10 strategies to calm your nerves before a match or competition

 

10 strategies to calm your nerves before a match or competition

From getting more sleep to working on confidence... In this article, we'll go over some techniques athletes can use to calm their nerves before matches and competitions.

One of the most feared situations in the sports world is the nervousness before a match or competition. Although it is a very common phenomenon, the truth is that it can ruin all the preparations you have made if you cannot handle it. That is why sports psychology teaches people to recognize and regulate their negative emotions with the aim of avoiding an unpleasant episode before or during the activity. With the psychological tricks below, you can calm your nerves before a match or competition.

Identify why you get nervous

Nervousness before an important event is something that almost all athletes will have experienced at some point. The reasons are several, but there are still some that systematically return.

The main reason has to do with how the athlete perceives himself and his ability to face the competition. If you have sufficient resources and are well prepared, your nervousness will be reduced. Another reason has to do with the evaluation of the opponents. The competitors who are stronger or have shown better results arouse pessimistic thoughts.

Finally, it is also important to mention the importance of expectations, your own and others', when it comes to triggering fear before a match or competition. When these expectations become more demanding or the fear of disappointing others enters the picture, anxiety will grow.

Discover: 5 strategies to train your mind and achieve success in sports

What can you do before the match or competition to calm your nerves?

Preparation for competition has to do with much more than what you do when you train. Every gesture is important, so you have to pay attention to your habits, both on and off the field. Think about what changes you can make to be better prepared and stave off nervousness before a match or competition.

1. Calm your nerves by getting enough rest

Good rest is a basic requirement to be able to perform well during a competition. Some athletes downplay this aspect and even reduce the number of hours of sleep in order to have more time for training. This is a serious mistake that puts both your performance and health at risk.

If you are one of those people who get nervous before a competition, you should focus on improving your sleep hygiene the week before. Having a structured sleep schedule, eating light dinners and limiting screen use before bed are some examples of small adjustments that promote rest.

The key is to learn how to fall asleep and adapt your lifestyle, in addition to not relying on pharmacological support.

2. Establish routines before the competition

You relieve your nerves before a match if you have a planned and structured routine. Habits help you gain peace of mind when your mind is restless. Athletes who receive mental training use routines before the competition.

These are sequences of actions that they repeat at important moments to help them concentrate and calm their nerves. For example, preparing the bag, warming up in the same way or repeating a mantra several times.

We must remember that having a routine is not the same as being superstitious. In the latter case, a person performs an action because he believes it will bring good luck (or bad luck if he does not perform it). Having a routine is about maintaining good concentration and finding an optimal level of activation before a competition.

3. Spend time studying the opponents

Preparation for a competition does not only include the work done individually. When facing opponents in a changing context, a very successful strategy is to spend time evaluating them.

The goal is to predict their movements, and while not everything can be predicted, it is useful to map out patterns. Lack of information and uncertainty are two causes of nervousness. Therefore, it is a very good idea to understand your opponents to control the anxiety before a competition.

Strategies to calm your nerves

When you start to feel nervous, you have to act. Otherwise you will lose control. The following strategies are the most used in sports psychology:

1. Identify anxious thoughts

In many cases, nervousness before a competition has an origin that is more internal than external. These are the negative and pessimistic thoughts that the person has about the present and the future. Reflections such as “I can't get better”, “I'm a bad athlete” or “I'll never succeed” are just a few examples of phrases that generate strong feelings of frustration.

When you feel your mind being sucked into a loop of harmful thoughts, take a break and try to change your attitude. Remember that what you think and what you do go hand in hand. Replace negative reflections with motivational phrases to achieve your athletic goals.

2. Visualize yourself being successful

Sports psychology harnesses the power of imagination to create positive emotions. Techniques based on this ability, especially visualization, are very helpful because they are easy to learn and apply. Plus, they come with huge benefits.

Visualizing a context in the mind is also a way to make it predictable and more manageable, as shown by a study from Bernardo O'Higgins University. The same research points out other techniques, such as relaxation and monologue, which have been applied in various sports with satisfactory results.

3. Share how you feel with your loved ones

Words have a therapeutic power that often goes unnoticed. Think of a situation when you felt overwhelmed and found someone to share it with. It certainly relieved you to put into words what you had inside and also get a loving response from the other person.

Therefore, one way to calm your nerves before a match or competition is to talk about it with loved ones. It could be a coach, your teammates, a family member, or someone who is part of your trusted inner circle and is willing to listen to you.

4. Practice deep breathing techniques to calm your nerves

The main manifestation of anxiety occurs on the physical level. Symptoms such as tachycardia, sweating or abdominal pain often mask a psychological change. Therefore, athletes must learn to identify and manage these signs. The most common way to do this is to use breathing techniques.

A study by the Universidad Michoacana in San Nicolás de Hidalgo in Mexico, conducted with swimmers, showed that relaxation-inducing exercises used by athletes just before competition helped them reduce their activation level.

5. Reevaluate your expectations

All athletes have expectations of themselves and others. This is a normal process and should not be a problem. But when expectations go beyond what the person is actually capable of providing, they become a stressor.

We recommend that you pause for a moment to examine your expectations and to what extent they match the immediate reality. You should also do this with consideration for other people's expectations and separate them from yourself. In other words, the fact that your coach expects to win the football match against the strongest opponent is one thing, but it is not good to put it on yourself as if it were a responsibility or an obligation.

6. Give defeat another meaning

Anxiety before a competition is also caused by notions of possible defeat. Thinking that it is very significant or seeing it as a true loss will not help you calm your nerves before a match or competition.

On the other hand, it is useful to give it a more reassuring interpretation to reduce the fear of failure. A lost competition is not a fall, but rather an opportunity to learn new things and continue to grow.

7. Boost your confidence to calm your nerves

Self-confidence is a protective factor against anxiety. Anyone who is confident in their abilities and has a positive self-image will have more peace of mind when faced with a difficult situation.

One way to boost confidence is to list your strengths in all aspects of performance: Physical, technical, strategic and psychological. You should review these notes several times a day to internalize them so that in nervous moments before the match you will remember the qualities and feel more supported.

According to a study published in the Journal of Physical Activity Sciences, self-confidence is a factor that contributes to lower levels of anxiety.

8. Focus on the things you can control

When you don't know what to do to avoid being overwhelmed by nervousness before a competition, it's worth remembering that it's your desire to control everything that overwhelms and frustrates you. No matter how much you want to be in control of what happens in a competition, this is not possible. In fact, there are more things beyond our control than we can handle.

Therefore, focus your attention and your efforts on what is under your control: your thoughts, behaviors, habits and emotions. The rest is uncharted territory that you must learn to tolerate rather than control.

Don't let a bad period ruin all your efforts

Nervousness before a competition is a normal reaction to an event that is important to you. Therefore, you need to understand your nervousness, rationalize it and control it so that it does not increase in intensity.

One of the most frustrating situations athletes report is when restlessness ruins all the effort they've put in. Therefore, mental training is the best solution; put it into practice and you will soon begin to notice its benefits.

On the other hand, there are those who prefer immediate solutions and try to "take something" to avoid getting nervous, such as pills. But it is better not to depend on external help and learn to find peace on your own. We recommend that you consult a sports psychologist to treat any unpleasant sensations.

9 more people hang out with people who are knowledgeable and talented from whom you can learn about things.

10 10 exercise at least three or two times a week it is important to exercise the brain by reading and writing a diary.

Samuel

samuel.ku35@gmail.com

for more information visit my blog #psychologi-analyses where there is a lot of internal information. #psychologi