Public Spark

Many athletes have various techniques to help build their confidence and deal with performance anxiety.

• Become mentally tough

  Athletes learn to accept the tension or slight anxiety, knowing that it is normal and you need it to be ready for your performance. It means acknowledging fear, fighting past and trusting that you have prepared as much as you could.

• Concentrate deeply and go “into the zone”

  There are many distractions whether it be the roar of the crowd, pounding of the feet, clocks ticking, phones ringing, etc. Athletes need to tune out distractions and get “into the zone.” Athletes focus on things that are within their control so that thoughts don’t become preoccupied with a series of “what ifs.” Since most anxiety lies in fear of the unknown, successful athletes approach competition focused on their strengths.

• Visualize success

  Instead of negative self-talk like “what if I mess up,” “what if I can’t run fast enough,” athletes replace with visualizing success. Many Olympic divers visualize success by climbing up the ladder, stepping to the edge of the platform, launching into the air, twisting perfectly and entering the water without a splash.

• Have rituals

  “Negative thoughts will kill you,” sports psychology researcher at University of Missouri-Columbia Richard Cox said. “An athlete’s routine is critical. The body is a marvelous piece of machinery, but you can interfere with it. If you see the basketball player at the free throw line, you will often notice a certain routine being repeated. That is when negative thoughts are being replaced by positive thoughts, relaxation occurs and mistakes are minimized.”

  • Before the event:

    Successful athletes don’t fight the nervous energy, but accept it as a normal part of competition. They arrive at the event with plenty of time and go through a thorough warm-up. They visualize themselves succeeding. They may also go through positive self-talk routine.

  • During the event:

    Athletes focus on the task and process rather than the outcome. If negative thoughts come in, they stop, have positive thinking trigger words and slow down their breathing.

  • After the event:

    Athletes review their outcome and recall things that athletes did well on.

References:

• Physorg

• Conquer Presentation Anxiety: Olympic Athletes Show Us How by Roberta Prescott

• Elizabeth Quinn

• Track Technique

• Psychology and sports