Sports Performance Enhancement

Many athletes get nervous before an event. Sometimes, it can even be helpful to have the adrenaline flowing, but just as often it can interfere with doing your best. This is due to anxiety having the effect of tensing up muscles and causing you to tell yourself that you're going to mess up. And thus you probably will, because what the mind says, the body follows. Blushing is a great example of how the mind can affect the body.

 
At the highest level of sports, what differentiates the winners from the "also rans" is not how much they practiced, but rather, their mental preparation. The fundamentals to peak performance enhancement are Trust (in yourself); Relaxed concentration; Visualization (of the desired outcome); and "Feel" (bodily sensations).

 
The most successful athletes are very focused and keep their thoughts positive about the desired outcome, and, they know how to calm down if necessary.Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and guided imagery with hypnosis can be very helpful if things get out of hand. I used this approach with a number of martial artists in England and the reference is Hart, B.B. (2000) Using Your Brain for a Change: The Inner Game of Martial Arts.  Tae Kwon Do and Korean Martial Arts, 5(8), 24-25

 
Getting your thoughts straight and learning how to calm down physically will allow you to do your best in practice and competition