Video transcript:
There’s a quote from the navy seals that says we don’t rise to the occasion, we sink to our level of training. And I think this rings really true in sport as well. I noticed a lot with athletes, I myself was one of them, who put in a ton of work in training, but it just doesn’t always seem to be translating into competition. And I think the biggest reason is that we don’t practice the skill of competing under pressure enough.
Now usually when we’re unhappy with performance we immediately go to mechanics. We go to movement patterns. The hitter in baseball and softball or the golfer immediately goes to their swing. The pitcher immediately goes to their delivery. But a lot of the time these things aren’t the problem. A lot of times they’re already really good and we can perform at a high level. But if we’re only working on mechanics or movement patterns in a very safe and controlled practice environment, yeah, we might be getting better in one element of the game but we’re completely missing the element of competing under pressure which is maybe the most important element in all of sports.
If we want to handle pressure situations in games, we have to practice handling them in training. Hitters, even if you can’t face live pitching during the, turn the machine up. Compete with your buddies facing high velo. Practice spoiling breaking balls with two strikes. Pitchers, throw a simulated inning with a hitter standing in. Add in consequences. Add in awards.
There’s limitless ways that you can introduce pressure into your training and no, you might never be able to fully replicate the pressure that comes from actual competition, but if you aren’t spending a good chunk of your training time at least attempting to, then you won’t be able to handle it in the game. You get better by competing under pressure by practicing competing under pressure.