Mental Moment-Performing Better than You Are
We get into performance situations where we want to do more than what we know or have practiced. This is not the time to take chances.
Playing up
‘Playing up’ is a sports term but it happens in all performance situations. We find ourselves in situations where there are people better than we are. In these situations we try to ‘play up’. We try to be better than what we are for fear of not being good enough.
You are only as good as you are
Stick with what you know and have practiced. In a performance situation you can’t be any better than what you are. Sure you might pull out a few higher notes or harder hit balls but your luck won’t last long.
What’s the outcome
The outcome of trying to be better than you are in a performance situation includes fear, anxiety, guilt, doubts, worries and loss of confidence.
There are numerous ways these show up. For example, I need to hit my power shot and blow this opponent off the court. Do you know what this power shot is? What it means? Is it better than your shot? Have you practiced it?
The brain gets confused about what you are asking. It searches your data banks and comes up empty. What does it do? It braces for loss and failure because it is not really sure what to do. The body get tense which makes it incredibly more difficult to hit any shot and your power shot hits the net or goes long. A sure recipe for disaster.
Stick with your game plan
Not only does this happen in tennis and all sports but it happens in music, theater, writing, arts, etc. Because as human brings we feel like we are not good enough we also feel like we are not good enough until we’ve passed our perception of how much better everyone else is.
If you want to get better figure out what elements you want to improve on and put those into your practice goals. But please do not think that on the big day you will amazingly, automatically, magically be way better than we you are.
Happy end of the week.
Dr. Michelle
Photo credit: insideyouthsports.org
