SportsPsychologist.com Blog by Dr Victor Thompson

Experiencing stress before a race is common: bad sleep the night before, waking early, difficulties getting breakfast down, frequent urges to go to the loo, worries about what might go wrong, a thumping heart while we stand still... These experiences can be unsettling. Why do they happen? They happen because: The race represents a test and we may fear that we'll fail to perform compared to others or our own standards (i.e., finish time or position), or We fear some catastrophe (e.g., getting punched in the face during the swim, losing our goggles or drowning; crashing on the bike...) When we arrive at the race site, our body's arousal is boosted further by the race environment - hearing the pump-you-up music blaring out of a PA system, or seeing lean, mean and excited (and stressed) triathletes. This increases the chance that our arousal level spills over into stress or anxiety - where it can become a problem. What's so bad about pre-race nerves? They make ...

For most (summer season) athletes this is the time of the year that we set our sights on the competitions ahead. What we will target, what performance we expect (want) and put ourselves out there to be tested. As the excitement builds, so do the nerves. So what can we do about this? 1. Set up training so you can have opportunities to practice for your events - the distances, speeds or skills you will want to execute come competition day. Nothing helps us feel confident (and to squash nerves) like real experience. So set up practice to run competition simulations. 2. Trawl your memory banks to find the experiences that show that you have done what is required for you to perform on competition day. These could be experiences from training/practice or previous competitions. What experiences show that you are prepared, or becoming more and more prepared? 3. Plan for the period up to the competition so you can see a progression to the event, in which you become more and more prepared. These...