You’ve trained hard, you’ve stuck to your nutritional plan, and now the day you’ve been working tirelessly toward, race day, is finally here. Feeling nervous? Race day jitters are entirely normal, just don’t let them jeopardize months of hard work. You’ll be pushing your body and mind to the limit on race day, so here are five mental hacks to help you stay motivated and ready to perform at your best.
1) Focus on you
To stay on top of your game, mentally, you’ll need to tune out a lot of what is going on around you and focus on your own performance. Try to compete with yourself rather than comparing your times to those around you. Cut out the distractions and focus on what you can control, your performance, let go of the rest. Focusing on yourself means cutting out distractions and concentrating on your technique, on keeping yourself calm and focused on your warm-up, your race, and your results.
2) Visualize. Visualize. Visualize
This practice of mental rehearsal is widely used by Olympians and elite level athletes but stands to benefit even the beginner athlete. Walk yourself through the possible successes and bumps in the race. Visualize how it would feel to achieve the goal you set for yourself for this race. Also be proactive about potential problems. In your mind, walk through how you could handle them so that if problems do creep up you’ll be prepared to overcome them with minimal stress, and without letting them affect your performance.
Take some time out the night before, as well as right before your race, to meditate and visualize how it will feel to win the race, to walk up and receive your medal, ribbon or trophy. Imagine how it would feel to beat your personal best times. Sit with these feelings and let them sink it, prepare your mind for success. These positive thoughts will help keep the jitters at bay when you step onto the block.
3) Repeat after me
Do you have a mantra or quote that inspires you? Repeating these positive words can help drive away the nerves, and will help you to be your own private coach and cheerleader. Repeat the words to give yourself an extra boost of mental motivation on your big race day.
4) Stay positive
Try to stay positive and encourage your team. Congratulate others on their good performances and provide encouragement wherever possible. Positivity breeds positivity, so surround yourself with positive people and imagery. Block out any negative self-talk as that lead to self-sabotage or cause you to psych yourself out. Be a cheerleader for yourself too, acknowledge your successes and take the time to notice your hard work paying off.
5) Establish a pregame ritual
If you don’t already have something that you do before each race, think of something you would like to do, and make it a ritual. This will signal to your mind and body that it’s game time. Your ritual could be anything from a chant, to a series of slaps on your quads, or even a specific meditation that you do before every competition. Signaling to your mind and body that you’re ready to can help you get the mental edge you need to perform your best.
These mental hacks will help put you in a strong position to put you on the path to achieve your personal best!
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P2Life is family owned, performance-based, nutritional supplement company that was designed for swimmers, by swimmers, to protect health and promote performance. P2Life takes great care in ensuring that every batch of their performance line is tested to be free of banned and illegal substances. Even though P2Life products were the preferred choice for over 40% of the USA Men’s Olympic Swim team during the London Olympics, it is not just for Olympians. It is also the preferred choice for the top high school, collegiate and masters swimmers across the globe.
P2Life was founded by Tim Shead, a Masters Swimming Hall of Fame Inductee and 42x World Record Holder, and co-founded by Michael Shead, who was a national water polo player. Tim’s expertise in swimming and years of experience and knowledge working with nutritional products, combined with Michael’s love of innovation and technical background, has enabled the P2Life team to create a technologically savvy company that is dedicated to furthering athletic potential. P2Life has a strong e-commerce platform, which allows them to spend less time and funds on retail stores, and dedicate more time to the swimming community.
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- Over 40% of the USA Men’s Olympic Swim Team were taking P2Life products during the London Olympics. The athletes brought back 12 medals, seven of which were gold.
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Sources:
- http://breakingmuscle.com
- https://swimswam.com/6-mental-training-hacks-swimmers/
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/11/mind-hacks-from-olympic-a_n_4747755.html
- http://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/thoughts-that-win.html#.WNL1TRLytBw
- http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/positive-thinking/art-20043950
- https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/04/how-the-power-of-positive-thinking-won-scientific-credibility/256223/
- http://www.livestrong.com/article/433148-visualization-techniques-for-athletes/
- http://www.businessinsider.com/olympic-athletes-and-power-of-visualization-2015-1
- https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/sports/olympics/olympians-use-imagery-as-mental-training.html
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