In addition to a physical warm up, you need to warm up your mind by honing your focus and confidence. I encourage athletes to mentally prepare during their physical warm up. It’s a great idea to use a pre-game or pre-competition warm-up routine to help you feel confident and get focused.
Athletes at every level use routines (sometimes called rituals) to boost their confidence and performance. To prepare your mind before competition, you need to:
1. Proactively boost your confidence—rather than waiting for something good to happen before you can feel confident.
2. Prepare to focus on the process or your execution, not end results, such as the score or win.
3. Prepare yourself to trust in your training and what you have practiced in the past.
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Check out The Focused Athlete program for more strategies to focus your best in competition.
