What if you were told you had to start playing a match or game without any type of warmup- just get out of the car or off the bus and start right away? Would you feel prepared? Would you be confident? Very few people would. Yet isn’t that what we often do with our minds. We might warmup physically, but our brains are elsewhere or all over the place with nerves and anxiety. Taking a few extra minutes to go through a mental routine will help you start more prepared and increase your consistency.
Before beginning your mental warmup, find a quiet and comfortable place. Put on your favorite song or playlist (songs that get you in the mood you need to be in) and then go through the following:
• Breathe– take slow, deep breathes to calm your body.
• Recognize– check in with your body language and your thoughts. Your self-talk and body language are like teammates and feed off each other. If needed change them to help you feel more confident. Act as if the person you want to be.
• “Am” statements– have an “I am..” statement such as “I am confident” or “I am good at defending”.
• Visualize- see “the confident you” (what you look like at your best), see yourself performing your skills and/or running your plays, see yourself overcoming adversity and then see what you will look like and feel when you finish.
• Energy- check in with your energy. If you need to increase your energy talk and move your body. If you need to calm your body, take deep breathes and talk calmly to yourself.
BRAVE is a great example of a mental warmup but it is important that you use a warmup that you believe in and feel comfortable doing. The main thing is to incorporate positive/productive self-talk, body language, and visualization. Additionally, consistency is a must. The best results come when a warmup becomes like 2nd nature and is done prior to training and practicing as well as competition.
For more information on specifics on how to prepare yourself mentally contact tami@tamimatheny.com, follow us on twitter @tamimatheny and @r2lcoaching.
Tami Matheny is a Mental Game Coach and Author of “The Confident Athlete: 4 Easy Steps to Build and Maintain Confidence” and “The Confidence Journal”. She owns and runs, Refuse2LoseCoaching which provides mental coaching for athletes and teams at all levels.
For more information about “The Confident Athlete” visit: https://r2lc.com/the-confident-athlete-4-easy-steps-to-build-and-maintain-confidence/. It can be purchased online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble. For group discounts contact tami@r2l.mysites.io
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