Athletes Listen to the Music

Take a second to think about why you listen to music. Why do you? For most of you it’s probably because music is fun and happy but there are other reasons people listen to music. Music elicits emotions for example when you hear certain songs from your childhood I’ll bet it brings up certain emotions. Music also distracts us from things we don’t want to focus on for example, the pain of training. Not only does music benefit us in our personal lives but it can benefit you in your athletic endeavors.

Music elicits emotion

As an athlete what kind of emotion are you looking for in training and competition; lets call this energy. This depends on the individual. Some athletes need a lot of energy to compete and others need less. It is up to you (and me if  you are working with me) to determine the right amount of energy for you in  your sport. Too much energy and too little energy both set you up for failure. Both ends of the spectrum are ‘negative’ emotion/energy. One speaks to not feeling prepared enough to compete and the other too much to compete. You want to find just the right place where you are in your zone. Once you find that place then you want to choose the appropriate piece of music that brings your there in y our preperformance routine and keeps you there.

Example: one of my professional athletes didn’t have enough energy going into her competition. Although we are still working on her refining her imagery (the piece she is currently using is energizing) and preperformance routine once we combined her current imagery with an upbeat song of her choosing into her preperformance routine it made a huge difference for her. She feels better prepared at the very beginning.

Music distracts

One other great thing for an athlete to know about music is that it can distract from the temporary negative emotions getting in the way of preperformance; jitters, butterflys, nerves, anxiety, negative thoughts, etc. Whatever you want to call it, listening to the right piece of music the night before and as part of your preperformance routine has the ability to draw your attention in and keep your mind away from the negative emotions as well as lower heart rate, blood pressure and muscle tension so that you start off feeling mentally and physically more prepared.

Finding the right level of energy

There are five key considerations to think about when it comes to energy.

Identify your optimal arousal related emotions. Think of your energy as an emotional temperature and arousal regulation skills as a thermostat. Your goal as an athlete is to find your optimal emotional temperature (under what conditions do you perform optimally) and then learn how to regulate your thermostat. Regulating your thermostat is done by either psyching up or psyching down.

Recognize how your personal and situational factors interact. It’s important to understand the interaction of personal factors and situational factors (event importance and uncertainty) to get the best predictor of energy and performance.

Recognize your signs of arousal energy. You can better understand your energy level by becoming familiar with the signs and symptoms of increased energy:

• Cold, clammy hands
• Frequent urination
• Profuse sweating
• Negative self talk
• Increased muscle tension
• Butterflies
• Feeling ill
• Headache
• Cotton mouth
• Difficulty sleeping
• Inability to concentrate

Athletes might experience some of these symptoms on a small scale which is ok as long as it leads to optimal performance. However an athlete still needs to learn how to regulate those levels based on the individual’s optimal performance. The quantity of symptoms depends on the individual. It’s the quality that’s important to keep in mind. Try to notice changes in these variables between low and high stress environments and learn to make changes when necessary.

Develop your confidence and perceptions of control. You can develop confidence by being positive and putting yourself in positive situations/environments. By being positive you surround yourself with other positive people and positive situations/environments. One other way to develop confidence is by learning to feel ok about mistakes and losing.

Once you find it, music can help keep you there!

Happy Wednesday!

Dr. Michelle

Photo credit: solsie.com & mindgamesconsulting.wordpress.com