Creating
a Pre-Competition Plan
Introduction
Top achievers in sports follow a set of mental processes
that allow them to produce excellent results consistently.
By studying sports champions, we find that the best have
certain mental qualities and strengths. These characteristics
include goal setting, visualization, concentration, and
risk taking. Risk taking is the ability to perform under
pressure.
The best news of all is that these qualities of the great
are skills. Champions seem to have them naturally or to
develop them on their own. However, because these traits
are skills, anyone can develop them. We know the mental
skills that are connected with high achievement. We know
methods for developing these qualities in others. This
means that players can develop the mental skills that
increase their effectiveness and success.
Performing well under pressure is one of the essential
mental skills for top performance. The ability to handle
stress and pressure frequently determines the level of
performance that players can reach.
A pre-competition plan is one method to help combat the
pressures of performance. Without effective measures for
handling stress, performance anxiety can lead to stress
overload and sharp performance decline.
Performance Stress
A basic rule for competition is "Know your opponent."
To deal with the challenge of performance stress, it is
helpful to know how it works.
Stress is an automatic, physical reaction to danger, threat,
or demand. It is the tension and anxiety that are experienced
when faced with new, unpleasant, or threatening circumstances.
When stress occurs, muscles tighten, blood pressure rises,
the heart speeds up, and extra adrenaline rushes through
the body. It is an automatic, wired-in response, once
danger is perceived.
The purpose of the stress reaction is survival. Stress
responses provide the extra strength needed to fight off
danger or to flee from it. This is a fundamental and powerful
response. The survival wiring in the body responds
quickly. Once a threat is perceived, it is as though a
danger button has been pushed.
The survival wiring in the body takes over. It is a swift
cause and effect linking of events.
Numerous situations can produce the stress reaction. Having
demands that seem as though they are too much to cope
with is a frequent source of stress in everyday life.
On the tennis court it is not physical danger or the threat
of physical danger that triggers stress. With competition,
or with performance of any type, comes social evaluation.
This means that an individual and her performance are
ranked, assessed or scored by others. Performance stress
in tennis comes largely from social evaluation and the
feeling of threat to one's ego that evaluation brings.
Performance pressure strikes players at all levels, from
the weekend player to top-ranked stars. Competitive tennis
players take risks. They put themselves and their performance
on the line to be judged by officials, coaches, peers,
spectators and by themselves.
Performance stress involves negative feelings, including
fear, anxiety, and low confidence. These feelings move
a player out of the quality state for performance and
lead to performance decline. To express their potential,
players must learn to handle risks and pressures. Without
these skills, players lose focus and concentration when
they encounter pressure points.
Pre-Competition Plan
Good pressure players interpret pressure and risk as challenge.
They perform at their best when confronted with pressure.
Others can learn to respond to pressure with control and
high performance. Handling pressure requires learning
mental skills that allow you to duplicate the mental processes
that top performers use when they encounter critical situations
in tennis. One of these strategies for developing the
ability to handle pressure is called a pre-competition
plan.
Numerous players become stressed prior to a match on the
day of a competition. Players may wake up feeling nervous
or may start the day with thoughts that create worry and
concern about their performance. This time- from the moment
a player wakes up in a hotel room or at home to the moment
she steps out on the court- is a potentially hazardous
time zone for becoming stressed out. A pre-competition
plan directs the athlete's thoughts and behaviors toward
neutral, non-stressful tasks and thoughts.
A pre-competition plan is a structured format that prescribes
specific tasks and behaviors for the time prior to a competition.
Having a plan to follow eases the mind of a player. It
keeps things routine and predictable. By directing the
player's attention toward a set pattern of routine tasks
and positive thoughts, it keeps the attention away from
thoughts that create worry and away from activities that
are energy-draining.
The structure of a pre-competition plan includes thoughts,
feelings, and activities presented in a timed-lined format
that goes from the waking up to the start of a competition.
The example of a pre-competition plan for a tennis player
shows seven time periods on the left-hand column of the
chart. For each of these periods (such as driving to the
competition, physical warm-up) there are prescribed thoughts,
feelings and tasks.
This plan shows that two minutes before the match, the
player reviews two performance goals, focuses on the feeling
of building energy toward her quality state, and performs
some final practice serves. Plans can be tailored to individuals.
Also they can be extended to include the time between
matches.
Summary
The aim of mental training for performing under pressure
is to remove the negative effects of stress so that you
can enter and maintain a quality state for performance.
When you eliminate the hindrance of performance stress,
you have the opportunity to demonstrate your talent and
potential.
A pre-competition plan is one block in the set of building
blocks for learning to respond to the risk and pressure
of critical situations in tennis the way effective pressure
performers do- with control and high performance. An important
point to recognize is that you can learn to deal with
pressure. Mental skills let you stay cool in the tight
spots. They can turn the tension and pressures of competition
into a spur to drive your game to the next level.
Copyright © 2000 By Marie Dalloway All Rights Reserved
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