Video transcript:
So why does it sometimes seem like our pre-game nerves wreck our performance? Well it’s not the nerves, it’s not the importance of the game, and it’s not the fact that we’re being evaluated. It’s our interpretation of all of it. It’s the belief that the demand of competition outweigh our abilities to compete.
Now many of us, including myself, at times often interpret this upcoming competition as a threat? So our minds are flooded with thoughts of worry and fear and these bodily symptoms that come along with the nerves only reinforce those thoughts creating this nasty cycle of anxiety that only strengthens the thoughts and the physiological symptoms. And the result is significantly decreased performance or we just remove ourselves from the situation completely. Simply put, it’s spiraling out of control.
Something different happens when we view competition as a challenge and our nerves as readiness, when we believe that our abilities meet or exceed the demands of the competition. When this is our interpretation, our bodies begin to work for us. So oxygen delivery and blood flow actually become more efficient, priming our brains and bodies for performance, and we can find this really good sweet spot.
So the reality is, our pre-game nerves are just our body’s way of preparing us to perform our best. It’s energy. It’s adrenaline. If you took all the physiological symptoms of pregame nerves and put it into a pill, it would be banned as a performance enhancing drug. Now some athletes are still prone to elevated levels of nerves before competition, and in part three I’m going to explain a few ways how we can manage those.