Having an ‘Off Day’

What does it really mean to have an off day? Is it physical? Is it mental?

Some days, for no good reason at all, we wake up feeling off, not our usual selves, maybe even a little down. – Chris Assaad

Different performers have different meanings of having an ‘off day’. Generally, when I first start working with them, it shows up in a physical form but we uncover that it is coming from something mental – lack of focus, the wrong focus, being in their head, etc. As time goes on having an off day usually continues to start mentally, although there’s less and less of it, but shows up physically. However, there are other circumstances for having an off day.

What is an off day

It’s a day when you do not perform as you might usually perform. Your performance is less than normal. As my tennis player put it the other day, I did everything mentally and physically I normally do but just felt off. It appeared she was less successful for no particular reason.

In the situation of my tennis player, we talked and exhausted (most) all mental and physical possibilities. Throughout our time together, she’s become very aware and this is critical to training the brain and developing mental skills. I really do believe she has a good sense of what’s going on mentally and physically on and off the court.

So, what it is that led to this off day and was giving her this off feeling?

Starts mentally

When we first start working together, all athletes, musicians, executives, etc. feel that their lack of physical progress has to do with not training long enough or hard enough. They have a sense that they lack confidence, are thinking too much, or have anxiety but they think if they work physically harder, they will overcome those mental challenges. That is often not the case. Sure, practicing and getting better might increase confidence but confidence is much more complex than that.

For clients new to mental training, what we find is that having an off day starts in their mind. It starts mentally. For example, if they are in their head thinking, that leads to lack of focus. I always say, if you are in your head analyzing or “shoulding” yourself, you are not playing your sport. I should be faster. I should train more. I should win more. And the “shoulds” go on and on.

So, bottom line, you are in your head. There are many other situations where lack of mental skills can lead to having an off day – being nervous and not being able to let go of mistakes are two popular ones that I hear a lot.

Shows up physically

Most of the time, off days start mentally. Whatever is going on mentally, impacts your physical abilities. After all, your head and body are connected. If we take the example from above where you are in your head (over) analyzing and shoulding, let’s say mostly thinking, you are not performing. You cannot think and perform at the same time. Thinking pulls you right out of whatever you are doing.

It increases your heart rate. An increase in heart rate leads to hard, shallow breathing which leads to a lack of oxygen. Thinking tightens and tenses your muscles. Your range of motion narrows. Thinking also decreases focus. There’s no way to connect a 90 MPH fast pitch with your bat if you are in your head.

All of the above symptoms of an off day are physical which makes it hard to understand that they start off mentally, but they do. You train hard to be good at your sport so I’ll bet you know how to deal with an increase in heart rate, or range of motion, or focus, until your head gets in the way and mucks it all up.

Other circumstances

When my clients have an off day, they start to feel frustrated. Part of that frustration is that now not only are they putting in the physical work, they are also putting in the mental work. To top it off, going back to my tennis player example above, if we can’t find the root cause, frustration builds, and clients start to think that there’s something wrong with them.

There is nothing wrong. As I told my tennis player, it could have been many things. It may have been the humidity she was playing in. It could have been that she didn’t get enough water and/or food. Maybe she didn’t sleep well enough. Sometimes there are unrecognizable circumstances that impact us, and we don’t realize it.

Larger than that, sometimes we have ‘those days’ and even though we are honest with ourselves we still can’t find a root cause for what’s going on.

That’s life. Life is not perfect. Life is messy. Life has ebb and flow and some days, things are not going to go exactly as you planned for. It’s OK! It’s just an off day.

Athletes and off days

I know – as an athlete you can’t have an off day but you will. When I work with athletes we work on cutting off days to a relatively small amount of them. We plan and develop the most optimal mental skills and at the end of the day you are still human.

As I tell my athletes, it’s not so much about having one as it is about letting it go so it doesn’t impact the next play, or the next day. 😊