Dance Steps and Swaggering

It happens to all great athletes. They get stuck in this moment and feel like they can't move forward. It could be standing at the plate micro-analyzing their swing, or a cheerleader frozen at the point of take off, or looking down a race course afraid you won't remember your line or even just as simple as the fear of it all. What is the common thread running through each of these?

Fear. Fear is the commonality between those examples. We all can think of that moment in our sporting performance where we froze. Maybe because of fear of failing, fear of getting hurt, fear of others expectations, our own expectations, or making that mistake and not knowing how to cope with it. The list goes on and on. Each one of those fears are pretty normal and commonly discussed, the last one though, is key to changing the way you perceive fear. I have heard my athletes talk about "what if I make a mistake", that "what if" is the magic question.

Athletes tend not realize or fully understand the power and control they have when it comes to that fear of failure. Many times you can see the change in athletes as the fear begins to overwhelm. It could be in their body language, their tone of voice, their reactions. For example, my one athlete does these little dance steps when she get nervous before trying to jump. Typically they say, "Ugh I don't have control over this!", or "This is so frustrating, why can't I do this!". Each time an athlete says or thinks this to themselves they move further away from the ideal zone they need to be in to compete at their best. And the move is more of a fast slip than a slow drag. One fear compounds with another and before you know it, the focus is on all your fears and not the performance. Here a distraction can help, my one athlete thinks about swaggering, walking with that swag is silly but also refocuses your attention on something positive and walking with a confidence.

It is hard for athletes to realize the power they have to control their responses, we are so set in criticizing ourselves or letting the fear take over. It seems to be much easier to do that instead of fighting our fears. But on the flip side, athletes are normally strong willed, driven and do not like to fail. So why is it so hard to squash these harmful thoughts? It requires a different kind of strength, a mental determination that takes the same hard fought training that athletes do day in and day out for their physical stamina. You have the power to control your thoughts, now all you need to do is learn how.