What is Performance Anxiety in Sports?

Performance Anxiety is also known as Stage Freight, is a large stress response that might involve intense feelings of nervousness, fear, or dread before or during a competition. 

You might feel like your legs are shaking or super stiff and you can’t bend down into your skating legs, maybe they even feel numb. You might feel your heart racing, as it gets louder and louder, or you have trouble breathing. Maybe your thoughts are racing, thinking about all the “what ifs” and worst case scenarios. Perhaps you feel like you really need to pee even though you've already used the washroom 3 times. You might get butterflies in your stomach, have an upset stomach, or feel really nauseous. These are often symptoms that will come with feeling very nervous before a competition and experiencing that performance anxiety. 

All that to say, PERFORMANCE ANXIETY can really get in the way of you skating your best. It can get in the way of you landing those jumps that you've been consistently landing in practice. 

BUT! Wait, there's good news. You can actually overcome performance anxiety.

You don’t have to let it ruin all your programs. You don’t have to let it make you dread competitions.

How to Overcome Performance Anxiety?

You can reduce performance anxiety and competition nerves by learning Sport Psychology Tools.

If I were to put it all into 3 simple steps this is what it would look like…

Firstly, in my opinion just learning what your brain is doing and how your body responds to something that might be perceived as a threat can be so empowering. As they say, “knowledge is power” and it’s so true. When you understand what your brain is doing it’s so much easier to actually do something about it (This is the very first step I teach in my Practice to Podium Training).

Secondly, when you understand what your brain and body is doing we can take a look at those thoughts that you are having. Chances are those thoughts might sound like “what if I fall? What if I disappoint my coach or parents? What if I do something embarrassing like trip over my toe pick? What if I don’t land that jump? What if I forget my solo?” You might even be catastrophizing and imagining those worst case scenarios. 

Understanding how those thoughts are impacting you and learning how to create alternative helpful thoughts can help decrease performance anxiety. This is where we learn cognitive restructuring and productive self-talk, especially focusing on cue words.

Thirdly, learning emotional regulation and relaxation strategies like grounding, mindfulness, breathing techniques, visualization, and progressive muscle relaxation. These tools can help you lower the anxiety that you are feeling and feel a bit more calmer and more in control. 

At the end of the day you can learn all the strategies that reduce anxiety and nerves, but you also need to learn how to tolerate those nerves when they do show up. 

Of course, all of this is easier said than done. That's why I created the Practice to Podium Course. I help guide you through all these strategies so that you can practice on and off the ice and feel more prepared for competition. Let's be honest, we are never fully going to get rid of those nerves, and that's okay! But imagine a competition where you feel those nerves that naturally come up and instead of letting them take over, you know exactly what to do to quiet them down. You make your nerves work for you instead of against you. Can you actually feel what that might feel like as you step onto the ice?

Learning Mental Skills is what is going to make the difference at competitions.