in sport every battle is won or lost before it is Ever full this truth is a reminder that Victory isn't solely determined by game day performance but by the careful preparation that precedes it and for all the physical preparation most athletes do what happens time and time again is that they neglect their mental preparation despite being in the best shape physically you can easily crumble when the pressure of game day arrives if you enter the court pitch or track without preparing mentally then it's just a matter of time before you embarrass yourself or your opponent
sweeps you aside nerves take over you're anxious and start making mistakes and the next thing you know you've choked Under Pressure yet again so what can you do how do you ensure that you perform with complete Focus confidence and control of your emotions well let's run through the three two one go method of mental preparation that any athlete can use to prepare for any sports competition so the three two one go method focuses on the three days leading up to your sports event or competition and each of these days has a specific priority to help
you start mentally preparing to perform your best when it matters most three days out your top priority is sleep because of either being excited or nervous what tends to be the case is the actual night before a big game our sleep is less than perfect like a kid on Christmas Eve you just keep tossing and turning in anticipation no matter what you try you just can't nod off because your adrenaline is starting to build and this is super frustrating because chances are you made a proper effort to get into better and the problem is Studies
have shown time and time again that sleep deprivation can have a massive negative impact on athletic performance studies that have taken two groups of athletes where one group gets to sleep normally and the other is forced into sleep deprivation show that those who are sleep deprived end up experiencing decreases in their stamina and speed their reaction times become impaired and their decision-making gets much worse but don't worry just because you didn't have the perfect night's sleep the night before a competition that doesn't mean your performance has to suffer almost every time I've run a personal
best in running race my sleep the night before has not been good at all but what I make sure of is that my sleep two days and three days before a race is on point you've seen having solid sleep two days and three days out from your match or event you accumulate what I like to call Sleep credit as it can help cancel out any sleep debt that you may then accumulate sleep debt refers to the cumulative effect of not getting enough sleep over the course of several days which can lead to all those negative
impacts on performance just mentioned so if you prioritize your sleep those few days before an event where you make sure you get solid eight hours maybe even a bit more up to 10 then you Bank extra energy that means you can afford to only have five to six decent hours of sleep the night before this is the case even for the pros we saw last year that Liverpool fans tried to disrupt the preparations of Real Madrid's Squad by setting off fireworks outside their hotel at 1am the night before the Champions League final and look what
happened that's five two me Jesus so just make sure you get that solid sleep in a few days before your big competition or event just make extra effort to create the perfect conditions for a good sleep so stop eating three hours before you go to bed turn off blue light on your phone or tablet use blackout blinds or an eye mask all of these simple things will just help you nod off and allow you to sustain that mental Clarity that you'll need on game day so moving on to two days out your main priority should
be fueling your body and brain properly because at the end of the day food is mood if you eat then you'll feel like the stuff you put into your mouth has a huge impact on how your brain operates and you want to make sure that come game day you're as mentally clear as possible you're not suffering from headaches that come from sugar crashes or just a load of inflammation that comes from all kinds of processed crap so from two days out you want to make sure you're starting to carb load so that you're building up
those energy stores to play hard for a long period of time and another thing is just to eat Bland stuff I once made the mistake of having quite spicy curry the night before running race let's just say I almost exploded out of my Underpants not just the blocks there never again so have a set group of foods you go to that you know are not going to upset your stomach or interrupt your routine of toilet trips these added little worries can just end up distracting you and causing unnecessary fear and panic the last thing you
want is going on to the pitch Court track and the number one thing on your mind is I hope I don't shoot yourself so just smash your oats pastas bread and potatoes these complex carbs allow you to have a more gradual and slur release of energy which also leads to a much more stable mood throughout the day if instead you're getting carbs from a load of junk food then this should leads to Rapid spikes in blood sugar followed by crash and this fluctuation can cause mood swings irritability and fatigue all things you don't want to
be feeling in the build up to a big performance and just play around with this because you've got to work out what works for you as an individual for a lot of athletes to go to is pasta but for some of us that just doesn't sit right I recently saw an article about Declan rice who said on game day whether we've got 12 pm kickoff or an 8pm kickoff I eat about four hours before and I always have sea bass and rice always I used to have chicken and pasta but I felt really heavy and
stodgy so after chatting with my nutritionist I switched to sea bass and rice I've been having that for the past year and a half and it hasn't gone too badly so I'll be sticking with it so find what works for you and stick to it just so there's a greater predictability and consistency in how your body and brain are feeling from the fuel you're giving if you vary these things too much it just becomes a distraction and can cause unnecessary tension anxiety and worries about feeling whether your body will be as energized come game day
one day out from the event the biggest priority you should have is just to relax your mind and body if you have some nervous energy then you can consider going for a little ShakeOut run or cycle just to release any tension and loosen up your muscles it can also be a really good idea to do some stretching exercises which can help you limber up and enhance your Mobility because when we're getting a bit stressed about an upcoming event that's important to us we can tense up a lot of our muscles and this can make us
stiff and increase the chance of injury once you've done this it's then time to use some mental skills to start dialing up your focus and increase your confidence so a big one to implement even if it's just 10 or 15 minutes of it is visualization so check out this beginner's guide on visualization here but what you want to do is just spend some time visualizing yourself succeeding in your event or match go through the motions of specific movements and plays with precision and confidence start living out all kinds of possibilities so that no situational scenario
phases you you want to get to that point where you feel that whatever happens you have an effective response so that you can continue playing or performing your best and after you've done that you should really spend the bulk of your afternoon and evening relaxing by doing things that are completely unrelated to your sport so if you're a footballer avoid FIFA play fortnite or something else instead go escape for a few hours by going to the cinema or take a relaxing bath or just read a book for a bit the point is you want to
reserve and start building up your mental energy again for the actual day itself sometimes we feel we need to be 100 obsessed always thinking about our sport but what this often does is just end up using up way too much mental energy and studies show that doing physical tasks become harder when we're mentally exhausted that's why detaching from your sport the bulk of the day before an event is so important and look most of the pros do this Roger Federer arguably the greatest tennis player ever would always ensure that the day before big matches he
just engage in leisure activities all day he'd spend time with his family play games like table tennis or just have a little kick about and this massively allowed him to just take his mind off tennis same with Michael Jordan he would often just play cards with his teammates the night before and chill out listening to music he was a beast and obsessed on the court but would really try to make an effort to step away from basketball that day before a big playoff game or championship game finally it's go time the day of your big
sports event or match and the priority here is obviously mentally dialing in so that you can put in a Peak Performance one of the best things you can do to start your day off is to again revisit those visualization techniques really spend some time seeing yourself succeeding and excelling in every aspect of the performance see yourself just dealing with any issues or problems that can occur just so that you have an automatic response to whatever the game throws at you you also then want to listen to a pre-performance playlist one that can sufficiently psych you
up but also keep you relaxed so that you can get into the zone you want a list of songs that you exclusively only listen to on game day so that you can start channeling into your performance mindset listening to music before physical activity can reduce your perceived effort meaning that you can push harder without it feeling harder it can also act as a flow State trigger to start allowing you to Zone into the the task at hand through eliminating thoughts of any other distractions or things on your mind and it just allows you to channel
pretty much any emotion that you want to feel that's what music does full stop it ignites and enhances emotion so choose a playlist of songs that tap into and encourage specific emotions that you want to feel and then another key thing is to challenge yourself write down three to five things that you want to achieve during your performance make them specific action statements that can trick your mind into eliminating doubts and build the confidence needed for Success again someone like Michael Jordan would do this before every game he challenged himself to have the perfect game
even though the perfect game doesn't exist he'd tell himself that he'd make every shot pass and block he knew deep down this would be impossible but the key thing for him was to put these thoughts into his mind to challenge the doubts fears and negativity that all our minds have so write down the things that lead to a Peak Performance for you it can be outcome specific things like I will score a hat trick or it can be processed things like I will extend my stride so that I Glide across the road or even General
mindset statements like I will be Fearless from first whistle to last the point is just to focus your mind on realizing it's now game time and it needs to be focused on specific things that give you the best chance of winning and putting in the best performance possible and then finally when you're on the court pitch or track just take a moment to take three deep breaths and smile it might sound simple but these small actions can help calm those last few nerves and sent you on this moment that yes you want to do well
in but you also want to enjoy now if you still feel like you struggle to handle pressure once your event actually starts then check out this next video here
