6 Ways to Enhance Your Athletic Performance

Whether you’re an aspiring professional athlete or already competing at a professional level, here are six ways to start enhancing your performance today.

1. Practice mindfulness.

First things first—you must recognize that pre-competition jitters are normal. Identify what is within your control and what is out of your control, and refocus on the present moment. Accept rather than fight the nervous energy.

2. Create visualization exercises.

Mentally visualize the competition. Simulate certain situations, skills, or plays. See yourself performing successfully. Visualization provides mental reps that build on the mind-body connection, which helps you to vividly see success come to life.

3. Build breathwork into your pre-game routine.

There are many different types of breathing exercises that can be done to help relax and calm the pre-competition jitters. One breathing exercise is the 4-4-4 exercise. This consists of inhaling slowly through your nose for four seconds, pausing and holding your breath for four seconds, exhaling through your mouth for four seconds, and repeating as many times as needed.

4. Work on positive self-talk.

Positive self-talk is a cognitive strategy used to replace negative thoughts with positive statements, with the goal of feeling more empowered and confident. Some of the goals of positive self-talk are to build confidence, manage stress and anxiety, enhance motivation, improve focus, and contribute to a growth mindset. To walk yourself through this strategy—when a negative thought pops up in your mind, challenge it and replace it. For example, if the negative thought is “What if I play poorly?” challenge it with “Why would I play poorly?” and replace it with “Trust your shot and stay locked in.”

5. Take a process-driven approach to your daily challenges.

It’s important to focus on the process and not on the outcome. As challenging as it can be at times, it’s critical to your performance to stay present in the moment and avoid getting lost in unproductive thoughts about the past or the future. It can be helpful to establish a word or anchor point to reset your voice on the task at hand.

6. Minimize distractions.

In today’s world, between work obligations, personal life to-do lists, athletic demands, and social media, there is constant distraction everywhere. More often than not, people, including high-achievers, are finding themselves struggling to concentrate or perform at their best, both personally and professionally, given all of the distractions that permeate our daily lives. Perhaps you turn your phone on Do Not Disturb for a few hours before a competition or silence notifications from certain apps that can distract from where you want your focus to be on competition day.

Start incorporating these skills into your daily life, not just on competition day but on practice days as well. The more you get into a routine and build healthy habits, the more you’ll see your performance excel too.