about it. Stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system (the fight/flight/freeze system), as a result of anxiety or high stress, triggers elevated heart rate, tense muscles, and shallow, rapid breathing responses. DBR stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system (the rest/digest system) and is able to reduce these symptoms. It aids in concentration, relaxation, raising body temperature, pain management, reducing anxiety symptoms, and stabilizing heart rate and blood pressure. No negative side effects of DBR have been identified.9Basic Diaphragmatic Breathing (DBR) Exercise: YouTube Tutorial
- Lie down on your back or stand up in a comfortable position.
- Place one hand on your belly and one on your chest.
- Breathe in deeply through your nose, pushing your belly out (your hand should move out with your belly). Try to only move the hand on your belly, not the hand on your chest.
- Breathe out through pursed lips, as though you are blowing out a candle.
- Take 3 to 10 breaths – however many your body needs.
- Notice how your body and brain feel at the end of the exercise.10
This exercise uses the same technique as the basic DBR exercise, but it is a bit more advanced with the addition of counting.
- Lie down on your back or stand up in a comfortable position. Place one hand on your belly and one on your chest.
- Breathe in deeply through your nose, pushing your belly out. Silently count to 4.
- Hold your breath and count from 1 to 7.
- Count from 1 to 8 as you breathe out through pursed lips, as though you are blowing out a candle. Try to get all of the air out of your lungs by the time you reach 8.
- Do this for 3 to 7 breaths – however many your body needs.
- Notice how your body and brain feel at the end of the exercise.10
- You can use DBR to help reduce stress/anxiety the night before or morning of the competition.
- DBR can be used as a "re-focus" tool between matches, quarters, holes, or races.
- DBR can help you calm your nerves before a competition, increasing your ability to concentrate on the competition.
- If high emotion during the competition (anger, anxiety, excitement, feeling out of control) is interfering with your ability to focus and stay present in the moment while you compete, DBR can be used to "ground" you, and bring you back down to a functional state of arousal.
6. More Options
- The Sport Journal: Entering "The Zone": A Guide For Coaches
- Dr. Haley Perlus: 3 Ways the Pros 'Get in the Zone'
- YouTube: How to Get in the Zone (2 minute Flow Training Drill)
III. Flow
You have done the work; now it's time to apply it. Trust your process, and trust the hard work you've put in. Prepare your body and mind for competition by doing the following.- Work hard in practice: drills, workouts, weight-lifting, film, etc. Be consistent about coming to practice on time and putting in the work.
- Go the extra mile: winners don't "skate by" doing the bare minimum. Ask your coaches and trainers for extra things you can do to improve your performance. This may be injury prevention exercises, avoiding alcohol in-season, additional core workouts, goal-writing, taking on team leadership roles, or other.
- Sleep: The best time for physical and cognitive recovery is when you are sleeping. Make sure you are getting enough good-quality sleep to recover from practice and prepare for competitions. More about why sleep is important HERE.
- Fueling: Athletes need to be hydrated and properly fueled to make the hard work in practice count, and to compete well. If you would like to meet with Brittney Patera, the athletic dietitian/nutritionist, to learn more about fueling, make an appointment.
- Self-care: Take time for yourself each day, find a good way to manage your stress, ask for help when you need it (mentally or physically), maintain your friendships, celebrate your successes, and be kind to yourself.
- Mental Training: practice mental skills, training your mind to be tougher, present in the moment, more resilient, and more focused.
- Pre-competition routine: before the competition, take time to get in the zone to compete. You can use the skills outlined above. If you would like help preparing mentally for competition, call or text Aaron Grusonik, the team psychologist, at 406.994.6373
References
- Newmark, T., M.D. (2012). Cases in visualization for improved athletic performance. Psychiatric Annals, 42(10), 385-387. doi:10.3928/00485713-20121003-07
- EnVision. (2020). Top 7 tips: Visualization for beginners. Retrieved from: https://envision.app/2019/08/21/top-7-beginner-tips-visualization-techniques/
- Ertheo Education & Sports. (n.d.). Mindfulness Meditation for Athletes. Retrieved from: https://www.ertheo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Mindfulness-Meditation-for-Athletes_Ertheo-Education-Sport.pdf
- Cuddy, A., Caroline, W., and Carney, D. (September 2012). The benefit of power posing before a high-stakes social evaluation. Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13-027. Retrieved from: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:9547823
- Horcajo, J., Paredes, B., Higuero, G., Briñol, P., & Petty, R. E. (2019). The effects of overt head movements on physical performance after positive versus negative self-talk. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 41(1), 36–45. doi: 10.1123/jsep.2018-0208
- Kaiseler, M., Poolton, J., Backhouse, S., & Stanger, N. (2017). The relationship between mindfulness and life stress in student-athletes: The mediating role of coping effectiveness and decision urmination. The Sport Psychologist, 31(3), 288-298. doi: 10.1123/tsp.2016-0083
- Greater Good in Action: Science-Based Practices for Everyday Life. (2021). The Walking Meditation. Retrieved from: https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/walking_meditation
- Minkler, T., Glass, C., & Hut, M. (2020). Mindfulness training for a college team: Feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness from within an athletic department. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology. doi: 10.1080/10413200.2020.1739169
- Y., Chen, X., Huang, C., Chien, & J., Cheng. (2017), The effectiveness of diaphragmatic breathing relaxation training for reducing anxiety. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 53, 329-336. doi: 10.1111/ppc.12184
- Michigan Medicine (2021). Stress management: Breathing exercises for relaxation. University of Michigan. Retrieved from: https://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/uz2255
- Horcajo, J., Paredes, B., Higuero, G., Briñol, P., & Petty, R. E. (2019). The effects of overt head movements on physical performance after positive versus negative self-talk. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 41(1), 36–45. doi: 10.1123/jsep.2018-0208
- Sasson, R. (2021). Positive self talk to motivate and encourage yourself. Retrieved from: https://www.successconsciousness.com/blog/positive-attitude/positive-self-talk/
Developed 2021 by Quinn DeStefano, OTD Student
Reviewed 2021 by Aaron Grusonik, MA, Psy.D
