The university sport season in Canada has started, football and soccer as always are the first to get going, but soon, athletes from these along with rugby, basketball and all the other sports will be on the fields, courts and rinks, training, preparing and working on their skills. One thing that every athlete and coach who has been involved in competitive sports knows is that no amount of preparation and practice can truly match the sensation that comes from games.
Game day ! two words that every athlete loves to hear and think about. Add to those two words, Season Opener or Home opener and the thrill gets even bigger. I think that the one very specific thing I will miss about coaching is those excitement, nerves, sensation in the pit of my stomach and all the associated planning and feelings that came every single game day right until the last one I coached in. Every athlete is familiar with the excitement that surfaces the night before a big game. The larger the stakes, the more uncontrollable the incitement. Every athlete has been afraid. Every athlete has been nervous. That rush in the throat and difficulty breathing happen to all who worry about walking out onto the field and failing. And though every athlete can rationalize how game-day nerves hurt performance, the sensation continues to exist no matter how much they try to suppress them. My experiences of game day sensations were obviously different that those of the athletes I worked with but I still experienced the thrill that takes over the body prior to game day more times than I can count. The funny thing is that most times the excitement turns into deep thoughts influenced by high expectations, pressure, and the contemplation of "what if" situations, which have the potential to cause massive anxiety. And so while at first I always felt well prepared to face the game, sometimes I actually started to envision something much different happening. The problem is often that as committed athletes or coaches, we care too much—we're so invested in the sport that we know one game can be so important to the team's season. And while teammates and other coaches understand what we might be going through, because most are are as well, friends and family who keep hitting us up and wanting to talk about something else other than the impending fate get real annoying real quick! Before we know a lot of emotions are running through the mind that we don't know how to handle the moment. While we can let all of this pent up passion out tomorrow, there's no cure for the here and now. The truly great athletes, don't suppress your fear. Fear is fundamentally about the unknown, so they learn how to focus and think to make they fear dissipate naturally. Talk to must success athletes and pretty much all of them will have some variation of similar habits and skills set to deal with the game day emotions to ensure that they remain calm, composed and unafraid on game day. To begin with, great athletes embrace the game day emotions. They stay in the state of hyper sensitization get prepare to dominate. The more they see themselves being "in the zone" , going crazy and making that game winning shot, the more likely it will come to fruition. As corny as it sounds, strong self confidence and even a certain amount of arrogant self-belief is an asset, because when it all some down to it, athletes are prepared and ready, because this is all they've been working for! Coaches or athletes learn through the years to focus on the on the now, the game right ahead of them. Not what the result can bring them or the team, not what the consequences of a loss represent but simply on being at their best when their best is required. Often in sports, the focus is about winning " a game" in order to accomplish some goal, standings, making playoffs etc. However that sort of thinking can lead yon to focus on the future or the consequences, not on the immediate reality of the game itself. In team sports, at the end of the day, you can't control what the spectatots think, what the weather might be like, how will the refs officiate the game or one of many other factors that affect outcome. All each individual can do is think about themselves and perform to the best of their ability. Thinking in sports can be bad. When an athletes needs to think about what they need to do, they will be a step slower than someone who can do the same thing automatically. They will be reacting to situations rather then taking the initiative. Combine that thinking with game-day nerves, the brain may start going down a road of "what if's," and performance will deteriorate even more. One way to lessen how much the amount of thinking is to follow routines. Routines teach athletes to act automatically, to retain learned responses and moments of success all without thinking about what you need to do. This is classic fear psychology: you just do it, without fear or nerves getting in the way. Even a small, insignificant routine can make difference. Athletes are known for their small routines before games or even specific moments within a game. These routines are often linked to a perception that athletes are superstitious, that they need to do specific things in a specific manner in order to be successful. Yes superstition can play a part for some but often, a routine allows an athlete to relax, to remain in a comfort zone. Countless athletes sabotage their success because they are terrified of failure. It is fundamentally the fear of failure and desire for perfection that leads to stress and destroy t performance.So how does one conquer that fear? By not letting it define you. When you fail, don't beat yourself up over it. Sit down, calmly analyze what went wrong and figure out how to do better next time. Failure should be treated as an unfortunate thing, like stubbing your toe, instead of some horrific wrong. Failure is also a great tool of feedback. When we are easily succesful, the results tends to gloss over the performance and an athlete ( or team as a whole ) can take the effort it took to be successful for granted. If we see failure as an opportunity to learn and improve, when it happens, we won't be as affected with it does. Ok so this is easy to say, because when you hate losing like I do, you can spend sleepless nights replaying the game however, that is fine, if when you replaying them, you also seek out things you can do better then next time. By treating failure as normal, you can learn not to be afraid of it and banish fear during a game. Finally, as a coach, one thing I have always tried to share with my athletes was the sports, are a game, in many ways, they are the same games we played with friends in the park. Yes, the level might be higher, the stakes greater but they remain a game and be definition, games are meant to be fun. Not just part of the sport that we like, not just the good times, but as a whole, sports need to be enjoyed. As competitors, we play sports because we want to win, get a good workout, and enjoy being on a team. But on a more fundamental level, we play sports because we want to have fun. That is balanced with the reality that in competitive sport, there have to be winners and there have to be those that don't win. And rarely, can the winners always been the same constantly. Also, if competitive sport, there are more of us that fail to win regularly than those who win constantly. In our obsession to succeed all the time, we tend to forget that, but we never should. If you are having fun, you cannot be stressed. And if you are not stressed, you are not afraid. To have fun, you need to think positively. If you are up against a formidable opponent, do not stress about what to do. Embrace it as a terrific challenge and take him head-on. Before and after the game, relax with your friends. If you can view your game as enjoyable instead of stressful, it will do a great deal to conquer your fear. So GAME DAY ! Just the words bring back a flood of memories and sentiments. I'll miss the, although maybe not the knots in my stomach....
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AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
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