7 Pre-Match Tips Every Athlete Should Know
For you to win in sports, preparation is the key. Preparation can take years, months, days to the last few minutes of a competition. If you’re an athlete, the key to success always lies in how well you prepare your body and mind before the match.
Many athletes think they only have to warm up and prepare their bodies before a game. However, it would help if you also prepare your mind for what’s coming. No matter how strong you are or how good you’ve warmed up your muscles for the game, you won’t succeed if you cannot focus, engage and clear your mind from distractions.
There are mental and physical strategies you can put in place to help you reduce nervousness and make you perform your best. In this article, you’ll learn seven pre-match tips every athlete should know. Let’s begin.
- Having positive thoughts
Reinforce your thoughts by thinking about positive things that inspire and encourage you. These things should encourage you never to give up and focus on winning all the time. It means you should never doubt your capabilities.
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- Visualize success
Think about yourself scoring those goals. Imagine getting those free throws or taking the proper steps to dodge and weave through your opponent’s defensive lines. Visualizing your performance can make you perform better during a game.
A study conducted by the professors from the University of Tennessee discovered that a positive imagery exercise for a free-throw shooting with basketball players before a game resulted in a significant positive impact on free throws made during the game.
Visualization techniques every athlete should know
Here are some awesome techniques you can use to visualize success:
- Visualize the result you desire—Make sure you envisage the performance of how you want it to unfold when you mentally rehearse. Visualize the act you wish to do, rewind and restart the mental tape if your mental images turn negative.
- Use all of your senses in a first-person view—Visualize your sports performances. What is it you would see, hear, feel, smell, and taste?
- Try to imagine how your body will feel as you perform your performance. Try moving your body following what you are visualizing. Experience the thrill of achieving your performance goal.
- Practice regularly—Repetition helps athletes improve their mental rehearsal skills. It would help if you practiced imagery or visualization every day.
- Talk to a Mental Game Coach for advice on incorporating visualization as a crucial skill into your training.
- Having Enough Sleep
For athletes to perform their best, they have to prepare in all aspects of their lives. They have to have regular training, eat a healthy meal or snacks, and create some time to unwind, rest, recover and sleep. If one of these lacks, the overall performance will suffer, and sleep is certainly not an exception.
Researchers at Stanford found that increasing sleep to 10 hours per night produced several positive outcomes for men’s basketball players. The players could run faster in both half-court sprints and full-court sprints.
The team scored more free throws and three-pointers, both improving by at least 9%. The athletes also reported an improvement in well-being, both physically and mentally.
- Having a Role Model to Look Up to
In life, athletes look up to role models because they succeed in their sport, align their training and mental edge to ensure the maximum number of gains, and inspire people off the field.
We rely on role models for guidance on the path of life, helping us make complicated decisions and keeping us on track to achieve our goals. Encouragement is crucial. It’s important to have role models who inspire you both in life and sports.
- Getting Warmed Up
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Preparing your body for an activity or task that requires more extraordinary skill, greater intensity, or a longer duration usually requires warming up. Proper warm-ups are crucial to achieving higher movement levels. Warming up properly involves:
- Physical preparation
- psychological preparation
- Prevention of injuries
- Performance improvement
- Paying Attention to Your Body
If you want to prepare your body, pay attention to what your body is telling you. Physical preparation is the best way to avoid injury.
The consequences of pushing yourself too hard will be long-lasting. If you do not push yourself enough, you will not discover your full potential. Finding a balance is therefore crucial.
- Making Affirmations
Affirmations are declarations you write and regularly say, ideally every day or multiple times a day. The key to success is repetition. It is more likely to come true if you repeat the affirmation more often.
The power of affirmations can help you overcome the thinking patterns that prevent you from reaching your full potential as an athlete.
Conclusion
Sports competitions are an essential part of our lives, especially for athletes. These athletes go through physical and mental challenges. The above seven pre-match tips every athlete should know serve as excellent examples of overcoming these challenges and battles.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
