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- TFS#67: Lose Yourself
TFS#67: Lose Yourself
This is the first step of unleashing your potential.
Wayne Terran
August 20, 2023
Competitions are hosted all year round, but summers are the busiest time of the year.
And without a doubt, everyone gets nervous…or even worse, anxious.
Sports performance anxiety, or sports anxiety, is incredibly common.
But there’s good news: there are steps to handle and even prevent sports anxiety.
And this is the first step to “unleashing” the inner you.
The Signs
Your palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy…
Ok, excuse my reference but those are physical signs of sports anxiety.
Others include:
hyperventilation
muscle tightness
bathroom troubles
Mental signs include:
negative mind chatter
overthinking
intense fear of failure
Most people can recognize these patterns but that's usually where they get stuck. They don't know where to go from there.
If you are aware of how your body reacts to these moments, try to pay more attention. Instead of just "oh my body starts to shake," pay attention to how it shakes, what part shakes most, how does your heart respond...pay attention to those small details.
Remember, feeling anxious is normal!
Mike Tyson used to get anxious before every single fight.
The Works
The best way to avoid or minimize sports anxiety is to work on it. This is part of your training.
1) Practice under pressure
Although nothing can replace the actual environment of competition, try to better simulate the pressure.
Start attending more advance or competition class. Talk to your instructor about partaking in more “matches in the middle.”
For people who dread being in the spotlight, this is the place to start.
Even situational sparring is a great place to start.
Example: Your weakness is getting out of closed guard. Ask your professor to have everyone circle up at the end of class to watch you and an equally matched partner to spar in the middle. Start in their closed guard. You have a minute to get out, also pretend that you are down in points. You need to break out of the guard and score to win the round.
2) Breathing
Being able to regulate your breathing will help regulate your heart and muscles.
The physical feeling of being calm will help your mental state.
There are multiple breathing techniques that can help calm nerves.
3) Mental Reframing
It’s not the anxiety that affect us, but more so how we interpret the feeling of anxiety.
A great way to work on this is to write down a list of scenarios where your sports anxiety overwhelms you.
Then, next to that list, write down how you could possibly reframe or reinterpret these feelings of sports anxiety.
Maybe right before the match, you start to get butterflies.
Tell yourself “this is just my body getting ready to give my opponent some real heat!”
Closing Remarks
It’s important to remember that handling your nerves is a skill, and this skill requires practice in order to be able to effectively implement.
...Regulating your feelings is part of Jiu-Jitsu training.
You're going to have to allocate time to work on them...afterall they may be your biggest weakness in your game.
Pressure is a privilege, and it comes to those who earn it.
For The Dedicated
→ For white belts: If you’re new to the competition scene, you’ll want to read these tips to increase your odds of winning.
→ For blue belts: Can you do any of these? (Let me know by responding to this email!)
→ For your mobility: Some times the best way to get started is to keep it short and sweet.
→ For your guard: These easy 8 tips will improve your guard.