Why you perform better in practice than competition

The number one reason athletes, coaches, and parents contact me
is when athletes can't perform in competition as well as they do
in practice.

For example, I recently started coaching a club-level swimmer who
was turning in better times in training than meets...

Why would he under perform in meets and swim slower times?

Athletes under perform in competition because of a miss-aligned
mental game. Here are a few reasons you might fall into this
category:

1. You worry too much about your competitors; intimidation

2. You become too analytical about your performance; over control

3. You are anxious or scared to lose; fear of failure

4. You try too hard to perform perfectly in competition;
perfectionism

5. You can't transfer your hard-earned practice confidence to
competition; low self-confidence

All of these mental game no-no s lead to under performance when
it counts. The bottom line...

Your mind does not allow you the freedom to perform up to the
capabilities you have shown in practice.

If your mind blocks your performance in competition, what's the
solution?

The first step is to understand how you or your athletes sabotage
performance in competition.

In my swimmer's case, he was trying too hard to swim fast and
actually slowing down in the water.

How can trying too hard limit your performance?

In many sports, you need a balance between speed and effort level.
I call this effortless speed or relaxed speed...

When you are trying 120%, your muscles tighten up, you lose
efficiency of movement, and tire out much faster--as was the case
with my swimmer.

This is not rocket science... I think it's common sense.

But the key is to understand why you are trying so ha rd to win or
perform well.

In most cases, it's from wanting so badly to succeed that you can't
stand failing - especially at something you train so hard for.

For this reason, I produced "The Fearless Athlete" CD program, which
is the 4th program in The Confident Athlete series.

The Fearless Athletes is one of my top programs. Why? You won't
find these strategies in other books or CDs.

Read more about "The Fearless Athlete" here:

http://www.peaksports.com/the_fearless_athlete.php


Dr. Patrick Cohn